One hundred years ago today Albert Camus, who is a charter member of my community of the heart, was born in Dréan, Algeria to a poor
pieds-noirs family. Reading Camus taught me a lot about what it means to be human. Even as a Christian I embrace his starting point: "Accepting the absurdity of everything around us is one step, a necessary experience: it should not become a dead end. It arouses a revolt that can become fruitful," as well as his conclusion: "The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion." How this relates to, or, in my case, results in, being a Christian is best summarized in the Second Vatican Council's Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World,
Gaudium et spes (a document not lacking problems, but also with many lovely passages)- "Christ, the final Adam, by the revelation of the mystery of the Father and His love, fully reveals man to man himself and makes his supreme calling clear" (par. 22).
Below are links to posts here on Καθολικός διάκονος in which Camus' thought figure prominently:
Can we face the truth, deal with reality?
"You say you want a revolution, well..."
Freedom and rebellion
The transcendence of man and the limits of history
The invisible secret enclosed in the human heart
"an ignorance that negates nothing"
"Rebellion is profoundly positive"
What happens when language prevails over reality
A fundamental question
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