Download PDF | The Orthodox Christian World, By Augustine Casiday , Routledge, 2012.
609 Pages
THE ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN WORLD
Orthodox Christianity is the main historical inheritor of the Byzantine tradition of Christianity, and is still practised around the world. The two main strands are Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox, but there are thriving communities in countries as varied as Egypt (the Copts), Armenia, and Romania, with strong diasporic communities in Western Europe, North America, Australia, and elsewhere. This book offers a compelling overview of the Orthodox World, covering the main regional traditions and the ways in which the tradition has become global; key figures from John Chrysostom to the contemporary Fathers of Mount Athos and a rich selection of key themes, including theology, monasticism, iconography and the arts, pastoral care and Orthodoxy through the eyes of travellers. The contributors are drawn from the Orthodox community worldwide, providing an innovative and illuminating approach to the subject, ideal for students and scholars alike.
Augustine Casiday is a Lecturer in Theology at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, UK.
EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION
Augustine Casiday
The past century and more witnessed unprecedented numbers of Christians from traditionally Orthodox societies migrating around the world. Bringing with them their icons, their music, their prayer books, though often not their clergy, they have in some cases for generations made their homes abroad. In so doing, these people have prompted a growing level of awareness that the familiar division of Christianity into Catholics and Protestants by no means accounts for Christianity as a whole. Indeed, as Orthodox Christians have moved around the globe, it has confounded the idea of Orthodoxy as a distinctly “eastern” or “oriental” phenomenon – an idea attended by hosts of problems for these Christians that are adumbrated (perhaps unwittingly, given its unwavering focus on Islam) by Edward Said’s landmark Orientalism.
In many parts of the modern world, one need not go far to find an Orthodox community at worship. These communities attest to several, sometimes competing, legacies that are helpful for reminding us of important facts: at least in origin, Christianity is not a European religion no matter how deep its roots in Europe run; in northern regions of East Africa, Christianity has been indigenous since well before we have any evidence of the gospel being preached in any Germanic language; not later than the seventh century, Syrian Christians took their wares and their beliefs as far east as central China, establishing churches there and preaching and teaching theology in Chinese; there still exist in predominately Islamic areas many Christian populations that for centuries have lived alongside Muslims, the histories of which can serve as a valuable corrective to the highly visible but often myopic discussions about a “clash of cultures” in the modern West. 1 These facts are perhaps not widely known, and the cultures (not to mention theologies) of these hundreds of millions of Christians are probably unfamiliar. This book attempts to redress that lack of familiarity by presenting Orthodox Christianity from multiple perspectives.
FAMILIES
Some readers will have noticed that I have already used the word “Orthodox” to describe Christian communities in Europe, Africa and the Near East, though some of these communities do not recognize the orthodoxy of other communities. This calls for a word of explanation. Orthodox Christianity embraces several churches. One of the major dividing points in the early history of Christianity – the Council of Chalcedon (451) and debates concerning the reception of St Cyril of Alexandria’s theology – has resulted in an ongoing estrangement among Orthodox Christians. It is possible to identify two major families within Christianity following those debates.
Very broadly speaking, they consist of (on the one hand) the Greek-speaking Christians of Byzantium and the churches influenced by Byzantine traditions – such as the churches of Greece and Russia – and (on the other hand) the Syriac-speaking Christians of Persia and the churches influenced by Syriac traditions, such as the churches of Eritrea and Ethiopia, most notably through the work of the “Righteous Ones” or “Nine Saints.” 2 But refinements are needed at once: the Armenian Church and the Coptic Church are not readily identified with either of those cultural traditions, though they can be classified within those two groups. Furthermore, neither group includes the Assyrian Church of the East or the Maronite Church. Neither of those communities selfdescribe as “orthodox” but both of them are so linguistically, historically and culturally continuous with Orthodox communities that they are included in this volume. Indeed, any attempt to exclude them from consideration here would have to be based on principles that attempt (wrongly, in my view) to define Orthodox Christianity in strictly ecclesiological terms. Because Orthodox Christianity is fluid and exists in constant conversation with multiple historical and local cultures, it is notoriously difficult to advance a satisfactory categorization with reference to any single factor (whether theological, ecclesiological, liturgical, ethnic or linguistic).
