One must always
distinguish between "secular/rational" theology and the
reality of "sacred" theology. It is not to say that some of
the secular/rational concepts don't have instructive value; they do,
but they can never be substituted for experience. The “concepts”
are not the experience and reality of the thing. The outline or in
artists terms the "cartoon" is not the object itself, even
the most sophisticated portrait is not the person. Many come to the
Church and rather than truly finding and experiencing Christ’s
incarnational presence, settle for a mere description, a mere
formula, a mere cartoon of the Church. These are “first and second
path people” who cling to “received tradition” as if that is an
end of itself, or retreat to emotionalism and/or rationalism, the two
sides of the same coin of “soulish” behavior. Until the Third
Path is warmly experienced a realistic view of Christianity is not
possible, because one substitutes instead some formula, some cartoon,
some institutional stricture capable of pointing to, but incapable of
capturing the experience of Christ’s incarnation. Those holding
only the “cartoon” THINK they know what it represents; yet they
only have a hollow concept and no experience of its reality.
Ultimately the Church is “life in the Holy Spirit” or scripture
and tradition are both liars, as is the witness of myriad saints.
Towards Understanding
the Orthodox Way
Based on observations
by Met. Anthony (Khrapovitsky) .
THE THREE PATHS OF
THEOLOGY/SPIRITUALITY
Every human is a
defacto "theologian" whether one intends to speculate on
theological principles or not. One cannot function without it.
Whether one's foundational beliefs are well thought out or a
mish-mash lazily gathered from the culture, it is still a theological
foundation, no matter how lofty or ignorant the concepts. Whether one
believes that some accidental force caused being, or Sam, the dog, is
giving you instructions (reference to son of sam serial killer), you
are theologizing. Understanding that it is impossible to escape the
necessity of theologizing, even if one is atheist or agnostic,
animist, taoist, hindu, christian, bhuddhist, or jew, the following
article called the Three Paths, will shed light on "how" we
theologize. This "theologizing" is no small matter because
it forms the basis for our actions, the foundation upon which we form
ideas and make decisions. It is even the frame work of our good
actions and our rebellions. The nature of our foundational "theology"
influences every aspect of our living, even if we think we are a
conformist, nonconformist, societal anarchist, or a sociopath.
Towards Understanding
the Orthodox Way
THE THREE PATHS OF
THEOLOGY-SPIRITUALITY
There are three ways,
two of them erroneous and one Orthodox:
1. To
strangle every thought and expression of theology/spirituality under
the pretence of "standing fast in received tradition". It
is easy to "fight" theological errors by refusing to
theologize at all. By dying in the "letter" and never
experiencing the reality of the Holy Spirit. The prophets of Israel
had spoken under the anointing of the Holy Spirit; the great
Psalmists, Moses and David had spoken eternal worship into being,
also by the anointing of the Holy Spirit. The Pharisees, kept the
letter of the law of Moses, had spent their lives in service to the
"ritual" and “exactness” of Hebrew religion and the
study of the Scriptures and yet Jesus mocked them saying, "Ye
search the scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal
life . . " This first path includes thoughtlessly and/or
fearfully following the culture of our parents, or tradition, where
fear of failure rules, or simply fear of the unknown causes us to
cling to the known. It may seen to be no theology at all, but it
still requires us to act or not to act according to some foundation
of reason or emotion. It is this first path that causes the answer,
"I don't know. It's just the way I always done it" or
"That's just the way it is" or "That the way it's
supposed to be." To someone on the first path, such
pronouncements seem self-evident, since it is the sum total of their
experience.
This is the
theology born of the Sickness of Religion. It is a fearful path where
the reality of the presence of the Holy Spirit is not known, and fear
(sin) blocks the view of the Light so one lives in fear (sin) and
clings to what is "known," fearing to question anything,
fearing and abhorring free and/or original thought. Creativity is
killed, the human spirit is dying, and one awaits in blessed hope of
"release" at death.
2. To release the
restraints of the human spirit, to allow reason, or soul to
predominate and distort the image (1) - and have theology degenerate
along the reductionist, rationalist, deconstructionist path - or
along the romantic, dreamy and passionate one, the path of the soul
unchecked and un-transfigured, "psychic"(2) and not
"pneumatic". (3)
These two, the rational
and the romantic, represent two sides of the same coin of Western
Captivity - Rational Theology and Romantic Spirituality. Rational
Theology has lead to the various absurdities like the Jesus
Seminar,(4) the total demythologization of the Scriptures and
Tradition; and Romantic Spirituality ultimately leading to
Sophianism,(5) (or some such rational or passionate spirituality) -
one's own unconquered passions being in control of the soul's
searching and expression.
