Emmanuel's works are not "churchy" or self-help! (Part 1)

Introduction - Question 625 of The Book of Spirits (LE) states that "Jesus is the most perfect Spirit that God has offered to man to serve as a model and guide". This question is inserted in the third part of the LE, which deals with the "Moral Laws". The Gospel According to Spiritism (ESE) precisely develops the discussion concerning this third part of the LE, indicating that the study of the Gospel of Jesus, in Allan Kardec's view, and the Falange of the Spirit of Truth that guided him, consists of a safety guideline to deeply understand the "Moral Laws". This is because the "Moral Laws" are an important part of the General Laws of Creation, as well as the laws governing matter, which are studied by physics, chemistry, and so on.

It is worth noting that in addition to the initial presence in the LE and the central constitution of the theme of the third fundamental book of Allan Kardec's ESE, Jesus and the Gospel are discussed in much of the last major work published by Kardec, Genesis, miracles and predictions according to Spiritism (AG) - first published in 1868 - about a year before the disembodiment of Allan Kardec. Not to mention the workHeaven and Hell that indirectly contemplates topics regarding our spiritual destination beyond the grave, which is related to various teachings recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and of the LE works (including the third part), ESE and AG.

On this correlation, it is interesting to remember that in the first chapter of The Gospel According to Spiritism, entitled "I Have not Come to Destroy the Law," Kardec correlates the so-called "three revelations": Moses, Jesus, and Spiritism.

The Master of Lyon emphasizes the sense of pedagogical sequence in the learning of spiritual knowledge. A similar discussion is also developed in the first chapter of AG, featuring Spiritism as a double aspect Revelation, that is, a Revelation at the same time Human and Divine, and sequential in relation to the previous contributions of Moses and Jesus. In addition, in the Spiritist Magazine (RE), there is an item in which Allan Kardec characterized the Apostle Paul, an important reference for Emmanuel’s thought, as a forerunner of Spiritism ("Sao Paulo, Precursor of Spiritism" in the December 1863 edition).

In fact, the correlation between the legacy of Jesus, through his Gospel, and Spiritism, is doctrinally inseparable. We could only admit the supposed separation if we rejected drastically much of Allan Kardec's works, which is inconceivable to every conscious Spiritist. Allan Kardec's work is a well-constructed whole, in which the constituent parts mutually confirm and assist in forming a conceptual set extremely coherent and self-consistent.

The understanding of the threefold aspect of Spiritism needs to be better emphasized in our camp so that this block of scientific-philosophical-religious ideas is better assimilated in its interrelated principles and also in regard to its various doctrinal implications.

Within this context, one of the doubts that arise in many confreres, which are very much in vogue today within the discussions of Spiritist groups and forums Spiritist, is the following: What role and value has the works of the Spirit Emmanuel within the doctrinal context? This article discusses some angles of this theme so much debated in the Brazilian Spiritist Movement (MEB).

Emmanuel's proposal

In the same way as Manoel Philomeno de Miranda (MPM) makes clear in one of his books - received through the mediumship of Divaldo Franco - that his purpose, with his works on the spiritual world and the processes of obsession/disobsession, is to develop one of the issues initially pioneered by Allan Kardec in the second part of Heaven and Hell or Divine Justice according to Spiritism, Emmanuel seeks to contribute to the Spiritist understanding of the Moral Laws and the Gospel of Jesus. This doctrinal issue, similar to what happens with the studies of MPM, was also masterfully initiated by the Master of Lyon, in this case highlighting two books: The Book of Spirits and remarkably in The Gospel according to Spiritism.

If we reject this content in itself, considering that it would not be doctrinal suited, we would also have to reject several other Spiritist authors, highly respected in the Spiritist Movement (ME), in all their works or at least partially, such as: Cairbar Schutel author of "Parables and Teachings of Jesus", "The Spirit of Christianity", "Life and Acts of the Apostles" and "Synthetic Interpretation of the Apocalypse", among others); Paulo Alves Godoy (author of "The Wonderful Parables of Jesus", among several other works on passages of the Gospel); Therezinha Oliveira (author of "Parables that Jesus counted and were worth forever", among others); Herculano Pires ("Review of Christianity", "The Bible according to Spiritism", among others); Leon Denis ("Christianity and Spiritism", among others); Rodolfo Calligaris (Evangelical Parables in the light of the Spiritist Doctrine), etc.

What Emmanuel wrote and how Emmanuel is read

Emmanuel develops one of the doctrinal angles pioneered by Kardec's work, from LE (first edition in 1857) and with special emphasis on ESE (first edition in 1864), and his objective - by deeply discussing the passages and images of the Gospel to the light of the Spiritist Doctrine –is to bring knowledge of the Truth and a sincere search for moral transformation, applying the binomial Gospel-Spiritism to ourselves and our activities. Therefore, the study of the Trilogy Gospel-Doctrine-Intimate Reformation is undoubtedly the central theme in any value approach in the light of Spiritism.

The tendency to superficial speeches of self-help has been growing in Spiritist centers, by confreres who do not demonstrate a solid formation in dealing with the fundamental works of Spiritism, and often not even the Gospel. It is evident that optimistic thinking and self-help, in general, are part of the context of Spiritist learning, but in no way is the knowledge of Spiritism restricted to self-help, which can neither be spiritualistic nor Spiritist.

Many read Emmanuel as self-help books only, or merely as an introductory reading for Spiritist meetings, without any critical analysis, in a way that we could classify as a "churchy" or at least a protocol. We do not want to say that the reading of Emmanuel's messages is inadequate as a text of preparation for the public meetings of the Spiritist centers. We consider this initiative positive for the initial preparation of our meetings. We are only emphasizing that the works of Emmanuel should not be reduced to this role only, due to the high quality of its content.

