g a in s t
R eligio n
Translated by
Norman Russell
O K TM O noX
PRESS
H O LY C R O SS O R T H O D O X PR ESS
Brookline, Massachusetts
2013 H o ly C r o s s O r t h o d o x P re ss
Contents
1. Religiosity
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On the cover:
Pollock, Jackson (1912-1956) ARS, NY. The Flame, c. 1934-38. Oil on canvas
mounted on fiberboard, 20 1/2x30 (51.1 x 76.2 cm). Enid A. HauptFund.
Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
The Museum o f Modern Art, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Digital Image The Museum o f Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art
Resource, NY
1.1 A n Instinctive N e e d . . .
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2. T he Ecclesial Event
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Contents
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Chapter 1
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4.3 Augustine
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4.5 Pietism
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5. O rt h o d o x is m :
T h e R eligio nizatio n o f Ecclesial O r t h o d o x y
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5.2 Confessionalism
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Natural Religiosity?
B ibliograp hy
Index
Religiosity
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Perhaps there is som eth in g else too. People who obey the com
m an dm en ts o f the divine law (the principles o f religious m orality)
often have the certainty (con sciou s or unconscious) that the d i
vine owes th em som e reward for their virtues. They feel th at God
is bou n d by the m erits o f hum an beings, obliged to guarantee them
protection, to help them through lifes difficulties, and to prolon g
their adm irable existence everlastingly.
The truths that the clinical experience o f m odern psychology re
veals with regard to the instinctive character o f the hum an need
for a m oral law w ith religious su ppo rt call for a special study on
how and why the law determ in es on the level o f the unconscious
the relationship between the ego and the superego, on how the su
perego, sad istically internalizing the law, b ecom es an instrum ent
o f ju dgm en t or punishm en t and forces on the ego a m aso ch istic
withdrawal through feelings o f guilt (Schuldgefiihl), or even a need
for self-punishm ent (Strafbediirfnis)}
It is not fortuitous th at in alm ost every religion the typically
sad om aso ch istic syndrom e arises out o f guilt-redem ption-justification . T his is a syndrom e whereby the ego unconsciously and
m asoch istically provokes guilt (always with reference to the law),
so th at by paying the penalty (however painful) th at the superego
d em an ds for the redem ption o f the guilt, the ego m ay win a legally
assu red justification.
1.
Sigmund Freud, Mourning and Melancholia, in vol. 14 o f the Standard Edi
tion o f the Complete Psychological Works o f Sigmund Freud, ed. James Strachey
(London: Hogarth Press and the Institute o f Psycho-Analysis, 1953-74); The
Ego and the Id, chap. 5, in vol. 20 of the Standard Edition, trans. Strachey t #1.
Religiosity
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Religiosity
m any factors), the m ore an xiou s is the effort to achieve visible and
m easurable good works.
Fidelity to the letter o f dogm atic teach in g is a m eritorious achieve
m ent for the individual, and therefore every dogm atic orthodoxy
m akes this (the certainty o f the protection o f the individual) its
boast. This boast, however the certainty that it en gen ders also
dem an ds the su pport o f objective (apodictic) evidence for w hat has
been received. T hus religiosity is very often intertw ined with claim
ing rational validity for m etaphysical convictions, with prioritizing
intellectualist m eth ods o f proving this validity.
Faith ceases to be a struggle to estab lish relations o f tru st and
becom es identified with intellectual convictions it b ecom es the
self-evident synonym o f ideology. The doctrin es are understood a s
a priori (logically n ecessary) received teachings, uncontrolled axi
om s, obligatory ideological principles. A nd as in every ideology, the
acceptance o f these teach in gs is a person al choice, with the result
that religiosity is u nderstood only in term s o f the person al pref
erence o f the individual. Preference for, an d choice of, religious
faith is facilitated (so m etim es even com pelled) by rational argu
m en ts to coun ter objection s an d reservations, by p ro o fs o f im pec
cable rational coherence chiefly for the existence o f God. These
proofs are classified accordin g to the epistem ological field from
which they draw their argu m en ts (we have ontological, cosm ologi
cal, moral, and historical p roo fs for the existence o f G od).
Blind and ineluctable, the in stinct o f self-preservation im poses
on the individual a protective arm orin g o f certainties. And the
need for m etaphysical certainties generates religious convictions,
together with the defen se o f th ese convictions by syllogistic argu
m ents an d the justification o f faith by scientific apologetics it
renders theology a sac ra scien tia. It is not fortuitous that the su
prem e m an ifestations o f in tellectualism in hum an history are
products o f religious need.
T his sam e religious need inherently gives rise to schem es and
in stitutions designed to defend convictions and prin ciples and im
pose them in an active com bative manner. It is not fortuitous that
the first forma o f totalitarianism in hum an history are religious.
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The devising o f (that is, the need for) an infallible leadership, the
juridical control o f thinking, censorship, the index o f prohibited
books, the use o f torture a s a m ethod o f interrogation in the trials
o f h ereticsthese are all o f religious origin. Som etim es the in stin c
tive need to defend religious convictions lead s to w ars o f atrocious
cruelty, ju st a s it leads not only to the m oral but also to the physical
annihilation o f those who think differently by a clean sin g d eath
the clean sin g requiring, for exam ple, that they sh ould be burned
alive at the stake.
Behind this w hole range o f m an ifestations o f the n atural in
dividualistic need for religious certainties, w hat predom in ates is
always the priority o f rational objectivity, an ab so lu te tru st in the
atom ic intellect. The religious individual m akes an idol o f his in
tellectual capacity; he w orships the pow ers o f logical thought. He
w ants to place the certainty that his own convictions and his own
principles are the only correct on es on unshakable foundations. He
w ants to be absolutely sure th at when he defen ds his own convic
tion s and his own principles, he is upholding the only m etaphysical
truth and the highest morality.
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Chapter 2
an d ignorance.
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The first C hristians (drawn from the Jew ish people) constituted
the ecclesia, or Church, apart from any religious ritu als outside
o f any sacred place (or tem ple). They constituted the ecclesia in
their h o m es as a supper, a su pper o f thanksgiving. From the first
m om ent o f its existence, the C hristian ecclesia w as precisely that: a
gath ering for a thanksgiving supper.
For the C hristians the historical m odel for a thanksgiving su p
per w as the p asch al su pper o f the Jews. O nce a year, at a su pper o f
thanksgiving to God, every Jewish fam ily celebrated the Pascha, or
Passover, o f the people o f Israel from Egypt and slavery tow ard the
prom ised lan d an d freedom . In the sam e way, by the su pper o f
thanksgiving, the C hristians too celebrated (every week, but also
m ore frequently when they could) their own pasch al p assin g over
to freedom from the lim itations o f our created hum an nature (from
bondage to place, tim e, decay, and death).
There w as an obvious difference from the m odel provided by
Jew ish tradition; the Churchs su pper referred not to the anam nesis,
or com m em oration, o f a historical p ast but to the expectation and
im aging (in its potential realization here and now) o f an eschatological future: o f a mode by which hum an bein gs could exist in
a state o f freedom from their nature, from the predeterm in ation s
an d n ecessities th at th is nature im poses.
The difference from any other kind o f ban qu et is also clear. The
supper that con stituted the Church w as the realization o f a differ
ent mode o f receiving food. The C hristians took bread an d wine
(the basic form s o f food) not sim ply in obedience to the natural
need for individual self-preservation but in order to com m une in a
real way with life, with existence. They did so in order to com m une
not on the level o f an em otion al or psychological sen se o f exalta
tion but on the level o f the vital function that eatin g and drinking
represent. They w anted to transform the necessity o f nature into
the freedom o f relation, into love.
The peaceful an d loving sh aring o f bread an d the drinking
o f wine in com m on are a sym bol, a sym bol that refers to a h om o
geneous com m union o f life, that con stitutes a participation in the
struggle o f a com m on mode o f existence. And this mode is the tak
ing o f food/life an a gift o f m anic love for every hum an bein gthe
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h ypostases.
4. See the temptation of Christ, Matt 4:1-11.
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p erso n loves.
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self-em ptying, fashion, and oth ers are led and guided becau se they
en tru st them selves in a kenotic, or self-em ptying, fashion. Som e
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discernible, false w ords are reality, and actual (though not deliber
ately desired) incoherence is nonexistent.
Heresy, moreover, is to pervert the use o f signifiers in order to
give an illusory sen se o f power in stead o f in order to m inister to
the illum ination o f w hat is signified. It is to alienate the m inistry
o f fatherhood, which functions a s the grafting o f people onto the
body o f the Church, and turn it into the pleasure o f exercising au
thority over consciences. It is to objectify the form ulations o f eccle
sial experience and m ake them tru th s that have been turned into
idols. It is to w orship the letter o f the form ulations, their correct
und erstan din g on the atom ic level, w ithout the sligh test inkling
abou t the conditions o f participation in the com m on struggle that
Chapter 3
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unresolved is the follow ing: the bish ops decide infallibly w ithout
the plerom a o f the Church on the b asis o f the charism o f their of
fice, but a presu pposition o f the validity o f infallibility is the con
sen t o f the plerom al
The idolizin g dem and for objectification (in the form o f pri
vately held atom ic certainties) replaces living experiential tradition
with a confused m ass o f intellectual an d legal schem atization s. In
order to specify w hat the con sen sus Patrum (the agreem ent o f the
Fathers) con sists in, we m u st define with objective criteria which
o f the b ish ops an d teachers m ay be considered Fathers o f the
Church and which sh ould be denied such recognition. The m ost
com m only used legal schem atization is th at we sh ould describe as
Fathers those ecclesiastical w riters w hose texts and form ulations
have been used by the ecum enical councils for the com position o f
conciliar decisions, or those who have provided rich m aterial for
the con struction o f a full dogm atic system , even if their contribu
tion w as not specifically recognized by a council.
A schem atic definition o f th is kind is unable to include am ong
the Fathers o f the Church bish ops who have not left any w ritings,
even if the ecclesial body has always acknow ledged in their persons
the palpable realization o f its esch atological h o pe such as Spyridon o f Trim ythous, or N icholas o f Myra in Lycia. The problem is
resolved by the addition o f a su pplem en tary criterion for the rec
ognition o f objective patristic status, the criterion o f holiness,
at which point a new cycle o f attem pts begin s in order to define
(now with objectivity) the elem ents o f holin ess or the evidence
su ppo rtin g it.
The sequence o f legal dem an ds proves to be a vicious circle:
n eeds for assu red certainties constantly m ount up, schem atic con
struction s for excluding any hint o f d o u bt becom e ever m ore com
plex. Intricate laws o f sacred disciplin e (sac rae disciplinae leges),
like th o se that nature d em an ds for its self-preservation, underm ine
the reality o f life: the struggle for relations o f com m union, the ad
venture o f freedom .
W hen an ideological construct replaces experiential attestation
and ascetic investigation, such an alien atin g substitution im m e
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See Leonidas Philippidis, Historia tes epoches tes Kaines Diathekes (Athens,
1958), 462, 487. Isaac Bashevis Singer writes on Jewish legalism, One law in
the Torah generated a dozen in the Mishnah and five dozen in the Gemara; in the
later commentaries laws were as numerous as the sands o f the desert (The Slave
[London: Seeker and Warburg, 1963], 117).
21. Canon 38 o f Nicephorus, patriarch o f Constantinople.
22. Canon 2 of Dionysius, archbishop o f Alexandria.
23. Canon 5 of Timothy of Alexandria.
24. Canon o f John the Faster On Raving after Men.
25. Canon 36 of Nicephorus o f Constantinople.
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In stan ces are m any and varied: the Corpus Ju ris Canonici o f the
Rom an C atholics; the police-like m oralism o f the C alvinists; the p i
etism o f the Lutherans; the p u ritanism o f the M ethodists, Baptists,
and Q uakers; the idolized M anichaeism o f the A n abaptists, Old
A postolics, Zwinglians, C ongregationalists, and Salvation Army.
We find the sam e neurotic fun dam en talism in the G enuine O r
thodox, both in Greece and in the Slavic countries.
Each o f these group s and m any m ore represent several gen
eration s o f people, th o u san d s or m illions o f hum an beings, who
have lived their one unique life on earth in a hell o f im aginary guilt,
repressed desires, relentless anxiety, an d n arcissistic self-torture.
W hole generations have been trapped unw ittingly in the torm ent
o f legalism , in the disabled existence o f a loveless life. They identi
fied erotic love with the fear o f sin, virtue with repugnance for their
own body, and a perceptible expression o f affection with disgu st at
a hum iliating con cession to the brutish side o f hum an nature.
