The Orthodox Christian finds himself in a paradoxical state. We are to live in the world but not of the world. It is therefore absolutely normal, even essential, that we experience alienation from the world in some sense. But this can also become a trap that the demons can use to ensnare us. For example, ideology is a specifically modern phenomenon in which the experience of alienation rises to the level of a social and political theory, to the extent that the only means of salvation becomes a total transformation of society through political and social control. It is grounded in the gnostic notion that God messed up when He created, but we can re-imagine ourselves as creators. By harnessing the power of science, we can take control of our lives and of history and build the perfect world, free of disease, poverty, injustice, even death. No alienation ever again.
All human beings experience the paradoxical nature of existence, whether you are a believer or not. The notion that we can escape or overcome our paradoxical state is just another gnostic dream, a nightmare even. That many, within the Orthodox Faith, are attracted to these gnostic ideas does not change this important fact: our existence is paradoxical in nature. We can try to overcome our true nature by adopting an ideology, or we can embrace the True Faith, which in turn both recognizes and embraces our paradoxical nature in its hymns and theology. Through the Orthodox Faith, we can learn how to live faithfully in our realm which is between this world and the next.
Truth, for the Orthodox Christian, is not a set of apodictic and propositional assertions. It is living in the world but not of the world. It is not a set of facts. It is a realm as Fr. Seraphim Rose brilliantly sets forth in the introduction to his book Nihilism. How to willingly, lovingly abide in this realm is the same challenge today as always. But even more so it seems today, as we are overwhelmed with data, with supposedly new and exciting ideas and solutions, and with what appears, on the surface at least, to be a new level of divisiveness in our society over problems and solutions.
How can we gain a practical understanding of how to live, in a society that is increasingly hostile to Christian faith? A hostility that now extends far beyond the “normal” ignorance and prejudice Orthodox Christians have typically dealt with in a nominally Protestant society, in which spiritual discernment is left entirely to the individual conscience?
It will be helpful to put our situation into some historical context. In the First Century, Orthodox Christians could not work for the Roman state because this required burning incense to the Roman Emperor who, by then, had taken on a god-like position. Practically speaking, you couldn’t be a teacher in a Roman school, serve in the Roman military, or serve in the Roman bureaucracy without betraying your faith. Christians were also violently persecuted at times by both the Romans and Jews, as well as by other pagan rulers, for refusing to publicly disavow Jesus Christ.
But what do you do when pagans, seeking the Kingdom, start knocking on the church door? You invite them in. Members of the military can’t simply be told to leave the military. It doesn’t work that way. We call it desertion, and even today the penalties are very harsh. In those days, it would likely have been a death sentence. So the Church made accommodations with the world, especially as some of the expectations of an eminent Second Coming faded.
From the very beginning the Church had its own internal problems to deal with, to which St. Paul’s epistles to the Romans and the Corinthians both attest. It seems that a not insignificant number of newly baptized Christians thought they were entitled to engage in certain pagan customs, including sexual immorality (Rome), or believed that their own personal charismatic experience was more authoritative than St. Paul’s authority over them which was given by Christ (Corinth).
If you have ever taken a course in Patristics your head will have spun over the historical list of complicated heretical ideas and movements: Docetism, Montanism, Adoptionism, Universalism, Valentinianism and other cults of Gnosticism, Sabellianism, Marcionism, Monarchism, Modalism, Patripassianism, Psilanthropism, Sethianism, Basilideanism, Novatianism and the greatest of all: Arianism.
And that’s only the list up until the beginning of the Christian Roman Empire. You can add sixteen more to the list prior to the Great Schism. Divisiveness hardly begins to describe conditions in the early Church. Heresy and schism, schism and heresy were rampant. Verbal and physical violence were punctuated by relatively short periods of peace and consensus. St. Maximus the Confessor had his tongue cut out so he could not preach, and his right hand cut off so he could not write, and was left to die of exposure in the desert by his own Church for standing up against heresy. St. John Chrysostom died on his own Bataan death march for having the temerity of calling out the Empress for her greed.
Each of the Seven Ecumenical Councils was called to address specific heretical ideas that had taken hold of large segments of the Christian population. These were typically spawned by highly learned Christian leaders, like Arias, who had their own mass following. These controversies were not simply intellectual disputes. Fr. John Romanides has aptly described the Ecumenical Councils as the equivalent of peer-reviewed medical science, designed to properly diagnose the ills of the soul and prescribe their proper treatment. How can your soul be healed if the Holy Spirit is some bush-league pinch hitter? How can you partake of the Divine Nature in the Eucharist if Christ is some kind of phantasm?
