Ecclesiasticus I: Introducing Eastern Orthodoxy
Ecclesiasticus II: Orthodox Icons, Saints, Feasts and Prayer
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Part I: Culture, Celebration and Expression
It
is difficult to figure out how the prevailing assumption developed that
Western cultural tradition is more refined and civilized than is the Eastern.
Nevertheless, whatever the origin of this assumption might have been,
it seems that this has been taken for granted for a long time. In this
part of the world this is especially true, and people of both Eastern
and Western cultural backgrounds seem to accept this assumption without
question. As a result, the Westerners have developed a certain air of
superiority and have at times demanded that those of an Eastern cultural
background renounce their cultural tradition and conform to their prevailing
superior Western cultural practices. When in the beginning of this century,
and to some extent even now, the Anglo-Saxon city clerk told the intimidated
immigrant that his name would not be Basil or Constantin but William or
Charles, he did not have the slightest doubt that he was a missionary
who was civilizing the barbarians. On the other hand, the immigrant Easterner
often felt overwhelmingly embarrassed for his barbarian background and
he was very eager to Anglo-Saxonize himself. He would change his name
from Papadopoulos to Papson, forget his mother tongue, speak to his children
in broken English, and, finally, he would also change his religion, and
become Episcopalian, because Episcopalianism was the religion of the high
class.
Even if he did not change his religion, he would try very hard
to Protestantize Orthodoxy so that it was less barbaric. The use of incense
was limited, as was lighting candles, kissing icons, or doing prostrations.
All these were the uncouth practices of an old grandmother; these were
dismissed with disgust by father and mother.
In everyday life many reformations were also very quickly introduced.
Those reformations had mainly to do with the ways of expressing anger,
sadness, happiness, and despair, as well as the role and value of the
human body.
Expression of anger, which was so direct with Easterners, was strongly
discouraged. Screaming or yelling, a very common and healthy way for Easterners
to express anger, was characterized as cannibalism, and composure and
calmness became the definite indication of refinement.
The expression of joy was also limited to controlled smiles and
celebrations, and feasting was so much devitalized that it became difficult
to know the difference between a wake and a wedding reception.
At this point I would like to mention how this mentality influenced
Orthodox worship in the West, since Orthodox worship is celebrating and
feasting more than anything else. The spontaneity of the faithful was
suppressed and Orthodox worship deteriorated to an orderly bore.
The expression of grief was reduced to an ugly farce. Many non-reformed
Orthodox who visited their grieving Anglo-Saxon friends found themselves
in the predicament of being consoled by the bereaved themselves who would
try to control their visiting friends’ sobbing by repeating in disgust,
“Do not cry my dear, everything is fine.”
I do not think there are many things more pathetic and more barbaric
than the mother who stands dressed in a flowery dress with a glamorous
hairdo and makeup next to the casket of a young son or daughter who has
died a tragic death and asks with a smile of every newcomer, “Doesn’t
he look beautiful?”, and the visitor replies with the same smile, “He
definitely does; they have done a beautiful job,” to which the grieving
mother responds very politely, “Oh, thank you very much.”
Another strong element of Western culture is a definite dualism.
For example, there is a strong contempt for the human body which is not
expressed in the crudely open ways that some of the ascetics express it,
but in a very subtle, undetectable way which penetrates everyday living.
Most common is the strong distaste for any bodily gestures or facial expressions,
as well as touching, which implies that the body exists only for
sexual promiscuity.
Many zealous Orthodox, especially converts, are overcome with indignation
when Orthodoxy is mixed up with cultural or, as they call it in order
to make it sound more Sovinistic, ethnic traditions. These people
are obviously still unable to get rid of their former error, which is
probably the worst of Western heresies, namely, the separation of religion
from life and its reduction either to a sterile religious intellectualism
or to some kind of quaint and exotic mysticism. In reality, unless religion
becomes a style of life that is a culture which is continually experienced
in everyday life without any impressive pronouncements and fanfare, it
is only a gimmick, a game, or a “trip.”
To help in understanding this point, I would like to bring to your
attention that the Anglo-Saxon cultural characteristics I tried so hard
to ridicule have a theological origin. They were inspired by Puritanism
and pietism, those ugly monsters which were begotten out of wedlock from
the triangle of Christianity, Romanism and European barbarism.
Spirituality:
Static or Becoming
I
do not know if I can fully explain how these disastrous distortions of
Christian morality developed, but it seems that Western Christianity very
early developed the belief that people either are Christians, which means
they meet certain standards, or they are not. Western Christian spirituality
and morality is static in that sense. The procedure of becoming a member
of the body of Christ is similar to the procedure of becoming a member
of a club. That is, to become a member of a certain club you have to meet
certain requirements. Actually in the Orthodox Church in America the procedure
of becoming a member of the Church is not similar to that of becoming
a member of a club but identical.