All this has taken place to serve an instinctive n eed for the gu ar
an teed certainty o f individual salvation, for the eternal safegu ard
ing o f the self.
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accord o f the Sons will with the will o f the Fathers love.27 The a c
tive will refers to the m ode o f freedom , and the accord o f the wills
is signified as the Sons obedience (cf. Phil 2:8), that is, as the free
dom o f love. Christ, in the language o f the Churchs experience, is
free from the lim itations o f divinity and o f hum anity only because
he loves the Father and his love, as freedom o f obedience (accord
o f the w ills), is the mode o f his existence. The historical presence
o f the incarnate Son/W ord is a revelation o f freedom as love, and
o f love as unboun ded existential freedom . Love is the cau sal prin
ciple o f the voluntary sonsh ip an d the voluntary fatherhood in the
incom prehensible m ystery o f the Triadic G odhead.
27. I can do nothing on my own (John 5:30); The Son can do nothing on
his own (5:19); The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very
works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent m e (5:36).
28. Do this in remembrance o f m e (Luke 22:19); For as often as you eat
this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lords death until he comes
(1 Cor 11:26),
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All th ese thin gs (broken and distribu ted but not divided) are
w hat are partaken o f in the ecclesial Eucharist. Food (bread and
wine) is partaken o f a s a real reference to the m ode by which the
Son sh ares existence with the Father. T his sam e mode h ypostasizes
the incarnation o f the Son; it is the body and blood o f C hrist
the existential reality o f freedom from the lim itations o f created
n ess. In the Eucharist w hat is sh ared is the gift o f p articipation in
this mode, an d the sh aring o f the gift is a reality: from one bread
an d one cup we receive the prerequisite o f life. The gift is received
by shared participation, not as som ethin g p o ssessed individually,
in such a way that the actual reception is also a real offering, with
nothin g objectified a s a support for a privately p o ssessed individual
guarantee. Your own o f your own we offer to you.
N othing is objectified a s a definitive given fact in the eucharistic
m eal, the ecclesial event. The on tological reality o f the flesh and
blood o f Christ, the mode o f freedom from createdn ess, cannot be
an object that the hum an individual can p o ssess and have sover
eignty over. The bread and wine o f the Churchs Eucharist can never
be a religiously sacralized m agic fetish offered for individual con
su m ption so a s to guarantee individual salvation.
N evertheless, the religionization o f the ecclesial event h as in
m any situ atio n s an d historical periods succeeded, progressively
and im perceptibly, in m aking even the eucharistic m eal su b ject to
the d em an ds o f egocentric priorities. A vital achievem ent o f reli
gion ization w as to turn the food an d drink that is shared into a su
pernatural ob ject in itself, an interpretation that resu lts in the sat
isfaction o f the instinctive religious need o f the natural individual
to p o sse ss the m iracle, the mystery, and the validity, as an object.
The m iracle, the mystery, and the validity are sum m arized and o b
jectified in the sen sib le form s o f bread and wine th an ks to the idea
o f their tran su bstan tiation in the Eucharist.
The term transu bstantiation (tran ssu b stan tiatio , a change o f
essence or n ature) first began to be used in the Rom an Catholic
will live becauae o f me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like
that which your anceitori ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will
live forever" (John 6i49-58).
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rem em brance o f the sacrifice o f Christ on the cross, sen sible signs
that can transm it som e kind o f grace an d pow er to u s when we re
ceive them a s com m on food and drink.
Both the reception and the refutation o f the transubstantiation
o f the bread an d wine o f the Eucharist ap p ear to be approach es
equally en m esh ed in the term s o f the religionization o f the eccle
sial event. The first term o f religionization (its startin g point and
cau sal principle) is in the individualization o f participation in the
Eucharist, which also en tails the objectification o f participation.
The reception o f the bread and the w ine is isolated, separated from
participation in the event o f sh aring in the relations that con sti
tute the Eucharist (the eucharistic body o f the C hurch) com m u
nion b ecom es an atom ic event, unrelated to existential change, to a
change in the mode o f existence.
I define a s atom ic an event th at is exhausted w ithin the term s
o f the n eeds an d aim s o f the individual, w hereupon it is inevitably
judged by the stan dard o f the satisfaction o f individual dem ands,
o f individual usefulness, benefit, and efficacity. Thus even the eu
charistic species, from an individualistic perspective, are assessed
principally for w hat they are in them selves their reality is d e
finedwith a view to ju dgin g how far they respond to individual
religious need. Are they sim ply sym bols and representations (figurae, sim ilitudines) o f the body an d blood o f Christ, or are we d eal
ing with a change o f essen ce into an oth er essence that happen s
instantaneously, w ith the acciden ts (o f the bread an d the w ine) re
m aining u nch anged?31
The religious need o f individuals is to know, with certainty and
assurance, w hat exactly they are eatin g and drinking in the eu ch a
ristic m eal. Are they being offered the incarnate G odhead with the
elem ents bein g received only under the appearance o f bread and
wine, or is th at which they receive in com m union to be identified
with w hat it ap p ears to be, an d is it only in an allegorical fashion
that the bread an d the wine recall the incarnate divinity o f Christ
(refer to it on an intellectual level)? Instinctive religiosity d em ands
31.
K. Dyovounlotia, Ta mysteria tes Anatolikes Orthodoxou Ekklesias (Ath
ens, 1912), 101.
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gift sh ared w ith broth ers an d sisters; any reference (even an indi
rect one) to relations o f com m union, to the form ation o f the eccle
sial body, is m issing. The office w ould have been the sam e even if
the tran sform ation o f the bread an d w ine could have been accom
plish ed w ithout the Eucharist tak in g place or in the ab sen ce o f the
assem bly o f brothers an d sisters.
T he w hole focus o f the prayers and hym ns is on the interest
o f the petitioner in secu rin g a person al assurance, on the an n u l
m ent o f person al sins, on having ones person al unw orthiness over
looked. The concern is that the C hristian a s an individual should
receive the supern atural gifts w ithout gu ilt and w ithout con
dem nation. T he fact th at the ecclesial event, the existence o f fel
low com m unican t brothers an d sisters, is em phatically ignored is
truly aston ish in g.33
T he hym ns and prayers o f the office refer to the sp ecies offered
for com m union with definitions, descriptions, and m ean in gs that
clearly p resu ppo se an objectified sen se o f tran su bstan tiation . And
it is n atural that th is form o f expression should prevail the m om ent
the ecclesial character o f com m union (relations o f koinonia) w as
b ypassed or ignored.
33.
In the Churchs collections o f holy canons, there is included a letter by
Basil the Great, To the Patrician Caesaria on How Often We Should Receive Holy
Communion (see Hamilcar Alivizatos, Hoi Hieroi Kanones [Athens, 1949], 398).
If the letter is genuine, the information it gives us is astonishing. It testifies to
the fact that already in the fourth century it is taken for granted, even by a great
luminary o f the Church like Basil, that the reception o f the eucharistic gifts may
be detached from communion at the meal and participation in the assembly of
the ecclesial body or mode o f existence, and may function according to the terms
and practices o f a need and use centered on the individual: All those living as
monks in the deserts where there is no priest and they possess communion at
home may communicate themselves. In Alexandria and in Egypt, laypeople for
the m ost part have communion in their own homes and when they wish to do so
communicate by themselves. For once the priest has completed the sacrifice and
given it, he who takes it and communicates from it every day should believe that
he is receiving communion from the priest. For in the church too the priest gives
a portion in addition and he who receives it keeps it with all authority and thus
puts it to his mouth with his own hand. It is therefore possible for him to receive
either one portion from the priest, or many portions all together.
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34. Basil the Great of Caesarea, On the Holy Spirit 45 (PG 32:149C).
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dow ing with form. Now the truly existent is the person as the pri
m ary existential given: an in dependent hy p ostasis o f self-conscious
freedom , freedom that is realized existentially/hypostatically as
love, as self-transcendence an d self-offering.
Furtherm ore, the change in the location o f the truly existent
also changed the syntax o f lan gu age/art, the m orphological expres
sion o f the signifiers, their functional use. In the Byzantine icon,
for exam ple, the syntax rem ains as abstractive a s in the ancient
Greek statu e. Now, however, the ab stractio n o f the acciden ts (which
would have tied the scene to natural atom icity) invites the viewer
to p ass over not from an intellectual perception o f the individual
to the universal essence/idea but from a view ing/contem plation to
relation/com m un ion : to approach in g the prototype o f the icon (the
hypostatic oth ern ess to which the icon refers) through the struggle
to transcend the self, to attain a relationship o f love.
At any rate, both in the case o f an cient Greek art and in that o f
the H ellenizing art o f the Church (so-called Byzantine art), what
is aim ed at is the detection an d dem onstration o f the m eaning o f
the existent. The objective is that art should function as an invita
tion to work back to this m eaning, to participate in the sh aring o f
the m eaning. A ncient Greek and Byzantine art served the struggle
o f m etaphysical inquiry; they did not serve convictions, certain
ties, or teach in gs su ppo rtin g religious (individual-centered)
self-sufficiency.
It could be argued that the syntax that serves the representational
relationship betw een lan gu age/art and reality corresponds preem i
nently to the d em an ds o f an individualistic (instinctive) religiosity.
Religious lan gu age/art w ants to teach, to inculcate convictions and
regulative principles, to m ove people em otionally a s individuals,
to p u t su ggestio n s to them , to offer them a sen se o f euphoria, o f
m ystical experience. R eligious lan gu age/art n arrates su pern atu
ral events, represen ts didactic scenes, decorates the liturgical space
in an evocative m anner, and con stitutes it (sh apes it) with the aim
o f im pressing individuals, o f affecting them psychologically, o f
com pelling respect for the authenticity o f the supernatural, for the
authority o f the sacred.
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offer a b rief historical review o f the process. But the possibility, the
tem ptation , or the aberration s alon e o f religionization d o not con
stitu te a threat o f alienation o f the ecclesial event. W hat con stitutes
a threat is the in stitutionalization o f the aberration. And we begin
to discern an in stitutionalized religionization o f ecclesial language
an d art in a specific historical period an d geographical area: in Cen
tral an d W estern Europe a few centuries after the collapse o f the
W estern Rom an Em pire (AD 476) an d the gradual m arginalization
there o f Latin Orthodoxy. Religionization is institutionalized in the
context o f the new reality that em erged in the W est with the inva
sion an d settlem ent (from the end o f the fourth century and chiefly
in the fifth an d sixth centuries) o f (then) barbarian tribes (Goths,
Franks, H uns, Burgundians, Vandals, Lom bards, N orm ans, A ngles,
and Saxons) that sw iftly em braced Christianity.
R espon sibility for a superficial conversion to C hristianity, and
for the alien atio n and religio n ization o f the ecclesial event, can
not be laid on the p eo p le s who in th at period could not po ssib ly
have perceived the difference betw een the C hurch an d a religion.
It w as im p o ssib le for th em to follow the then prevailin g Greek
ex pression (in lan gu age an d art) o f th is difference. T h is exp res
sio n derived from an d su m m arized the cen tu ries-o ld stru ggle o f
the G reek w orld in the fields o f ph ilosoph y an d art, a struggle (a
b attle o f th e g ian ts ab o u t essen ce, th at is, ab o u t the en igm a o f
existen ce) assim ilated by ecclesial experien ce an d finally ab le to
illu m inate the m ost p en etratin g an d fruitful q u estio n s ever p o sed
by hum an th ought.
The new p o pu latio n s in Central an d W estern Europe rapidly
ad o pted C hristianity b ecau se C hristianity w as synonym ous with
access to civilization. Slowly, by a con sisten t p rocess o f evolution,
th ese peo ples began to attain a civilized way o f life, so th at after
m any centuries they cam e to m ake advances hitherto unknown in
hum an history. They were led to create their own cultural p ara
digm , at the op posite pole to the G reco-Rom an paradigm but with
extrem ely im pressive achievem ents the first and hitherto only
civilization with an in com parable global reach.
The peoples o f the W est, however, at their first (and, for their
historical development, definitive) reception o f Christianity did not
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a falsified form ju st as later (when the Turks had rem oved H elle
nism from the historical scene) they also appropriated the h istori
cal continuity o f the Rom an Em pire (falsifying the thousand-year
flowering o f the Greco-Rom an world centered on New R om e/C on
stan tin ople by calling it Byzantium ) and ju st as they appropri
ated, w ithout any historical justification, an exclusive right to m an
age the ancient Greek cultural heritage.
