Review for Exam:
Define these terms and name at least one medieval Eastern theologian related to it:
Deification or Theosis
Icons
Passion
In the 4th century, how was a new believer assimilated into the church in the East?
Why is worship pre-eminent in Orthodoxy rather than doctrine?
Why are icons indispensable to worship in Orthodoxy?
Define these terms as an Eastern Christian might:
Eucharist
Baptism
Original sin
Theotokos
The Jesus Prayer
What were the dates, issues, and places of the first four ecumenical councils?
Name one Eastern theologian related to the first three.
What was the issue in the 7th ecumenical council and how was it resolved? Name a major Eastern theologian related to it.
In Eastern Theology, what about their anthropology makes it possible to hope, as Gregory of Nyssa did, for the salvation of all?
What was the role of Scripture and Tradition in medieval Eastern thought?
In ancient Eastern Christian thought, how is one ‘saved?’
What are some of the differences between ‘justification by faith alone’ and the Eastern Christian notion of Theosis?
Give two reasons for the Great Schism of 1054.
Extra credit: why was it difficult for the ‘Oriental’ and ‘Orthodox’ churches of the East to come to terms on the nature of Christ?
Why was Origen condemned in the fifth ecumenical council?
Monday, November 12, 2007
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Quotes on Deification
From:
http://www.orthodox.net/gleanings/theosis.html
... when the intellect has been perfected, it unites wholly with God and is illumined by divine light, and the most hidden mysteries are revealed to it. Then it truly learns where wisdom and power lie... While it is still fighting against the passions it cannot as yet enjoy these things... But once the battle is over and it is found worthy of spiritual gifts, then it becomes wholly luminous, powerfully energized by grace and rooted in the contemplation of spiritual realities. A person in whom this happens is not attached to the things of this world but has passed from death to life." St. Thalassios, "On Love, Self-control and Life in accordance with the Intellect" Philokalia (Vol. 2)", p. 355)
'Can a man take fire into his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?' (Prov. 6:27) says the wise Solomon. And I say: can he, who has in his heart the Divine fire of the Holy Spirit burning naked, not be set on fire, not shine and glitter and not take on the radiance of the Deity in the degree of his purification and penetration by fire? For penetration by fire follows upon purification of the heart, and again purification of the heart follows upon penetration by fire, that is, inasmuch as the heart is purified, so it receives Divine grace, and again inasmuch as it receives grace, so it is purified. When this is completed (that is, purification of heart and acquisition of grace have attained their fullness and perfection), through grace a man becomes wholly a god." St. Simeon the New Theologian (Practical and Theological Precepts no. 94, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart; Faber and Faber pgs. 118-199)
...in the visible form of our nature the immortal God described the likeness of His invisible Being, and thus we apprehend eternity. Through prayer we enter into Divine life; and God praying in us is uncreated life permeating us. Archimandrite Sophrony (His Life is Mine, Chapter 8; SVS press pg. 66)
...while we are still in this life we shall often waver in our self-determining, hesitating whether to fulfill the commandments or give way to our passions. Gradually, as we struggle, the mystery of Christ will be revealed to us if we devote ourselves totally to obeying His precepts. The moment will come when heart and mind are so suffused by the vision of the infinite holiness and humility of the God-Christ that our whole being will rise in a surge of love for God." Archimandrite Sophrony (His Life is Mine, Chapter 13; SVS Press pgs. 93-94)
A person is perfect in this life when as a pledge of what is to come he receives the grace to assimilate himself to the various stages of Christ's life. In the life to come perfection is made manifest through the power of deification. St. Gregory of Sinai, Philokalia, Vol. 4
A true sanctuary, even before the future life, is a heart free from thoughts, made active by the Spirit. For there all is said and done spiritually. St. Gregory of Sinai (Texts on Commandments and Dogmas no. 7)
Because the Deity is goodness itself, true mercy and an abyss of loving bounty - or, rather, He is that which embraces and contains this abyss, since He transcends every name that is named (cf. Eph. 1:21) and everything we can conceive - we can receive mercy only by union with Him. St. Gregory Palamas (On Prayer and Purity of Heart no. 1, The Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 343)
But we also know that the fulfillment of the commandments of God gives true knowledge, since it is through this that the soul gains health. How could a rational soul be healthy, if it is sick in its cognitive faculty? So we know that the commandments of God also grant knowledge, and not that alone, but deification also. St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads
But we also know that the fulfillment of the commandments of God gives true knowledge, since it is through this that the soul gains health. How could a rational soul be healthy, if it is sick in its cognitive faculty? So we know that the commandments of God also grant knowledge, and not that alone, but deification also. This we possess in a perfect manner, through the Spirit, seeing in ourselves the glory of God, when it pleases God to lead us to spiritual mysteries... St. Gregory Palamas (The Triads)
He will share in Christ's glory who, through being formed in Christ, has received renewal by the Spirit and has preserved it, and so has attained to ineffable deification. No one, there, will be one with Christ or be a member of Christ, if he has not become even here a receiver of grace and has not, thereby, become 'transformed by the renewal of' his 'mind' (Rom. 12:2). St. Gregory of Sinai (Texts on Commandments and Dogmas no. 42)
I think that the body of those incorruptible men is not even subject to sickness any longer, because it has been rendered incorruptible; for by the flame of purity they have extinguished the flame. I think that even the food that is set before them they accept without any pleasure. For there is an underground stream that nourishes the root of a plant, and their souls too are sustained by a celestial fire. St. John Climacus, "The Ladder of Divine Ascent," (Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1978), Step30: Concerning the Linking Together of the Supreme Trinity Among the Virtues
It is my opinion that our intellect does not have a natural power to be moved to the divine vision of Divinity. And in this one deficiency we are the peers of all the celestial natures, for both in us and in them grace moves that which is alien by nature both to the human intellect and to the angelic. For divine vision concerning the Godhead is not to be numbered among the other kinds of divine vision. For we possess divine vision of the natures of things through participation in their twofold nature, because there is a portion of all things in us. But we do not have a portion of the nature of the Divine Essence, and so neither do we have by nature divine vision of it. The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian.
Just as the body that benefits from clean air will acquire good health and will be kept pure, so too the soul that enjoys the divine words - as it were, God's wind - will be restored to health and rejuvenated in purity, and made holy. Its eye will be illumined so that it can gaze all the time on God. Just as is the case with the body's eye, provided it is open and clear, it never ceases to have its fill; so too it is with the illumined *eye* of the mind: provided it is straightforward and pure, it is occupied with spiritual vision; and when it is opened so as to peer into the mysteries of divine knowledge and into the world above, it will become even more illumined and purified, thus enabled to approach the essential light of the divinity that exists above the world. Chapter XI. Martyrius, The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life
Moses and David, and whoever else became vessels of divine energy by laying aside the properties of their fallen nature, were inspired by the power of God... They became living ions of Christ, being the same as He is, by grace rather than by assimilation... St. Gregory Palamas (Topics of Natural and Theological Science no. 76, The Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 381)
The Son of God has become Son of Man in order to make us...sons of God, raising our race by grace to what He is Himself by nature, granting us birth from above through the grace of the Holy Spirit and leading us straightway to the kingdom of heaven, or rather, granting us this kingdom within us (Luke 17:21), in order that we should not merely be fed by the hope of entering it, but entering into full possession thereof should cry: our 'life is hid with Christ in God.' (Col. 3:3)." St. Simeon the New Theologian (Practical and Theological Precepts no. 120, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart; Faber and Faber pg.26)
The dispensation of our God and Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall, and a return from the alienation caused by disobedience to close communion with God. This is the reason for the sojourn of Christ in the flesh, the pattern of life described in the Gospels, the sufferings, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection; so that the man who is being saved through imitation of Christ receives the old adoption. For perfection of life the imitation of Christ is necessary, not only in the example of gentleness, lowliness, and long suffering set us in His life, but also of His actual death. So Paul, the imitator of Christ, says, `being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.' How then are we made in the likeness of His death? In that we were buried with Him by baptism. St. John Chrysostom, On The Holy Spirit
The grace of deification thus transcends nature, virtue and knowledge, and (as St. Maximus says) `all these things are inferior to it.' Every virtue and imitation of God on our part indeed prepares those who practice them for divine union, but the mysterious union itself is effected by grace. It is through grace that `the entire Divinity comes to dwell in fullness in those deemed worth,' and all the saints in their entire being dwell in God, receiving God in His wholeness, and gaining no other reward for their ascent to Him than "God Himself. The Triads, St. Gregory Palamas
The holy mystery of the day of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost, is to be understood in the following manner: the spirit of man must be completed and perfected by the Holy Spirit, that is, it must be sanctified, illuminated, and divinized by the Holy Spirit. This holy mystery is realized continually in the Church of Christ and because of this the Church is really a continuous Pentecost.... From Holy Pentecost, the day of the Holy Spirit, every God-like soul in the Church of Christ is an incombustible bush which continuously burns and is inflamed with God and has a fiery tongue within it. (St.) Fr. Justin Popovich, Orthodox Faith and Life in Christ
Three realities pertain to God: essence, energy, and the triad of divine hypostases. As we have seen, those privileged to be united to God so as to become one spirit with Him - as St. Paul said, 'He who cleaves to the Lord is one spirit with Him' (I Cor. 6:17) - are not united to God with respect to His essence, since all theologians testify that with respect to His essence God suffers no participation.
Moreover, the hypostatic union is fulfilled only in the case of the Logos, the God-man.
Thus those privileged to attain union with God are united to Him with respect to His energy; and the 'spirit', according to which they who cleave to God are one with Him, is and is called the uncreated energy of the Holy Spirit, but not the essence of God... St. Gregory Palamas (Topics of Natural and Theological Science no. 75, The Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg. 380)
Thus the deifying gift of the Spirit is a mysterious light, and transforms into light those who receive its richness; He does not only fill them with eternal light, but grants them a knowledge and a life appropriate to God. Thus, as St. Maximus teaches, St. Paul lived no longer a created life, but "the eternal life of Him Who indwelt him." Similarly, the prophets contemplated the future as if it were the present. St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads
To contemplate this [Christ's] glory we must needs be in this glory. Otherwise we cannot see it. To apprehend, even dimly, 'Who this is?' (cf. Matt. 21:10) we must become like Him by abiding in His word. Whoever has not followed after Him in faith; who has not loved Him and therefore has not observed His commandments, cannot pronounce judgment, since he possesses no grounds for forming an opinion." Archimandrite Sophrony (His Life is Mine, Chapter 11; SVS Press pg 84)
We unite ourselves to Him [God], in so far as this is possible, by participating in the godlike virtues and by entering into communion with Him through prayer and praise. Because the virtues are similitudes of God, to participate in them puts us in a fit state to receive the Deity, yet it does not actually unite us to Him. But prayer through its sacral and hieratic power actualizes our ascent to and union with the Deity, for it is a bond between noetic creatures and their Creator. St. Gregory Palamas (On Prayer and Purity of Heart no. 1, The Philokalia Vol. 4 edited by Palmer, Sherrard and Ware; Faber and Faber pg.343)
What then shall we call this power which is an activity neither of the senses nor of the intellect? How else except by using the expression of Solomon, who was wiser than all who preceded him: "a sensation intellectual and divine." By adding those two adjectives, he urges his hearer to consider it neither as a sensation nor as an intellection, for neither is the activity of the intelligence a sensation, nor that of the senses and intellection. The "intelligent sensation" is thus different from both. Following the great Denys [Dionysios the Areopagite], one should perhaps call it union, and not knowledge. "One should realize," he says, "that our mind possesses both an intellectual power which permits it to see intelligible things, and also a capacity for that union which surpasses the nature of the intellect and allies it to that which transcends it." St. Gregory Palamas, The Triads
Why am I thus compelled to tell your charity all that God, out of His thirst for our salvation, speaks to us? Simply, in order that through them all you may learn and be persuaded that those who sit in darkness must see the great Light shine, if only they look toward it, and also that none of you may think that though it shone in the past, it is impossible for men of the present day to see it while they are still in the body. St. Symeon the New Theologian, The Discourses (quoted in Isaiah Through the Ages by Johanna Manley).
