In an early section of For Life of the World there's mention of two extremes, two seemingly opposite forces that are consequences of the modern desire to "secularize" the world and the Evangelical/Protestant ethos (one that can quite easily tempt Orthodox Parishes too) to conquer the world for "religion". In other parts of the book, Fr Alexander points out that as Christians attempt to continue to split the world into categories of "secular and religious" or "sacred and profane" they actually feed into the the presuppositions and forces that created the 'secular' world in the first place.
It's quite interesting that this cognitive divide can be seen as an echo of manichaeism and paganism. These movements and the plethora of the gnostic schools have presuppositions that Christianity directly challenged with a unique view of the Kingdom and of matter, of life, and of spirit.
One can see how popular "New Atheist" rhetoricians are appalled by the 'religious' branding that is so often associated with Christianity. Fr Alexander points out that this 'spiritual' dichotomy that fights the world is presented as a means:
Fr. Alexander is of course also addressing his book to Orthodox who can quite easily and have at times in the past perpetuated this dichotomy. His questions are quite the challenge and especially require Christians to look at the "real life of the world for which we are told God gave his only-begotten Son."
These questions raised in "For Life of the World" and another book, "The Eucharist" become increasingly important, especially as Orthodox continue to share the lived Theology of the Church and proclaim the Kerygmatic Good News in a life lived in union with the Holy Trinity.
Perhaps as Orthodox, this calls us to be more attentive to what is lived out in our Liturgical Life, in our shared Orthodox Ethos, in our participation with the Person of Christ, not "the sort of God believed in by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Deists."
Perhaps with a face to face encounter that transforms a person from Glory to Glory in the midst of brokenness and triumph, not a second-storey universe of reductionism, magic or mental gymnastics. Perhaps this suggests that our response to both extremes, the 'religious' second-storey of fundamentalism and pietism, and "the historical errors, the sententious moralism, the glib sophistry" of the 'secular' agenda, is to hearken to the authentic Orthodox witness and how that witness transformed and offered the world back to God.
More and more it appears that the Orthodox perspective, the acute Liturgical vision, is needed as a refreshing alternative to the polemic discourse of the two extremes of "Sacred and Profane." From BioEthics to Eschatology, this vision is not to be a branded vision, or an ideological alternative, but rather the clarifying challenge to both secular and religious, in order to reveal what really is, what the world is, who God is, who we are, and how the Christian life is that of holiness and radical love expressed in the mundane and ordinary, for the life of the world and for the salvation of all.
Glory to the Holy Trinity.
"Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved."
"There are those among us for whom life, when discussed in religious terms, means religious life. And this religious life is a world in itself, existing apart from the secular world and its life. It is the world of "spirituality,” and in our days it seems to gain more and more popularity. Even the airport bookstands are filled with anthologies of mystical writings.
"Basic Mysticism" is a title we saw on one of them. Lost and confused in the noise, the rush and the frustrations of "life,” man easily accepts the invitation to enter into the inner sanctuary of his soul and to discover there another life, to enjoy a "spiritual banquet” amply supplied with spiritual food. This spiritual food will help him. It will help him to restore his peace of mind, to endure the other—the secular—life, to accept its tribulations, to lead a wholesome and more dedicated life, to "keep smiling” in a deep, religious way. And thus mission consists here in converting people to this "spiritual” life, in making them "religious.”
There exists a great variety of emphases and even theologies within this general pattern, from the popular revival to the sophisticated interest in esoteric mystical doctrines.
But the result is the same: "religious” life makes the secular one—the life of eating and drinking—irrelevant, deprives it of any real meaning save that of being an exercise in piety and patience. And the more spiritual is the "religious banquet" the more secular and material become the neon lighted signs EAT, DRINK that we see along our highways.
But there are those also, to whom the affirmation "for the life of the world” seems to mean naturally "for the better life of the world.” The "spiritualists” are counterbalanced by the activists. To be sure we are far today from the simple optimism and euphoria of the "Social Gospel.”