From the twelfth century onward, art in the W est begins to express
the fully accom plished religionization o f the ecclesial eventwith
a clarity p erh ap s greater than that o f theological language. In socalled G othic35 architecture (technically, o f course, o f great bril
liance both in conception and execution), a religious/ideological
intentionality is clearly dom inant: the structure o f Gothic buildings
is m eant to im press, to have a psychological im pact on the indi
vidual, to su ggest a sen se o f the m ajesty o f the building and o f the
institution that is to be identified with the building. H um an beings
are m eant to feel sm all and insignificant, and therefore feel awe and
reverence for the power o f religious authority.
We are at the op posite pole to ancient Greek an d Byzantine ar
chitecture. The techniques o f Gothic construction are not the p rod
uct o f a struggle to express reverence for the rational possibilities
o f m atter the possib ilities that m atter should give flesh to him
who is w ithout flesh and should com prehend him who is incom
prehensible, that the building sh ould m anifest the ecclesial body
o f the Word. On the contrary, in Gothic architecture the m aterial is
forced, is tam ed rationally, in order to serve psychological pu rposes
or ideological designs.
3 5 . 1 quote the brief but comprehensive entry in the Eleutheroudaki Concise
Encyclopedic Dictionary [in Greek] (Athens, 1935): The Gothic style, chiefly a
style o f architecture, has nothing to do with the Goths but was named thusby
Raphael (Rafaello Santi or Sanzio, 1483-1520)as a 'barbarian art in contrast
to the classical. It first began to be developed in the twelfth century in NW Eu
rope and was the dominant style for the rest o f the Middle Ages. Its characteristic
features are the pointed arch and the emphasis on soaring lines. The oldest and
most beautiful monuments o f this art are churches and public buildings found
in NW Europe (Notre Dame o f Paris, the cathedrals o f Rheims, Amiens, Ant
werp, Dijon, Canterbury, Cologne and Upsala, Westminster Abbey and the town
halls of Louvain, Ghent, Mons, etc.).
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In the work, for exam ple, o f Van Eyck, Pisanello, or Van der
Weyden, the style (u se o f colors, com position, figures, background)
is wholly subjected to the d em an ds o f a cognitive certainty that is
provided, as im m ediacy o f experience, only through the senses.
The real is m anifested in the portrayal o f the natural and o b
jective; it is perceived only as a response to the subjective sen se o f
the dim ensional, o f the ontic.
A realistic visual represen tation w ants to su b ject atom ic o p
tics to psychological intentionalities centered on the individual. It
wants to teach, but also to stir the em otion s objectively, to m ake
the im pression s that define and exhaust the m ean in g o f w hat is
represented su b ject to the individuals sen ses. H ence too the op ti
cal illusions, the lines o f perspective, the receding background, the
trompe /oe/7 effects, and the play o f chiaroscuro that becom e the
artists m ean s o f m oving the em otions, o f stim u latin g our nervous
system , o f producin g a sen se o f euphoria in us: a sen se o f resurrec
tion, o f exaltation.
It is the su b ject m atter o f w orks o f art (and that alone) that distin
guishes the secu lar from the religious the received historical
san ctity o f persons, events, or lan d scap es determ in es the religious
character o f the picture. The sam e perso n s an d objects portrayed
are th ose o f the experience o f dim ension al space and m easurable
tim e there is no am bition or need on the part o f the artist to tran
scend the fleeting phenom enicity o f ontic atom icities.
Consequently, in the W ests religious painting any young
w om an can be the m odel for a represen tation o f the Virgin Mary,
or any young m an can lend his form for a represen tation o f Christ
or a saint. Any lan dscap e can su b stitu te for the place o f the ap o ca
lyptic sig n s o f the gospels. The b od iless angels are represented
like beings endow ed with flesh an d the density o f m ateriality. Even
the C ausal Principle o f all that exists, who is in accessible to any
definitionthe invisible, unim aginable, incom prehensible, inex
pressible, u nn am eable Father is represented as a w hite-haired
old man. And the Paraclete, the life-giving Spirit o f the Father, is
shown as a well-fed pigeon!
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m ajority o f the C hristian world, in both the W est an d the East, has
finally been brought about.
In w hat are still called O rthodox churches, there continues to
be celebrated every year the Sunday o f Orthodoxy, a feast celebrat
ing the R estoration o f Icons in 843, w hen the ecclesial language o f
the icons w as saved from the attack o f the icon oclastsw hen the
ecclesial con sciou sn ess that is expressed in the art o f the Churchs
icons w as preserved. Iconoclasm w as a typical exam ple o f a religious
outlook th at idolizes intellectual con cepts and m oral teachings,
that refuses to risk attaining relation/com m un ion , to risk passin g
over to the prototype o f the personal hy postasis o f being.
The R estoration o f the Icons continues to be celebrated by the
O rthodox, but in churches where ecclesiastical icons no longer
exist, where n aturalistic religious painting predom in ates either en
tirely or for the m ost part. R epresentations o f sen sible and eph em
eral reality, m aking idols o f sen tim ental feelings an d o f a naive di
dacticism , are honored and carried in procession in the place o f
the icons, w ithout any idea that the feast is being celebrated with
its term s term s/sign ifiers o f the Churchs go sp el com pletely
overturned.
Art loudly and im placably proclaim s the Churchs religioniza
tion. Conceptual language h as artifices for hiding alienation, for
disgu isin g the fake and so d o es religious piety: it is superb at
m ain taining the illusion o f authenticity. Art, however, is not good
at subterfuges. It inevitably reveals the mode by which th ose who
practice it an d th o se who ch oose it see reality and endow it with
m ean in g art cann ot hide the n eeds th at it serves. The G othic style
in the M iddle A ges (and, successively, the baroque, the rococo, and
the neoclassical form s o f architecture) clearly sought to provide a
settin g for religious rites, not to h ou se the event o f the Churchs
Eucharist. The churches built in the O rthodox countries from the
nineteenth century to the present day have the sam e aim : they cry
out that they are utterly unrelated to the eucharistic event and the
eucharistic eth o s they serve an individualistic psychological reli
giosity, chiefly w hen they im itate (with stereotypical form s, th at is,
with a sh am intention) the Byzantine m odel.
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m usic for individual, even if pious, con sum ption do not necessarily
indicate a return to the ecclesial event.
T he fact is clear: ecclesial art can n ot exist w ith ou t the fu n ctio n
in g o f a livin g cell o f th e ecclesial body: a eu ch aristic com m u n ity /
p arish .
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with the assem bly o f the parish com m unity w as also excluded liturgically the parish becam e fixed in the popu lar con sciou sn ess as
an an n ex or branch o f a religious institution that offers services
quantitatively sufficient to satisfy the psychological n eeds o f indi
viduals who are strangers to each other.
In the parish es o f m odern conurbations that num ber tens o f
th o u san d s o f parishioners, people participate in the Eucharist in
con ditions o f com plete anonym ity and isolation from each other.
Each churchgoer is an unknow n person am on g other unknown
persons, m ore alone than in the auditorium o f a cinem a, theater,
or concert hall, or on the terraces o f a football ground. Each prays
alone, feels com pun ction alone, is tau gh t alone, and exults or
m ourns alone, w ithout com m unicatin g anything with those stan d
ing in close proximity. And all patiently aw ait their turn to com
m unicate o f the bread and wine, assu red intellectually and psy
chologically that they are receiving the body and blood o f Christ
from the h ands o f a celebrant with w hom they do not have even
a form al personal acqu ain tan ce ju st as they have not exchanged
even a perfunctory greeting with those who com m unicate before
or after them from the com m on cup.
It is revealing th at language, w hen its sem antic function is not con
trolled by reason, returns with religionization to the vocabulary o f
a natural religion. G reek-speaking C hristians no longer refer, ei
ther privately or officially, to presbyters an d bish ops; they speak o f
p riests and high priests, as in any religion. A nd this change in lan
guage reflects a change in the reality o f w hat is signified.
In reality the bishop, under conditions o f religionization, is only
or chiefly a high priest. He is an official o f a religious institution,
the bearer o f sacred authority, the governor and judge o f priests
absolutely dependent upon his decision s, the m onarchic head o f
services an d offices o f the organization al m achine that con stitutes
his diocese, and the adm inistrator o f often a large am oun t o f capital
deriving from the incom e o f parish es and m onasteries, gifts, and
subventions. There are hardly any institutional possibilities for him
to be the father and pastor o f a body o f relations o f com m union.
Fatherhood and pastoral responsibility are construed as an ob liga
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tion to hand out piou s advice, proffer encouragem ent, and utter
m oralizing p latitu d es the cross-bearin g service o f a bishop has
been distorted to becom e a m on om ania for preaching. The bishop
is obliged to be a prop agan dist for ideological convictions and
regulative prin ciples o f conduct, and also a provider o f works o f
public benefit: philanthropic foundations, welfare in stitutes, and
altruistic initiatives.
The episcopal m odel in conditions o f religionization is clearly
Vatican-inspired. The high priest/pon tifex controls the fidelity o f
the clergy to the official religious ideology and their adequacy to
the task o f serving the religious n eeds o f the people. Chiefly, how
ever, he takes care o f his im age as C hrists representative on earth
(vicarius Christi)w hat is o f prim ary im portance is the theatrical
grandeur o f his liturgical appearance: provocatively ostentatious,
opulent, and detach ed from reality. Everything is justified as sym
bolic (in a highly intellectualistic sen se), w hereas its historical
provenance confirm s the shrewd adaptation o f certain personal
privileges that em perors granted to specific patriarchs.37
The distin guish in g m ark o f the bishop w as the pallium
(om ophorion) worn over the presbyters chasuble {phelonion)as
the Fathers o f the Church are represented in the iconographical
tradition. Today, even in the sm allest and m ost hum ble diocese the
high priest (archiereus) and m aster (despotes) m ou n ts a throne
while dressed literally as a person not belonging to this world
am ong his p easan t or w orking-class flock. He is vested in the tu
nic (sak k o s) o f a Rom an em peror (or a m antle with a long train), a
crown (m itra), and a scepter (p a te ritsa )and he is acclaim ed in
cessantly by choirs o f cantors (with the im perial acclam ation Eis
polla ete despota, May you live m any years, m aster) and incensed
by the deacons like a pagan statue.
The high p r ie s ts defend this now tradition al cerem onial,
explaining that they need to be clothed in this m ythical m ajesty to
sym bolize Christ, who assu m ed hum an nature in order to glorify
37.
See Robert Taft, The Pontifical Liturgy o f the Great Church according to
a Twelfth-Century Diataxis in Codex British Museum Add. 34060, pt. 1, Orientalia Christiana Periodica 45 (1979): 279-397; and pt. 2, Orientalia Christiana
Periodica 46 (1980): 82-124.
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it w ith a royal glory. They do not explain why they m u st sym bolize
only the royal glory o f C hrists hum an nature an d never the m odel
he laid down for his d isciples: You also ought to w ash one an oth
ers feet. For I have set you an exam ple, th at you also should do as I
have done to you (John 13:14-15); And w hoever w ishes to be first
am o n g you m u st be your slave (M att 20:27).
T hese are w ords w hose m ean in g has been enervated by the in
stin ctual need o f religionization. It is a m atter o f genuine perplex
ity how people who receive such honors sacralizin g their perso n s
m an age to preserve som e kind o f psychological (and intellectual)
b alan ce especially w hen they have ascen ded to such m agnificence
from relatively low social an d cultural origins (as is often the case
in m odern con ditions), and m oreover w hen all this self-evident,
program m atic, an d in stitutionalized flattery o f their narcissistic
in stincts is accom pan ied by sexual privation. Such privation (often
or as a rule) h as not been chosen b ecau se o f any inclination toward
the m on astic and ascetical life, or b ecau se o f a desire to participate
in a com m on effort to attain com m union w ithin the context o f a
cenobitic m on astic community. Sexual privation h as been accepted
program m atically as a career requirem ent, a s the path to religious
offices carrying authority.
At any rate, the m ost painful con sequen ce o f the high priestly
alienation o f the b ish ops function is largely the obscu ring o f the
goal (the hope for all hum anity) that the ecclesial event serves. The
b ish ops high priestly behavior d isto rts the eucharistic reality o f
the ecclesial event, m aking it a religious spectacle, a satisfaction
for individuals to be consum ed em otionally w ithout any relation to
a change in mode o f existence. (The priority o f the spectacle is so
im perative th at frequently in "O rth odox Liturgies the high p riest
po stp o n es participation o f the faithful in the eucharistic cup until
the end o f the service, so as not to interrupt the theatrical flow o f
the ritual. C om m union is po stpon ed as if it is a secondary elem ent
o f a private character.)
