ABSTRACT

To those who find genuine dialogue embracing difference nearly impossible in an atmosphere of hate and violent polarization, Martin Buber’s notion of the “unity of contraries” can seem absurd. In response, this article contends that the unity-of-contraries approach requires dialogic courage. This article explores the connections between the unity of contraries, the absurd, and dialogic courage through the case study of Mother Catherine Abrikosova and the Russian Dominican Catholic community she founded amid twentieth century Soviet persecution of Catholics. Her heroic communicative response to the absurdity of Soviet censorship, religious intolerance, and violence was informed by a unity-of-contraries identity that flourished rather than decayed as a result of radical difference. Together with the coordinates of Alasdair MacIntyre’s notion of networks of giving and receiving and Ronald C. Arnett’s concept of tenacious hope, dialogic courage is proposed as an essential communicative orientation for the current historical moment.

摘要

对于那些发现在仇恨和暴力两极分化的气氛中几乎不可能真正拥抱差异的对话的人来说，马丁布伯的“对立面统一”的概念似乎很荒谬。作为回应，本文认为，对立统一的方法需要对话的勇气。本文通过对母亲凯瑟琳·阿布里科索娃 (Catherine Abrikosova) 和她在 20 世纪苏联迫害天主教徒期间创立的俄罗斯多米尼加天主教社区的案例研究，探讨了对立统一、荒谬和对话勇气之间的联系。她对苏联审查制度的荒谬性、宗教不容忍和暴力行为的英勇交流回应，源于一种对立统一的身份认同，这种身份认同因根本差异而繁荣而不是衰落。