Oedipus
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Enjoying “Oedipus the King”, by Sophocles
Ed Friedlander MD
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2. Predestination
Long before we “got civilized”, ancient Europeans (Greeks, Vikings, others) were already talking about “predestination”. If something was going to happen, it would happen and there was nothing you could do about it.
Why would anybody talk like this?
1. Ancient people may have been impressed (or wanted to be impressed) by the fulfillment of prophecies. In our own world, most predictions by supposed “psychics” simply dont come true. But people want to believe in the supernatural, and people like to tell each other about the rare occasions when something happens that a psychic said would happen. So money-making “psychics” make lots of predictions and keep them vague.
People have such a strong desire to believe in the power of supernatural prediction that they even invent stories of psychic predictions being fulfilled. The most famous example (Nostradamus and the gray monk in Varennes woods) continues to be told, even though the tale of Louis XVI being disguised as a monk when he was captured there is just a lie.
Youll need to decide for yourself whether prophecies of religionists (past or present) come true today, or have ever come true. Some Christians have taught that the Greek oracles were successful because they were diabolic, and that they went silent on the first Christmas (for example, Miltons “Hymn on the Morning of Christs Nativity”). People want to believe in oracles.
2. Believing in predestination frees people from worry. Talking about unalterable destiny is extremely popular among soldiers going into battle — a powerful antidote to obessive fear that would slow or distract a warrior. Soldiers tell each other, “If the bullet has your name on it, you will die.” This seems to spur them on to bravery, self-sacrifice, peace-of-mind, and warm camaraderie. Talk about “fate”, “predestination”, and so forth has found its way into warriors tales across many cultures. In the Iliad, even Zeus (? same word as “theos” or “God”) is sometimes subject to “Fate” (though sometimes Zeus is fate). We also see this in peacetime, whenever people face frightful conflict.
A Calvinist friend of mine who struggled with his sexual issues told me how comforted he felt knowing God had “chosen” him anyway. For some reason which I do not understand, he could believe in this. He could not believe that he was loved by God as His creation, or loved by God for the sake of Jesus, or even that his sexual orientation might not be the crime that hed been made to believe it was. Again, Im no psychiatrist, but Im glad he could find a formulation which brought him comfort.
Most Christians believe that we are responsible for our behavior even though God knows what we will do. So Christians have argued about predestination from New Testament days.
Luke says that the people who chose Christ were predestined to do so. Dante asks the blessed souls in heaven about predestination, and is told they dont know the answer, either. Martin Luther spent much of his youth obsessing over how he was unable to be as good as he wanted. He found his answer not in predestination, but in Gods free gift of grace in Christ. For him, this was a comfort and assurance. “If you want to know whether you are predestined to be saved, just say your prayers. Then you will know you are predestined for salvation.” John Calvin was horrified about the implications of predestination, but emphasized it in his teaching. Other preachers like Jonathan “Spiders” Edwards and the Wesleys taught that Christ had died for everybody and that everybody had a free choice. Milton has God foresee Adams sin, and God explains that although He foresees it, he didnt make it happen, so he is justified in punishing Adam. Racines “Phaedra” marked a return to themes of Greek tragedy and people being the victims of cruel destiny. Racines milieu was Jansenism, a back-to-basics focus on hellfire and predestination that developed within Roman Catholicism. Boswell, who wrote the biography of Samuel Johnson, obsessed about predestination and became profoundly depressed thinking he could end up damned eternally. Hes not the only person whos had this experience. In the US, the “Free Will Baptist” denomination emphasized evangelization and need to work hard to bring others to Christ, against those who thought that Gods predestination made this unnecessary.
Some Hindus and Buddhists have taught that a persons behavior in a past life predestines happiness or misery in the current one, by the laws of karma. Individual believers may find that