The eucharistic event transform ed into a spectacle becom es an
exclusive m atter o f the priests and high priests serving it; the laity
sim ply follow it passively as consum ers. In religionized w orship the
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laity are not n eeded for the perform ance o f the rites. The ob jec
tive o f the rites is not so that the Church, the body o f a neighbor
hood, sh ould be assem b led and m anifested. T hat is why the Rom an
C atholics have ab olish ed even the nom inal presence o f a eu ch a
ristic body a s a requirem ent for the celebration o f the Eucharist.
The priest (or bish op) is perm itted to celebrate the Eucharist alone
in his room , com m unicatin g h im self from that which is unshared
in com m union.
The O rth odox have n ot yet been so con sisten t a s to ad o p t this
position.
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The Persian entari, the wide-sleeved Turkish cuppe, and the Ital
ian kalymmafchi (the former head covering o f legal officials) rem ain
to this day, in European countries with a predom inantly O rthodox
tradition, the everyday dress o f clerics, both m arried and celibate.
Borrowed item s o f clothing that have been adopted to preserve a d is
tinctively priestly appearance, they function a s a uniform o f som eone
exercising authority the bishop and the presbyter o f the eucharistic
body clearly conform to what is required o f the external appearance
o f religious functionaries. They return to what the words o f the go s
pel condem ned in relation to the Pharisees and scribes: Do not do
as they d o . . . for they m ake their phylacteries broad and their fringes
long. They love to have the place o f honor at banquets and the best
seats in the synagogues, and to be greeted with respect in the m ar
ketplaces, and to have people call them rabbi. But you are not to be
called rabbi (M att 23:3-8; cf. Luke 22:26).
The ad d ress rabbi, however, is m ost decorous in com parison with
the extrem ely flattering m odes o f ad d ress for clerics that have long
been in use in O rthodox environm ents, preserving an idolized
Byzantine tradition. A celibate presbyter, for exam ple, is ad
dressed as p an osiologiotatos (all holy and m ost learn ed). H is sta
tu s lavishes on him the m ost com plete holin ess and the deepest
learning. A m arried priest is absolutely to be revered: aidesim dtatos
(m ost reverend) or aidesim ologiotatos (reverend and m ost
learn ed). A bishop is suprem ely beloved o f God (theophilestatos);
a m etropolitan is suprem ely venerable (sebasm iotatos); an arch
bishop is suprem ely blessed (m ak ariotato s). A patriarch, especially
the patriarch o f C onstantinople, concentrates in his person the full
range o f holiness: he is pan agib tatos, allow ing no further m argin
linguistically for ad d ressin g God. The patriarch o f A lexandria, in
the acclam ations su n g to him, is add ressed as father o f fathers,
shepherd o f shepherds, thirteenth ap o stle!
Every society d ev ise s cu sto m ary ex p ressio n s o f polite a d
d re ss to h on or an d flatte r its d istin g u ish ed m em b ers in socalled Byzantium su ch form s o f a d d re ss were cultivated playfully
with exception al skill. But the preserv atio n o f the sam e form s
o f ad d re ss m any c en tu ries later, in so cieties accu sto m ed now to
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The attitu de o f the New Testam ent to sexuality also calls for care
ful herm eneutical attention. H ere we are d ealin g with texts not
with theoretical ideological declarations but with testim on ies to
the experience o f a particular (historically and culturally) ecclesial
community. T his w as a com m unity necessarily em b edd ed in the
language and ou tlook o f the broader social environm ent, a specific
historical tim e and geographical place.
In spite o f all this, in the texts o f the G ospels there is not the
slightest hint giving u s groun ds for su p p o sin g a fear or depreciation
o f sexuality or repugnance toward it. Even when the d isciples re
m arked that perh aps it is better not to m arry in view o f the difficul
ties o f rem aining faithful to a m on ogam ou s relationship, C hrists
reply w as clearly cautious. He speaks o f those who are deprived by
nature o f the power to enter into sexual relations and distin guish es
them from th ose w hose privation is im posed socially (through an
external cau se). And he d istin guish es both o f these cases from the
possibility o f achieving ascetical freedom , the release from n atu
ral necessity, with the sole aim o f attain in g the fullness o f loving
self-transcendence and self-offering in the im age o f the Triadic
M odel that the Church always keeps before it (cf. M att 19:2-12).
The m aterial in the w ritings o f the A postle Paul is m ore extensive.
There we encounter both a very clear perspective on the new mode
o f existence that the Church proclaim s and also som e reiteration o f
the prevailing language (and consequently on the perceptions) o f
the natural religion o f his ag e chiefly when he dictates principles
o f sexual behavior to his Christian contem poraries.
Pauls perspective on the new mode o f existence, in relation to
sexuality, is very clear when he proclaim s the transcendence o f the
difference between the sexes in C hrist Jesu s: There is no longer
m ale and fem ale (Gal 3:28). It is also very clear w hen he seeks an
absolu te equality betw een m en and w om en scarcely conceivable
in the social and cultural environm ent o f his tim e: The husband
sh ould give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likew ise the wife
to her husband. For the wife d o es not have authority over her own
sings the fiftieth psalm and makes forty-nine prostrations, it is believed that this
cleanses the pollution: Canon 6 o f John the Faster.
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body, but the h u sban d does; likewise the h u sban d do es not have
authority over his own body, but the wife d o es (1 Cor 7:3-4). And
it is very clear w hen he advises m arried couples not to deprive each
other o f the joy and pleasu re o f sex. And th is is not so th at they
m ight rem ain su b ject to the natural n ecessity o f reproduction but
only for the sake o f their own relationship except when the two o f
th em agree on a tem porary period o f abstinence for the pu rpose o f
practicing asceticism , a trial o f freedom from natural necessity (cf.
1 Cor 7:5).
A nd th e ecclesial perspective on relatio n s betw een m en and
w om en reach es its clim ax in Paul with the fam o u s p assag e in h is
E pistle to the E ph esian s w here he see s in the loving union o f a
m an an d a w om an an d in the sh arin g o f th e w hole o f life the im
age o f C h rists relation w ith the Church, an im age th at is not m et
aph orical or intellectually allegorized b u t is an im ag e/m an ifesta
tion o f the pow er o f h u m an b ein gs to realize the in carn ate Son s
vital relation sh ip w ith h um an ity (vital in th at it is the provider
o f un lim ited life) as an existen tial event through th eir p sy ch o so
m atic created nature. T h is is a pow er th at defin es th at w hich the
Church calls a m ystery th at w hich sh arply d istin g u ish es eccle
sial m arriage from the n atu ral/so c ial/le g al in stitu tio n o f m arriage
(cf. Eph 5:21-33).
W ithin the con text o f th e m utually self-tran scen den t rela
tion sh ip o f h u sb an d and wife, Paul req u ires o f the wife th at sh e
sh ou ld actively cultivate respect for her h u sb an d, sh ou ld be su b
ject to her h u sb an d in everything, as the C hurch is to C hrist. He
a sk s correspon din gly from h u sb an d s th at they sh ou ld love their
w ives a s they do th eir own b o d ies an d m uch m ore so, ju st as
C hrist loved the church an d gave h im se lf up for her. T h ese d e
m an d s do n ot con stitu te regulative p rin cip les o f so cial behavior;
they are the term s o f the tran sform ation o f the natural in stitu tio n
into an ecclesial mystery, into a stru ggle to renounce the egotistic
will, a stru ggle o f realistic self-tran scen den ce an d self-offering. It
is only in term s o f m ystery (the ecclesial m ode o f existence) that
th ese d em an d s can be ju dged, not accordin g to the stan d ard s o f
the righ ts o f the individual, the stan d ard s o f m odern m ass d em
ocratic individualism .
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We encounter elem ents o f the A postle Pauls being tied to the lan
guage and attitu d es belonging to his own era (and determ ined for
the m ost part by natural religiosity) when he is dealin g with social
m atters then taken for granted, alon g with the rules regulating life
that these entailed. He in stru cts the Greek C hristians o f Corinth,
for exam ple: A s in all the churches o f the saints, w om en should
be silent in the churches. For they are not perm itted to speak, but
should be subordinate, as the law also say s (1 Cor 14:34). Paul, who
describes the law as a curse (Gal 3:10,13-14), and fights again st it
as the suprem e oppon en t o f the Churchs gospel, now invokes it as a
rule o f con duct for C hristians at their eucharistic assem blies.
A sim ilar attitu de is reflected in his insistence that any w om an
who prays or proph esies with her head unveiled d isgraces her h ead
(1 Cor 11:5). He ju stifies his dem and by argu m en ts that draw on a s
su m ption s th at at that tim e were taken for granted by everyone.
W hat we sh ould infer is that, for Paul, his role (and that o f the
Church) w as not to dem and social chan ges aim ed at secu ring the
equality o f the sexes but to show that the (then) estab lish ed so
cial practice, outlook, and an th ropological perspective could serve
the passage from nature to relation that con stitutes the Church. (It
is, however, very doubtful i f the sam e inference could usefully be
m ade with regard to the equality o f the sexes in the m odern indi
vidualistic culture prevailing today.)
There is also Pauls clearly expressed preference for the celibate
life,44 which can be interpreted in various ways: as a sen se o f re
serve, depreciation, and con tem pt with regard to sexuality, or as
a search for the fullest po ssib le liberation from the natural laws
that govern hum an nature. Paul h im self does not clarify his prefer
ence analytically, but neither can there be discerned in w hat he says
any d isposition or hint o f a dep reciation o f the fem ale sex there is
nothing in them that w ould allow u s to attribute to Paul a dem onization o f w om en and o f sexuality. Certainly (and indisputably) he
sp eak s the language o f the patriarchal society o f his own tim e and
o f a religious tradition, the Jewish, form ed through centuries o f
44.
1 Cor 7:1 -2, 7: It is well for a man not to touch a woman. But because of
cases of sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman
her own husband . . . I wish that all were as I myself am."
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m ale dom inance. D espite all this, he attem pts to graft onto such a
language and ou tlook an elem entary on tological realism .45
H is rem arks ab ou t prostitu tes and prostitu tion also ap p ear to
be socially determ ined. In the G ospels this preju dgm en t is m ore
circum spect an d in d ire c t46 In Paul it m an ifests itse lf with greater
clarity: Do you not know th at your bod ies are m em bers o f Christ?
Should I therefore take the m em bers o f Christ and m ake them
m em bers o f a prostitu te? N ever! (1 Cor 6:15). Evidently, a p ro s
titute is regarded a s polluted and polluting, to be identified with
sin. T hus fornication an d the Lord are placed at op posite poles,
in ab so lu te con trast an d distinction .47 Paul d o es not explain why
the fornicator sin s again st the body itse lf (1 Cor 6:18); he d o es
not dem onstrate th at fornication signifies subjection to natures
individualism , to the natural need for pleasure, that fornication
excludes relation. He regards the sinful and dan gerou s nature o f
fornication as socially obvious and self-explanatory, an d m akes no
attem pt to connect w hat he w rites to the C orinthians ab ou t forni
cation with w hat he w rites to the Rom ans ab ou t living according
to the flesh (Rom 8:12).
In the end Paul arrives at ju stifying the natural in stitution o f
m arriage (not the ecclesial perspective o f m ale-fem ale relations)
only on the groun ds o f avoiding fornication.48 Parallel to this, how
ever, on e m ay discern two indirect su gg estio n s th at the natural
sexual instinct can cooperate with the goal o f hum an salvation (the
goal that hum an bein gs m ay be saved, m ay becom e sound or whole,
with their existential pow ers fully integrated). The first hint con
cerns the m an who is helped by the natural in stitution o f m arriage
to leave his father an d m oth er (Eph 5:31), to break away from the
ego-b oostin g assuran ce o f their protection, so a s to dare to take the
risk o f attain in g adulth ood. A nd he d o es th is by being joined to his
45. 1 Cor 11:11-12: Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of
man or man independent of woman. For just as woman came from man, so man
comes through woman; but all things come from God.
46. Cf. When this son o f yours cam e back, who has devoured your property
with prostitutes (Luke 15:30); He would have known who and what kind of
woman this is who is touching him (Luke 7:39).
47. The body is not meant for fornication but for the Lord (1 Cor 6:13).
48. 1 Cor 7:1-2; see also n. 44.
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wife (Eph 5:31), sh aring his body with her, his physical individual
ity that is identified with his biological ego.
T he seco n d hint con cern s the w om an who will be saved
th rou gh ch ild b earin g (1 T im 2:15). T he n atu ral fu n ction o f
m oth erh oo d h elp s the w om an too to sh are her bein g, her own
body, to com m u n icate her bodily individuality, th rou gh the selfd en ial an d self-o fferin g th at m oth erh oo d en tails. Both o f the
h in ts we find in Paul refer to p o te n tialities th at are ch aracteristic
o f the generative fun ction, not to regu lative p recep ts th at P au ls
eth ics w an ts to im p o se on n atu re. It is precisely th is m isu n d er
stan d in g th at h a s cau sed (an d still c au se s) m uch in h u m an ity
h a s torm en ted (an d still to rm en ts) gen eratio n s o f h u m an b ein gs
over m any centu ries.