You see how bright the sun and the stars are. "Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun" from the inner immaterial light of God. Whenever the angels appear upon earth, they are almost always surrounded by light. Aspire to that enlightenment. Throw aside the works of darkness. We can raise our nature to communion with the Divine Nature; and God is the Light uncreated, surpassing every light that has been created. St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
But also know that the fulfillment of the commandments of God gives true knowledge, since it is through this that the soul gains health. How could a rational soul be healthy, if it is sick in it's cognitive faculty? So we know that the commandments of God also grant knowledge, and not that alone, but deification also. St. Gregory Palamas
... when the intellect has been perfected, it unites wholly with God and is illumined by divine light, and the most hidden mysteries are revealed to it. Then it truly learns where wisdom and power lie... While it is still fighting against the passions it cannot as yet enjoy these things... But once the battle is over and it is found worthy of spiritual gifts, then it becomes wholly luminous, powerfully energized by grace and rooted in the contemplation of spiritual realities. A person in whom this happens is not attached to the things of this world but has passed from death to life." St. Thalassios, "On Love, Self-control and Life in accordance with the Intellect" Philokalia (Vol. 2)", p. 355)
Friday, October 26, 2007
Creed and Chalcedonian Definition
I believe in one God,
the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried;
and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory,
to judge both the quick and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life,
who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son;]
who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped
and glorified;
who spake by the Prophets.
And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins;
and I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Definition of the Union of the Divine
and Human Natures in the Person of Christ
Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D., Act V
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one
and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in
manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one
substance (homoousios) with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of
one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as
regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood
begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer
(Theotokos); one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two
natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the
distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics
of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence,
not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten
God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him,
and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the Fathers has handed down
to us.
the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
and of all things visible and invisible;
And in one Lord Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God, Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
by whom all things were made;
who for us men and for our salvation
came down from heaven,
and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man;
and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered and was buried;
and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures,
and ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of the Father;
and he shall come again, with glory,
to judge both the quick and the dead;
whose kingdom shall have no end.
And I believe in the Holy Ghost the Lord, and Giver of Life,
who proceedeth from the Father [and the Son;]
who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped
and glorified;
who spake by the Prophets.
And I believe one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church;
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins;
and I look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
Definition of the Union of the Divine
and Human Natures in the Person of Christ
Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D., Act V
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one
and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in
manhood, truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body; of one
substance (homoousios) with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of
one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as
regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood
begotten, for us men and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin, the God-bearer
(Theotokos); one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in two
natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the
distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics
of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence,
not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten
God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him,
and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the Fathers has handed down
to us.
Friday, October 19, 2007
Portions of Life of St. Anthony by Athanasius
(0btained from
www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/vita-antony.html)
The life and conversation of our holy Father, Antony: written and sent to the monks in foreign parts by our Father among the Saints, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria. Athanasius [1] the bishop to the brethren in foreign parts.
I. Antony you must know was by descent an Egyptian: his parents were of good family and possessed considerable wealth [2a], and as they were Christians he also was reared in the same Faith. In infancy he was brought up with his parents, knowing nought else but them and his home. But when he was grown and arrived at boyhood, and was advancing in years, he could not endure to learn [2b] letters, not caring to associate with other boys; but all his desire was, as it is written of Jacob, to live a plain man at home [3]. With his parents he used to attend the Lord's House, and neither as a child was he idle nor when older did he despise them; but was both obedient to his father and mother and attentive to what was read, keeping in his heart what was profitable in what he heard. And though as a child brought up in moderate affluence, he did not trouble his parents for varied or
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luxurious fare, nor was this a source of pleasure to him; but was content simply with what he found nor sought anything further.
2. After the death of his father and mother he was left alone with one little sister: his age was about eighteen or twenty, and on him the care both of home and sister rested. Now it was not six months after the death of his parents, and going according to custom into the Lord's House, he communed with himself and reflected as he walked how the Apostles [4] left all and followed the Saviour; and how they in the Acts [5] sold their possessions and brought and laid them at the Apostles' feet for distribution to then eedy, and what and how great a hope was laid up for them in heaven. Pondering over these things he entered the church, and it happened the Gospel was being read, and he heard the Lord saying to the rich man [6], 'If thou wouldest be perfect, go and sell that thou hast and give to the poor; and come follow Me and thou shalt have treasure in heaven.' Antony, as though God had put him in mind of the Saints, and the passage had been read on his account, went out immediately from the church, and gave the possessions of his forefathers to the villagers--they were three hundred acres [7], productive and very fair --that they should be no more a clog upon himself and his sister [8]. And all the rest that was movable he sold, and having got together much money he gave it to the poor, reserving a little however for his sister's sake.
3. And again as he went into the church, hearing the Lord say in the Gospel [9], ' be not anxious for the morrow,' he could stay no longer, but went out and gave those things also to the poor. Having committed his sister to known and faithful virgins, and put her into a convent [10] to be brought up, he henceforth devoted himself outside his house to discipline [11], taking heed to himself and training himself with patience. For there were not yet so many monasteries [12] in Egypt, and no monk at all knew of the distant desert; but all who wished to give heed to themselves practised the discipline in solitude near their own village. Now there was then in the next village an old man who had lived the life of a hermit from his youth up. Antony, after he had seen this man, imitated him in piety. And at first he began to abide in places out side the village: then if he heard of a good man anywhere, like the prudent bee, he went forth and sought him, nor turned back to his own palace until he had seen him; and he returned, having got from the good man as it were supplies for his journey in the way of virtue. So dwelling there at first, he confirmed his purpose not to return to the abode of his fathers nor to the remembrance of his kinsfolk; but to keep all his desire and energy for perfecting his discipline. He worked, however. with his hands, having heard, 'he who is idle let him not eat [13],' and part he spent on bread and part he gave to the needy. And he was constant in prayer, knowing that a man ought to pray in secret unceasingly [14]. For he had given such heed to what was read that none of the things that were written fell from him to the ground, but he remembered all, and afterwards his memory served him for books.
4. Thus conducting himself, Antony was beloved by all. He subjected himself in sincerity to the good men whom he visited, and learned thoroughly where each surpassed him in zeal and discipline. He observed the graciousness of one; the unceasing prayer of another; he took knowledge of another's freedom from anger and another's loving-kindness; he gave heed to one as he watched, to another as he studied; one he admired for his endurance, another for his fasting and sleeping on the ground; the meekness of one and the long-suffering of another he watched with care, while he took note of the piety towards Christ and the mutual love which animated all. Thus filled, he returned to his own place of discipline, and henceforth would strive to unite the qualities of each, and was eager to show in himself the virtues of all. With others of the same age he had no rivalry; save this only, that he should not be second to them in higher things. And this he did so as to hurt the feelings of nobody, but made them rejoice over him. So all they of that village and the good men in whose intimacy he was, when they saw that he was a man of this sort, used to call him God-beloved. And some welcomed him as a son, others as a brother.
5. But the devil, who hates and envies what is good, could not endure to see such a resolution in a youth, but endeavoured to carry out against him what he had been wont to effect against others. First of all he tried to lead him away from the discipline, whispering to him the remembrance of
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his wealth, care for his sister, claims of kindred, love of money, love of glory, the various pleasures of the table and the other relaxations of life, and at last the difficulty of virtue and the labour of it; he suggested also the infirmity of the body and the length of the time. In a word he raised in his mind a great dust of debate, wishing to debar him from his settled purpose. But when the enemy saw himself to be too weak for Antony's determination, and that he rather was conquered by the other's firmness, overthrown by his great faith and falling through his constant prayers, then at length putting his trust in the weapons which are [15] 'in the navel of his belly' and boasting in them--for they are his first snare for the young--he attacked the young man, disturbing him by night and harassing him by day, so that even the onlookers saw the struggle which was going on between them. The one would suggest foul thoughts and the other counter them with prayers: the one fire him with lush the other, as one who seemed to blush, fortify his body with faith, prayers, and fasting. And the devil, unhappy wight, one night even took upon him the shape of a woman and imitated all her acts simply to beguile Antony. But he, his mind filled with Christ and the nobility inspired by Him, and considering the spirituality of the soul, quenched the coal of the other's deceit. Again the enemy suggested the ease of pleasure. But he like a man filled with rage and grief turned his thoughts to the threatened fire and the gnawing worm, and setting these in array against his adversary, passed through the temptation unscathed. All this was a source of shame to his foe. For he, deeming himself like God, was now mocked by a young man; and he who boasted himself against flesh and blood was being put to flight by a man in the flesh. For the Lord was working with Antony--the Lord who for our sake took flesh [16] and gave the body victory over the devil, so that all who truly fight can say [17], ' not I but the grace of God which was with me.'
6. At last when the dragon could not even thus overthrow Antony, but saw himself thrust out of his heart, gnashing his teeth as it is written, and as it were beside himself, he appeared to Antony like a black boy, taking a visible shape [17a] in accordance with the colour of his mind. And cringing to him, as it were, he plied him with thoughts no longer, for guileful as he was, he had been worsted, but at last spoke in human voice and said, 'Many I deceived, many I cast down; but now attacking thee and thy labours as I had many others, I proved weak.' When Antony asked, Who art thou who speakest thus with me ? he answered with a lamentable voice, 'I am the friend of whoredom, and have taken upon me incitements which lead to it against the young. I am called the spirit of lust. How many have I deceived who wished to live soberly, how many are the chaste whom by my incitements I have over-persuaded! I am he on account of whom also the prophet reproves those who have fallen, saying [17b], "Ye have been caused to err by the spirit of whoredom." For by me they have been tripped up. I am he who have so often troubled thee and have so often been overthrown by thee.' But Antony having given thanks to the Lord, with good courage said to him, ' Thou art very despicable then, for thou art black-hearted and weak as a child. Henceforth I shall have no trouble from thee [18], "for the Lord is my helper, and I shall look down on mine enemies."' Having heard this, the black one straightway fled, shuddering at the words and dreading any longer even to come near the man.
