Western and Eastern Christian Theologies Part I: Eastern Orthodox Theology

America is a deeply Protestant country, particularly of the Calvinist-Baptist-Methodist-Evangelical persuasion, that emphasizes personal conversion, ethics, and small communal local congregations, usually eschewing larger theological, ecclesial, and historico-traditional forms of liturgy and Christian faith.

As a result, its deeply forgotten that the ancient Christian theological views comes in fact from the Greek Orthodox Church--not even the Roman Catholic or Anglican as we will see.

The Orthodox Churches of the "East" (East Europe and the Near East really) taught the synergistic conception of the relationship between grace and free will.

The synergistic or (co-operative) view of grace/free will--which again is the ancient view--teaches that God's grace and human free will work in harmony (or synergism). In the traditional view, God offers the gift of salvation to all, some choose to accept it, others do not, but God offers the gift universally nonetheless.

A key point in the synergistic model is that the human is in fact free to deny the grace of God. God, as it were, never compromises the space of human freedom, leaving the Soul to respond. Certianly God, metaphorically, "coaxes", "cajoles", even "seduces" the Soul to respond affirmatively, but never violates this inner sanctum.

In a dialectical view, we would say that grace never exists except in relation to free will and vice versa. There can only be "free" elements of the will, if there are "unfree" elements. There can only be "grace", that is gift, if somethings are fought for or earned.

So returning to the three-fold mystical path to deification outlined by Dionysius, the Greek mystics see grace and free will as in a horizontal linkage at each stage on the vertical chain. If, as St. John Climacus said, the mystical path is a Ladder of Divine Ascent, then grace and free will are like the points at which the rungs meet the vertical bars at every step up the ladder.

This Synergistic view calls one into contemplation and mystical praxis and spends very little time or energy worrying about exactly where grace begins and free will ends or vice versa. They simply state they always work together in a mysterious way. One simply must undertake the path, and spend less time worrying about the exact markings of the way.

The Synergistic model is very compatible with the traditional Christian mystical path. It is no surprise that the Orthodox Churches maintained an unbroken chain of mystical transmission for the last 2,000 years while this path was lost in the both the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches (from hereon the Western Churches).

Because the human will was considered to be free to choose God and to open itself to the energies/grace of God, Orthodox mystics gave more credence to the delination of injunctions and paradigms.

The most succint exposition of the traditional mystical praxis of the Eastern Fathers comes from the great Interpreter of the Orthodox Path, St. Gregory Palamas.

Palamas states that the Orthodox mystics (known as the Hesychasts) prayer method proceeds roughly as follows:

1.Sit quietly and close the eyes
2.Begin to follow the breath from its entrance into the nostrils up into the head, then down the throat until one's attention becomes settled and focused in the center heart (center of the chest).
3.Repeat the phrase: Lord Jesus Christ have Mercy on me a Sinner----or some variant thereof, like Lord Jesus Christ Have Mercy, or simply Jesus (inbreath), Christ (outbreath)
4.Maintain focus simply on the repetition of the phrase, do not focus on any internal or external phenomena during the time of prayer (usually 30 minutes-1 hr/sitting). Known as The Jesus Prayer of Prayer of the Heart.

This method of prayer, along with the guidance and humble following of a spiritual father/mother (known as gerontes in Greek or staretz in Russian), coupled with an otherwise dedication to the Communion, Biblical study, and ethical life will culminate in the experience of the Light of Mount Tabor.

The practice of the Jesus Prayer leads to the experience of a subtle vision of transcendent light. This light experienced interiorly by the Orthodox mystic is believed to be the same light that shown from the face of Christ during the Transfiguration (see Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke for story). The Transfiguration is said to have occurred on Mount Tabor, hence the allusion to the Light of Tabor.

This Light is in fact considered in Eastern Orthodox Theology to be the Energy of God. That is, God's active Grace. Recall the distinction between God's Existence and God's Essence described in the previous post.

The Deifying Energies of God are in fact the means of this Mystical Grace pouring into the ready and willing soul.

This Grace "deifies" or "energizes" the Created Soul to participate in the Unitive Life with the Trinity. And it is important to catch onto the ideoplastic nature of these energies--they are subtle energies, not metaphors. The faces of the Holy Men and Women of the Christian East do in face SHINE. Literally their faces Glow.

The Eastern Orthodox Tradition is most noted for its profound use of Icons--of Christ, Mary, the Saints, The Trinity, the Angels, etc. The Icon, like the physical body of Jesus is the locus for the Divine Grace/Energies to meditate or shine through into this world.

The Saint, the Mystic of the Orthodox Tradition then becomes an Icon of Christ. The Light shinning through them is the same Light that shone through Christ's face on Earth, pale a reflection though it may be.

And lastly it is important to note that for the Orthodox tradition a Theologian is a Mystic, someone who has reached Unity with God in this Life (i.e. Divinization, Deification). A theologian is not someone who has studied theological texts and has a theological degree, as in common in the West. For the Orthodox the theologian (the mystic) is someone who has simply interiorly experienced the truths revealed in the "objective" language of dogma. There is therefore a close connection between Dogmatic and Mystical Theology in the Orthodox (ancient Christian Church): Dogmatic and Mystical simply expressing the same reality from different perspectives, an outer and inner respectively.