I have dw elt on the texts o f the A postle Paul because, when the
ecclesial event is religionized, it is th ese texts th at are idolized and
proclaim ed (not only by P rotestants) to be divinely inspired down
to the letter. Even their circum stantial, historically conditioned ele
m en ts are treated as obligatory regulative principles for C hristians
o f every era.
W henever an d wherever C hristianity has been religionized, it
h as seen in Pauls texts an approval o f the fear, the depreciation, the
repulsiveness o f sexuality. A nd it h as built on to such inspired a p
proval the dem onization o f sexuality as a self-evident elem ent o f
Christian identity (and authenticity). Thus, at least in com m unities
that share in m odernitys values, it seem s to be taken for granted
that C hristians identify sexuality with sin, evil, uncleanness, p o l
lution an d often with the fallthat they dem onize sexuality
with a (literally) neurotic o b session , that they are constantly preoc
cupied w ith it a s an alarm ing threat o f pollution.
Everyday experience ten d s to confirm this w idely held convic
tion. The dem onization o f sexuality m an ifests itse lf a s a universal
fact, an obligatory con com itant o f the C hristian conscience in ev
ery tradition an d confession. Certainly, it becom es particularly
evident in fun dam en talist circles in zealous group s (or sects) o f
pu ritans and pietists in the P rotestant world, in the sm all num ber
o f conservative Roman C atholics still obedien t to the Vatican line,
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on its own did not have the form al m arks o f a religion and did not
even aim at acquiring them . The Ju daizin g C hristians them selves,
however, n eeded a religionthey n eeded a law and visible m arks to
distin guish them , such a s circum cision. It w as therefore im possible
for them to accept a C hristianity free from the rules o f the Jewish
religion; they were not interested in the Church if it w as an event o f
a different order from that o f natural religiosity.
T his first dem an d for the religionization o f the Church also func
tioned in an archetypical fashion: it served a s a m odel for, or en cap
sulated, all the later d em an ds o f a sim ilar kind, w hether m anifest or
hidden, successful or unsuccessful.
All the d em an d s o f a sim ilar kind, from the Ju d aizers to the
presen t day, have the sam e m otivation: the ab so lu te priority they
give to individual salvation. It is fairly evident th at they u n d er
stan d salvation as a gu aran tee to the individual (valid in th is world
an d the next). They con stru ct the idea o f salvation from objective
term s w hose fulfillm ent can be m easured, certified, an d evaluated
w ithout any m argin for doubt, namely, the obedien ce o f the in di
vidual to a law o f ab so lu te validity, to the codified precepts that
ob jectify th is law, to specific ritual practices, to objectified form s
o f religiosity. A nd they take p articipatio n in the ecclesial event to
be an add ition al token of, or help tow ard, the gain in g o f personal
m erit, su p p lem en tin g all th at a con sisten t religiosity gu aran tees to
the individual.
For the prim itive Church this w as a challenge that necessitated a
response, for it touched on its very identity, on w hat precisely w as
distinctive ab ou t its gospel.
Accordingly, a council w as called for the first tim e, a council
that w as later called apostolic. T he A cts o f the A postles says that
the ap o stles and the elders m et together to con sider th is m atter
(15:6). And after there had been m uch d eb ate (15:7)w ithout the
argu m en ts that were presented on either side or the objectives that
were clarified having com e dow n to u s a decision w as reached
unanim ously and expressed confidently with com plete assuran ce
with regard to its correctness: It has seem ed good to the Holy Spirit
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the Son o f God and Word o f the Father, hum an itys created and
m ortal nature (our m ode o f existence) is taken up into the mode
by which the uncreated and im m ortal God exists: hum an nature is
freed from the existential lim itations o f createdn ess.51
No fidelity to any law can su b stitute for the existential tran s
form ation that w as accom plished for hum anity by the incarnation
o f the Word. Only faith , which is tru st and loving self-surrender
(as a m ode o f existence that con stitutes the ecclesial event), is
proclaim ed by Paul a s having the necessary and sufficient power
to enable u s to participate in such freedom from n ecessity and
confinem ent.52
The Ju daizers were not sim ply a tem porary hiccup at the beginning
o f the Churchs historical life. Ju d aizin g w as and has always re
m ained the con stan t tem ptation o f religionization th at lies in wait
at every m om ent and in every asp ect o f ecclesial life. The histori
cal facts force us to accept that the dem an ds for religionization are
interwoven inextricably with the ecclesial event, ju st as the w h eat
and the w eeds grow togeth er in the sam e field. Even C hrists
w ords confirm that any effort to pull out the w eeds from the field
is unprofitable, for the attem pt to distinguish them is pointless
and risky: For in gath ering the w eeds you would uproot the w heat
alon g with th em (M att 13:29).
The real separation o f the ecclesial event from its religioniza
tion em erges from these w ords o f Christ only as an eschatological
expectation: Let both o f them grow together until the harvest; and
at harvest tim e I will tell the reapers, Collect the w eeds first and
bind them in bu n dles to be burned, but gather the w heat into my
b arn (M att 13:30).
Eschatological expectation, however, does not erase or dim inish
the need for C hristians to be vigilant abou t distinguishin g (so far
a s possible) the Church from a natural religion. T his is not so as to
preserve som e kind o f ideological orthodoxy and objective (idol-
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ministrative system.
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tion o f culture, or (in the language o f the Rom ans) o f the order o f
things: the way in which life, and consequently the political system ,
is organized.
Accordingly, a refusal to conform to the religio imperii, the d e
nial o f w orship o f the em peror, w as regarded not a s ideological d e
viance but as a political crim e. It w as equivalent to denying the va
lidity o f the state, to underm ining its cohesion, to revolting again st
it. T hat is why it incurred the death penalty. Only thus can we ex
plain the persecu tion o f C hristians, the vast n um bers o f m artyrs, in
the early centuries.53
W hen C hristianity cam e to be prevalent in the large centers o f p o p
ulation o f the Rom an Em pire (when the Churchs gospel w as ac
cepted freely and w ithout com pulsion by m ajor section s o f society
in spite o f violent op position from the state), the Rom an govern
m ent found itse lf confronted by new facts that could not be ig
nored. There w as now de fa c to a com m on m ajority religion that
could spontan eou sly an d easily en sure the cultural unity o f the em
pire beyond the differences o f nations, races, an d local traditions.
The political dynam ic o f th is new factor, with its potential for
en suring social cohesion, w as astu tely perceived by C onstantine
the G reat in his m ilitary confrontation with M axentius (in 312).
A ppealing on that occasion to a supern atural vision, he adopted
Christian sym bols a s em blem s for his army, filling his C hristian so l
diers with en th u siasm and leadin g them to victory.
A year later, by the Edict o f Milan, the im position o f an ob liga
tory im perial religion w as abolish ed and a ju dicio u s religious tol
erance w as proclaim ed. The ecclesial event w as now in a pivotal
position for giving m ean in g to life for a large part o f the em pires
population. The p a x R om ana had begun to be u nderstood a s a p a x
Christiana.
To be sure, the first heresies that began to threaten the unity
o f the Church were also taken by C onstantine as a threat to the
cohesion o f the state in practice the em peror w as already treating
53.
See Kurt Pfister, Der Untergang der antiken Welt (Leipzig, 1941), 48; G.
Grupp, Kulturgeschichte der romischen Kaiserzeit (Regensburg, 1921), llOff.;
Theodor Birt, Das Romische Weltreich (Berlin, 1941), 83ff.
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ished the O lym pic G am es, and in 396 the Eleusinian M ysteries.
The Christian calen dar w as establish ed as the b asis for determ ining
holidays and days o f rest in Rom an public life, and conversion to
the official religion becam e an essen tial prerequisite for anyone
who aspired to office throughout the em pire.
If one takes into account both hum an itys internal instinctive
need for religion and the external (for reason s o f collective util
ity) im position o f C hristianity as an obligatory religion, one can
perh aps im agine the extent o f the con sequen ces o f the alienation o f
early Christian authenticity after T h eodosiu s the Great.
This alienation m ay be stu died in every m inute asp ect o f the
ecclesial event. It is difficult to date all the alien atin g chan ges p re
cisely. T hat is b ecau se an essen tial factor (productive o f alienation)
is the objectively indeterm inable alteration o f m ental outlook that
in the long term results in in stitutional changes. Naturally, we lack
a prim ary study o f the datin g o f such m ental shifts, for in principle
the acceptance o f a fa it accom pli alienation is not at all easy psych o
logically even today, so m any centuries later.
We are discu ssin g an alienation that has as its specific char
acter the religionization o f the ecclesial event. Consequently, the
m ain lines o f investigation are clear: we need to establish whether
or not the m arks o f natural religiosity have intruded into the eccle
sial event. A nd the prim ary m ark is the assign in g o f priority to d e
m an ds centered on the individual.
Perhaps even before T h eo d osiu ss decree, the great increase in
the num ber o f C hristians had alienated in m any m inds the con
scio u sn ess o f the Church as a eucharistic com m unity. Perhaps the
aw areness that the Church is existence-as-participation in a body o f
relations o f com m union and th at participation defines the struggle
for self-transcendence, for love, had already weakened.
The large num ber m u st im perceptibly have changed the priori
ties: no longer participatin g in the com ing together o f a parish but
attending public w orship as an individual; not a change in mode
o f existence but an assem bly for com m on prayer, for an im pressive
didactic spectacle design ed to produce com punction; not a struggle
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4.3. Augustine
In the religion ization o f the ecclesial event, the work o f A ugustin e,
b ish op o f H ippo (3 5 4 -4 3 0 ), plays a decisive role, even th ough it
b elo n gs to an earlier era. Som e cen tu ries after his death , A u g u s
tine w as the p oin t o f d ep artu re or corn ersto n e for a particu lar ver
sion o f C hristianity, w hich becam e the o ccasio n for the breaku p o f
the C hurchs unity th rou gh out the oecu m en e. A nd th is rupture,
the sch ism (the so -called First Sch ism in 8 6 7 an d the definitive
on e o f 1054) h ad d ram atic con seq u en ces for the alien atio n o f the
Churchs go spel.
A s a learn ed b ish op with an exception al au th o rial gift, A u
gu stin e sh ou ld have gone dow n in h istory a s an attractive figure
b u t o f m argin al im portan ce on accou n t o f his serio u s d eviation s
from the cath o lic w itn ess o f ecclesial experience. Later h istori
cal dev elopm en ts an d p o litical am b ition s, however, brou gh t his
w ork to the ep icen ter o f the evolution o f W estern Europe. They
m ade him the source and gu aran tor o f a particu lar u n d erstan d in g
o f C hristianity th at took hold in W estern Europe from the ninth
centuryan d w hich is today the prevailin g version in the w hole
o f the C h ristian w orld.
We should recall again very briefly the far-reaching chan ges that
had taken place in the territories o f the W estern Rom an Em pire
from the end o f the fourth to the sixth centuries AD. We usually call
the influx o f barbarian tribes and n ation s into the em pire and their
settlem ent there the great m igration o f peoples. O f a lower cul
tural level than the native in h abitan ts they displaced, they brought
ab ou t in 475 the collapse o f Rom an rule.
Franks, G oths, H uns, Burgundians, Vandals, an d Lom bards,
they cam e to con stitute the predom in ant elem ent in the popu la
tion o f W estern Europe. A nd by the late eighth/early ninth cen
tury, the m ilitary an d political power o f Charles, king o f the Franks,
surnam ed the G reat (C arolus M agnus, or C harlem agne, 742-814),
enabled him to su bject all the other tribes to his rule and form a
vast state stretch ing from the North Sea to the Pyrenees and from
the Atlantic to the Elbe.
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56.
We should not forget that Augustine had access chiefly to Platos main
works in Latin translation. He came into contact with Christian Platonism
through his studies with Ambrose o f Milan.
57.
See the excellent discussion o f this topic titled The correlation between
God and interiority in Ilias Papagiannopoulos, Exodos theatrou: Dokimio ontologias meploego ton "Moby Dick tou H. Melville (Athens: Indiktos, 2000), 81ff.
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go on to infer that the righteous in heaven, for their part, enjoy the
sight o f sin ners being tortured in hell?
