220 Essays in Anarchism and Religion: Volume 1
its disengagement of the life of the spirit from the conditions of
any particular society, resulting in political and social passivity,^108
failing to adequately address the problems of concrete, mun-
dane existence.^109 In an explication of the Sermon of the Mount,
Voegelin argued,
We have to recall that the Sermon of the Mount is not a code for
the life in the “world”; it is addressed to men who live in between
the worlds of eschatological expectation. In historical existence,
entangled in the network of social obligations... If he is struck on
the right cheek, he will not turn his left, but hit back in defence of
his life, his family and his community. But in hitting back, he will
do good, as a Christian, to remember the Sermon, and to be aware
that in defence he is involved in guilt...^110Yet, the anarchists which Voegelin criticised had dealt with the
question of change in abstraction, not from the position of a par-
ticipant in reality, but from that of a spectator, tempted by the
unattainable “magic” of perfection.^111 Like Voegelin, Landauer
emphasised that his ideas for community creation were “little be-
ginnings, nuclei, cells,”^112 because “reality lies in movement and
true socialism is always only beginning, is always only one which
moves.”^113 He did not “... approach the absolute. A religion,
which connects us all, is not be expected. What I call socialism is
not perfection, perfection exists only in our words...”^114 Neither
from Voegelin nor Landauer a blueprint for community could be
expected.
The an-archist Community:
Both philosophers conceptualised true community not as being
situated in a particular context, it is already everywhere, but as sit-
uating. It can only be made intelligible through experience. Only
when the link between experience and knowledge of the world is
restored can the realisation of its natural community be attempt-
ed. According to Landauer, only when one has consciously felt
“unprecedented, intense, deep experience”, then “anarchists and
anarchy exist, in the form of scattered individuals, everywhere.
And they will find each other.”^115 It follows that,