All the implications of existentialism with its anxieties, of neo-Orthodoxy with its pessimistic and realistic view of history, have been assimilated and given proper consideration. But the fundamental belief in Christianity as being first of all action has remained intact, and in fact has acquired a new strength. From this point of view Christianity has simply lost the world. And the world must be recovered.
The Christian mission, therefore, is to catch up with the life that has gone astray. The "eating” and "drinking” man is taken quite seriously, almost too seriously. He constitutes the virtually exclusive object of Christian action, and we are constantly called to repent for having spent too much time in contemplation and adoration, in silence and liturgy, for having not dealt sufficiently with the social, political, economic, racial and all other issues of real life. To books on mysticism and spirituality correspond books on "Religion and Life" (or Society, or Urbanism or Sex . . .). And yet the basic question remains unanswered: what is this life that we must regain for Christ and make Christian? What is, in other words, the ultimate end of all this doing and action?
Suppose we have reached at least one of these practical goals, have "won”—then what? The question may seem a naive one, but one cannot really act without knowing the meaning not only of action, but of the life itself in the name of which one acts. One eats and drinks, one fights for freedom and justice in order to be alive, to have the fullness of life. But what is it? What is the life of life itself? What is the content of life eternal? At some ultimate point, within some ultimate analysis, we inescapably discover that in and by itself action has no meaning. When all committees have fulfilled their task, all papers have been distributed and all practical goals achieved, there must come a perfect joy.
About what? Unless we know, the same dichotomy between religion and life, which we have observed in the spiritual solution, remains. Whether we "spiritualize” our life or "secularize” our religion, whether we invite men to a spiritual banquet or simply join them at the secular one, the real life of the world, for which we are told God gave his only-begotten Son, remains hopelessly beyond our religious grasp."
It's quite interesting that this cognitive divide can be seen as an echo of manichaeism and paganism. These movements and the plethora of the gnostic schools have presuppositions that Christianity directly challenged with a unique view of the Kingdom and of matter, of life, and of spirit.
One can see how popular "New Atheist" rhetoricians are appalled by the 'religious' branding that is so often associated with Christianity. Fr Alexander points out that this 'spiritual' dichotomy that fights the world is presented as a means:
to endure the other—the secular—life, to accept its tribulations, to lead a wholesome and more dedicated life, to "keep smiling” in a deep, religious way. And thus mission consists here in converting people to this "spiritual” life, in making them "religious.”Ironically, the Atheist, the Spiritual but Not Religious, and the 'Secularist' all would argue or attempt to surplant the 'religious' claim on the 'wholesome and more dedicated life' with their own ideological framework and presuppositions. Replacing 'religion' with 'scientism', missionizing in order to convert people to this 'secular' life by making them more 'rational,' 'free,' 'mature' etc.
Fr. Alexander is of course also addressing his book to Orthodox who can quite easily and have at times in the past perpetuated this dichotomy. His questions are quite the challenge and especially require Christians to look at the "real life of the world for which we are told God gave his only-begotten Son."
These questions raised in "For Life of the World" and another book, "The Eucharist" become increasingly important, especially as Orthodox continue to share the lived Theology of the Church and proclaim the Kerygmatic Good News in a life lived in union with the Holy Trinity.
Perhaps as Orthodox, this calls us to be more attentive to what is lived out in our Liturgical Life, in our shared Orthodox Ethos, in our participation with the Person of Christ, not "the sort of God believed in by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Deists."
Perhaps with a face to face encounter that transforms a person from Glory to Glory in the midst of brokenness and triumph, not a second-storey universe of reductionism, magic or mental gymnastics. Perhaps this suggests that our response to both extremes, the 'religious' second-storey of fundamentalism and pietism, and "the historical errors, the sententious moralism, the glib sophistry" of the 'secular' agenda, is to hearken to the authentic Orthodox witness and how that witness transformed and offered the world back to God.
