God’s Incarnation as a Donkey in Gerard Reve’s Mystical-Sexual Fantasy

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donkey, Gerard Reve, God

Gerard Reve (1923-2006) was a Dutch Catholic communist homosexual author, who in 1966-1968 fought the state of The Netherlands in a two-year blasphemy trial, a trial which centred on Reve’s literary description in which he thrice fucks God during His incarnation as a donkey.

Yet there is little here that you can’t find in the medieval mystics, albeit updated for the twentieth century:

“Reve describes how God vists him in the form of a donkey and how, in an upsurge of love and devotion, he takes the incarnated God to bed:

En God Zelf zou bij mij langs komen in de gedaante van een éénjarige, muisgrijze Ezel en voor de deur staan en aanbellen en zeggen: ‘Gerard, dat boek van je–weet je dat Ik bij sommige stukken gehuid heb?’ ‘Mijn Heer en mijn God! Geloofd weze Uw Naam tot in alle Eeuwigheid! Ik houd zo verschrikkelijk veel van U,’ zou ik proberen te zeggen, maar halverwege zou ik al in janken uitbarsten, en Hem beginnen te kussen en naar binnen trekken, en na een gewildige klauterpartij om de trap naar het slaapkamertje op te komen, zou ik Hem drie keer achter elkaar langdurig in Zijn Geheime Opening bezitten, en daarna een presenteksemplaar geven… met de opdracht: Voor de Oneindige. Zonder Woorden. (Nader [tot U] 112-113)

And God Himself would visit me in the form of a one-year-old, mouse grey Donkey and stand in front of my door and ring the bell and say: ‘Gerard, that book of yours–did you know that I wept while reading some of its passages?’ ‘My Lord and my God! Praise be Your Name to all Eternity! I love You so immensely,’ I would try to say, but would burst out crying halfway, and start to kiss Him and pull Him inside, and after a colossal climb up the stairs to the little bedroom, I would possess Him three times in a row and at great length in His Secret Opening, and afterwards give Him a free copy… of my book with the dedication: To the Infinite. Without Words (Trans. Jesseka Batteau).

As is evident from the above, Reve combines the high rhetoric of the Bible with the banal and carnal, using capital letters in an ironic manner.”

(Jesseka Batteau, “Literary Icons and the Religious Past in the Netherlands” (2009), 239)

Ah – but what intense devotion!

Philosophy Departments slowly turning postmodern

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analytic philosophy, Atheism and Agnosticism, Continental Philosophy, God, meta-ethics, moral realism, Philosophy, postmodernism, scientific realism, Theism

The PhilPapers Survey was carried out in November 2009, and surveyed some 3226 respondents, including 1803 philosophy faculty members and/or PhDs and 829 philosophy graduate students. The respondents were questioned on everything from realism to metaethics to the existence of zombies. But something interesting emerges when you compare the “Target Faculty” (faculties at top-ranked universities) against lesser lights and newbies coming up from the ranks.

Check this: for “Tradition”, the respondents had to choose between various options, of which the main options were Analytic and Continental. See the difference between the old fossils and the new and rising stars:

Target faculty: Analytic 91%; Continental 4%
Philosophy faculty or PhD: Analytic 81%; Continental 7%
Philosophy graduate student: Analytic 85%; Continental 10%
Philosophy undergraduate: Analytic 74%; Continental 18%

And for meta-ethics, here’s the differences between moral realists and anti-realists, for the same range of people:

Target faculty: Moral realism 56%; Moral anti-realism 28%
Philosophy faculty or PhD: Moral realism 56%; Moral anti-realism 28%
Philosophy graduate student: Moral realism 50%; Moral anti-realism 35%
Philosophy undergraduate: Moral realism 48%; Moral anti-realism 36%

And science: scientific realism or scientific anti-realism?

Target faculty: scientific realism 75%; scientific anti-realism 13%
Philosophy faculty or PhD: scientific realism 70%; scientific anti-realism 16%
Philosophy graduate student: scientific realism 62%; scientific anti-realism 21%
Philosophy undergraduate: scientific realism 54%; scientific anti-realism 25%

And what about God: theism or atheism?

Target faculty: atheism 73%; theism15%
Philosophy faculty or PhD: atheism 70%; theism 16%
Philosophy graduate student: atheism 64%; theism 21%
Philosophy undergraduate: atheism 62%; theism 20%

Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand