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GOD, IMMORTALITY, AND LIVED EXPERIENCE IN UNAMUNO
Encounter, Autumn 2003 by Muray, Leslie A
The year following Unamuno's return from exile (1931), the Republic was proclaimed and the king went into exile. Unamuno was reappointed as rector of the University of Salamanca and was elected deputy to represent the city in the Constituent Assembly, or Parliament.7 A Republican with anti-clerical leanings, he became disillusioned with what he saw as the dogmatism, anticlericalism, insensitivity to the lived experiences of people, and hostility to the dynamic creativity of national and religious culture of the RepublicanSocialist-Anarchist coalition. Feeling that national unity was disintegrating, Unamuno initially supported Franco in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. On account of this, he was dismissed from the position of rector by the Republican government, only to be reinstated shortly thereafter by the Falangists. Initially perhaps somewhat naive about the fascist nature of Franco's rebellion, he had a quick change of heart as some of his friends and colleagues were arrested, some even executed. he also became increasingly aware of the dependence of the Falangists on their unsavory allies, the totalitarian governments of Germany and Italy. These realizations culminated in Unamuno's 12 October 1936 speech condemning the fascist cult of death. This time, he was escorted from the hall and dismissed from his post by the forces of the right. Unamuno died on 31 December 1936. Quite incongruously, he was given a Falangist funeral.8 I find it quite ironic that both in the Falangist and later Sandanista funerals, when the name of the deceased was read, the attendees would shout in unison, "Presente!"
Martin Nozick has quite aptly described the Spanish philosopher as "anti-clerical vis-a-vis an unenlightened clergy and equally exasperated by hackneyed atheism; a Republican under the monarchy, a reactionary under the Republic, a rationalist dealing with irrationalities . . ."9 One could describe Unamuno as always engaged but never surrendering his sense of self, never "selling his soul" to a party or movement. One can admire the integrity of such a position, yet question its effectiveness.
Frequently denounced as a heretic in his life time, Unamuno's The Tragic Sense of Life and The Agony of Christianity were placed on the Index of Forbidden Books as recently as January of 1957. At the same time, Osservatore Romano itemized Unamuno's syllabus of errors: denial of the possibility of rational demonstration of the existence of God; denial of faith and transcendental order in the name of reason; denial of the immortality of the soul, of the Trinity, of the divinity of Jesus Christ, of original sin, of eucharistie transubstantiation, and of the eternality of the punishment of Hell.10 I would like to think that today the Spanish philosopher's challenging treatment of these topics would not cause such consternation. Having maintained this, I now turn to Unamuno's views concerning God and immortality.
GOD AND IMMORTALITY IN UNAMUNO
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