3. This path is Royal,
(Royal, of the Reign of the King) and avoids the errors of the other
two - it does not fear reason, or prayers, or Mysteries (as
rationalism does),(6) or humanity (as monophysitism and humanism (7)
does) - nor does it drink the vine of passions and emotions that can
sometimes pass as "piety", becoming a sort of pacifier or
narcotic. This path consists of actually living the Tradition,
applying it to oneself in the Synergistic living of Life in the Holy
Spirit. It is that reality when the Spirit becomes alive to us and in
us and we cannot see again as we once saw, we cannot hear again as we
once heard, etc. It is a change of perception, where the spiritual
eye has opened and experience takes on a new and "alive"
dimension.
In this is true
devotion, true creativity, true art, true freedom, true family life,
true worship, etc., etc., etc..
People who are alive to
the Third Path, are viewed in ignorance by the people of the second
path. Both the Rationalists and the Romanticizers see third path
people as heel-dragging fearful people of the first path. Their eyes
being blind to the third possibility, third-Path keeping of Tradition
is viewed as first path fear and ignorance.
People who are alive to
the Third Path, are viewed in fear (sin) by the people of the first
path. The people of the first path cannot distinguish between the
Rationalizers and Romanticizers and the people of the Third Path. For
them they are all "dangerously out there" and not "in
the fold." From their perspective we all look the same. So the
person of the Royal Path, The Way, is viewed with suspicion by the
liberal theologian, the rational scientist, the rational philosopher,
the radical fundamentalist religionist, the radical traditionalists
of both the West and East, the fearful Protestant Denominationalist,
the hell fire (romantic) Pentecostal, the spiritualist and spiritual
scientists, the secular psychologist, and new age experimenters.
Abba Anthony said, "A
time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is
not mad, they will attack him saying, "You are mad, you are not
like us."
Yet the person on the
Royal Path, in communion with "reality" i.e. Truth - not a
concept but a person - God in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit, is
free to minister to, by comfort and challenge all not on the royal
path and our fellow travelers on the royal path as well - because
such people are alive to the creative spirit of God and exercise
Wisdom beyond their own capabilities. And because the person on The
Way does not fear reason,(8) or prayers, or Mysteries (as rationalism
does), or humanity (as monophysitism does) - nor does he/she drink
the vine of passions and emotions that can sometimes pass as
"piety";(9) then by the power of the Holy Spirit their
ministry (the ministry of the Holy Spirit) is intelligent beyond
rationalism, using reason as a tool. It is human, using our True
Humanity, a symphony of human expression and emotions - (free of the
errors of humanism which destroys our true uniqueness). It is a
deeper psychology, knowing the spiritual structure of the human. It
is an intelligent physics, knowing the reality of God's creative
energy. It is a true rational and spiritual "science" being
tied to the physical/spiritual truth. It is powerful philosophy, yet
not restricted by categories, etc. - you can be creative with this
list; it is very long. It is creative, and alive and motivated to
Healing, both its own Whole Man, (true humanity) and also the Healing
to our fellow beings and our "lively place" (the
environment) as well.
Faced with the great
and seemingly intractable problems of sociology, psychology, ecology
i.e. crime, social ills, mental illness, poverty, violence and
environmental Armageddon - the Orthodox Hierophant says, "The
prayer of the heart is our ecology" and it is true; "The
prayer of the heart is our sociology" and it is true; "The
prayer of the heart is our psychology" and it is true. It is in
the "revelation of the Sons of God" where the intractable
problem finds solution and healing. The revelation of the Sons of God
is not an isolated "event" in the future, it is also our
Hope and Help, Here and Now; its completion is in the future, a
future we cannot even imagine. " . . . none of the princes of
this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified
the Lord of glory. But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them
unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God."
Our Lord instructed us
not to hide our light under a bushel; not to fear to be viewed with
suspicion, as all aliens are so viewed. He said in essence, they've
hated me, they will hate you as well. But still, he wanted us to
share our Holy Spirit Powered Creativity in our work, and play and
especially in EVERY relationship we have and with every one we meet.