7. This was Antony's first struggle against the devil, or rather this victory was the Saviour's work in Antony [19], 'Who condemned sin in the flesh that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.' But neither did Antony, although the evil one had fallen, henceforth relax his care and despise him; nor did the enemy as though conquered tease to lay snares for him. For again he went round as a lion seeking some occasion against him. But Antony having learned from the Scriptures that the devices [20] of the devil are many, zealously continued the discipline, reckoning that though the devil had not been able to deceive his heart by bodily pleasure, he would endeavour to ensnare him by other means. For the demon loves sin. Wherefore more and more he repressed the body and kept it in subjection [1], lest haply having conquered on one side, he should be dragged down on the other. He therefore planned to accustom himself to a severer mode of life. And many marvelled, but he himself used to bear the labour easily; for the eagerness of soul, through the length of time it had abode in him, had wrought a good habit in him, so that taking but little initiation from others he shewed great zeal in this matter. He kept vigil to such an extent that he often continued the
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whole night without sleep; and this not once but often, to the marvel of other. He ate once a day, after sunset, sometimes once in two days, and often even in four. His food was bread and salt, his drink, water only. Of flesh and wine it is superfluous even to speak, since no such thing was found with the other earnest men. A rush mat served him to sleep upon, but for the most part he lay upon the bare ground. He would not anoint himself with oil, saying it behoved young men to be earnest in training and not to seek what would enervate the body; but they must accustom it to labour, mindful of the Apostle's words [2], ' when I am weak, then am I strong.' 'For,' said he, 'the fibre of the soul is then sound when the pleasures of the body are diminished.' And he had come to this truly wonderful conclusion, 'that progress in virtue, and retirement from the world for the sake of it, ought not to be measured by time, but by desire and fixity of purpos. He at least gave no thought to the past, but day by day, as if he were at the beginning of his discipline, applied greater pares for advancement, often repeating to himself the saying of Paul [3]: 'Forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before.' He was also mindful of the words spoken by the prophet Elias [4], 'the Lord liveth before whose presence I stand to-day.' For he observed that in saying 'to-day' the prophet did not compute the time that had gone by: but daily as though ever commencing he eagerly endeavoured to make himself fit to appear before God, being pure in heart and ever ready to submit to His counsel, and to Him alone. And he used to say to himself that from the life of the great Elias the hermit ought to see his own as in a mirror.
8. Thus tightening his hold upon himself, Antony departed to the tombs, which happened to be at a distance from the village; and having bid one of his acquaintances to bring him bread at intervals of many days, he entered one of the tombs, and the other having shut the door on him, he remained within alone. And when the enemy could not endure it. but was even fearful that in a short time Antony would fill the desert with the discipline, coming one night with a multitude of demons, he so cut him with stripes that he lay on the ground speechless from the excessive pain. For he affirmed that the torture had been so excessive that no blows inflicted by man could ever have caused him such torment. But by the Providence of God--for the Lord never overlooks them that hope in Him--the next day his acquaintance came bringing him the loaves. And having opened the door and seeing him lying on the ground as though dead, he lifted him up and carried him to the church in the village, and laid him upon the ground. And many of his kinsfolk and the villagers sat around Antony as round a corpse. But about midnight he came to himself and arose, and when be saw them all asleep and his comrade alone watching, he motioned with his head for him to approach, and asked him to carry him again to the tombs without waking anybody.
9. He was carried therefore by the man, and as he was wont, when the door was shut he was within alone. And he could not stand up on account of the blows, but he prayed as he lay. And after he had prayed, he said with a shout, Here am I, Antony; I flee not from your stripes, for even if you inflict more nothing shall separate rues from the love of Christ. And then he sang, 'though a camp be set against me, my heart shall not be afraid [6].' These were the thoughts and words of this ascetic. But the enemy, who hates good, marvelling that after the blows he dared to return, called together his hounds and burst forth, 'Ye see,' said he, 'that neither by the spirit of lust nor by blows did we stay the man, but that he braves us, let us attack him in another fashion.' But changes of form for evil are easy for the devil, so in the night they made such a din that the whole of that place seemed to be shaken by an earthquake, and the demons as if breaking the four walls of the dwelling seemed to enter through them, coming in the likeness of beasts and creeping things. And the place was on a sudden filled with the forms of lions, bears, leopards, bulls, serpents, asps, scorpions, and wolves, and each of them was moving according to his nature. The lion was roaring, wishing to attack, the bull seeming to toss with its horns, the serpent writhing but unable to approach, and the wolf as it rushed on was restrained; altogether the noises of the apparitions, with their angry ragings, were dreadful. But Antony, stricken and goaded by them, felt bodily pains severer still. He lay watching, however, with unshaken soul, groaning from bodily anguish; but his mind was clear, and as in mockery he said, 'If there had been any power in you, it would have sufficed had one of you come, but since the Lord hath made you weak you attempt to terrify me by numbers: and a proof of your weakness is that you take the shapes of brute beasts.' And again with boldness he said, 'If you are able, and have received power
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against me, delay not to attack; but if you are unable, why trouble me in vain ? For faith in our Lord is a seal and a wall of safety to us.' So after many attempts they gnashed their teeth upon him, because they were mocking themselves rather than him.
10. Nor was the Lord then forgetful of Antony's wrestling, but was at hand to help him. So looking up he saw the roof as it were opened, and a ray of light descending to him. The demons suddenly vanished, the pain of his body straightway ceased, and the building was again whole. But Antony feeling the help, and getting his breath again, and being freed from pain, besought the vision which had appeared to him, saying, 'Where wert thou ? Why didst thou not appear at the beginning to make my pains to cease?' And a voice came to him, 'Antony, I was here, but I waited to see thy fight; wherefore since thou hast endured, and hast not been worsted, I will ever be a succour to thee, and will make thy name known everywhere.' Having heard this, Antony arose and prayed, and received such strength that he perceived that he had more power in his body than formerly.And he was then about thirty-five years old.
11. And on the day following he went forth still more eagerly bent on the service of God and having fallen in with the old man he had met previously, he asked him to dwell with him in the desert. But when the other declined on account of his great age, and because as yet there was no such custom, Antony himself set off forthwith to the mountain. And yet again the enemy seeing his zeal and wishing to hinder it, east in his way what seemed to be a great silver dish. But Antony, seeing the guile of the Evil One, stood, and having looked on the dish, he put the devil in it to shame, saying, 'Whence comes a dish in the desert ? This road is not well-worn, nor is there here a trace of any wayfarer; it could not have fallen without being missed on account of its size; and he who had lost it having turned back, to seek it, would have found it, for it is a desert place. This is some wile of the devil. O thou Evil One, not with this shalt thou hinder my purpose; let it go with thee to destruction. [3]' And when Antony had said this it vanished like smoke from the face of fire.
12. Then again as he went on he saw what was this time not visionary, but real gold scattered in the way. But whether the devil showed it, or some better power to try the athlete and show the Evil One that Antony truly cared nought for money, neither he told nor do we know. But it is certain that that which appeared was gold. And Antony marvelled at the quantity, but passed it by as though he were going over fire; so he did not even turn, but hurried on at a run to lose sight of the place. More and more confirmed in his purpose, he hurried to the mountain, and having found a fort, so long deserted that it was full of creeping things, on the other side of the river; he crossed over to it and dwelt there. The reptiles, as though some one were chasing them, immediately left the place. But he built up the entrance completely, having stored up loaves for six months--this is a custom of the Thebans, and the loaves often remain fresh a whole year--and as he found water within, he descended as into a shrine, and abode within by himself, never going forth nor looking at any one who came. Thus he employed a long time training himself, and received loaves, let down from above, twice in the year.
13. But those of his acquaintances who came, since he did not permit them to enter, often used to spend days and nights outside, and heard as it were crowds within clamouring, dinning, sending forth piteous voices and crying, 'Go from what is ours. What dost thou even in the desert? Thou canst not abide our attack.' So at first those outside thought there were some men fighting with him, and that they had entered by ladders; but when stooping down they saw through a hole there was nobody, they were afraid, accounting them to be demons, and they called on Antony. Them he quickly heard, though he had not given a thought to the demons, and coming to the door he besought them to depart and not to be afraid, 'for thus,' said he, 'the demons make their seeming onslaughts against those who are cowardly. Sign yourselves therefore with the cross [4], and depart boldly, and let these make sport for themselves.' So they departed fortified with the sign of the Cross. But he remained in no wise harmed by the evil spirits, nor was he wearied with the contest, for there came to his aid visions from above, and the weakness of the foe relieved him of much trouble and armed him with greater zeal. For his acquaintances used often to come expecting to find him dead, and would hear him singing [5], ' Let God arise and let His enemies be scattered, let them also that hate Him flee before His face. As smoke vanisheth, let them vanish; as wax melteth before the face of fire, so let the sinners perish from the face of God ;' and again, 'All nations compassed me about, and in the name of the Lord I requited them [6].'
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14. And so for nearly twenty years he continued training himself in solitude, never going forth, and but seldom seen by any. After this when many were eager and wishful to imitate his discipline, and his acquaintances came and began to cast down and wrench off the door by force, Antony, as from a shrine, came forth initiated in the mysteries and filled with the Spirit of God. Then for the first time he was seen outside the fort by those who came to see him. And they, when they saw him, wondered at the sight, for he had the same habit of body as before, and was neither fat, like a man without exercise, nor lean from fasting and striving with the demons, but he was just the same as they had known him before his retirement, And again his soul was free from blemish, for it was neither contracted as if by grief, nor relaxed by pleasure, nor possessed by laughter or dejection, for he was not troubled when he beheld the crowd, nor overjoyed at being saluted by so many. But he was altogether even as being guided by reason, and abiding in a natural state. Through him the Lord healed the bodily ailments of many present, and cleansed others from evil spirits. And He gave grace to Antony in speaking, so that he consoled many that were sorrowful, and set those at variance at one, exhorting all to prefer the love of Christ before all that is in the world. And while he exhorted and advised them to remember the good things to come, and the loving-kindness of God towards us, 'Who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all [7],' he persuaded many to embrace the solitary life. And thus it happened in the end that cells arose even in the mountains, and the desert was colonised by monks, who came forth from their own people, and enrolled themselves for the citizenship in the heavens.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
Intro to Orthodoxy
Review:
Listen to Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s description of a memory from childhood, his encounter with ‘Grisha,’ a ‘holy fool,’
“The door opened and there stood a figure totally unknown to me. Into the room walked a man about fifty with a long pale pock-marked face, long gray hair and a scanty reddish beard...He wore a tattered garment, something between a peasant tunic and cassock; in his hand he carried a huge staff. As he entered the room he used the staff to strike the floor with all his might and then, wrinkling his brow and opening his mouth extremely wide, he burst into a terrible and unnatural laugh. He was blind in one eye, and the white iris of that eye darted about incessantly and impoarted to his face, already ill-favored, a still more repellent expression...His voice was rough and hoarse, his movements hasty and jerky, his speech devoid of sense and incoherent (he never used any pronouns)...He was the saintly fool and pilgrim Grisha...Where had he come from? Who were his parents? What had induced him to adopt the wandering life he led? No one knew. All I know is that from the age of fifteen he had been one of ‘God’s fools,’ who went barefoot in winter and summer, visited monasteries, gave little icons to those he took a fancy to, and uttered enigmatic sayings which some people accepted as prophecies.”
The Orthodox Evangelicals:
‘The phantom search for the perfect church.” This group of Campus Crusade evangelists, burned out ‘house church’ types, ventured to find out what the early church was like and where it ‘went wrong.’ They divided into subgroups to study three things: Worship, Church History and Doctrine. Their study eventually led them to accept the Orthodox Church as The Church that Christ founded. In 1990, 1000 Campus Crusade for Christ evangelicals were chrismated into the Antiochian Orthodox Church.
The Mainline Exodus
Why would group of Campus Crusaders feel a venture and journey like this was necessary?
I’m going to again remind you to suspend your notion of what it means to be ‘saved’ as we listen to who the Orthodox are and what they believe.
