On hearing of the death of Vaclav Havel, the first democratically elected president of the Czech Republic after the fall of Communism, I offer this postscript. Europe’s most famous dissident and intellectual statesman is not well known in the U.S. While not a Christian or what can be discerned, a believer in a personal God, Havel spoke against the materialism of Marx which had captured the devotion of most European intellectuals. He argued for the transcendent values of morality and public justice. James Sire wrote a Christian appraisal of Havel a few years ago published by InterVarsity Press.
“Vaclav Havel is one of the twentieth century’s most amazing people. In character, life and career he breaks all molds we associate with each of the six main categories into which he so obviously falls. He is dramatist, humorist, intellectual, moralist, politician, statesman. We may well ask, How can this be? Surely never before the combination of these six-two perhaps, three maybe, four unlikely, but six?” (James Sire, Vaclav Havel, IVP, 2001)
And then towards the end of the book after engaging in an appreciative critique of his worldview, which affirms such universals as truth, justice and the need for hope, Sire shows how Havel falls short of perceiving how these essential aspects of our humanity are tied to a transcendent personal God. The man who spent years reflecting on these truths as a political prisoner and cultural critic, found no answer for his quest for freedom from his personal guilt and flaws. It is an example as high as common grace can lift a human soul above the rabble of human corruption it cannot redeem the soul.
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