The Loud Lament of the Disconsolate Chimera.

Going through my old writings, and this is from the 1980s.

The Loud Lament of the Disconsolate Chimera.


"Once upon at time.. " begins the story of Babel, in the manner of all folk tales. Yet this is no simple story that unfolds before our eyes but a superb masterpiece, a symbol of human arrogance which "has exerted endless fascination over men's minds"1.

Here, too, is the Hebrew answer to Prometheus. In the Greek legend, Prometheus defies the gods to bring the knowledge of fire to man, but is punished by eternal torment. Yet his defiance of the gods has the mastery of a great act; it is the vengeance of the gods which seems so petty. Not so in the story of Babel. This is not the adventure of a single spirited man against capricious gods; this is a tale of many men who dared to challenge One God, and who sought ultimate domination. 

There is nothing heroic in their stance; it is the pose of an arrogant people concerned only with their struggle to increase power by force - a people united not by love but by a brutal self-assured conceit: "henceforward nothing they have a mind to do will be beyond their reach". The true portrait is not the heroic defiance of a man, but the power-crazed lust of the anthill; and this is certainly reflected in history, where it can be seen, time and again, that "such a forcible increase in power will lead inevitably to the ruination of society"2.

God thwarts the purposes of men by confusing their speech. But let it be seen that this is not simply a judgment on men's arrogance, but a gift of mercy. It is often forgotten that differences in language has a bright side, as well as a disadvantage in communication. It is purely by the power of this separation, by the fact that there are language barriers not easily broken, that minorities have been able to maintain their own, distinct, unique cultures. It is often when a language dies that a culture dies.3

Yet there is a deeper confusion of speech than mere language. Even if two speakers share the same language, communication is more than an exchange of words. If that were just the case, E.F. Schumacher poignantly pictures the human tragedy: "If we cannot achieve a real 'meeting of minds' with the people nearest to us in our daily lives, our existence becomes an agony and a disaster"4. Something must bridge the abyss between us, each prisoners in our own minds, and surely that something must be more than words?5

"The tower" remarks the psychologist Jung, "undoubtedly has the meaning of something steadfast and secure"6. Yet, ironically, the legendary tower of Babel, despite all its apparent solidity, had no firm foundations, for the foundations of a building are only as firm as its founders. And when men were scattered from Babel, the tower was left to the ravages of time, to be scattered to the four winds, even the foundations crumbling into the dust. 

Jung comments that the "same confusion of tongues which frustrated the Tower of Babel almost completely dominated the Christian Church in the first century, demanding desperate exertions on the part of the faithful the overcome the confusion"7. Yet even as the shadow of Babel darkened the light of the newly born Church, one of the prophets of the Church, known as the Shepherd of Hermas had a vision of the Church as a might tower.

In his vision he sees "a mighty tower whose stones fit one into the other without joints. This jointless tower (hence by its very nature of indestructible solidity) symbolizes the Church, so Hermas understands"8. And here is found the temple not made with hands, and the recovery of lost unity
which lies not in frail human hands, but in the arms of God. As the Psalmist puts it: "Thou has been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy".9

So Babel foreshadows Pentecost, where understanding is again restored to man, and that lost unity found not in the arrogance of man, but only in the love of God. Will we be mindful of the lesson of Babel, lost in the drifting desert sands? "The Word in the desert is most attacked by voices of temptation, the crying shadow in the funeral dance, the loud lament of the disconsolate chimera".10

Notes on Essay.

1. C.W. Ceram "A Picture History of Archaeology"(1958) p.183. Whether Babel actually existed as a Babylonian Ziggurat or "step-pyramid" will never be known, but certainly the greatest of these "towers" was rebuilt many times, and fell as many: "Empires rose and fell; sand drifted over the Babylonian remains, until nothing was left but the legend of this building whose pinnacles had strained towards the skies"(p.184)
2. Claus Westermann "Handbook to the Old Testament"(1980) p.28. Westermann also remarks that Babel is the "antithesis to Pentecost"(p.28)
3. See Lancelot Hogben "The Mother Tongue"(1939) for a pioneering study in comparative linguistics; cultural separation by language is well illustrated by Welsh inter alia.
4. "A Guide to the Perplexed"(1978) p.97. But consider also the problems inherent in simple communication:
- First, the speaker must know, with some precision, 0
what is the thought he wishes to convey;
- second, he must find visible (including audible) symbols - gestures, bodily movements, words, intonation etc. - which in his judgment are able to 'externalise' his 'internal' thought; this may be called 'the first translation';
- third, the listener must have a faultless reception of these visible (etc.) symbols, which means not only that he must accurately hear what is being said, knowing the language used, but also that he must accurately observe the non-verbal symbols (such as gesture and intonation) that are being employed;
- fourth, the listener must then in some way integrate the numerous symbols which he has received and turn them into thought; this may be called 'the second translation'. (p.96)
5. I am thinking here of the Holy Spirit as the true link between
people, especially in terms of the title of John V. Taylor's magnificent book "The Go-Between God".
6. "Psychological Types" Jung (1938) p.283
7. Op. Cit. p. 283f.
8. Jung's interpretation. Op, Cit. p. 283
9. Ps 56 v.4
10. "Four Quartets" (1979) T.S. Eliot:. Note the ambiguity of the line. Is the "chimera" a fabled monster or a wild fancy?