History
The history of Orthodoxy cannot be separated from the monasticism and the teachings of the desert that is below. Without a doubt, Orthodoxy is a faith that is formed and informed by the mystical experience of prayer. The teachings of the Church Fathers and the seven ecumenical councils are key to a the deep, experiential aspects of Orthodoxy. Still, there is no doubt that Orthodoxy has its history in politics, war, and the kingdom of man as well.
Few Western Christians understand that Christianity is an Eastern religion. It was founded in the middle East and traveled to Asia, Egypt and the Medditeranian, as well as to Western Europe. The major churches in the early centuries of the church existed in Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome. Later it flourished in the East, in the capital city of Constantinople.
When Constantine became a Christian, he moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople, now known as Istanbul. This move was to create one of the most powerful Christian empires in the history of our Faith. One writer says this:
As Kingdoms go, there are those that rise above the rest, usually from the sword. But for sheer idealism, the Kingdom of Byzantium had no equal.. few societies saw themselves as the icon of the Kingdom of Heaven and Rule of God like Byzantium. The Church’s Patriarch consecrated the Emperor with great pageantry in the capital city of Constantinople, marking the Kingdom of Heaven coexisting with the Kingdom of Earth.
The pinnacle of the Orthodox Church’s history was worship in the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
In the 10 century, Vladimir the Prince of Kiev sent envoys to various Christian centers to study their form of worship. When they experienced the worship in Hagia Sophia they sent this word back
We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendor or beauty anywhere on earth. We cannot describe it to you; we only know that God dwells there among men and that their Service surpasses the worship of all other places..."
How did this Church begin and come together?
The Seven Ecumenical Councils & role of Tradition
When Constantine moved to Constantinople in 324, he saw the need to bring clarity to the doctrine and teachings of Christianity. This was in part due to the views of Arius, a priest from Alexandria who was raising a firestorm. Arius taught that Jesus was the pinnacle of God’s creation but that Jesus was not to be worshiped as God himself. Only God was worthy of worship. Constantine called for a church wide council in the city of Nicea. In 325, the first ecumenical council took place. The divinity of Christ was upheld, in part due to the influence of Athanasius, who proclaimed Jesus as ‘of the same essence’ or ‘substance’ of the Father. The second ecumenical council, which met in 381 in Constantinople, dealt with the role of the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the Trinity was formalized (not invented of course, formalizing the doctrine of the Trinity was simply to proclaim and make clear what Christians had always believed). The results of this council were highly influenced by the so-called ‘Cappadocian Fathers’–Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. The Nicene Creed that we are familiar with today was put to paper by these two councils. Again, this Creed was an expansion of the already circulated and recited baptismal Creed that we know of as the Apostles Creed, which came from the second century.
Interestingly, the first ecumenical council declared the four major sees (or bishops) as having this order of primacy: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. The second council added Constantinople to the list, after Rome. The Eastern Orthodox Church has always acknowledged the bishop of Rome as ‘first among equals.’ What caused problems for the two was that Rome concentrated on the ‘first’ while the East concentrated on the ‘among equals.’
The next 4 ecumenical councils concentrated further on the nature of Christ and proclaimed Mary as the Theotokos and Christ as both fully God and fully man, one person in two natures combatting the errors Nestorius, the Monophosytes and the Monothelites.
The final Council dealt with the role of Icons in Christian worship, we’ll talk about them in a moment.
The Councils did not come off without a hitch or without schism. They created what are known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches of the East. Theses include the Egyptian and other African so-called Monophosyte Coptic Churches, the so-called Nestroian Syrian Churches, the Armenian Church, and others.
History and further discussion among these Oriental Churches and the Orthodox Churches have produced fruitful dialogue that may someday bring healing to these early schisms. Key to the schism was the inability of both sides to understand what the other was saying. The Oriental Churches are Trinitarian, have virtually the same liturgy as the Orthodox, but the fact that many of the Oriental Churches spoke Aramaic and not Greek, led to misunderstanding of key doctrines. For example, the term homoousios, used by Athanasius and the Nicene Creed meaning ‘of one substance’ has no translation in Aramaic, so the Copts and others had no real understanding of what was the term was trying to convey.
Moving on in the history of Orthodoxy, you have to understand the Byzantine Empire was a bastion of Orthodoxy for over 1000 years. From it Orthodoxy thrived and its worship live was solidified. From it also Orthodoxy expanded into Russia. I mentioned before that the Slavs came to Christianity in 988 and Russia was an Orthodox nation until the Bolshveik revolution in 1917.
But what happened between the East and the West? Well, there were a few problems.
1. The Filioque. In 5th century Toledo Spain, a council added a clause to the Creed. The Creed stated that the Holy Spirit proceeds ‘from the Father.’ The filioque is a phrase that means, ‘and the Son,’ hence, the Western Creed would say that the Holy Spirit proceeds ‘from the Father and the Son.’ This was a serious problem for the Orthodox. They felt that the nature of the Trinity was being compromised. Key for the Orthodox understanding of the Trinity is that the Son and the Spirit are ‘subservient’ to the Father, like a triangle. This does not make them inferior to the Father or less than God, it just means that there is a heirarchy in the Trinity. The Son is ‘eternally begotton’ from the Father and the Spirit ‘eternally proceeds’ from the Father. The Father is the ‘source’ of the Trinity. The filioque, from the Orthodox point of view actually makes the Spirit subservient to the Father and the Son, it is as if the Spirit has become a kind of ‘grandchild.’ It makes the ‘source’ of the Holy Spirit both the Father and the Son. Now what I believe the council of Toledo meant by ‘proceeds from’ was ‘sent by.’ We see in Scripture that Christ ‘sends’ the Holy Spirit at various occasions. But ‘proceeds’ is a technical term in the East that does not mean ‘sent from.’ Again, Christians in the West spoke Latin and Christians in the East spoke Greek, making the discussion even more challenging.
2. The papal claims. The second rift between Orhodoxy and Rome was the claim of the pope of Rome to be the jurisdictional head of the entire Church, not first among equals, but the supreme head. Not primacy, but supremacy. The Orthodox looked as the great sees (Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem) as a relationship of equality and collegiality, with Rome being the most honored. But Rome insisted on supremacy, which it has to this day.
The Orthodox churches and Rome were not able to come to terms with these divisions and in 1054, a papal bull from Rome was issued at the altar of Hagia Sophia and a mutual anathema was returned by the patriarch of Constantinople. To make matters worse, in the 13th century, Crusaders sacked Constantinople and desecrated the altar of Hagia Sophia. To this day this is still a bitter event.
As Islam made its rapid descent among Christian lands, there was a brief reunion in the 15th century called the council of Florence, in which the East accepted the supremacy of the pope and the West denounced the filioque. The council was called because the Emperor in Constantinople was making a final desperation plea for military help against Islam. The two churches put their differences aside to attempt to defeat their common enemy. But by the middle of the 15th century, the Sultan sacked Constantinople, the Emperor Constantine XI was beheaded, and the Byzantine Empire was no more. The promise of Crusader assistance never came.
With both Romes being defeated, Moscow became the seat of Eastern Christendom–even the king was called Czar, or Ceasar. For almost 500 years after Constantinople was destroyed, the Church of Russia thrived as the seat of Orthodoxy. But Communism destroyed the last bastion of Byzantium.
Though this is true, Orthodoxy continues to survive as it has over the centuries, if not in a diaspora kind of state. It still represents a growing movement and still retains the beauty and magnificence that it has always had. This is a brief overview of the history of the Eastern Church.
But you are budding theologians so let’s move on to the theology of the Eastern Church.
Theology & Spirituality
Gregory of Nazianzus, “a theologian is one who prays, and only one who prays is a theologian.” This is so important when talking about Orthodoxy. For the Orthodox, religion is not dogma, religion is life. Still, there is a content to the Faith.
Key to Orthodoxy is their emphasis on Tradition.
Tradition:
Georgy Florovsky says:
“The true tradition is only the tradition of truth, traditio veritatis. This tradition, according of St. Irenaeus, is grounded in, and secured by, that charisma veritatis certum [secure charisma of truth], which has been "deposited" in the Church from the very beginning and has been preserved by the uninterrupted succession of episcopal ministry. "Tradition" in the Church is not a continuity of human memory, or a permanence of rites and habits. It is a living tradition — depositum juvenescens, in the phrase of St. Irenaeus. Accordingly, it cannot be counted inter mortuas regulas [among dead rules]. Ultimately, tradition is a continuity of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, a continuity of Divine guidance and illumination. The Church is not bound by the "letter." Rather, she is constantly moved forth by the "Spirit." The same Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, which "spake through the Prophets," which guided the Apostles, is still continuously guiding the Church into the fuller comprehension and understanding of the Divine truth, from glory to glory.
"Following the Holy Fathers"… This is not a reference to some abstract tradition, in formulas and propositions. It is primarily an appeal to holy witnesses. Indeed, we appeal to the Apostles, and not just to an abstract "Apostolicity." In the similar manner do we refer to the Fathers. The witness of the Fathers belongs, intrinsically and integrally, to the very structure of Orthodox belief. The Church is equally committed to the kerygma of the Apostles and to the dogma of the Fathers. We may quote at this point an admirable ancient hymn (probably, from the pen of St. Romanus the Melode). "Preserving the kerygma of the Apostles and the dogmas of the Fathers, the Church has sealed the one faith and wearing the tunic of truth she shapes rightly the brocade of heavenly theology and praises the great mystery of piety." [2]
For the Orthodox, you can’t have the Faith without the deposit of Tradition, which is not a dead letter, but a living organism that has nurtured and nourished the church over the centuries. What about the Bible? You might ask. For the Orthodox, Holy Scripture is the pinnacle of Tradition. But the Bible cannot be separated from Tradition or from the worship and dogmas of the Church. The Bible is not in opposition to Tradition, but can only be properly understood through the grid of the ancient Church.
Orthodoxy means ‘right doctrine’ but it also means ‘right glory,’ or ‘right worship.’ You cannot understand Orthodoxy without understanding the importance of the Divine Liturgy. The chief Sacrament of the Orthodox Church, like other liturgical traditions is Holy Eucharist. From the earliest centuries of the Church, the primary act of worship was the celebration of Holy Eucharist. In the Eastern Tradition, they do not use the language of ‘transubstatation’ but rather Christ is present in a Real, but mysterious way:
From the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom:
I believe and confess, Lord, that you are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. I also believe that this is truly your pure Body and that this is truly your precious Blood. Therefore, I pray to You, have mercy upon me, and forgive my transgressions, voluntary and involuntary, in word and deed, known and unknown. And make me worthy without condemnation to partake of your pure Mysteries for the forgiveness of sins and for life eternal. Amen.
How shall I, who am unworthy, enter into the splendor of your saints? If I dare to enter into the bridal chamber, my clothing will accuse me, since it is not a wedding garment; and being bound up, I shall be cast out by the angels. In Your love, Lord, cleanse my soul and save me.
Loving Master, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, let not these Holy Gifts be to my condemnation because of my unworthiness, but for the cleansing and sanctification of soul and body and the pledge of future life and kingdom. It is good for me to cling to God and to place in Him the hope of my salvation.
Receive me today, Son of God, as a partaker of Your mystical Supper. I will not reveal Your mystery to Your adversaries, nor will I give You a kiss as did Judas. But as the thief I confess to You: Lord, remember me in Your kingdom.
