Hermann Hessee most famous work is a novella about the life of Siddhartha, which I enjoyed. He also has another well known novella, entitled Demian, which posed a question that continues to puzzle me.
In story of the resurrection of Christ, Demian asked whether the thief that was crucified with Jesus and repented should be admitted to heaven. Demian thought the thief that died resolute, asking forgiveness of no one, was the better man. The thief that repented had nothing to lose at that point and everything to gain by repenting, so of course he would have repented.
Demian argued it was the other thief that we should admire, for going stoically towards his fate. That's how heroes die.
That unrepentant thief may seem like a stronger person for sticking to what he was, but if it came down to burning in hellfire for all of eternity or chillin with angels you can be sure I would repent of everytime I accidentally stepped on an ant.
ReplyDeleteI think I understand. The unrepentant thief was stoic because of ignorance and not because of any sense of right and wrong. Demian mistook stupidity for heroics.
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