There is a tendency today toward a certain complacency, given that all of the great theological controversies have been settled. But some old heresies exist in new form and have even become popular in the Church. Historical progressivism for example. So it is more important than ever for the Orthodox Christian to develop discernment with regard to his relationship with the world. For his paradoxical state has not changed one iota. Our hierarchs and clergy need to recognize this most fundamental situation, preaching and teaching on how we are to navigate this in-between realm. Sadly, we find the Church all too often making accommodations with the world for the sake of a false peace. Like the aftermath of the Armistice in 1918, it only begs for more war in the future.
When do we speak up and when do we remain silent? There may be spiritual obligations in either case that require the capacity to discern. Some spoke up against the insane Covid mandates, and were told by one patriarch that questioning of the scientists must be “terminated,” even though science begins and ends with asking questions.
The Good News is that the answers are not hidden from us. The Church is still producing ascetics, martyrs and saints. It is still producing courageous priests. I think of a nearby Serbian priest who refused to close his church during Covid. That’s a person we should listen to and follow! Monasticism has even been introduced to America. Fr. Seraphim Rose introduced what is perhaps the most revolutionary phrase in the English language: “find the desert in your own backyard.”
We have the very practical writings of the Desert Fathers, who are profoundly contemporary. It’s readily available in good English translation. Many people who are new to Orthodoxy read the Philokalia for its esoteric teachings. But in every paragraph, on every page, our purpose is made clear: to obey His commandments. By obeying His commandments, we are changed. We don’t have to go out and change the world, or fight the world, or dominate the world, or strive to make the world better. Obeying His commandments is a full-time job. And when we are changed, the world around us changes in ways that we cannot comprehend.
The Church teaches us what to change; much of our tradition tells us what we must do to change, and the Church promises us that God will give us the power we need to change, because we cannot change ourselves, nor can we forgive ourselves.
What is the path to change? Simplicity, Stillness, Sobriety (which means being constantly on guard against evil thoughts), Dispassion (which does not mean uncaring. It means not permitting the passions to run and ruin your life), and Forgiveness. Though there are indeed people and forces out there conspiring to destroy everything that is good and true, I cannot allow myself to entertain the thought that these are my enemies. The Christian has no enemies. This is perhaps the most striking paradox of all. No one in the “world”, who is intentionally trying to undermine and destroy everything the Church is built upon, is my enemy.
Then there is this gem from a hymn written by the Nicaean Emperor in the 15th Century: “Overlook not your servant who is drowning in the billowing waves of daily existence!” If you can identify with this plea, then the Orthodox Church is the place for you! I sometimes believe it was made for me. For I am a pathetic Christian. I am lazy and undisciplined. I am susceptible to fear and anger, worry and anxiety about worldly things. I own a struggling business with great potential but I sometimes ask myself if it is worth it. Or, is my life worthless? What have I ever done to please God? Will I be able, in the time remaining, to repent for all of my stupid, vain, heartless words and actions? When I confess that I am the worst of sinners, I no longer mean it metaphorically. But I also am reminded that God used murderers, thieves, prostitutes and even tax collectors to work His will. So I try not to despair. Because of the Orthodox Church, I can live in hope of the Resurrection. In the meantime, I can strive to obey His Commandments and learn how I may serve Him better.
This emphatically does not mean that because I have made some progress, I know better than or that I am better than others. There is much work to be done. Orthodox Christians don’t believe in “works righteousness,” but we do believe in work.
98% of the Christian life involves shoveling manure, because the demons work 24/7 shoveling it into our houses. That’s their job. My job is to notice it, not deny it, not run away from it or pretend it doesn’t stink, but to shovel it out as fast as it comes in. Another 1% involves moments of ecstasy in those precious moments when our egos disappear. The other 1% when we look in the mirror and see in our reflection a pathetic fool who is not entitled to God’s Grace.
Nor do we wait until we are perfect before spreading the Good News! It is very clear that if we try to protect and hold onto the Grace in the Church without sharing it, we, like the withered fig tree, will have it taken away from us. But when we openly share the Good News this will cause some conflict, and, in a certain sense, add to the divisiveness in the world around us. While we do not appoint ourselves as teachers over those who are not ready to hear (prelest), we are all called as apostles in the Great Commission.
In the same above-mentioned Serbian church, I recently was welcomed by a Serbian gentleman who has sung in the choir for twenty years. We talked a bit about how the Serbian Church ought to embrace more English in its services here in America, which he was advocating. But why, really? Then I told him our mission was to convert America to Orthodoxy! He seemed a bit flummoxed by this notion. While we are far from accomplishing that, we should start talking about it at least. And then, sure enough, we will be accused by some of our own Orthodox brothers of being divisive. The world will definitely attack us for being divisive for telling them they are not perfect just the way they are.
How do we tell the truth, and more importantly how do we live the truth, while not coming across as angry or superior? We do it the same way Orthodox Christians have always done, by witnessing to the miraculous changes that Christ has brought about in our lives, without fear or shame. We leave the rest to God.
–Seraphim is a member of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North America
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