Other Sacraments:
Baptism
Chrismation
Unction
Confession
Ordination & Apostolic succession
Icons: The last Ecumenical Council, which met in 787 in Nicea, proclaimed the use of holy Icons in worship, a practice that was common in the East, but condemned by some. The ‘iconoclastic’ controversy lasted for some time, and many icons were smashed because of the fear that the use of icons in worship was idolatrous. St. John of Damascus, an iconodule, proclaimed, ‘Of old God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was not depicted at all. But now that God has appeared in the flesh and lived among humans, I make an image [or icon] of the God who can be seen. I do not worship matter but I worship the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation. I will not cease from worshiping the matter which my salvation has been affected.’
The Orthodox do not worship icons, but they do venerate them, seeing them as ‘windows to heaven.’ Remember that for centuries the faith was passed on by visuals, stories and liturgies. The printing press was not invented until the 16th century and many folks could not read. Icons were and are a way of passing on the faith in a way that engages the senses and in many ways is a picture of the way Christ redeemed matter by becoming matter.
For the Orthodox, Icons are an essential reminder of the Incarnation and of the saints who are being glorified.
There is something about Mary...
Deification:
Perhaps one of the most misunderstood dogma of Orthodoxy is the doctrine of deification or theosis. ‘Sounds New Age or Mormon’ someone might say.
St. Athanasius said, “Christ became man in order to divinize is in Himself” and “Christ became man in order that we might be divinized.” Others translate his words by saying ‘God became man so that man might become god.’
In pantheism, salvation occurs when humans become one with the ‘divine.’ In actuality, pantheism is a view that we all become part of the divine, whatever ‘the divine’ might be. We are saved when we are joined to all things.
The Orthodox are not pantheists, but are what we might call Panentheists. What does that mean? It means that God is in all things, but that he also is above all things. That means that God’s fingerprints or ‘energies’ are everywhere, but that he still remains above all.
St. Basil said that the essence of God is absolutely inaccesible to man. Florovsky says,
“God moves toward man and embraces him by His own ‘grace’ and action, without leaving that light unapproachable in which He eternally abides.”
But the Orthodox view of salvation involves followers of Christ becoming just what Christ is–that is his character, his own resurrected nature. For the Orthodox, every aspect of Christ’s Incarnation, his birth, his life, his teaching, his death and his resurrection are involved in our salvation. While in the West our tendency is to concentrate on Christ’s ‘payment’ for sin on the cross, in the East what is at issue is the healing of the human person. St. Maximos the Confessor said, ‘That which is not assumed is not healed.’ In other words, Christ would have to endure every aspect of human existence, birth, life death, in order to heal us, or raise us with himself.
In the West, we concentrate on our original guilt, and in the East the emphasis is on original illness. In other words, in the West we are guilty in the womb and in the East we are born into a toxic ‘environment.’ In the West, our need is to be made righteous, to assuage our guilt, in the East, our need is to be healed and rehabilitated.
Romans 3:23 says what? ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ What do Western Christians look at? ‘All have sinned and fall short.’ We need forgiveness and rescue, we need to be made right. What do Eastern Christians look at? ‘The glory of God.’ In other words, how does Christ restore in us God’s image? How are we made like him.
A key illustration is Luther’s example of Christ’s work. For Luther, human nature is a pile of dung. The work of Christ is like a snowfall that covers that dung. Then when the Father looks at us, he sees the fresh, white snow, being the work of Christ, that covers our dung-like nature.
In contrast, the patristic mind, the Eastern Christian mind, sees our nature as a mirror that has been marred or dirtied by sin. The work of Christ, then, slowly and through our efforts as well, cleans the mirror until the image of God is once again reflected. You see the contrast.
At this time, I’d like to open up our discussion to your questions.
Why not convert?
• Which Orthodox jurisdiction? The scandal of Orthodox division.
• Ethnic challenges: ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding.’
• The freedom of Anglicanism.
• The treasure of the historic Church is a treasure for all Christians. (Apostolic Treasure Chest)
Authors to be familiar with:
Kallistos Ware
Vladimir Lossky
Alexander Schmemann
George Florovskye
Kyriacos Markides
Key Primary Texts:
Athanasius De Incarnation
Gregory of Nazianzus Theological Orations
John Cassian Conferences
John Climacus The Ladder of Divine Ascent
The Philokalia in 4 volumes
See the Series called Classics in Western Spirituality by Paulist Press which includes the writings of Symeon the New Theologian, Psuedo-Dionysius, Gregory Palamas and many others.
Listen to Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy’s description of a memory from childhood, his encounter with ‘Grisha,’ a ‘holy fool,’
“The door opened and there stood a figure totally unknown to me. Into the room walked a man about fifty with a long pale pock-marked face, long gray hair and a scanty reddish beard...He wore a tattered garment, something between a peasant tunic and cassock; in his hand he carried a huge staff. As he entered the room he used the staff to strike the floor with all his might and then, wrinkling his brow and opening his mouth extremely wide, he burst into a terrible and unnatural laugh. He was blind in one eye, and the white iris of that eye darted about incessantly and impoarted to his face, already ill-favored, a still more repellent expression...His voice was rough and hoarse, his movements hasty and jerky, his speech devoid of sense and incoherent (he never used any pronouns)...He was the saintly fool and pilgrim Grisha...Where had he come from? Who were his parents? What had induced him to adopt the wandering life he led? No one knew. All I know is that from the age of fifteen he had been one of ‘God’s fools,’ who went barefoot in winter and summer, visited monasteries, gave little icons to those he took a fancy to, and uttered enigmatic sayings which some people accepted as prophecies.”
The Orthodox Evangelicals:
‘The phantom search for the perfect church.” This group of Campus Crusade evangelists, burned out ‘house church’ types, ventured to find out what the early church was like and where it ‘went wrong.’ They divided into subgroups to study three things: Worship, Church History and Doctrine. Their study eventually led them to accept the Orthodox Church as The Church that Christ founded. In 1990, 1000 Campus Crusade for Christ evangelicals were chrismated into the Antiochian Orthodox Church.
The Mainline Exodus
Why would group of Campus Crusaders feel a venture and journey like this was necessary?
I’m going to again remind you to suspend your notion of what it means to be ‘saved’ as we listen to who the Orthodox are and what they believe.
History
The history of Orthodoxy cannot be separated from the monasticism and the teachings of the desert that is below. Without a doubt, Orthodoxy is a faith that is formed and informed by the mystical experience of prayer. The teachings of the Church Fathers and the seven ecumenical councils are key to a the deep, experiential aspects of Orthodoxy. Still, there is no doubt that Orthodoxy has its history in politics, war, and the kingdom of man as well.
Few Western Christians understand that Christianity is an Eastern religion. It was founded in the middle East and traveled to Asia, Egypt and the Medditeranian, as well as to Western Europe. The major churches in the early centuries of the church existed in Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome. Later it flourished in the East, in the capital city of Constantinople.
When Constantine became a Christian, he moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople, now known as Istanbul. This move was to create one of the most powerful Christian empires in the history of our Faith. One writer says this:
As Kingdoms go, there are those that rise above the rest, usually from the sword. But for sheer idealism, the Kingdom of Byzantium had no equal.. few societies saw themselves as the icon of the Kingdom of Heaven and Rule of God like Byzantium. The Church’s Patriarch consecrated the Emperor with great pageantry in the capital city of Constantinople, marking the Kingdom of Heaven coexisting with the Kingdom of Earth.
The pinnacle of the Orthodox Church’s history was worship in the Church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople.
In the 10 century, Vladimir the Prince of Kiev sent envoys to various Christian centers to study their form of worship. When they experienced the worship in Hagia Sophia they sent this word back
We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth, for surely there is no such splendor or beauty anywhere on earth. We cannot describe it to you; we only know that God dwells there among men and that their Service surpasses the worship of all other places..."
How did this Church begin and come together?
The Seven Ecumenical Councils & role of Tradition
When Constantine moved to Constantinople in 324, he saw the need to bring clarity to the doctrine and teachings of Christianity. This was in part due to the views of Arius, a priest from Alexandria who was raising a firestorm. Arius taught that Jesus was the pinnacle of God’s creation but that Jesus was not to be worshiped as God himself. Only God was worthy of worship. Constantine called for a church wide council in the city of Nicea. In 325, the first ecumenical council took place. The divinity of Christ was upheld, in part due to the influence of Athanasius, who proclaimed Jesus as ‘of the same essence’ or ‘substance’ of the Father. The second ecumenical council, which met in 381 in Constantinople, dealt with the role of the Holy Spirit and the doctrine of the Trinity was formalized (not invented of course, formalizing the doctrine of the Trinity was simply to proclaim and make clear what Christians had always believed). The results of this council were highly influenced by the so-called ‘Cappadocian Fathers’–Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa. The Nicene Creed that we are familiar with today was put to paper by these two councils. Again, this Creed was an expansion of the already circulated and recited baptismal Creed that we know of as the Apostles Creed, which came from the second century.
Interestingly, the first ecumenical council declared the four major sees (or bishops) as having this order of primacy: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. The second council added Constantinople to the list, after Rome. The Eastern Orthodox Church has always acknowledged the bishop of Rome as ‘first among equals.’ What caused problems for the two was that Rome concentrated on the ‘first’ while the East concentrated on the ‘among equals.’
The next 4 ecumenical councils concentrated further on the nature of Christ and proclaimed Mary as the Theotokos and Christ as both fully God and fully man, one person in two natures combatting the errors Nestorius, the Monophosytes and the Monothelites.
The final Council dealt with the role of Icons in Christian worship, we’ll talk about them in a moment.
The Councils did not come off without a hitch or without schism. They created what are known as the Oriental Orthodox Churches of the East. Theses include the Egyptian and other African so-called Monophosyte Coptic Churches, the so-called Nestroian Syrian Churches, the Armenian Church, and others.
History and further discussion among these Oriental Churches and the Orthodox Churches have produced fruitful dialogue that may someday bring healing to these early schisms. Key to the schism was the inability of both sides to understand what the other was saying. The Oriental Churches are Trinitarian, have virtually the same liturgy as the Orthodox, but the fact that many of the Oriental Churches spoke Aramaic and not Greek, led to misunderstanding of key doctrines. For example, the term homoousios, used by Athanasius and the Nicene Creed meaning ‘of one substance’ has no translation in Aramaic, so the Copts and others had no real understanding of what was the term was trying to convey.
Moving on in the history of Orthodoxy, you have to understand the Byzantine Empire was a bastion of Orthodoxy for over 1000 years. From it Orthodoxy thrived and its worship live was solidified. From it also Orthodoxy expanded into Russia. I mentioned before that the Slavs came to Christianity in 988 and Russia was an Orthodox nation until the Bolshveik revolution in 1917.
But what happened between the East and the West? Well, there were a few problems.
1. The Filioque. In 5th century Toledo Spain, a council added a clause to the Creed. The Creed stated that the Holy Spirit proceeds ‘from the Father.’ The filioque is a phrase that means, ‘and the Son,’ hence, the Western Creed would say that the Holy Spirit proceeds ‘from the Father and the Son.’ This was a serious problem for the Orthodox. They felt that the nature of the Trinity was being compromised. Key for the Orthodox understanding of the Trinity is that the Son and the Spirit are ‘subservient’ to the Father, like a triangle. This does not make them inferior to the Father or less than God, it just means that there is a heirarchy in the Trinity. The Son is ‘eternally begotton’ from the Father and the Spirit ‘eternally proceeds’ from the Father. The Father is the ‘source’ of the Trinity. The filioque, from the Orthodox point of view actually makes the Spirit subservient to the Father and the Son, it is as if the Spirit has become a kind of ‘grandchild.’ It makes the ‘source’ of the Holy Spirit both the Father and the Son. Now what I believe the council of Toledo meant by ‘proceeds from’ was ‘sent by.’ We see in Scripture that Christ ‘sends’ the Holy Spirit at various occasions. But ‘proceeds’ is a technical term in the East that does not mean ‘sent from.’ Again, Christians in the West spoke Latin and Christians in the East spoke Greek, making the discussion even more challenging.