I'm not talking about "rational evangelical overbearing-ness
parading as witness" I'm talking about living and working in
harmony with the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. In that
living, actions become Life engendering and it may be that silence
will be great spoken wisdom, or not to hate will be love, or failing
to act may be right, or acting may be right. In cooperation with the
synergistic working of the Holy Spirit of all life, you will know.
This particular
description of the Three Paths comes from a friend of a friend so to
speak, from a Russian Orthodox Priest talking about the Russian
Orthodox Church's (19th century) battle with "Sophianism."
Sophianism being reflected in the West in various and sundry
"spiritual/gnostic/theosophical" veins. But the truth
taught in this image of the three paths has ancient roots in the
Fathers. It was certainly very clearly understood and stated plainly
by St Symeon the New Theologian and St. Gregory Palamas.
The sickness of
religion knows nothing of the reality of the life of the Holy Spirit
- the Third Path. "If a man is not born of water and the Spirit,
he will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." But what does this
mean? St Symeon said, "In the first baptism, water symbolizes
the tears and the oil of christmation prefigures the inner anointing
of the Spirit. But the second baptism is no longer a mere type of the
truth; it is the truth itself." "When the Holy Spirit of
Truth is come He will lead you into ALL THINGS." Archbishop
Basil Krivocheine says of this statement of St Symeon, "Let us
note that while speaking of the first baptism, Symeon included the
oil of christmation. It is therefore not a question of this sacrament
of anointing when Symeon speaks of a second baptism. The difference
between the two is rather that which exists between a figure and
truth." St Symeon speaks of this again saying, "We receive
the remission of our sins at our divine baptism and we are freed from
the ancient curse and sanctified by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
But this is not yet that perfect grace of which Scripture speaks: 'I
shall dwell in them and walk therein.' This applies only to those who
are strong in faith and show it in their works; for if we fall back
into evil and shameful deeds after our baptism, we completely throw
away this very sanctification. It is in proportion to our repentance,
confession and tears that we receive the remission of our former
sins; and as a consequence of this we also receive sanctification and
grace from on high." Saint Symeon was not shy in saying that
there were those who walked away from the waters of Baptism as if
nothing had happened.
St Symeon speaks of
even the highest expression of Orthodox “mystical experience,
seeing the Divine Light” as second to the living presence of the
Holy Spirit in the Liturgy of Living. (The Synergistic Experience of
the Life of God in Christ by the Holy Spirit as our everyday state.)
He said, "If you have seen Christ but He has not yet granted you
to drink of this beverage, fall down before Him and lament . . . and
since you see Christ, lift up your eyes to Him unceasingly and always
keep Him as the one spectator of your dejection and affliction."
The beverage is the 'life of the Holy Spirit itself' dwelling in us
and with us, and as he describes above, to produce faith with works.
The "religious"
position of the first path, precludes any possibility of such open
and creative and intelligent communion with God, it is retreated into
the realm of the "known" and fears the unknown. The
rationalism of the second path is not capable of reaching this
experience because the rational mind is in control and all it can
produce is a rather cold mind science, a counterfeit spirituality
that is the play ground of the human soul with the demonic. That
being the psych-ism of all the varieties of mind science
"spiritualities." The romanticism of the second path is not
capable of reaching this "experience" because the passions
are in control and all it can produce is emotional upheaval that may
pass for and be accepted as spiritual experience. Both of these paths
(as religious experience) carry the hallmark of the destruction of
the person by (1) sublimating emotional health to cold "logic"
- the Course In Miracles cult does this rather expertly on the
rational principle that "there is nothing to forgive, it is all
illusion" so we need not feel or act - (2) or cause the person
to withdraw to smaller and smaller circles where they can "control
the environment" and maintain a "centered emotional
sweetness."
The story of the Third
or Royal Path, seems foolishness to some, because its experience
quickly out paces our ability to speak it in rational and conceptual
language. Yet it can be and IS experienced. St Symeon said it this
way, "How could those who never had the slightest experience of
its effects - reform, renewal, transformation, re-creation and new
birth - succeed in understanding such mysteries? How can those who
have not yet been baptized in the Holy Spirit understand the
metamorphosis of the ones who were baptized in Him? How will those
who have not been born from above see the glory of the ones who, in
the words of the Lord were born 'from above,' of those who are born
of God and have become the children of God? Those who did not desire
this state but lost it through their negligence, for they certainly
received the power to acquire it - tell me, what knowledge will
enable them to understand or in any way imagine what the others have
become?" One very telling admission by St Symeon is his
statement about his youthful "falling away" after he had
seen the Divine Light.
