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CHICAGO STUDIES
Max Weber saw years ago, the absence of people committed to principle results in a politics of sheer opportunism. "Certainly all historical experience confirms the truth that men would not have attained the possible unless they had reached out for the impossible," Weber wrote. "Even those who are neither leaders nor heroes must arm themselves with that steadfastness of heart which can brave the crumbling of all hopes. This is necessary right now or else men will not be able to attain even that which is possible today. Only he has a calling for politics who is sure that he shall not crumble when all the world from his point of view is too stupid or too base for what he wants to offer. Only he who in the face of this can say 'In spite of all' has a calling for politics." No one in the American Church has exhibited greater courage, steadfastness and Christian hope than Dorothy Day, and none has better witnessed to the manner in which the Christian struggle for greater justice, peace and love does not depend on victories. For Dorothy Day and her generation of radicals, a generation that included Gordon Zahn and Paul Hanley Furfey and Catherine de Hueck, the apparent lack of effectiveness of their peace witness during World War II in no way shook their confidence in the ultimate truth of their ideals. In the mysterious labyrinth of history, the lonely death of Ernst Jagerstaddter, abandoned by all who knew him, unknown to any broader world, was rescued from oblivion by Gordon Zahn, to inspire another generation's quest for peace. William Miller's brilliant account of the Catholic Worker movement captures all this, and clarifies the profound challenge which the faith of Peter Maurin and Dorothy Day poses for all of us, and particularly for our preoccupation with tangible and measurable successes. "Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams," Dorothy Day quotes Dostoevski's Father Zossima. In the "experience of active love" which the Russian monk prescribed, the Christian is guaranteed not success, but faith. "If you attain perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbor, then you will believe without a doubt." The Russian monk tells us that, amid the apparent failures and disappointments of contemporary struggle, hope is sustained. "I predict that, just when you see with horror that, in spite of all your efforts, you are getting further from your goal instead