2. The papal claims. The second rift between Orhodoxy and Rome was the claim of the pope of Rome to be the jurisdictional head of the entire Church, not first among equals, but the supreme head. Not primacy, but supremacy. The Orthodox looked as the great sees (Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem) as a relationship of equality and collegiality, with Rome being the most honored. But Rome insisted on supremacy, which it has to this day.
The Orthodox churches and Rome were not able to come to terms with these divisions and in 1054, a papal bull from Rome was issued at the altar of Hagia Sophia and a mutual anathema was returned by the patriarch of Constantinople. To make matters worse, in the 13th century, Crusaders sacked Constantinople and desecrated the altar of Hagia Sophia. To this day this is still a bitter event.
As Islam made its rapid descent among Christian lands, there was a brief reunion in the 15th century called the council of Florence, in which the East accepted the supremacy of the pope and the West denounced the filioque. The council was called because the Emperor in Constantinople was making a final desperation plea for military help against Islam. The two churches put their differences aside to attempt to defeat their common enemy. But by the middle of the 15th century, the Sultan sacked Constantinople, the Emperor Constantine XI was beheaded, and the Byzantine Empire was no more. The promise of Crusader assistance never came.
With both Romes being defeated, Moscow became the seat of Eastern Christendom–even the king was called Czar, or Ceasar. For almost 500 years after Constantinople was destroyed, the Church of Russia thrived as the seat of Orthodoxy. But Communism destroyed the last bastion of Byzantium.
Though this is true, Orthodoxy continues to survive as it has over the centuries, if not in a diaspora kind of state. It still represents a growing movement and still retains the beauty and magnificence that it has always had. This is a brief overview of the history of the Eastern Church.
But you are budding theologians so let’s move on to the theology of the Eastern Church.
Theology & Spirituality
Gregory of Nazianzus, “a theologian is one who prays, and only one who prays is a theologian.” This is so important when talking about Orthodoxy. For the Orthodox, religion is not dogma, religion is life. Still, there is a content to the Faith.
Key to Orthodoxy is their emphasis on Tradition.
Tradition:
Georgy Florovsky says:
“The true tradition is only the tradition of truth, traditio veritatis. This tradition, according of St. Irenaeus, is grounded in, and secured by, that charisma veritatis certum [secure charisma of truth], which has been "deposited" in the Church from the very beginning and has been preserved by the uninterrupted succession of episcopal ministry. "Tradition" in the Church is not a continuity of human memory, or a permanence of rites and habits. It is a living tradition — depositum juvenescens, in the phrase of St. Irenaeus. Accordingly, it cannot be counted inter mortuas regulas [among dead rules]. Ultimately, tradition is a continuity of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church, a continuity of Divine guidance and illumination. The Church is not bound by the "letter." Rather, she is constantly moved forth by the "Spirit." The same Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, which "spake through the Prophets," which guided the Apostles, is still continuously guiding the Church into the fuller comprehension and understanding of the Divine truth, from glory to glory.
"Following the Holy Fathers"… This is not a reference to some abstract tradition, in formulas and propositions. It is primarily an appeal to holy witnesses. Indeed, we appeal to the Apostles, and not just to an abstract "Apostolicity." In the similar manner do we refer to the Fathers. The witness of the Fathers belongs, intrinsically and integrally, to the very structure of Orthodox belief. The Church is equally committed to the kerygma of the Apostles and to the dogma of the Fathers. We may quote at this point an admirable ancient hymn (probably, from the pen of St. Romanus the Melode). "Preserving the kerygma of the Apostles and the dogmas of the Fathers, the Church has sealed the one faith and wearing the tunic of truth she shapes rightly the brocade of heavenly theology and praises the great mystery of piety." [2]
For the Orthodox, you can’t have the Faith without the deposit of Tradition, which is not a dead letter, but a living organism that has nurtured and nourished the church over the centuries. What about the Bible? You might ask. For the Orthodox, Holy Scripture is the pinnacle of Tradition. But the Bible cannot be separated from Tradition or from the worship and dogmas of the Church. The Bible is not in opposition to Tradition, but can only be properly understood through the grid of the ancient Church.
Orthodoxy means ‘right doctrine’ but it also means ‘right glory,’ or ‘right worship.’ You cannot understand Orthodoxy without understanding the importance of the Divine Liturgy. The chief Sacrament of the Orthodox Church, like other liturgical traditions is Holy Eucharist. From the earliest centuries of the Church, the primary act of worship was the celebration of Holy Eucharist. In the Eastern Tradition, they do not use the language of ‘transubstatation’ but rather Christ is present in a Real, but mysterious way:
From the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom:
I believe and confess, Lord, that you are truly the Christ, the Son of the living God, who came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. I also believe that this is truly your pure Body and that this is truly your precious Blood. Therefore, I pray to You, have mercy upon me, and forgive my transgressions, voluntary and involuntary, in word and deed, known and unknown. And make me worthy without condemnation to partake of your pure Mysteries for the forgiveness of sins and for life eternal. Amen.
How shall I, who am unworthy, enter into the splendor of your saints? If I dare to enter into the bridal chamber, my clothing will accuse me, since it is not a wedding garment; and being bound up, I shall be cast out by the angels. In Your love, Lord, cleanse my soul and save me.
Loving Master, Lord Jesus Christ, my God, let not these Holy Gifts be to my condemnation because of my unworthiness, but for the cleansing and sanctification of soul and body and the pledge of future life and kingdom. It is good for me to cling to God and to place in Him the hope of my salvation.
Receive me today, Son of God, as a partaker of Your mystical Supper. I will not reveal Your mystery to Your adversaries, nor will I give You a kiss as did Judas. But as the thief I confess to You: Lord, remember me in Your kingdom.
Other Sacraments:
Baptism
Chrismation
Unction
Confession
Ordination & Apostolic succession
Icons: The last Ecumenical Council, which met in 787 in Nicea, proclaimed the use of holy Icons in worship, a practice that was common in the East, but condemned by some. The ‘iconoclastic’ controversy lasted for some time, and many icons were smashed because of the fear that the use of icons in worship was idolatrous. St. John of Damascus, an iconodule, proclaimed, ‘Of old God the incorporeal and uncircumscribed was not depicted at all. But now that God has appeared in the flesh and lived among humans, I make an image [or icon] of the God who can be seen. I do not worship matter but I worship the Creator of matter, who for my sake became material and deigned to dwell in matter, who through matter effected my salvation. I will not cease from worshiping the matter which my salvation has been affected.’
The Orthodox do not worship icons, but they do venerate them, seeing them as ‘windows to heaven.’ Remember that for centuries the faith was passed on by visuals, stories and liturgies. The printing press was not invented until the 16th century and many folks could not read. Icons were and are a way of passing on the faith in a way that engages the senses and in many ways is a picture of the way Christ redeemed matter by becoming matter.
For the Orthodox, Icons are an essential reminder of the Incarnation and of the saints who are being glorified.
There is something about Mary...
Deification:
Perhaps one of the most misunderstood dogma of Orthodoxy is the doctrine of deification or theosis. ‘Sounds New Age or Mormon’ someone might say.
St. Athanasius said, “Christ became man in order to divinize is in Himself” and “Christ became man in order that we might be divinized.” Others translate his words by saying ‘God became man so that man might become god.’
In pantheism, salvation occurs when humans become one with the ‘divine.’ In actuality, pantheism is a view that we all become part of the divine, whatever ‘the divine’ might be. We are saved when we are joined to all things.
The Orthodox are not pantheists, but are what we might call Panentheists. What does that mean? It means that God is in all things, but that he also is above all things. That means that God’s fingerprints or ‘energies’ are everywhere, but that he still remains above all.
St. Basil said that the essence of God is absolutely inaccesible to man. Florovsky says,
“God moves toward man and embraces him by His own ‘grace’ and action, without leaving that light unapproachable in which He eternally abides.”
But the Orthodox view of salvation involves followers of Christ becoming just what Christ is–that is his character, his own resurrected nature. For the Orthodox, every aspect of Christ’s Incarnation, his birth, his life, his teaching, his death and his resurrection are involved in our salvation. While in the West our tendency is to concentrate on Christ’s ‘payment’ for sin on the cross, in the East what is at issue is the healing of the human person. St. Maximos the Confessor said, ‘That which is not assumed is not healed.’ In other words, Christ would have to endure every aspect of human existence, birth, life death, in order to heal us, or raise us with himself.
In the West, we concentrate on our original guilt, and in the East the emphasis is on original illness. In other words, in the West we are guilty in the womb and in the East we are born into a toxic ‘environment.’ In the West, our need is to be made righteous, to assuage our guilt, in the East, our need is to be healed and rehabilitated.
Romans 3:23 says what? ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ What do Western Christians look at? ‘All have sinned and fall short.’ We need forgiveness and rescue, we need to be made right. What do Eastern Christians look at? ‘The glory of God.’ In other words, how does Christ restore in us God’s image? How are we made like him.
A key illustration is Luther’s example of Christ’s work. For Luther, human nature is a pile of dung. The work of Christ is like a snowfall that covers that dung. Then when the Father looks at us, he sees the fresh, white snow, being the work of Christ, that covers our dung-like nature.
In contrast, the patristic mind, the Eastern Christian mind, sees our nature as a mirror that has been marred or dirtied by sin. The work of Christ, then, slowly and through our efforts as well, cleans the mirror until the image of God is once again reflected. You see the contrast.
At this time, I’d like to open up our discussion to your questions.
Why not convert?
• Which Orthodox jurisdiction? The scandal of Orthodox division.
• Ethnic challenges: ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding.’
• The freedom of Anglicanism.
• The treasure of the historic Church is a treasure for all Christians. (Apostolic Treasure Chest)
Authors to be familiar with:
Kallistos Ware
Vladimir Lossky
Alexander Schmemann
George Florovskye
Kyriacos Markides
Key Primary Texts:
Athanasius De Incarnation
Gregory of Nazianzus Theological Orations
John Cassian Conferences
John Climacus The Ladder of Divine Ascent
The Philokalia in 4 volumes
See the Series called Classics in Western Spirituality by Paulist Press which includes the writings of Symeon the New Theologian, Psuedo-Dionysius, Gregory Palamas and many others.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Learning the Eastern Mind: the Fathers and Mothers
A Life Apart:
Fathers and Mothers of the Desert
“It is a picture familiar enough in the Middle Ages; the three parts of society, those who fight, those who labour and those who pray, all working in their different ways for the life of the kingdom. Prayer was a great action to be fulfilled in the body politic; the monks were like trees, purifying the atmosphere by their presence” (The Lives of the Desert Fathers, 12).
“God is the life of all free beings. He is the salvation of all, of believers or unbelievers, of the just or the unjust, of the pious or the impious, of those freed from passions or those caught up in them, of monks or those living in the world, of the educated or the illiterate, of the healthy or the sick, of the young or of the very old. He is like the outpouring of the light, the glimpses of the sun, or the changes of the weather, which are the same for everyone without exception” Sr. Benedicta Ward.