T hus the gospel o f the victory over hell has been transform ed into
a religion o f the fear o f hell. To th is fear is also add ed the panic o f
a program m atic uncertainty: the uncertainty o f who are pred es
tin ed by G od for salvation and who will be dam ned, program m ed
w ithout reason or cau se to be lost however m uch they try to please
God. The God o f A ugustinian legalism is not only vengeful and sa
distic but is also irrationally unjust, all for the sake o f m aintaining
a ration alist explanation o f his om niscience. The teachin g on the
double predestin ation o f hum anity w as to set an agon izin g stam p
on both the religious and the social life o f the W est;58 generation
upon generation, m illions o f people were to live their unique life
in a state o f torm en ting anxiety or h opeless rebellion. To this b rief
sketch sh ould be add ed A u gu stin es philosophically em bellished
M anichaeism : his insistence on the an tith esis between m atter and
spirit, body and soul, m oral life an d physical pleasu re a deprecia
tion, loathing, an d fear o f sexuality.
Ignorant o f the distinction betw een essence an d energies with
which the C appadocian Fathers interpreted m atter ontologically as
the lo go s/m an ifestation o f the personal oth erness o f the divine hy
p o stases (the result o f which is the m atter o f divine energy, which is
not identified either with the essence or with the h ypostases o f the
58.
See Max Webers classic study, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit o f
Capitalism (London and New York: Routledge, 2001), first published as Die
protestantischer Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus in 1905, which connects
the phenomenon of the am assing o f capital and the origin o f capitalism with
the Protestant worlds appropriation o f Augustines teaching on absolute pre
destination. See also Jurgen Moltmann, Praedestination und Perseveranz (Neukirchen: Kreis Moers, 1961); Gotthard Nygren, D as Pradestinationsproblem in
der Theologie Augustins (Lund: printed dissertation, 1956); Rune Soderlund, Ex
praevisa fidei: Zum Versfandnis der Pradestinationslehre in der lutheranischen
Orthodoxie (Hanover: Lutherisches Verlagshaus, 1983); and Olivier Clement,
He theologia meta ton thanato tou Theou, " vol. 7 o f the Synoro series (Athens:
Dodone, 1973), where we read on p. 42, The personal God is presented as a
celestial policeman, whose glance petrifies us to the depths of our being and our
future, like an absolute Subject who objectifies us and whose omniscience and
omnipotence transform history into a puppet theater. Thus humankind is noth
ing and God becomes responsible for all the evils o f the world.
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that tim e. O f course, for the conciliar system , which ensured the
distinction o f the Church from heresy, to be able to function, the
East depended on the effectiveness o f the in stitution s o f the Em
pire o f New R om e/C on stantin ople, in stitution s that m aintained
the political an d social coh esion o f its C hristian peoples. By con
trast, the elder Rome had to deal with a European W est fragm ented
politically an d socially into a num ber o f barbarian kingdom s, prin
cipalities, duchies, an d coun ties w here each ruler claim ed to decide
for h im self the correct faith o f his subjects.
In th ese circum stan ces it w as alm o st im possib le for the Church
o f Rome, the church presid in g in the W est, to guarantee and pre
serve sim ply by its ecclesiastical authority the catholicity (genu
ineness, w holeness, an d authenticity) o f the local churches to be
found there. It w as th u s led to the solution o f itse lf assu m in g the
role o f political leadersh ip so a s to be in a position to im pose orth o
dox thinking by em ploying m ean s effective in the secu lar sphere.
The Rom an Church succeeded in w inning from the Frankish king
Pepin the Short (715-68), C harlem agnes father, recognition as an
au ton om ous state (in 754) with a specific territorial sovereignty
and with in stitution s an d functions that en abled it to intervene au
thoritatively in international relations.
T his evolution, a result rather o f an inexorable historical n eces
sity (but also o f the in disputable struggle for prim acy o f ju risd ic
tion betw een the patriarchates o f Rom e and New Rome), produced
in the W est a new version and u n d erstan din g o f catholicity th at w as
purely geographical an d quantitative. Catholicity now m ean t not
the w holeness and fullness o f a mode o f existence, but the in tern a
tion al (or even global) character o f objective m arks o f the ecclesial
event, such as fa ith as official doctrin e an d conform ing to a codi
fied ethics.
Faith ceases to be a struggle to attain trust, to attain relations o f
loving com m union. It ceases to be the fruit o f self-transcendence.
It is identified with convictions p o ssessed by the individual, with
the individuals intellectual assen t to official axiom atic declara
tion s and principles. Faith is transform ed into an ideology, and its
authenticity is confirm ed now not by the dynam ic o f a shared expe
riential verification (the conciliar function) but by an institution o f
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heretical deviations62) were held with a sm all num ber o f bish ops
selected on groun ds th at are difficult to determ ine. It rem ains h is
torically obscure w hether the selection o f bish ops w as the result o f
the difficult con ditions o f the tim es or the result o f a dim inished
sen se o f the Churchs nature, a lim ited aw areness o f the role o f conciliarity in estab lish in g the authenticity o f the ecclesial event.
We also find evidence o f a m istaken u n d erstanding o f conciliarity in the in stitutionalization, datin g from the seventeenth
century, o f the resid en t (as it w as called) patriarchal synoda
synod con stituted by the bish ops residing in the patriarchal see.
Such a synod no longer referred to bish ops su m m on ed to a council
with a view to w itn essing the experience o f the eucharistic body
over which each presided. It referred to clerics who had been
prom oted to episcopal rank but who for various reasons (chiefly
reason s connected with the unfavorable con ditions created by the
Turkish occupation) h ad been forced to aban don their dioceses.
They resided at the seat o f the patriarchate assu m in g adm in istra
tive and advisory responsibilities, that is, the role o f sen ior officials
o f an institutional class o f adm inistrators.
This m ore or less u n conscious alienation both o f the institution
o f a council and o f the function o f a bishop indicated in reality the
ado ption o f a Rom an Catholic ecclesiology by the O rthodox East.
For the Rom an Catholics a local eucharistic com m unity con stitutes
an ecclesial event only becau se it is legally recognized a s such (by
objectified ideological and institutional criteria) by the papal see
o f Rom ethe bish op sim ply adm in isters or serves it; he d o es not
con stitute the presu pposition for its con stitution as its head and
fath er. A com m unity in the W est can be ecclesial w ithout its own
bishop, and a cleric can be a bish op w ithout presiding over an eccle
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sial community.
This un d erstan din g lies at the op posite pole to O rthodox eccle
siology. It am oun ts to a n egation o f the Churchs gospel, o f the mode
o f existence that defines the ecclesial event. The bish ops diakonia,
or service, as fa th er and head o f a specific ecclesial body (as a type
and in the place o f C hrist) is for all O rthodox an in dispensable
62.
nople.
63.
Latin: "who perform in the territory the special function entrusted to
them by the 1loly See.
Such as the councils of 1638, 1642, 1672, and 1691 held at Constanti
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but is not to be num bered with the other m ost holy p atriarch s and
therefore is not to be com m em orated in the sacred diptychs.64
The next attem pt w as m ade by the Serbs. They too w anted to
set up an em pire and in consequence to found at the sam e tim e a
national patriarchate. In the m id-fourteenth century, under their
ruler Stephen DuSan (1308-55), the Serbs reached the lim its o f
their con quests. DuSan then proclaim ed the Serbian archbish op o f
Ped patriarch w ith the intention o f being crowned em peror o f the
Serbs and G reeks by him . But th is achievem ent w as short-lived.
After the Frankish schism , the second great an d definitive
achievem ent o f nation alism on the ecclesiastical level w as the su c
cessful claim to the title o f patriarch by M oscow (1589).
The process leadin g up to th is covers alm ost the whole o f the
fifteenth century. T his w as the century o f the aw akening o f the n a
tional con sciou sn ess o f the R ussians an d the efforts o f the M usco
vite state to attain political autonom y. A s in the case o f the Franks,
this aw akening w as accom pan ied by an aggressive anti-H ellenism
w eaning itse lf away from dependence on the G reeks (from dep en
dence on the Greek cultural body o f the ecclesial event) perhaps
dem anded recourse to som e kind o f parricide.
The sam e fifteenth century also saw the fall o f C onstantinople
(1453), the su bjection o f H ellenism to the harsh Turkish yoke, and
its near disappearan ce from the historical scene. In m any m inds
(not only o f the G reeks), this event had the character o f a sign
o f apocalyptic or esch atological significance. In R ussia it w as in
terpreted as a punishm en t visited on the G reeks becau se they had
betrayed the O rthodox truth o f the Church at the unionist (even if
ineffectual) council o f Ferrara-Florence (1438-45).
W ithin such a clim ate there w as conceived in R ussia in the fif
teenth century the idea o f M oscow the Third Rome: For two Rom es
have fallen, a third stan d s and a fourth there cann ot be.65 For Rus
sian nation alism the idea w as striking and extrem ely suggestive
that the R ussians had been chosen by divine providence to form
64. F. Miklosich and J. Muller, Acta Patriarchatus Constantinopolitani (Vi
enna, 1860), 1:437.
65. George* Florovsky, Ways o f Russian Theology, vol. 5 o f The Collected
Work* of George* Floroviky (Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1979), 11.
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a new "O rth odox em pire and therefore a patriarchate with a pri
m acy am o n g the O rthodox churches.
In 1589 Patriarch Jerem ias II o f C onstantinople cam e to R ussia
to organize the collection o f alm s. The R ussians then m anaged (by
force and through gu ile66) to exact from him the prom ise th at the
m etropolitan ate o f M oscow w ould be raised to patriarchal status.
Four years later, in 1593, Jerem ias II convoked a great council at
C onstantinople, with the participation o f the O rthodox patriarchs
and m any m etropolitan s, that p u t the prom ise into effect. It recog
nized M oscow a s a patriarchate, the first national patriarchate, and
assign ed it sixth place in the honorary hierarchy after Jerusalem .
The R ussians believed th at the Third Rome w as not sim ply a
continuation o f the Second but replaced it. The Third Rome w as
com m itted not to prom oting or conserving but to replacing and
re-creating the G reek C on stan tin opolitan tradition, to building up
from scratch the new (Third) Rome in order to ou st the two older
Rom es th at had fallen. The victory o f the H agarenes (the M uslim s)
over the G reeks signified to the R ussians a m anifest punishm ent
o f the G reeks for the betrayal o f their faith. It rendered the Greeks
thoroughly unworthy, b ecau se they lived under the yoke o f the
H agarenes, the ab solu te sovereignty o f the pagan tsa rs realm o f
the godless Turks.67
There th u s began in R ussia a frantic effort (o f exactly the sam e
nature as th at o f the Franks som e centuries earlier) to differenti
ate Russian believers from the G reeks in one way or an other in the
m any external elem ents o f ecclesial life fortunately not also in
m atters o f do gm a (in the conciliar form ulation s o f ecclesial experi
ence) as in the case o f the Franks. T he Franks had accurately per
ceived that the break with the Greek East could be accom plished
historically only if it w as experienced a s a m anifest difference in
popu lar practice. T hat is why, over and above the dogm atic innova
tions, they insisted on chan gin g external form s. They in sisted that
the faithful should m ake the sign o f the cro ss with five (not with
three) fingers, that clerics should shave their faces and cut their
66. Konstantinos Sathas, Biographikon schediasma peri tou Patriarchou leremiou B' (1572-1594) (Thessalonica: Pournaras, 1979), 83ff.
67. See Florovsky, Ways o f Russian Theology, 12.
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4.5. Pietism
H istorically we use the word pietism w ithin the context o f religious
tradition s to refer to organized m ovem ents, or sim ply trends, that
con stitute perh aps the clearest expression o f hum an itys instinctive
need for religion.
Pietism bypasses or relativizes d o gm a (the intellects claim to
investigate m etaphysical en igm as) with a view to attaining the ch ief
goal o f religiosity: the securing o f psychological certainty with re
gard to individual salvation. It aim s at w inning salvation through
em otional exaltation, m ystical experiences, or objectively m easu r
able achievem ents o f virtue, o f practical fidelity to religious p re
c ep ts through practical reverence for the sacred, which is piety.
A s a ph enom enon o f the religious life, pietism certainly p re
ceded the ecclesial event. In the early years o f the Churchs ap p ear
ance, the ch ief pietistic trend w as that o f gnosticism . G nosticism
derived its nam e from the fact that w hat it chiefly prom ised w as
u nm ediated know ledge (epopteia) o f transcen den t reality, a knowl
edge, however, only attainable by applying o n ese lf as an individual
to practical form s o f piety.