To speak of “families” is itself not free of problems, but family language does have to recommend it that it captures a wide range of particulars and that it can be refined. 3 The terms used to designate those “families” are often polemic in their origins. 4 One group has been called “Melkite” (from the Syriac / malkayâ, meaning “royal” or “imperial”; cf. the Arabic / malakî) because it adhered to the Orthodoxy of the emperor in Constantinople. The other group has been called “Monophysite” (from the Greek, μονοφυσίτες, referring to a doctrine that Christ was “one nature”) because it rejected the Dyophysite (“two-nature”) Christology of the Council of Chalcedon. Both of those terms are pejorative and as such will be avoided in this volume. Instead, and with an eye to the cautious successes of recent ecumenical engagement across the Chalcedonian divide, the former family will be called “Eastern Orthodox” and the latter family will be called “Oriental Orthodox.”
Chapters on both families have been included here without discriminating on the basis of Chalcedon. This means that Orthodox Christianity as practiced and promoted in Egypt, Ethiopia, India and elsewhere will be presented without apology alongside Orthodox Christianity as practiced and promoted in Russia, Romania, Greece and elsewhere. Since this book has been published in English and since Orthodox Christianity in its Byzantine traditions is more widely represented (and so, presumably, more familiar) throughout the English-speaking world, it seems prudent to treat Eastern Orthodoxy as the default – without prejudice to any other Orthodox tradition.
VARIANTS
The Christian East and Orient developed in very different ways to the Christian West and, consequently, Orthodox Christianity often startles Western observers. For instance, theology as expressed in the Orthodox traditions is usually heavily imbued with liturgical and poetic features that are culturally distinct from the forms of liturgy and poetry familiar in western Christian traditions. Quite apart from the profound connection of liturgy and prayer to theology in Orthodox Christianity, the very forms of Orthodox worship tend to differ markedly from Christian worship elsewhere. For over a millennium, visitors to Orthodox churches have reported the profound impression that the stately beauty and dignity of Orthodox worship had made upon them. Having been sent to explore the faiths of the Bulgar Muslims, the German Catholics, the Khazar Jews and the Greek Orthodox, Prince Vladimir’s envoys returned to him in 987, with this memorable report:
. . . the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendour or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty. 5 Their perception that heaven and earth joined while the Orthodox worshipped hinges on another perception: beauty has long been central to Orthodox Christianity. Another factor that sets Orthodox Christianity apart from many other Christian professions is the fact that monasticism impacts upon all aspects of Orthodox life. Furthermore, culture – whether Eastern European, African, Middle Eastern or Asian – has for centuries existed in a symbiotic relationship with Orthodox practice and thinking. Since Justinian’s legislation began to harmonize canon law and civil law in the early sixth century, 6 the ideal has been a social “symphony” between civil life and Christian life. 7
The ideal of a society so theologically integrated is perhaps foreign, possibly even repellent, to many readers. Yeats’ lines on the “holy city of Byzantium” and especially his wish to be gathered “into the edifice of eternity” neatly illustrate the otherness that the symphony of Orthodox Christian belief and Orthodox Christian society presents to many. There are powerful habits of thinking that Orthodoxy approximates to profound, even timeless, harmony. No doubt, the prevalence of ancient and stable patterns of worship – which Vladimir’s envoys had already associated with heaven and with God dwelling among the Orthodox, as we have seen – and the persistent tendency for Westerners to regard the East “as a locale suitable for incarnating the infinite in a finite shape” (Said 2003: 62) both contribute to that deceptive appearance.
