The Question of Emphasis, Greek Orthodoxy

While this author, James Payton is from a decidedly Protestant institution, Redeemer University, he paints a sympathetic and often eloquent image of Greek Orthodox Christians in his book, Light From the Christian East. Today many in the Protestant fold are enamored and intrigued by Orthodoxy and the ideas it holds.

The Orthodox might be at times described as more "fossilized," more satisfied with its tenets and position within the Christian world. It remains staunchly mystical, stable and serene in its teachings. While the west adopted other ways and means, the Orthodox continued on after the meeting in Constantinople which ultimately accelerated the split within the two groups.

To the Orthodox mind, the Church was Collegial, that is founded upon its brothers and sisters in the faith; the Roman church developed a more centralized structure and found a willing audience, for the most part, in Europe. France is often called the "cradle of Christianity." The intertwining of the Church hierarchy and the emerging royal monarchies was well suited to their purposes, both individually and jointly. While there are indeed contrasts between the two, it must remain in the forefront that these two institutions, Roman and Greek Orthodox remain more closely allied than any other communities within the Christian realm.

And very unlike the Protestantism that sprung up in the early modern period of western history, the Orthodox more than any other spoke and taught that Grace was something that was more of a given and not merited. That is to say we have already received salvation in the Christ, if we are open to the working of the Spirit, then grace is upon us. Manifest destiny, or any other likewise teaching, has not been part of the Orthodox dictum. Thus within the Orthodox tradition, 'Systemic' theology is with little regard in comparison to the great emphasis some modern protestant theologians like to attribute to it. Curiously, these same thinkers according to Payton, "give little or no thought to what grace actually is."

Similarly the Protestant and Orthodox groups diverge at issues like sacraments (sacred-ness), the belief of giving and receiving of divine grace. And along this thought, Payton writes on the centrality in Orthodox belief about the 'breaking of the bread.' In the eastern mind this is Eucharist, the real, true and whole presence of the Lord Christ. How so asks the protestant thinker? More importantly, can we believe--even if we don't know the whole story?

To the Orthodox mind, the sacraments, and the Eucharist among them, is the whole story, owing back to the Gospels and the Hebrew scriptures believed to foretell them. The Gospels tell of a savior to come into the world, a great redeemer that would free man for all time; this man, the Christ comes for once and for all; he proclaims that wherever we are, in the breaking of the bread, there I AM.

From baptism and its mystical significance to Eucharist and salvation, the faithful among those in the  Orthodox tradition remain a strong voice within the Christian world. Payton is a man who sets many to thinking. The "book," as some call the Bible, is all there is, and the book is not all there is. Sounds like a good Zen Koan to this Simple Mind.

Greek Orthodoxy and the Holy Trinity

"God is not only the supreme, inconceivable reality, but also the principle of all realities.... he is the Oneness of all creation" --Greek philosopher, Plotinus born in 205 C.E. (A..D.)

The Orthodox Christian view of the Holy Trinity is essential to both Orthodox Christians, and to Roman Catholic Christians alike. Unlike newer, protestant Christian sects, the earliest church not only was a Jewish church in its foundations and practices, but also a church that developed with the idea of the "three in One," a common description for the mystery that is the Holy Trinity. The Greek philosopher, Plotinus, was another important influence in the development in monism, (the idea of the Oneness in the Christ) within Church thought.

Some early movements in Greek thought, after the sixth century B.C.E., "emphasized man's ability to work creatively upon his environment and to assert himself... material wealth, power, along with knowledge and intelligence were not considered a universal good," writes Demetrios Constantelos in his book, Understanding the Greek Orthodox Church. Rather it is primarily the realm of the divine that defines the limits of mankind. However human knowledge and power are limited; often humanity finds itself trapped into bondage of many types as a result. Thinkers like Socrates and Sophacles made distinctions between the natural world and the man-made world. A further distinction over the fullness of time developed in understanding between the everyday world and the eternal world, a division that Plotinus later addressed in his work.

For the most part, Greek thinkers rejected rationalism and abject materialism; some emphasized the greatness and fullness of created beings, man in particular. Long held in Greek intellectual tradition, it had been the case to consider both the physical and metaphysical aspects of creation as one and whole. This thought carried on into the Christian church. Thus to violate divine rule was, in the Greek mind, to insult and devalue the Creator. Life was to be lived with "progressive knowledge of things divine... on the whole, the dignity and infinite worth of the human person, as he who personifies the heavenly God on earth."

As Orthodoxy developed, and as the early Jewish Christians fell away from the synagogue into their newly formed communities, the ancient notion of monism (monotheism), developed further into a belief that saw no separation between the physical and the spiritual, the natural and certain truths divinely revealed to humanity. Thus, life, in the Orthodox view sees a balance, an equilibrium between the many forces of the world as both inherent and desirable.

In the realm of Christian mysticism, Greek influence is no less apparent. Her (the Church) teachings regarding the Oneness, the return to the deity through salvation are central to the mystical way. Saint Irenius said, "In his unfathomable love, God became what we are, that he might make us what he is." This personal God is therefore understood as one in essence, but three in persons.

This is the foundational understanding of the mystical workings of the Holy Trinity. God is the source; Spirit is the sanctifier, the blessing; the Son is the one living, who works on earth to bring the light of the father-source to all created beings. Intellectual efforts are often made to explain the Trinity; often these words are not helpful. God is the unfathomable; yet he may be known however, through his love, his spirit.

Orthodoxy accepts this mystery as beyond human reasoning. It is then a matter of both faith and experience in the life of a follower of this Way. So in the Orthodox Christian mind, we are all sons and daughters of the One God, The One Spirit, blessed and sanctified in the Anointed One, the Christ.
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