It is not probably an accident that the passage of the 5th chapter
of St. Matthew is translated in English as: “You must be perfect.” However,
in Greek, the verb is in the future tense of indicative mood and it is
a promise which implies very clearly that that perfection will be granted
through grace in the future, though in English it is in present tense
and the imperative mood which implies that man is expected to reach perfection
by himself immediately.
As I said, I cannot trace out the origin of this notion; I only
know that Augustine was already introducing it when if I am not mistaken,
he said in his confessions that after his baptism he had no sexual thoughts.
I hate to question Augustine’s honesty, but it is absolutely impossible
for me to accept his statement. I suspect that he made that statement
because he already had the notion that since he was a Christian, he was
not supposed to have any sexual thoughts. The understanding of Eastern
Christianity at the same time was entirely different. Historically, outstanding
Christians with a great reputation for wisdom, perfection, and holiness,
like St. Anthony, do not have any difficulty talking about their sexual
thoughts and temptations, even to a very old age. The desert fathers,
those giants of Christian spirituality, report their sexual anxieties
and transgressions with an amazing simplicity and openness. I would like
to mention only one of those beautiful stories that convey so well the
desert fathers’ definite conviction that a Christian is constantly in
the process of becoming, and consequently what makes somebody a Christian
is that he is moving, that is, he is growing spiritually, and not just
that he is meeting any standards at any specific time.
“A brother was goaded by lust, and rising at night be made his
way to an old man, and told him his thoughts, and the old man comforted
him. And revived by that comforting he returned to his cell. And again
the spirit of lust tempted him, and again he went to the old man. And
this happened many times. But the old man did not discountenance him,
but spoke to him to his profit, saying, “Yield not to the devil, nor relax
thy mind: but rather as often as the devil troubles thee, come to me,
and he shall go buffeted away. For nothing so dispirits the demon of lust
as when his assaults are revealed. And nothing so heartens him as when
his imaginations are kept secret.” So the brother came to him eleven times,
confessing his imaginings. And thereafter he said to the old man, “Show
love to me, my father, and give me some word.” The old man said, “Believe
me, my son, if God permitted the thoughts with which my own mind is stung
to be transferred to thee, thou wouldst dash thyself headlong.” And by
the old man saying this, his great humbleness did quiet the goading of
lust in the brother.”1
I said before that what, makes somebody a Christian is the fact
that he is moving, and growing; he is not stagnant, nor has he reached
a certain level of perfection as a final point. In Christianity every
single person’s standards are to some extent different from anybody else’s.
The expectation for the person who is on the first step of the ladder
of perfection is to move to the second; the expectation for the person
who is on the tenth step is to move to the eleventh; therefore, when the
latter individual is not moving towards the eleventh step, he can be condemned,
while the first one can be saved, although he is eight steps lower than
the latter. The parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector is a good
example of that. The Pharisee is a decent man. He is not a thief, not
an adulterer; he is a temple-goer and an ardent temple supporter. But
he is satisfied with his accomplishments, and he believes that there is
nothing else he has to do; and, as a result, he had become stagnant. On
the other hand, the tax collector lives an ugly life, but he realizes
it; he is not satisfied with it, and he is resolved to move. It is the
latter, not the former, who went up to his home justified, said Christ.
The whole Eastern Christian tradition has developed on the basis of this
stand. Western Christianity seems to have missed this entirely, and it
got really caught up in its inflexible and impersonal generalizations.
It developed the either/or Christian morality which presented very serious
problems right away, and these show up very clearly in our times. The
Christian West tried to cope with the consequences of its either/or generalized
and standardized morality by developing two highly destructive patterns:
1) the “appear to be” pattern and 2) the “lowering of standards”
pattern.
Two
Destructive Patterns in The West
The first,
in essence, just removes the focus from trying to be a Christian to trying
to appear to be a Christian. Very early, Western Christians realized
that they would never make it if the only way they could be Christians
would be to meet all the standards; therefore they concentrated their
efforts on trying to appear to be the way they were supposed to be. A
good name for that tactic is hypocrisy, and it is familiar to all legalistic
and rigid moralities. Phariseeism was exactly that, and Puritanism and
pietism excelled in this — far beyond Phariseeism. Southern Baptist piety
is an excellent contemporary example of this tactic.
The other pattern has been the lowering of the standards.
That is, if the only way you can be a Christian is to meet all the standards,
we can increase the number of Christians by decreasing the moral standards.
Our age has witnessed much of this tactic. It started with Protestantism
and developed to a spectacular firecracker in Roman Catholicism which
responded with an overflow of permissiveness to the recent overwhelming
exodus and indifference of its followers. I wonder which of the two tactics
has been more destructive. The first created false people who spent their
energy not to grow but to hide! The second took the excitement
out of life. All the average American expects from himself is not to steal
and not to kill, and when he accomplishes that, he sits back doing nothing
and ends up vegetating and being bored to death. There is not any far-reaching
perspective in his life, therefore he develops an infantile self-concern,
which leads either to depression or to breakdown. When he cannot have
instant gratification of his great oral needs, the world falls apart.