And even this is to say nothing about the persistent appeal for Orthodox themselves of seeking refuge in the sublime recapitulation of the past, a temptation toward romanticism so severe that it overflows into atavism. This temptation has been depicted nowhere as vividly as by the visionary V. S. Soloviev in his “Short Tale of the Anti-Christ,” where the great apostasy of Orthodox Christians is precipitated by this offer from the Antichrist (1915: 211):
Know, then, my beloved ones, that to-day I have signed the decree and have set aside vast sums of money for the establishment in our glorious Empire city, Constantinople, of a world’s museum of Christian archæology, with the object of collecting, studying, and saving all the monuments of church antiquity, more particularly of the Eastern one; and I ask you to select from your midst a committee for working out with me the measures which are to be carried out, so that the modern life, morals, and customs may be organised as nearly as possible in accordance with the traditions and institutions of the Holy Orthodox Church. 8 Finally, the practice of regarding theology as sublimely detached from grubby workaday considerations – a practice that, happily, scholars have for some time been increasingly abandoning – has not helped at all.
All of these factors have tended to portray Orthodoxy as an other-worldly, mysterious and remote phenomenon. But such an approach is as inimical to understanding as is the attempt to fit Orthodoxy onto the Procrustean bed of Western Christian doctrine. In this book, every effort has been made to allow for Orthodox Christianity in its various forms to be presented in terms that are meaningful with respect to Orthodoxy, but that are also comprehensible for readers from a range of backgrounds. Taking variations seriously is a first step toward understanding Orthodox Christianity without imposing artificial barriers. Because Orthodox Christianity is profoundly integrated within its traditional societies, the pursuit of any Orthodox topic may take turns unpredictable from external perspectives. Within and among Orthodox societies, we find lively arguments and heartfelt dissent no less than deep consensus and self-sacrificing loyalty. Orthodoxy is not monolithic.
It would be dishonest, and a disservice to history and to posterity, to pretend otherwise. To provide an account of Orthodox Christianity that approximates to its polyvalence and complexity, the chapters within this book will not be restricted to treatments of Orthodox Christian theology. Nor, indeed, will the chapters be restricted to Orthodox Christianity as though it existed in splendid isolation from larger society, from the vagaries of historical trends, or from other forms of Christianity. Moreover, this book recognizes Orthodoxy as a “going concern.” As a result, any attempt at accounting for Orthodoxy as a simple object for disengaged commentary is regarded here as inadequate. Essays included in this volume respond to the complexity of Orthodoxy by drawing from multiple perspectives. Thus, contributors include specialists who study phenomena associated with Orthodox Christianity; Orthodox practitioners who are directly involved in various fields of professional endeavor; and indeed Orthodox scholars whose engagements with their studies are enriched by their personal involvements in Orthodox life. Furthermore, some of the publications in this volume contribute to broad-based movements from Orthodox perspectives and could with reason be seen as “position papers.”
STRUCTURE
The book is organized into three major parts: “Orthodox Christianity around the World,” “Important Figures in Orthodox Christianity” and “Major Themes in Orthodox Christianity.” This thematic organization has been conceived so as to enable the contributors to treat their themes as those themes are understood within Orthodox Christianity. The contributors were allowed this scope to enable them to pursue their respective topics without imposing foreign categories upon the subject matter. On a related note, the chapters here both illustrate Orthodox perspectives or contributions to particular conversations (e.g. on mental health, on the relationship of Second Temple Judaism to Christian mysticism) and also shed fresh light on aspects of Orthodox Christianity (e.g. on Greek literature, on women in Orthodoxy). It is perhaps worth mentioning that, in keeping with my earlier remarks on the pervasiveness of Orthodoxy and the need to consider it therefore under several aspects, the contributors to this book are involved in multiple disciplines and professions – including a bishop, a composer, a librarian and a psychiatrist. To all the contributors, the editor is enormously grateful.
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