T hese pietistic practices, like the theoretical teachings o f the
various gro u p s or tradition s that together m ade up gnosticism ,
were a typical product o f religious syncretism an am algam o f ele
m ents from the an cient Greek world, Judaism , and the religions o f
the Near East. W ith the appearance o f the C hristian Church, there
im m ediately also arose (from as early a s the days o f the ap o stles
them selves) C hristian expression s o f gn osticism . The m ost n ota
ble were the gnostic gro u p s o f Saturnilus (around AD 130) in Syria,
Basilides (in the sam e period) in Alexandria, Valentinus (after 160)
in Rome and Cyprus, M arcion (around 150) in Sinope o f Pontus
and in Rome (with organized groups o f M arcionites spreading
throughout the M iddle East), and Mani (around 2 4 0 ), a Persian
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and rem ained active historically until the seventh century. They
were then assim ilated by the P aulicians in the East an d by the M anichees in the West.
The P au lician s em erged from the M arcion ites an d also from
th e M e ssa lia n s (or M a ssa lia n s or Euchites), an o th er branch o f
g n o sticism th at had ap p eared in the fourth century, m ainly
w ithin the w orld o f m o n asticism , an d rep resen ted extrem e ten
d en cies o f a sc etic ism an d en th u siasm . T he M essalian s survived
a t le ast u n til the seven th cen tu ry in Syria an d A sia M inor. They
rejected or w ere co n tem p tu o u s o f the C hurchs sac ram en ts an d
rites. They aim ed at ato m ic union w ith G od th rou gh atom ic a s
ceticism an d ato m ic prayer or th rou gh d an cin g th at led to th e
ec sta sy o f the atom ic in dividual.
From the seventh century onward, the m ovem ent th at contin
ued the tradition o f gn osticism in A sia Minor, Syria, M esopotam ia,
and Thrace w as now the Paulicians. They derived their nam e from
the special honor they gave to the A postle Paul and his teaching.
They accepted M arcions on tological du alism and C hrists docetic
hum an presence, an d rejected the H ebrew tradition an d the Old
Testam ent, together with the ecclesiastical rites, the clergy, the
churches, the icons, and the veneration o f the saints. The only p eo
ple they called C h ristian s were them selves; th ose who belonged
to the Church were sim ply called Rom ans, bereft o f grace and sa l
vation. T hese are features that clearly point to the religious denial
o f the ecclesial event an d its in stitutional expression s, an d to its
replacem ent by a pietistic individualism the route o f atom ic ac
cess to salvation.
In the tenth century th is gn ostic-M anich aean pietism was
tran splan ted by the P au lician s in to Bulgaria, u nder the form o f
gro u p s or com m u n ities th at called th em selves Bogom ils (which
in B ulgarian m ean s lovers o f G od). They preserved all the d o c
trin es o f the P aulicians, developin g in ad d itio n an extrem e asc eti
cism . They ab h orred m arriage, lo ath ed sexuality, ab stain ed from
m eat, an d celeb rated b ap tism w ith ou t su b m ersio n in water, only
by the laying on o f h an ds. W ithin three centuries, from the tenth
to the thirteen th , the Bogom ils had developed in to a pow erful
m ovem ent with an im pressive expan sio n both tow ard the East
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(w here they w ere usu ally called N eom anichees) an d tow ard the
W est (w here in the first h a lf o f th e tw elfth century they were given
the n am e C ath ars, or pure o n e s).
The C athar heresy, with all the above m arks o f a M anichaeistic pietism , presented n ot only a religious b u t also a seriou s social
challenge to the peo ples o f the W est in the M iddle A ges a real
scourge. The heresys aggressive op position to the Churchs in stitu
tion s echoed the u n h appin ess o f a large num ber o f people ab ou t
the worldly, authoritarian character o f th ese in stitutions, the taxes
that were im posed on the laity, the different life o f the clergy and
their provocative opulence. T hese anticlerical and an tipapal ten
den cies favored the dem and for an objectively assu red and m easu r
able purity, which w as easily identified with an aversion to sexu
ality an d en ded up as a fanatical dissem in ation o f the rejection o f
m arriage. Such facts created the feeling th at the powerful C athar
trend threatened the coh esion and even the biological survival o f
the com m unities where they predom inated.
Rom an C atholicism , the prevailing authority in the W est,
reacted forcefully again st the heresy o f the Cathars, at first with
banishm ent, confiscation o f property, and excom m unication; later
with im prisonm ent and torture; an d finally with death at the stake,
inflicted on the heretics by the Holy Inquisition, an in stitution
founded by Pope Gregory IX in April 1233.
The gn osticism o f the early C hristian centuries (and chiefly Manichaeism ) w as continued and spread historically by the M arcionites
and M essalians. From the latter cam e the Paulicians, from the Paulicians the Bogom ils, and from the Bogom ils the Cathars. The h is
torical succession is continuous, w ithout gaps. There are historian s
who regard the C athars as forerunners o f Protestan tism and see in
the great religious trends generated by the Reform ation, in puritanism an d pietism , the continuation an d survival o f a M anichaeistic
p ietism up to our own days.70
70.
See Vasileios Stephanidis, Ekkiesiastike Historia, 3rd ed. (Athens: Astir,
1970), 571, 575; Vlasios Pheidas, Ekkiesiastike Historia, vol. 2 (Athens, 1994),
452, 458ff.; Steven Runciman, The Medieval Manichee: A Study o f the Chris
tian Dualist Heresy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1947); E. Voege-
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Chapter 5
Orthodoxism:
The Religionization of Ecclesial Orthodoxy
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Like the apo stles, the Fathers o f the Church gave their testim ony
to ecclesial experience in the language o f their age. A nd the lim
its o f language are the lim its o f w hat is know able in each age, the
lim its o f hum anitys u n d erstan din g o f the world a s sh aped by the
scientific know ledge available in each age. The linguistic expression
o f the Churchs w itn ess is tied to whatever worldview is current,
but this is not the case with w hat is signified by th is w itness. The
signifiers refer to the experience o f the m eaning o f the world and
o f hum an experience, beyond the circum stan tial nature o f any par
ticular worldview. They refer to the m ean in g estab lish ed by feeling
on es way em pirically, that is, the m ean in g created by the effort to
p articipate in a mode o f existence. The signifiers change, but never
the th in gs signified.
Rom an C atholicism , institutionally ideologized as it w as, b e
cam e alarm ed at the tim e o f the R enaissance th at the new scientific
worldview threatened to falsify Christian w itn ess as expressed in
the language o f a geocentric cosm ology. Rom an C atholicism thus
began a sen seless counteroffensive again st the m odern sciences
(one that still continues openly or under the surface). It is m an i
festly clear that Rom an C atholicism w as unable to distinguish b e
73.
The Wests decadent religious art has replaced the art of the Churchs
icons and dominates Orthodox churches today, without even a single bishop
thinking actively o f resisting this squalid alienation, which has now come to be
regarded as tradition. The same is the case with the lamentable religious ba
roque style (also o f Western origin) employed in the architecture of churches
and the construction o f icon screens, and with the Western religious music that
has replaced the Churchs singing. Even the m ost obvious expressions o f the
alienation o f the ecclesial event, once they have prevailed for a couple o f centu
ries or so in Orthodox churches, are imposed as tradition."
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universe there are another ten billion sim ilar galaxies. People to
day know that the earth s population exceeds six billion and con se
quently that the total num ber o f hum an bein gs who have lived up
to now on the earth s crust and have been buried in its soil com es
to m any billions.
Such en orm ous tem poral, spatial, and num erical values change
the assu m p tio n s o f m odern people in com parison with those o f
people who lived in the apostolic and patristic periods. It would
therefore be natural that there should also be significant in stances
today o f changed assu m p tio n s in the language o f ecclesial w itness.
If in the past, for exam ple, the expression unto the ages o f ag es
evoked a sen se o f wonder, today the m easure o f tim es infinity is
m ore likely to create a sen se o f duration threatening to intelligent
life. It does not in any way seem a gift or charism to hum an beings
that they sh ould still continue to exist after five hundred billion
years in a tim e w ithout end and with no prospect o f en din g the
thought o f it creates panic rather than hope and consolation. It is
incom parably m ore con soling that death should lead to oblivion
rather than to eternal life, or to existence unto the ages o f ages.
The gift and charism o f G ods love would be a mode o f existence free
from succession o f tim e, free from the m easure o f the ages, from
a tem poral m easure.
Ecclesial Orthodoxy, however, is concerned in its form s o f
expression to m aintain the stereotypes o f the p ast w ithout any
change. It is not concerned to preach to people the gospel o f hope
and consolation. It seeks its identity in the idolization o f the signi
f i e s , not in the struggle to lay hold o f the thin gs signified.
Ecclesial O rthodoxy seem s to be thoroughly im prisoned in
the language o f the quantitative version o f tim e and the dim en
sional version o f the infinite. It correspondingly relies on the lan
guage and outlook o f w hat in other periods were chiefly juridical
priorities: on the psychological syndrom e o f m aster-slave relations.
This is why it also in sists on an excessive repetition o f su pplication s
(to the point o f satiety) for the pardon, forgiveness, purging,
and purifying o f people from sins, transgressions, crim es,
faults, and failings, and for their w ashing clean from dirt,
"m ire, and filth. People perh aps find it difficult to identify such
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5.2. Confessionalism
In th e lan gu age o f the early Church, the w ord confession (homolog ia ) m eant the public declaration o f an attestation b ased on experi
ence, the bearin g o f w itness to certainties arisin g from the direct
experience o f personal relationship.75
A gainst the background o f th is early m eaning, the word confes
so r durin g the centuries o f persecu tion b ecam e synonym ous with
the word m artyr.76 By sacrificing their life the m artyrs w itn essed/
75. Cf. Peters confession in Matt 16:16: You are the Messiah, the Son of
the living God and in John 6:68-69; cf. also Matt 10:32: Everyone therefore
who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father
in heaven; 1 Tim 6:12: You made the good confession in the presence o f many
witnesses.
76. Cf. Justin Martyr, First Apology 11 (PG 6:341B): Confess they are Chris
tians, knowing that the penalty for confessing this is death; Historia monachorum in Aegypto 19.1-2 (PG 34:1171A): There was a m onk called Apollonius
During the persecution this father encouraged the confessors of Christ and
succeeded in making many o f them martyrs (Norman Russell, trans., The Lives
o f the Desert Fathers, chap. 19 [Kalamazoo, Ml: Cistercian Publications, 1980],
103).
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church and confession cam e to have the sam e m ean in g in the Prot
estan t w orld the w ords functioned as synonym s.
Luthers follow ers (Lutheranism ) defined their faith by the
A ugsburg Confession (Confessio A u gu stan a, 1530). Zwinglis follow
ers b ased them selves on the con fession called the Fidei ratio (1530),
which Zwingli h im self had drawn up. The Protestan ts o f the cities
o f Strasbourg, Constance, M em m ingen, an d Lindau expressed their
faith by the Tetrapolitan Confession (Confessio Tetrapolitana) o f
Bucer an d C apito (1530). There followed in chronological sequence
the Confessio Basiliensis (1534), the Confessio Helvetica (1536), the
Confessio G allicana (Paris, 1559), the Confessio Scotica (1560), the
Confessio Belgica (1561), and the W estm inster Confession (1646).
The alienation o f ecclesial faith in codified con fession s o f convic
tion s w as also im m ediately adopted by Rom an C atholicism with
a view to com batin g the Protestant Reform ation on the ideologi
cal level. The Council o f Trent (Concilium Tridentinum), which
w as held from 1546 to 1563, issued a s its reply to P rotestantism
the Professio Tridentina (1564), w hose eleven articles every Roman
Catholic m ust accept a s his personal convictions. O n this con fes
sional b asis are su m m arized the d o gm as o f the Rom an Catholic
Church, that is, w hat any Rom an Catholic is boun d to believe
(die Glaubenspflicht), the authentic, absolutely authoritative, and
infallible proclam ation o f the word o f God (die authentische und
authoritative, unfehlbare Verkiindigung des Wortes G ottes).79
To th is fun dam en tal core are add ed all the papal pron ou n ce
m en ts on m atters o f faith, w hose ideological/confession al char
acter w as clearly m an ifested by the character attributed to them
by the First Vatican C ouncil (1870). The concern here is not for
form ulations o f the experience o f the ecclesial body but for re
vealed tru th s (O jfenbarungsw ahrheiten doctrina et veritas divinitus revelata),80 infallible in them selves (ex se se ) 'not through
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the con sen t o f the C hurchw hen the Roman p o n tiff m akes p ro
nouncem en ts ex cathedra.81
The idolization o f form ulation s m aking the intellectual and
psychological reception o f the signifiers auton om ous, and d etach
ing this reception from the (always shared) experience o f the thin gs
signifiedw as an original m ark o f Roman Catholicism . Protestant
ism took this idolization to its logical conclusion, also dragging
Rom an C atholicism , the originator o f the sym ptom , with it into a
hardening o f the ideological version o f the Churchs gospel. The
conflict between the two expression s o f the Churchs religioniza
tion in the W est w as conducted on a level o f ab stract theoretical
convictions, principles, and do ctrin es drawn up in codified
confessions.