More and more it appears that the Orthodox perspective, the acute Liturgical vision, is needed as a refreshing alternative to the polemic discourse of the two extremes of "Sacred and Profane." From BioEthics to Eschatology, this vision is not to be a branded vision, or an ideological alternative, but rather the clarifying challenge to both secular and religious, in order to reveal what really is, what the world is, who God is, who we are, and how the Christian life is that of holiness and radical love expressed in the mundane and ordinary, for the life of the world and for the salvation of all.
Glory to the Holy Trinity.
"Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved."
+ St Seraphim of Sarov
"O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, who is present in all places and fills all, the treasury of good things and the Life‑Giver, graciously come, and dwell in us and purify us from all defilement, O Good One, and save our souls."
+ 3rd Hour Prayer, Agpeya, Coptic Rite.
"There are those among us for whom life, when discussed in religious terms, means religious life. And this religious life is a world in itself, existing apart from the secular world and its life. It is the world of "spirituality,” and in our days it seems to gain more and more popularity. Even the airport bookstands are filled with anthologies of mystical writings.
"Basic Mysticism" is a title we saw on one of them. Lost and confused in the noise, the rush and the frustrations of "life,” man easily accepts the invitation to enter into the inner sanctuary of his soul and to discover there another life, to enjoy a "spiritual banquet” amply supplied with spiritual food. This spiritual food will help him. It will help him to restore his peace of mind, to endure the other—the secular—life, to accept its tribulations, to lead a wholesome and more dedicated life, to "keep smiling” in a deep, religious way. And thus mission consists here in converting people to this "spiritual” life, in making them "religious.”
There exists a great variety of emphases and even theologies within this general pattern, from the popular revival to the sophisticated interest in esoteric mystical doctrines.
But the result is the same: "religious” life makes the secular one—the life of eating and drinking—irrelevant, deprives it of any real meaning save that of being an exercise in piety and patience. And the more spiritual is the "religious banquet" the more secular and material become the neon lighted signs EAT, DRINK that we see along our highways.
But there are those also, to whom the affirmation "for the life of the world” seems to mean naturally "for the better life of the world.” The "spiritualists” are counterbalanced by the activists. To be sure we are far today from the simple optimism and euphoria of the "Social Gospel.”
All the implications of existentialism with its anxieties, of neo-Orthodoxy with its pessimistic and realistic view of history, have been assimilated and given proper consideration. But the fundamental belief in Christianity as being first of all action has remained intact, and in fact has acquired a new strength. From this point of view Christianity has simply lost the world. And the world must be recovered.
The Christian mission, therefore, is to catch up with the life that has gone astray. The "eating” and "drinking” man is taken quite seriously, almost too seriously. He constitutes the virtually exclusive object of Christian action, and we are constantly called to repent for having spent too much time in contemplation and adoration, in silence and liturgy, for having not dealt sufficiently with the social, political, economic, racial and all other issues of real life. To books on mysticism and spirituality correspond books on "Religion and Life" (or Society, or Urbanism or Sex . . .). And yet the basic question remains unanswered: what is this life that we must regain for Christ and make Christian? What is, in other words, the ultimate end of all this doing and action?
Suppose we have reached at least one of these practical goals, have "won”—then what? The question may seem a naive one, but one cannot really act without knowing the meaning not only of action, but of the life itself in the name of which one acts. One eats and drinks, one fights for freedom and justice in order to be alive, to have the fullness of life. But what is it? What is the life of life itself? What is the content of life eternal? At some ultimate point, within some ultimate analysis, we inescapably discover that in and by itself action has no meaning. When all committees have fulfilled their task, all papers have been distributed and all practical goals achieved, there must come a perfect joy.
About what? Unless we know, the same dichotomy between religion and life, which we have observed in the spiritual solution, remains. Whether we "spiritualize” our life or "secularize” our religion, whether we invite men to a spiritual banquet or simply join them at the secular one, the real life of the world, for which we are told God gave his only-begotten Son, remains hopelessly beyond our religious grasp."
+ Fr Alexander Schmemann, For Life of the World, 12-13.
