The Evangelical Universalist Forum

RIP Sir John Tavener: Christian Universalist?

Evangelical Universalism
#1

Reading today about the life of the composer Sir John Tavener, who has died aged 69, he had a very interesting faith journey. Born into a Presbyterian family, he seems to have spent time as a Roman Catholic before becoming a member of the Russian Orthodox church in his early thirties. Since then he has explored other religions and spiritualities, and has actually used the term ‘Universalist’ about himself.

In an interview with the New York Times he was quoted as saying, “I reached a point where everything I wrote was terribly austere and hidebound by the tonal system of the Orthodox Church, and I felt the need, in my music at least, to become more universalist: to take in other colors, other languages.”

There’s a good obituary in today’s Guardian.

theguardian.com/music/2013/n … hn-tavener

One for pog’s list, perhaps?

J

PS I regret to say that, being an utter philistine with practically no understanding or appreciation of classical music, I know nothing at all about Tavener’s oeuvre. But he does some to have been very highly thought of by those in the know.

#2

His music is gorgeous Johnny - I’ll lend you a CD sometime :smiley: (Shame abut the graphics for the first link - but its a lovely piece of music. The sonce link is his setting of William Blake’s ‘The Lamb’)

youtube.com/watch?v=BkgN9OjMXgw

youtube.com/watch?v=XyBp9hrz … kgN9OjMXgw

#3

An amazing man. Truly used by God.
youtube.com/watch?v=XyBp9hrzDQE

#4

Yes, it certainly seems so, John. As I’m sure you know, he suffered a great deal of pain and illness in his life, but retained a very strong faith which he expressed through his music - beautiful music, by all accounts.

I would love to borrow that CD, Dick, thanks. I wasn’t joking, I really am a philistine when it comes to classical music. And I know that there is this vast reservoir of wonderful music out there for me to discover if I can just get the hang of it - much of it, of course, inspired by faith (as with so much truly great art).

#5

OK Johnny - sure thing. I’ve got a lovely Tavener CD based around the Jesus prayer.

He may well have been an Eastern Orthodox universalist. I know his spiritual director was a nun at an Eastern Orthodox community founded by a universalist.

Late in life he became influenced by perennialists - a Sufi based movement that stresses the integrity of revelation in all of the major traditions and the universality of truth. It’s not pluralists pick and mix as such - but it stresses that each revelation is complete in itself and you can appreciate the symbolic resonances across traditions. (I’m not quite sure of what I think of it - seeing a religion as just a static tradition is problematic for me - and they seem to do this; and Prince Charles is a fan which isn’t promising). Tavener’s spiritual director was not happy with his new affiliations at first but she still collaborated with him in writing the lyrics for his Christian sacred music.

#6

Thanks for that Dick.

I just listened to those links. Wow, and double wow. Absolutely fabulous. Thanks to you and John for posting those. My wife just said, “this is lovely, what is it?” about *The Lamb *- she has a beautiful voice herself, used to sing in the church choir - and isn’t a philistine!

#7

This is a lovely one too -

youtube.com/watch?v=9haxjywIDVQ

#8

:frowning: Great music. Sad loss.

If it can be confirmed that he was indeed a universalist, would anyone be prepared to write up a short bio and quote entry for the big list?

#9

I think we might have to put him in the uncertain category because he was so wedded to the idea of mystery. Certainly when he said he had become more universalist in outlook he meant that he had come to see all religious traditions as revelations of the same primordial truth while believing that it was necessary to be loyal to the disciplines and symbolic life of your own specific tradition of revelation,
By mystery was a keynote for John Tavener and the idea of the divine feminine – as opposed to the hard defined and exclusive truths of the masculine. When i saw him interviewed the other night (obviously a recorded interview) he also said that he found the augments of atheists –even the most intelligent ones – unconvincing – because they still couldn’t argue themselves past the underlying human intuition of being made in the image of God. The interviewer said ‘so God loves atheist too’ – and he replied – ‘Of course God does’.

If no one else volunteers I’ll have a think about doing a biog. But I can’t find any explicit statement about apocatastasis from him - although I’m sure he did believe in it under the guise of the deep mystery of the All returning to the One(and it will be very hard to pin down whether it was Orthodoxy or Sufism that fostered this belief in him even if we can find confirmation).

#10

This will interest Johnny

John Tavener’s first symphony - written before he became Orthodox and was still a gilded youth - was the Whale Symphony. It’s a surrealistic atonal piece and was released on Apple - the Beatles short lived record label. It features Ringo Starr making noises through a loudspeaker (perhaps anticipating his later career as narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine - which he does rather well and my little niece certainly loved him for it). Apparently Tavener also played through an Opera he was writing to John Lennon who was much impressed (he had his moments did our John :smiley: )