"I forgot
everything I told you and fell into total darkness, not even
remembering anything I related to you, either large or small, not
even the slightest thought. What is more, I fell into greater evils
than before, and I found myself in the same condition as one who had
never heard or understood the sacred words of Christ. Even the saint,
who at one time had been kind to me and had given me that little rule
and the book mentioned earlier, became to be an ordinary man, for I
no longer thought of anything I had seen thanks to him." Of
course St Symeon later found The Way and
lived/worked/experienced/liturgized with far more diligence.
As to carrying the
weight of the first and second path with us as we reach to the Third,
is the rule and not the exception. Our healing is a healing of the
sickness of religion, the sickness with which we became entangled in
one form or another, simply because we were born. Opening to the
third possibility is the work of The Way. It doesn't matter if the
sickness is a religion of philosophy or agnosticism or atheism or
pentecostalism or new ageism or catholicism or orthodoxism etc., etc.
I could certainly dissect my own life and explain it via the picture
of the Three Paths, because I am intimately familiar with each and
both aspects of the Second. But I won't bore you.
The third path is first
and foremost Orthodoxia, so it is right practice and right belief.
Sadly many reach to this Orthodoxia (the prayer of the heart) and
find only Orthodoxy - in its legal explications and physically kept
Traditions. That's not bad; it is a wonderful place to start. The
discipline of the Tradition outwardly found in these things is not
sickness but can be if it is practiced in hypocrisy i.e. acted out
for merit. But if it is a true expression of the heart, it is not
religion at all. It is the opposite of religion.
When one grasps by
experience that Tradition is not religion but LIFE, then such
ecumenical notions as uniting "sacramentally" or by some
other abstract principle is seen to be, not only of little use but
foolish and dangerous. Unity only in the acts of sacramental ritual
(religion) has no value. It is real and has value only when it is
unity in Christ by the Holy Spirit, in the healing flow of Tradition;
then it is uniting in the liturgy of living, the sacramental living,
reflected in The Way. (the third path) As much as our foes hate to
hear it, Truth the Person, when he walked among us said, "I AM
the The Truth, The Life and The Way, no one comes to the Father
except by Me." Keeping Tradition, not in first path fear, but
third path Love, is the experience of the Truth and Life of The Way.
© Archpriest Symeon
Elias 1996.
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Note 1 - This is a
reference to the state of man, in the image of God. George Cronk a
noted Orthodox Teacher says, "'To believe that man is made in
God's image is to believe that man is created for communion and union
with God, and that if he rejects this communion he ceases to be
properly man.'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 2 - Psychic - of
the Soul, of one's own imaginative powers, the fantasy producing
aspect of our make up.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 3- Pneumatic -
Pneuma - spirit - of the Spirit, this is a reference to the "noetic
faculty" of man, his natural connection to God.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 4 - The Jesus
Seminar - a group of secular theologians, textual experts etc, who
met in the late 20th century to try by rational means to discover
what quotations in the Gospel texts of Scripture and the gospel of
Thomas, could rightly be judged as actual quotations of the man
Jesus. The absurdity of it, was also the most telling aspect of it.
What they produced was a "Jesus" according to their own
image. By applying their own prejudices as to who Jesus was, and
therefore what he could have said, via quasi-scientific means, they
simply produced a Jesus in their own image. The categories in which
they placed his quotes were as telling, (a) he most likely said this
(b) he may or may not have said this, but it sounds like something he
would say, (c) he probably didn't say this (d) he could not have said
this. The presupposition that created the categories implies that
they "already knew him" and "new him quite intimately"
as to be able to judge his thoughts! This was a group of the most
renown biblical scholars of our day. The exercise demonstrates in a
clear way the foolishness of both "rationalizing" and
"fantasizing" methods of "theologizing." The
tedious rational/deconstructionist exercise, costing much time and
money was based on a fanciful notion, that is, the fantasy that by
some magical means they already knew how our Lord, thought, and so
then understood, again by fanciful means, what he would say. This
singular exercise taking many years perfectly demonstrates the
poverty of secular-western theologizing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 5 - Sophianism -
an umbrella term under which resides myriad forms of sickness of
religion based upon imagined "spirituality." All the cults
reaching to the "higher self" - ultimately gnostic or
humanistic or a combination of both. Medieval Europe and the
Renaissance produced hundreds of secret "sophian - wisdom"
societies. 19th and 20th centuries brought the "theosophy"
movements, the Rosicrucians, the Liberal Catholic Church, and a host
of others.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 6 - Why would
rationalism fear Mysteries or prayers? Rationalism has made of the
human reasoning ability, the human mind, a god, in fact, the God.