W hat lies behind the form o f the con fession is m anifestly the
com m on individualistic dem and for religious certainties w rapped
up in in stitutional authority. T hat is why the challenging o f these
certainties becom es a battle betw een institutions. And so we have
long periods o f arm ed conflict the Thirty Years W ar (1618-48)
and religious w ars that still endured at the end o f the tw entieth
century (e.g., Ireland) that have set the stam p o f their indelible
horror on W estern European Man.
The W estern conflict w as dram atically decan ted into the O rth o
dox East. The Greek areas ruled by the Turks, alon g with Russia,
becam e a theater o f com petition betw een Rom an C atholics and
P rotestan ts as to who would win the su pport o f the O rthodox
again st their rival or who would m anage m ore quickly to assim
ilate the O rthodox popu lation s to their own doctrine. To defend
them selves the O rthodox had to ado pt the practice o f con fession s
with the aim o f defining their difference from both Rom an C ath o
181
81.
Infallibilitate in magisterio, vi muneris sui gaudet Summus Pontifex
quando ut supremus omnium christifidelium Pastor et Doctor, cuius est fratres
suos in fide confirmare, doctrinam de fide vel de moribus tenendam definitive
actus proclamat (Canon 749, 1, Codex luris Canonlci, 1983 ad,).
82.
See the longer discussion and relevant bibliography in my Orthodoxy
and the West, chap. 9, The Confessions o f Faith. See also the very striking his
torical monograph by Gunnar Hering, Oikoumeniko Patriarcheio kai Europaike
politlkl 1620-lfiiH (Athens: Ml FT, 1992).
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com m ercial year; and alien ates the sh aring o f relations into a trad e
o ff with regard to interests, a contractual safegu ardin g o f egocen
187
to do his will.
It is evident that in view o f the reality o f the O rthodoxism pre
vailing today (or o f any other religionized version o f the ecclesial
event), if we are to recover once again som e echo o f joy from a shared
exploration o f m etaphysical hope, we m u st be delivered o f a heavy
load o f ballast, difficult to shed, con sistin g o f fixed preconceptions,
psychological preferences, and instinctive need, or else we will not
find the rem edy for the panic o f death. Even the language o f the
84. This is truly to find God, always to seek him, never to find our desire
satisfied . . . For it is not one thing to seek and another to find (H. Musurillo, ed.,
On the Life o f Moses, in Gregorii Nysseni Opera, ed. W. Jaeger and H. Langerbeck
[Leiden: Brill, 1964], vol. 7, pt. 1, p. 116; and On Ecclesiastes, Homily 7, in vol.
5 o f the sam e edition, pp. 400-1).
85. D iscourse 35, in The A scetic Writings o f Our Holy Father Isaac the
Syrian.
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89.
Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer o f the Heart, translated from the
Russian text Dobrotolubiye by E. Kadloubovsky and G. E. H. Palmer (London:
Faber and Faber, 1951).
90.
For an informative discussion on the influence o f the Philokalia in West
ern Europe, aee Fr. Placide Deseille, La spirituality orthodoxe et la Philocalie
(Parii: Albin Michel, 2003), vol. 3, pt. 4, p. 249ff.
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193
The reader will look in vain in the five volum es o f the Philoka
lia for even an indirect hint that the only possibility o f entry into
the kingdom , the only path tow ard realizing the C hristian gospel,
is participation in the Church. On the contrary, the reader is per
su aded on every page that salvation is won by an exclusively private
effort: the keeping o f the com m an dm en ts, the guarding o f the in
tellect, noetic prayer.
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the codified form ulations that the in stitution received and that
the faithful are obliged to accept as dogm as. This is a version o f
truth precisely as ideology, which each person m ust internalize in
dividually a s a totality o f a priori axiom atic principles guaranteed
by the authenticity o f the in stitution ju st as the W est, after A u
gustine, u nderstood faith an d proclaim ed it.
And this individualist, intellectualist, and psychological a p
proach to the collective convictions by the faith o f contem plation,
which is experiential but also individualist, em erges from an in di
vidual ascetic discipline (and not from participation in the mode
o f the Church) as a reward for m eritorious attainm ents. It h as a
charism atic character (su pern atu ral in an unexplained way) and
com es to confirm individual convictions with greater certainty.
We O rth odox like to accu se th e W est o f in stitu tio n al rigidity an d
o f im p o sin g religio n ization on the ecclesial event, o f su b m ittin g
it to in tellectu alism , m oralism , an d legalism . But th e case o f the
Philokalia proves rath er th at the W est is w ithin u s" its h isto ri
cal ou tgro w th s dwell in an o b scu re way in th e inw ard in stin c
tive n eed o f every h u m an b ein g for in d iv idu alistic self-p ro tectio n
an d assu ran ce.
The ego likes to be self-sufficient. The urge for autonom y is
built into our nature (is an existential presu pposition ). We want
the provenance o f faith, o f know ledge, and o f salvation to com e
from within us, to be our own achievem ent. Hence the historically
decisive change o f direction with A ugustin e from eucharistic p ar
ticipation to the interiority and spiritu ality o f the individual (in
a closed self-referential autarky) is repeated a s the suprem e realiza
tion o f C hristian authenticity in every age.92 Thus, in the absen ce
o f the ecclesial gospel, the hum an person continues to be divided,
separated into interiority and exteriority, which m ean s we inter
pret the hum an person with the mode o f a eucharistic approach and
reference radically reversed.
92.
See also llias Papagiannopoulos, From Augustine to Kant: The Oedipuslike program o f Western metaphysics, in pt. 4, chap. 9 o f Epekeina tis apousias
(Athens: Indiktos, 2005).
197
198
g a in s t
R e l ig io n
199
aim could it have?93 N aturally the question also arises w hether the
official canonization o f a person (a canonization m ade du rin g the
years o f O rthodoxy s Babylonian captivity to religionization)
gran ts am n esty to asp ects o f the sain ts works that are flagrantly
dom inated by the language, criteria, and outlook o f natural (in
stinctive) religiosity.
It d o es not com e within the com petence or power o f a historian,
intellectual, or writer, however, to p a ss ju dgm en t on the term s o f
institutional canonization. O ne can only offer the observation (ob
vious to all) that when a historical person is canonized, he d o es not
cease also to be a child o f his age, to have expressed h im self in the
language and in accordance with the assu m p tio n s o f his social and
cultural environm ent.
If we p ass over in silence the religious individualism that gov
erns the selection o f the Philokalias texts, or the reversal o f the
ecclesial perspective in the Pedalion, the Chrestoethia, and the
H andbook o f Counsel, we are aban don in g the hope o f the Churchs
gospel and throw ing away the com p ass that show s us the difference
between the Church and a religion.
93.
For a more detailed discussion, see my Orthodoxy and the West, chap.
12. See also the refutation o f my position offered by the Sacred Community
o f the Holy Mountain, Anairesis ton peplanemenon theseon tou k. Chrestou
(liannara peri tou en hagiois patros hemon Nikodemou tou Hagioreitou, in the
periodical Orthodoxe Martyria 40 (1993): 1-10, published in Nicosia, Cyprus.
Chapter 6
200
20 1
202
g a in s t
R e l ig io n
the mode o f referring to the Father every asp ect o f life an d is every
asp ect that is grafted, as a loving reference, onto the ecclesial event.
C onsequently (taking as given the in adequacy o f language to
signify the existential experience with any fullness), we may be so
bold as to say that the Church is a mystery in the m easure in which
it extends the mode o f the Eucharist into every partial asp ect o f
its life. A gath ering o f b ish op s b ecom es (is not by definition) an
ecclesial council when it functions as em bodying the mode o f the
Eucharist. A painting b ecom es an ecclesial icon when its style and
su bject m atter allow it to facilitate the p assin g over o f the b e
holder to the prototype, that is, to a personal relationship. The
adm inistrative organization o f the activities an d n eeds o f a diocese
becom es ecclesial when it serves a loving self-offering (not w hen its
priorities are sim ply th o se o f practical effectiveness).
From the above, one sh ould be able to conclude that the m ystery
that grafts hum an itys natural need for religion onto the Church
is the Eucharist: the mode con stitutin g the w hole o f ecclesial life.
T hat is why in the space in which the Eucharist is celebrated, a s in
the celebration o f the rite itself, it becom es im m ediately obvious
(before anything else) w hether there h appen s to be any religioniza
tion o f the ecclesial event. It is very evident w hether the icons, the
ritual, the singing, the poetry o f the hymns, and the illum ination o f
the space are referential, as the bread and the w ine are, or w hether
they becom e au ton om ous so a s to im press the individual, arou se an
em otional response in the individual, and facilitate the individuals
search for salvation.
The Church (the lay body that con stitutes it) has not h esitated
to appropriate elem ents o f religion and graft them onto its own
mode o f existence and life. It h as appropriated a certain religious
vocabulary, term s such as revelation, worship, law, com m an d
m ents, and sacrifice; practices such as fasting, prayer, continence,
genuflexion, sym bolic types such as b ap tism in water, an oin ting
with oil, incense, liturgical dress and vessels; and a h ost o f other
things. It h as assu m ed them by reversing the m ean in g and function
o f w hat it h as borrowed, transform in g term s o f use into term s o f
relation, an individualistic intentionality into the priority o f loving
203
Bibliography
205
206
Bibliography
B ibliography
207
208
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2 09
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Index
Index
Abraham, 132
Adam, 174
address, form of, 115
aer, 117
Albania, Church of, 162
Albert the Great, 76, 147
Alexandria, patriarchate of, 155,
158
Alivizatos, Hamilcar, 80n
allegory, 85
Ambrose o f Milan, 146n
Anabaptists, 7 6 ,1 6 7
anamnesis, 23, 79
Androutsos, Christos, 76
Angelopoulos, Lycurgos, 97
Angles, 89
Anselm o f Canterbury, 147, 198
Antioch, patriarchate of, 155,
158
Aphrodite, 86
apodictic method, 10, 11, 109
Apollonius, monk, 176n
apologetics, 9
apophaticism, 38
Apostolic Council. See Council:
Apostolic
Aquinas, Thomas, 76, 147
210
architecture, ecclesiastical,
95-96, 161
art, ecclesiastical, 84-98, 161,
172n, 200
asceticism, 34, 99, 193
Athos, Mount, 94, 198, 199n
Augustine o f Hippo, 8, 143-151,
196
autarky, 196
authority, 11, 12, 14, 15-20,
41-48
Babiniotis, Georgios D., 177n
baptism, 99. See also mystery
(sacrament)
Baptists, 71, 167
baroque style, 95
Basil the Great o f Caesarea, 55n,
80n, 81
Basilides, 163
beards, 114, 160
beauty, 86, 187
Bellefontaine, Abbaye de, 190
Berengar o f Tours, 76
Birt, Theodor, 137n
bishop, 39-40, 45, 48, 54,
102-105, 115, 116-117,
21 1
212
Index
Index
213
214
Index
narcissism, 7
nationalism, 155, 161-162
naturalism, 88, 92
New Rome. See Constantinople,
patriarchate of
Nicephoros, patriarch of
Constantinople, 69, 70n
Nicephoros the Confessor, 120n
Nikodemos o f the Holy Mountain,
188, 197
Normans, 89
Notaras, Makarios. See Makarios
Notaras, metropolitan of
Corinth
Nygren, Gotthard, 149n
obedience, 73
Ochrid, archbishopric of, 158
Old Apostolics, 71
Old Calendarists, 112, 171
Old Testament, 119-121
Olympic Games, 139
ontology, 58
Optina monastery, 188-189
ordination, 99, 129
ordo rerum, 136, 137, 144
Orthodoxism, 142, 155-157,
16 9 -1 7 6 ,1 8 1 ,1 8 2 -1 8 6 ,
188, 192
Orthodoxy, ecclesial, 151,
162-163, 169-170,
175-176, 191-192; Latin,
158
pallium (omophorion), 103
Palmer, G. E. H., 189, 190
pantheism, 150
Papagiannopoulos, Ilias, 147n,
196n
papal primacy. See pope
parish, 98-105, 140, 182
participation, 51, 58, 62, 77. See
also relation
Index
215
Index
2 16
Index
217