When I was a kid, like many in my generation, I was a Star Wars geek. I confess I was one of the ones who waited in line opening night to see Revenge of the Sith in May of '05. As I kid, I rememeber being fascinated by the Jedi. Here were heroes who could move things with a swoop of the hand and crush tracheas with their minds. Here were what we might call ‘spiritual masters’ of a science fiction sort.
Looking around at the religious traditions of the world, I found many a spiritual master. There are the Sufis of the Muslim tradition and monks in Buddhism and Jainism. There are even spiritual masters who talk of the mystical reading of Torah and Talmud in the Jewish Traditions.
Here I discovered were the mystics of the world. Those who levitated and did the things that Jedi do.
I wonder, I thought, is there such a thing as a spiritual master in Christianity? Do we have a history of mystics, ascetics, and spiritual athletes who embody the desire of Jesus to ‘find a solitary place’ by himself? Are there those who walk in the power and spirit of Elijah and John the Baptist? Surely the deserts that produced Abraham, Jacob, Moses, Elijah and the prophets, John the Baptist and the apostle Paul, also had something to say to the spiritual descendants of these mighty people of faith and prayer?
Well, the answer is ‘yes.’ The desert formed names that you may or may not be familiar with. Antony the Great, St. Basil. St. Macrina, St. Mary of Egypt. St. Athanasius, St. Isaac the Syrian, and so many others whose names only God knows.
The first thing I want you to do as we undertake this study is to suspend your concept of justification and salvation. Not that it is not important, but these Christians of the desert have no notion of the forensic or juridical idea of salvation that we do. In fact, the big questions in period of the Reformation: questions about justification, propitiation and predestination do not plague the Eastern Christian mind as they do the Western Protestant mind. Decide on your own the merits and weaknesses of Eastern Christianity, just wait until you have some understanding of where they are coming from before you dismiss it out of hand.
Geography
Early Christian monasticism was an Eastern movement. It flourished primarily in the deserts of Palestine and Egypt as well as portions of Greece and Eastern Europe. In fact, Christianity itself is an Eastern rather than Western religion.
History and Cultural Situation
We know that the third and fourth centuries saw thousands of Christians in the regions of Egypt, Syria and Palestine flee to the deserts to sell themselves out to prayer and spiritual discipline. Was this a reaction to the rapid spread of worldliness that the Church experienced post-Constantine, or was the situation as Kallistos Ware describes it, ‘Christian monasticism first emerged as a distinct movement in the early fourth century,’ he says, ‘but it was not so much an innovation as a fresh expression of the ascetic spirit present in Christianity from the start.’
I am no anthropologist, (an anthropologist would say that the situation was more complex), but for our purpose, let’s make two assumptions:
1. Christianity changed when Constantine took the throne and Christianity was no longer a persecuted movement.
2. Early monasticism was a dynamic organism, not a tightly structured organization. (It was also more interactive with the world than we might think)
Let’s look at these two points:
1. Christianity changed when Constantine took the throne and Christianity was no longer a persecuted movement.
That seems like a painfully obvious statement. But we don’t want to be simplistic about it and color the situation by saying that Constantinian Christianity was apostate, a time when ‘power and paganism ruled the church;’ nor to we want to over-romanticize the rule of Constantine or even the monastics.
In the early fourth century, the Emperor became a Christian, making the times of persecution an unfortunate memory. Christianity became legal, and within a few generations it became the official religion of the Roman Empire.
Not everything about Constantinian Christianity was or is bad. The doctrines of the faith were solidified. The canon of the New Testament was made official, church order was put in place, beautiful structures were built for worship.
But when you go from a faith that is a life or death decision to the faith of an Empire, then the cost of discipleship is cheapened, and the spiritual lives of Christians becomes lax. Again, I do not want to be simplistic or Hollywood about this. Hollywood has a way of making medieval Christianity into one corruption after another. Christianity has always been a big movement that is both East and West, it is a worldwide phenomena, not a monolithic organization.
Still there were many who remembered the persecutions and the power of the church in those days and compared that with a church that had fallen into what one writer calls ‘routinization.’
In the East and the West, one became a Christian during the persecution era after a catechumenate process of formation and self-denial that lasted three years. One became a Christian after persecution often simply by being born—the closest thing to self-denial being Lent and other penitential occasions. The three years of intense training were reserved for priests, the strict regimen of study and formation was reduced to the 40 days before Pascha (Easter), though to be fair there was some rigor and challenge to post-Constantinian catechmenate as well. Obviously, though, the stakes were not as high.
Faithful Christians in the East looked at the opulence of some clergy and the lack of true discipleship among many of church-goers. Then they looked back to the life of Jesus and the lives of the martyrs and wondered why there was such a huge disconnect. These radical faithful decided to go back, if not to give their blood like the martyrs, to give their lives in obedience to Christ, denying the pleasures and comforts of the world. These radical ones came to be known as monks and nuns, desert fathers and mothers. Some were hermits, others lived in community, most lived a combination of both.
Why? They saw in the life of Christ and his followers those who had nothing yet possessed the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus had no wife, no possessions and ‘nowhere to lay his head.’ Jesus lived a life of faithful obedience and prayer—so then should those who follow him. Pelikan says, ‘All three virtues vowed by the monk—poverty, chastity, and obedience—were based on Christ as pattern and embodiment.’
He also states, “These monastic athletes, as one scholar has put it, ‘were not only fleeing from the world in every sense of the word, they were fleeing from the worldly church.’ The monasticism of the fourth and fifth centuries was a protest, in the name of the authentic teaching of Jesus, against an almost inevitable byproduct of the Constantinian settlement, the secularization of the church.”
Briefly, this is the world the desert fathers and mothers found themselves.
2. Early monasticism was a dynamic organism, not a tightly structured organization. (It was also more interactive with the world than we might think)
When we think of monasticism in the West, we think of a highly organized community that meets in a campus like setting. In the East, and in the era of the desert fathers and mothers, being a monk and a nun was first a spontaneous movement in which men (or women) existed either as hermits or as a loosely connected community. These settlements were called lavras. Today they are also called ‘sketes.’ The fathers and mothers of the desert mostly lived semi-eremetic, that is mostly alone in shacks or caves, coming into contact with other monks or nuns in the chapel or katholikon for reception of the sacrament or for daily prayers.
However, the desert fathers did not live lives of total isolation and without accountability. Key in Eastern monasicism is the role of the gerontas, or elder, sometimes called abba or amma. In Russia, they were called the staretz. These spiritual fathers became the ultimate authorities in monastic communities. In many ways, they embodied Christ himself. A monk was to obey his spiritual father as he would obey Jesus himself.
The spiritual father or mother whether ordained or not, had special insight, what the desert fathers called ‘discrimination.’ This was the ability to discern between works of God and works of Satan. The spiritual father could give wise counsel on whether or not his disciple was being attacked by the logismoi (thoughts) of the devil, and how a monk could control the ‘passions.’
In the Eastern Tradition, the ‘passions’ are not something one is excited about. We think of ‘passion’ and we think of strong desire, or working from the heart. But in the Eastern Tradition, the word ‘passion’ connotes a helplessness or passivity to one’s own sinful nature. So, one who has given in to the ‘passions’ are ‘passive’ in the face of sin and temptation.
Chiefly for the spiritual father, was the ability to provide wisdom to monks who were in their own battle with Satan and the passions. Eventually, it was not just the monks and nuns who sought the abbas or ammas. The general population would travel miles in the desert to be blessed by a one of these spiritual masters. They would seek counsel and seek healing.
Any questions so far?
Key Personalities
Who were these desert fathers and mothers? And who were influenced by them? The one who is considered the founder of Eastern monasticism was St. Antony the Great. You may have seen him pictured in icons as an elderly but strong saint attacked by demons and wild animals. St. Athanasius, a desert dweller himself, wrote Antony’s biography.
Antony was born in 250 in middle Egypt. In the liturgy at 20 years old, he heard Jesus’ words from Matthew 19:21 which reads, ‘If you would be perfect, sell all you have and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.’
Antony obeyed this command of Christ in a literal way and at the age of 20, went to live in the outskirts of his hometown of Coma in the desert. 15 years later, he moved to an abandoned fort at Pispir, and colonies of solitary monks grew up around him. Antony’s life was marked by prayer and ascetic discipline and many, many people were attracted to him and his way of living. He gained a reputation as a healer, exorcist and spiritual master. Though he began as a solitary, within 20 years he was surrounded by monastics and pilgrims. It is said that during his lifetime, the desert became a city filled with monasteries. Tradition says that Antony lived to be 105 and died on Mt. Colzim near the Red Sea. A more detailed account of his life follows this lecture.
Another key figure was Evagrios the Solitary. There is a body of literature that you need to familiarize yourself with called the Philokalia which is a four volume collection of the sayings of the desert fathers. The sayings of Evagrios are many. He was born in 354 at Ibora in Pontus. He was a disciple of the great Cappadocian Fathers who were instrumental in hammering out the Orthodox teaching on the nature of Christ at the council of Niceae. He was never ordained a priest, and moved to a remote desert in Kellia, where he died in 399.
Evagrios spiritual father was St. Makarios of Alexandria, who Tradition says was a successful merchant of fruits and pastries, but who left everything in 355 to be a monk. It is said about Makarios that ‘for seven years he lived on raw vegetables dipped in water with a few crumbs of bread, moistened with drops of oil on feast days.
It is also said that he once spent 20 days and 20 nights without sleep, burnt by the sun in the day, frozen by bitter desert cold cold at night. "My mind dried up because of lack of sleep, and I had a kind of delirium," the hermit admitted. "So I gave in to nature and returned to my cell."
If that was not enough, it is said that he spent six months naked in the marshes, attacked by blood-sucking flies and mosquitoes, in the hope of destroying his last bit of sexual desire. The terrible conditions and attacking insects left him so deformed that when he returned to the monks, they could recognize him only by his voice. It is also said that he had powers of healing.
Another key personality is actually a Western Christian who learned from the desert fathers. His name was St. John Cassian. He was born in Scythia around 360. He knew Latin and was a ‘Roman Christian’ by all counts, but as a young man joined a monastery in Bethlehem, but traveled to Egypt in 385 and stayed there until 399. In 405, he was ordained a priest in Rome and eventually founded monasteries near Marseilles, one for men and one for women. He was able to reflect on the spiritual teaching and instruction he learned from the fathers and monastics in Egypt and wrote two works in Latin called the Conferences and the Institutes, both on prayer and spiritual ascesis.
These are just a few key personalities. There are countless others included in the sayings and stories of the desert fathers that have only first names and whom we know nothing about. Let us look now at some of those sayings and stories. These are not exhaustive and are simply chosen as representations of the desert way.
Stories and Sayings
Again, key to the desert fathers was the conquering of the passions. Here are some quotes:
Amma Theodora said, “Let us strive to enter by the narrow gate. Just as the trees cannot bear fruit if they have not stood before the winter’s storms, so it is with us. This present age is a storm; and it is only through many trials and temptations that we can obtain inheritance in the kingdom of heaven” (Heart of the Desert, 38).
St. John Cassian said, “Just as for some people the belly is a god, so for others, is money...how is it that this sickness can so pervert a man that he ends up as an idolater? It is because he now fixes his intellect on the love, not of God, but of the images of men stamped on gold. A monk darkened by such thoughts and launched on the downward path can no longer be obedient.” Cassian says that this monk will think of money so much that he will wish to leave the monastery. Neither God’s presence, nor the salvation of his soul will keep him in the monastery, and “he concludes, he will perish if he does not leave it.”