Prayers addressed to a deity are an act then of superstition, the
fear that prayer might be answered challenges the carnal mind's
godhood. (M)ysteries - notice the capital M - implies the power of
the Deity in ways beyond the human mind's capability to define or
even to comprehend. The Mysteries of the Church, later called
"sacraments" in the West, are Grace-imbued moments and
actions, which cannot be defined nor fully comprehended. Such
Mysteries challenge the carnal mind and threatens it. Any action
perceived by the carnal mind outside of its control threatens its
"godhood", thus any such actions are fearful. Faced with
the reality of the power of God, even in a very small way, a minor
healing or unexplained protection, the carnal mind will immediately
recoil from the truth of it, and work itself to death creating
"logical explanations." In many instances the creative
explanations are to fanciful it would take "faith" to
believe in them. But, the carnal mind takes solace because it has
"tamed" the event, by "naming it" and it doesn't
matter whether the "naming" has any relationship to the
truth of the event or not. An excellent example is the phrase,
"spontaneous remission" applied to miracles of healing. If
science had any real belief in the name "spontaneous remission"
they would be proposing all sorts of expensive studies and
experiments to try to find the key it. No such research exists, so
we see that it is just a name that comforts the mind and to the
mind's satisfaction dismisses the obvious.
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7 - Why would
monophysitism or humanism fear humanity?
a. monophysitism -
a belief that Jesus Christ was of a single nature. This belief had
two expressions. One he was a man only, or two he was God only, just
appearing as a man. The monophysitist could not bear the thought that
a human could be both God and flesh and blood. It's bases is
ultimately "gnostic" - that is the belief that matter is
worthless, or worse creation itself an attack on God. With this
gnostic foundation God was idealized to the point of not being able
to truly touch, contact, co-mingle with humanity. So then, humanity
was something of the creation, aberrant, lacking any goodness etc,
part of the attack on the natural order, or maybe even an expression
of attack on God. So for the monophysitist humanity is an inferior
and ill thing.
b. humanism is
simply a modern form of monophysitism without realizing it. It views
humanity as the highest form of evolved creature yet an aberrantly
evolved creature who is attacking "the natural order of things."
One sees the distrust of humanity in all its "humanistic"
concerns - the politically correct movement which attacks and wants
to stifle human speech and thought, the environmental movement which
see humanity as the great rapist of the planet and so on. Humanistic
endeavors always and ultimately deny the uniqueness and value of the
individual humans. Humanistic philosophies strangle the very humanity
they claim to value. Humanistic actions quickly turn murderous, i.e.,
population control, abortion, euthanasia. Humanism fears the human
and wishes it were something else. Humanism, a philosophy without
God, making of the fanciful "higher self" its God, is
ultimately killing. It fear humanity because it cannot comprehend the
human in communion with God. ref - note 1. Communism was the classic
humanistic philosophy, where all was done for the "good of the
whole of humanity." In this any individual human, and thus
millions of humans could be sacrificed for its humanistic purpose.
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8 - Why would a
rationalist fear reason? re-read note 6. Note 6 is reasonable. It
denotes the difference between a concrete collection of "rational
facts" a list upon which being is seen and judged vs the
"reasonable" acceptance of "things as they are."
A famous pre-christian pagan recorded having been visited by "the
Shepherd of Mankind" in a vision which he experienced while
engaging in sincere prayer. The Shepherd said, "I've heard your
prayers and I'm here to tell you whatever you want to know." The
Pagan answered, "I want to know God, and things as they are."
This is great wisdom. The perception of things as they are -true
reasoning - is impossible without God. True reason points towards
God. But when God is denied and one is left with only his own
"higher-self" the same reasoning processes becomes mere
rationalism, which is the exercise of trying to know things as they
are, without the foundation for such an endeavor.
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9- in this instance
"piety" meaning the appearance of religious knowledge or
spiritual power. Quite a bit of "charismatic" religious
experience falls into this category.