In any case, we cannot attribute to Emmanuel the wrong way in which his texts are often read or used in our Spiritist movement (ME). Emmanuel is responsible for the content of his work and we are responsible for the strategies and the seriousness of the study that we apply or not to this study as well as for the intellectual assimilation and the practical experience of the same in our daily life. This reasoning also applies to the texts of Allan Kardec and any other Spiritist author. In other words, neither Kardec, nor Emmanuel, nor any other Spiritist author can be held responsible for the limited and / or misleading interpretations that may possibly be made of their respective works.

As is well known, the Spiritist Movement is not always able to represent, in a logical way, the Spiritist content. It is worth remembering the famous phrase of Leon Denis in his work "In the Invisible" (NI): "Spiritism will be what men make of it". Obviously, Denis, in using the term "Spiritism", refers, in this context, to the Spiritist Movement, and not to the Spiritist Doctrine itself.

To regard Emmanuel's work as merely a superficial self-help work, or just a message of preparation for the psychic environment for prayer, without study, without reflecting on its content, and without meditating on its moral and doctrinal implications, consists in belittling the value of the Gospel within the context of Spiritism. And, in addition, it would be a kind of repetition of religious habits of traditional religious denominations, which often read evangelical texts in a merely formal way with minimal explanatory comments or even nonexistent. But this failure, we insist, has to be attributed to the portion of the students of Emmanuel’s text who act in this way and not to Emmanuel himself, the spiritual author.

It is strange that serious and committed scholars with the Gospel of Jesus cannot not see the evangelical-doctrinal value of books as "Living Source"; "Way, Truth and Life"; "Our Bread"; "Vine of Light"; "Words of Eternal Life"; "Scribe of Light"; "Harvesting of Light" etc. It is possible, not to say probable, that after the evangelical studies in the light of the Spiritist Doctrine elaborated in the work of Allan Kardec, Emmanuel's studies constitute the most consistent and extensive contents, in quality and in quantity, of analyzes on the texts of Jesus of Nazareth and His Apostles and disciples that we have in the Spiritist Movement. Perhaps a possible alternative study of the Gospel in the light of the Spiritist Doctrine would be to study the texts on the Gospel of Kardec as the main work, with the support of the works of Emmanuel as a subsidiary work.

On the obscure passages of Emmanuel’s texts

In the first place, no Spiritist author holds the label of "infallibility." The attitude of attributing an infallible character to any authors corresponds to a non-acceptable religious fanaticism within the Spiritist proposal. Therefore, all can make mistakes, and all authors must be submitted to the most rigorous critical analysis, so that the logic of the Spiritist thought provides doctrinal growth to the scholars of Spiritism. This goes for everyone, without exception.

With regard to Emmanuel specifically, many argue that the resistance to the author is due to doctrinal failings or certain "marks" of a supposed Catholicism of the Spiritual Benefactor.

This argument seems weak or at least oversized.

Let us first consider the question of possible doctrinal failings.

In Emmanuel’s work there are, in fact, strange and / or obscure passages. However, they are not exclusive to this spiritual author. And it is evident that in the case of Emmanuel, the balance is immensely positive, since his legacy of good texts is immensely superior to the number of his writings that can be considered questionable from the doctrinal point of view.

It would be the case to ask: which Spiritist author has totally gone unblemished to possible errors, or, at least, to passages considered questionable from the doctrinal point of view?

Many well-known Spiritist authors also have at least very questionable texts. After all, we do not accept - we again stress, as something reasonable from the Spiritist point of view - the myth of infallibility for no text currently existing on the Earth's Crust.

Let us look at some examples of respectable Spiritist writers who have not always published and / or had impeccable attitudes from the Spiritist point of view. Leon Denis published at the end of his physical life "The Celtic Genius and the Invisible World"; it is a book that presents very questionable passages from the Spiritist point of view. In fact, Denis rejects the spiritual contribution of the Latin ancestry of the French people and enhances the Celtic ancestry of France in a very strange way. Of course, the cultural formation of people consists in an influence on their values ​​and on their way of proceeding. But, especially when the discussion refers to a very ancient ancestry, as is the case, the study is very fragile in the light of thereincarnation knowledge, especially within the Spiritist perspective. It is important to note that this is a work published by one of the main, together with Gabriel Delanne, successors of Allan Kardec. Indeed, if we consider reincarnation, we find, as Jesus explained to Nicodemus, "that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit" and also "The Spirit blows where it wants, but we do not know where, and neither whence it cometh nor whither it goeth...” Therefore, such an emphasis by the respected Spiritist worker is very questionable.

Leon Denis also defended in his praised work "The Problem of Being, Destiny and Pain," the controversial and very questionable idea that Jesus was the reincarnation of Khrisna. We do not accept this assumption as true, which is a rejection common to many confreres. The fact is that such positioning, as well as the questionable work "The Celtic Genius and the Invisible World", did not cause the ME to lose the respect, gratitude and dissemination of the works of great value of Leon Denis.

Herminio C. Miranda, an erudite Spiritist author, with several works of relevance in the Spiritist context, wrote several highly speculative books in relation to supposed reincarnations of the most famous figures in world history. The subsidies that provided the basis for the respective theses are mere hypotheses with few and inconclusive "evidences" (presupposed evidences, which, for the most part, cannot withstand the slightest analysis). There are several works that contemplate such conjectures, such as "The Marks of Christ I and II"; "I am Camille Desmoulins" (in partnership with Luciano dos Anjos); "From Kennedy to Artificial Man" (in partnership with Luciano dos Anjos); "The Lives of Fenelon"; "The Lords of the World". In spite of this, Herminio continues being a respected author and is in high account in the Spiritist movement.

(This article will be completed in the next issue)

Translation:
Eleni Frangatos - eleni.moreira@uol.com.br