St. Mark the Ascetic said, “He who entangles himself with the passions while trying to overcome them is like a man who tries to put out fire with straw...Sin is a blazing fire. The less fuel you give to it, the faster it dies down; the more you feed it, the more it burns...From a pleasure-loving heart arise unhealthy thoughts and words; and from the smoke of fire, we recognize the fuel...when you first become involved in something evil, don’t say, ‘it will not overpower me.’ For to the extent that you are involved you have already been overpowered by it.”
Spiritual warfare is also important for the desert fathers. Satan was not to be ignored nor underestimated. He was key in putting logismoi (thoughts) of temptation in the minds of the monks.
But the monk was not left alone to conquer evil. The Holy Spirit also takes an important role in the thinking of the desert fathers. St. Didachos of Photiki, who lived from 400 to 486 in northern Greece said, “Only the Holy Spirit can purify the [mind and spirit], for unless a greater power comes and overthrows the despoiler, what he has taken captive will never be set free. In every way, therefore, and especially through peace of soul, we must make ourselves a dwelling-place for the Holy Spirit. Then we shall have a lamp of spiritual knowledge burning always within us; and when it is shining constantly in the inner shrine of the soul, not only will the [mind and heart] perceive all the dark and bitter attacks of demons, but these attacks will be greatly weakened when exposed for what they are by that glorious and holy light.”
Elsewhere he says,
“For someone who is not at close grips with his enemy uses arrows against him, attacking him from a distance. In the same way, when, because of the presence of grace, Satan can lurk no longer in the mind of those pursuing the spiritual way, he lurks in the body and exploits its humors, so that through its proclivities he may seduce the soul.”
(Philokalia, V1)
Many of the sayings and stories of the desert fathers are gems. Through them are great teachings and wisdom on the ultimate virtue of the desert fathers and mothers, the virtue of humility.
For example, of Abba Macarius of Egypt it is said, “They said of Abba Macarius the Great, that he became, as it were, a god upon this earth; because, just as God protects the world, so Abba Macarius would cover the faults he saw, as though he did not see them, and those he heard, as though he did not hear them” (Heart of the Desert, 27).
“Abba Zacharias drew his hood off his head, put it under his feet, and trampled on it. Then he said to Abba Moses: ‘if one does not allow others to treat him in this way, then one cannot become a monk” (HOD, 29).
“A brother said to Abba Theodore: ‘Speak a word to me, for I am perishing.’ Sorrowfully, the old man said to him: ‘I am myself in danger. So what can I say to you?”
One of my favorite stories is told by St. John Cassian. [Philokalia, 105]
The ultimate quote from St. Isaac of Ninevah, who lived as a bishop in the 7th century, but whose heart was trained in the desert:
“Let yourself be persecuted, but do not persecute others.
Be crucified, but do not crucify others.
Be slandered, but do not slander others.
Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep: such is the sign of purity.
Suffer with the sick.
Be afflicted with sinners.
Exult with those who repent.
Be the friend of all, but in your spirit remain alone. Be a partaker of the sufferings of all, but keep your body distant from all.
Rebuke no one, revile no one, not even those who live very wickedly.
Spread your cloak over those who fall into sin, each and every one, and shield them.
And if you cannot take the fault on yourself and accept punishment in their place,
do not destroy their character.
What is a merciful heart? It is a heart on fire for the whole of creation, for humanity, for the birds, for the animals, for demons, and for all that exists. By the recollection of them the eyes of a merciful person pour forth tears in abundance. By the strong and vehement mercy that grips such a person’s heart, and by such great compassion, the heart is humbled and one cannot bear to hear or to see any injury or slight sorrow in any in creation. For this reason, such a person offers up tearful prayer continually even for irrational beasts, for the enemies of the truth, and for those who harm her or him, that they be protected and receive mercy.”
Conclusion
The Fathers and Mothers of the Desert experienced a depth in their relationship with Christ and were full of the Holy Spirit—so much so that people would visit monks and nuns for all kinds of healing, and there are records of Monastics levitating in prayer and hearing the direct voice of Christ. What was their secret? It really is simple. Deny yourself and pray—like Jesus did.
How does prayer renew the church? I overheard a conversation at a parish (certainly not mine) where there was a big concern about finances. One person said, ‘boy we really need to commit this to prayer,’ and the other person remarked, ‘we’d better do a whole lot more than that!’
There is a sense in which prayer is a waste of time. There is a sense that there are better things we could be doing with our time. I remember in a seminary course small group I raised the idea of requiring all seminarians to spend time in a monastic setting, to which someone replied, ‘I don’t have time for that, there is too much ministry to do!’
For the desert fathers and mothers, prayer and ascesis were the most important things in life. Evagrious the solitary says,
“Pray with the gift of tears, so that through sorrowing you may tame what is savage in your soul...Prayer is the flower of gentleness and of freedom from anger. Prayer is the fruit of joy and thankfulness. Prayer is the remedy for gloom and despondency. ‘Go and sell all that you have and give it to the poor...deny yourself, taking up your cross.’ You will then be free from distraction when you pray. If you wish to pray as you should, deny yourself all the time, and when any kind of affliction troubles you, meditate on prayer.’
The way of the desert and prayer was a way for these radical disciples of the early church to live out Christ’s life of simplicity. It was also a way of entering into a most blessed and deep communion with Christ himself.
The Rule of St. Benedictine, written centuries later, but with the same ethos of the desert fathers states‘[do not] value anything more highly than the love of Christ.’
The monk and nuns of the desert are the picture of Christ and his early followers. In lives of holiness and prayer, the world is changed.
In the Brothers Karamazov, Dostoevsky wrote, through the mouth of the holy elder Father Zosima,
“How surprised men would be if I were to say that from these meek monks, who yearn for solitary prayer, the salvation of Russia will perhaps come once more! For they are in truth made ready in peace and quiet for the day and the hour, the month of the year. Meanwhile, in their solitude, they keep the image of Christ fair and undefiled, in the purity of God’s truth, from the times of the fathers of old, the apostles and martyrs.”
Key questions:
Why was the world-view of the desert fathers so different from our own?
Why was their practice of faith so different?
What can we learn from these masters of the faith?
Appendix: Book 1: The Life of St. Anthony the Great
as told by St. Athanasius
When Anthony was called, he had been studying the book of Acts. He was drawn to the early church, who sold everything they had and put the money at the apostles feet. He also heard in the liturgy Jesus command to the rich young ruler to sell everything and follow him. So, Anthony did. He sold everything and gave it to the poor. His sister, who was give to his charge when his parents died, he committed to a company of ‘virgin’s,’ who were the early nuns. In the early 3rd centuries, monasteries were not common and ‘each who wished to attend to his soul exercised himself alone not far from his village.’
In the early days of Anthony’s renunciation of the world, he went from place to place ‘working with his hands,’ spending the money he earned on bread for himself and giving the rest to the poor. In his wanderings he encountered many ‘devout men’ who he learned the virtues from.
Satan’s initial temptations
Anthony was attacked by the devil all of his life but his earliest days alone were marked by the most intense attacks. Sometimes the devil appeared as a woman, once as a young boy to place thoughts of fornication in Anthony’s mind. Or, the devil would remind Anthony of the property he left behind, his sister and her care, friends, money, fame, the delights of the table and ‘other relaxations of life.’ Satan would remind Anthony of ‘the hardness of virtue, and how great is the labour therof; suggesting that the body is weak, and time is long.’ But the devil’s temptations were useless under Anthony’s faith. St. Athanasius says, ‘So all these things turned to the confusion of the adversary; for he who was thought to be like God was now mocked by a youth; and he who gloried over flesh and blood was now defeated by a man clad in the flesh.’
Anthony’s ascetic discipline under these attacks (and to conquer himself) was intense. He often did not sleep, ate only bread, salt and water once a day and sometimes fasted completely for up to four days at a time.
The Tombs
After the initial ‘mastering’ of himself, Anthony sought solitudes among the tombs. He asked a friend to lock him in a tomb and there was attacked most intensely by the devil and his minions. St. Athanasius says, ‘and coming one night with a throng of demons, [Satan] so scourged him that he lay on the ground speechless from the pain.’ Fortunately, Anthony’s friend found him and took him to the village church to recover. When Anthony awoke from his ordeal, he asked his friend to take him back to the tombs. The devil attacked again in the form of wild animals. St. Athanasius writes, “the demons seemed to rush through [the walls] in the guise of beasts and creeping things, and the place was at once filled with the forms of lions, bears, leopards, bulls, serpents, asps, scorpions and wolves...And the noise of all the visions was terrible, and their fury cruel. Anthony, beaten and goaded by them, felt keener bodily pain. Nevertheless he lay fearless and more alert in spirit. He groaned with the soreness of his body, but in mind he was cool, and said jestingly, ‘If you had any power in you, it would have been enough that just one of you should come; but the Lord has taken your strength away, and that is why you try to frighten me if possible by your numbers. It is a sign of your helplessness that you have taken the shapes of brutes.’”
The attacks subsided and eventually a beam of light was sent from the Lord and the demons disappeared, as did Anthony’s physical pain. Anthony asked the Lord, ‘Where were you? Why did you not show yourself from the beginning, to end my suffering?’ And a voice came to him: ‘I was here, Anthony, but I waited to see your resistence. Therefore since you have endured and not yielded, I will always be your helper, and I will make you renowned everywhere.’ This happened when Anthony was about 35 years old.
The Fort
Anthony found an abandoned fort which was to be his home for 20 years. He kept six months worth of bread and only ate twice a year. People on the outside of the fort thought there were men fighting with Anthony and heard shrieking and piteous cries. Once they heard, ‘Stand off from our domain. What have you to do with the desert? You cannot stand our contrivings.’
But Anthony was unmoved by the attacks. People would knock on the door and he would calmly tell them not to fear but to ‘sign yourselves and go away bravely, and leave [the demons] to make fools of themselves.’ St. Athanasius writes, ‘His friends used to come constantly, expecting to find him dead; but they heard him singing, ‘Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered...’
‘Public’ Minsistry
After the 20 years, St. Athanasius writes, “Many longed and sought to copy his holy life, and some of his friends came and forcibly broke down the door and removed it; and Anthony came forth as from a holy of holies, filled with heavenly secrets and possessed by the Spirit of God...Through him the Lord healed many of those present who were suffering from bodily ills and freed others from evil spirits. And the Lord gave Anthony grace in speech, so that he comforted many in sorrow; others who were at strife he made friends; charging all not to prefer anything in the world to the love of Christ...And so from that time there were monasteries in the mountains, and the desert was peopled with monks, who went forth from their own and became citizens of the kingdom of Heaven.”
Later in his work on St. Anthony, St. Athanasius records these words of the devil:
“I now have no place, no weapon, no city. Everywhere are Christians, and now the desert too is grown full of monks.”
I close with the words of St. Anthony:
“For what profit is it to posses these things that we cannot take with us? Why not rather posses those things which we can take with us–prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude, understanding, charity, love of the poor, gentleness, hospitality? For if we gain these possessions we shall find them going beforehand, to make a welcome for us there in the land of the meek.”
Facing East
This blog will give students access to notes and train of thought for THE310, the Greek Fathers.
I am a pastor, not a technical theologian so what we will learn (I hope) will relate to who you are as a Christian and as a part of the Christian community. I am concerned that you learn the content for sure, but I am more interested that you can answer the 'so what' questions.
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