He would never have a chance to get depressed due to sexual frustration,
if he had the far-reaching direction in his life that a certain ascetic
had, who every time he ate food, cried because he was nurturing his corruptible
body when in incorruptible soul was starving.
That static notion of Christian morality and spirituality penetrated
the life of the Western Christian and became a life style, which they
live without being aware of it. Since the Western notion of Christian
morality was the meeting of certain standards, a Christian was not supposed
to have any negative feelings like anger an hatred. That notion was incorporated
in the culture and eventually the expression of anger became a sign of
barbarism. Refined people were not supposed to express or feel any anger.
As a result of this notion, anger was suppressed, and it was transformed
to all kinds of bad symptoms. Repressed anger is a basic part of all mental
disturbances. The suppressed anger becomes devious and comes out well
camouflaged and over-destructive. This is exactly what Christ describes,
saying, “When the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, be passes through
waterless places seeking rest, but he finds none. Then he says, ‘I will
return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it
empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and brings with him seven
other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter and dwell there;
and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first.” (Matthew
12, 43-49)
The unclean spirit that comes out of the Easterner with uncouth
screaming and yelling, and which is repressed by the refined Westerner,
comes back bringing with him seven spirits more evil than himself
like all kinds of neuross, schizophrenia, depression, religious fanaticism,
and many others; undoubtedly, the state of the psychotic refined Westerner
is far worse than the state of the uncouth and crude, screaming and yelling
Easterner. Repressed anger has been the cause of many disasters in human
history. Many wars, revolutions, and massacres have been the disastrous
outburst of repressed anger, and likewise many destructive effects of
religious fanaticism like the Inquisition and the dreadful murders of
the Calvinistic communities in the Middle Ages. Also, many dictators or
stern and punitive religious leaders are moved by a repository of repressed
anger which usually refers more appropriately to parental figures and
which has been repressed by religious and cultural inhibitions. This is
how religion becomes life, and it is lived by these people without awareness.
This is how Western Christianity has influenced Western culture and this
is how a distorted Christianity has caused immeasurable harm and innumerable
deplorable cases of mental disturbance with which modern psychiatry is
struggling. The therapeutic process for a schizophrenic in essence is
a process of Easternization of the Western man; it is a process of re-orthodoxizing
the Western Christian, because Orthodox Christianity has not accepted
the “appear to be” pattern and, although it encourages the struggle for
perfection, condemns perfectionism which is intolerance of human imperfection
and which, in the language of the ascetics, is an indication of demonic
pride.
The
Image of Christ
It
is amazing how Western Christianity distorted, in this issue, the scriptural
image of Christ and presented him as condemning human aggression and as
a sickening, soft, and effeminate man with rosy cheeks and blond wavy
hair. It is deplorable that so many Orthodox are offended by the strong,
powerful, dynamic, scriptural Christ of the Byzantine art although they
are infatuated by this nauseating Western Christ. It is amazing how Western
Christianity managed to visualize the fiery eyes of Christ which “looked
around” at the Pharisees “with anger,” (Mark 3,5) as sweetish and wishy-washy,
how it resolved to present as soft and effeminate, the powerful Christ
who made “a whip of cords” and drove with it all the merchants “out of
the temple” with their sheep and oxen, and “poured out the coins of the
money changers and overturned their tables.” (John 2, 13-16) It is amazing
how Western Christianity managed to describe as quiet and soft-spoken
him who uttered the dreadful “woes” and called the Scribes and Pharisees
“hypocrites,” “blind fools,” “blind guides,” “white-washed tombs,” “serpents”
and “brood of vipers” (Matthew 23) and told his tempting disciples “Be
gone Satan.” (Matthew 16, 23) It is inconceivable how Christ disintegrated
to a eunuch prince of peace although he stated very emphatically, “Do
not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to
bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father,
and daughter against her mother, and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and man’s foes will be those of his own household,” (Matthew 10, 34-36)
Christ did promise peace but not a hypocritical external peace but a real
inner peace. He said, “My peace I give to you; not as the world gives
do I give to you.” (John 14,27)
NOTES:
1Helen Waddell, The Desert Fathers (The University of
Michigan Press, Ann Arbor Paperbacks, 1960), p. 77.
Father
Philotheos Faros is professor of pastoral theology at Holy Cross Greek
Orthodox Seminary. This bicentennial article, presented in two parts,
was written exclusively for THE WORD. Part II will follow in our next
issue.
From Word
Magazine
Publication of the Antiochian Orthodox
Christian Archdiocese of North America
May 1976
pp. 6-9
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