Fwd: Eastern Orthodoxy

AntiUtopia (AntiUtopia@aol.com)
Fri, 16 Jan 1998 16:09:23 -0500 (EST) 

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From: AntiUtopia <AntiUtopia@aol.com>
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To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
Subject: Eastern Orthodoxy
Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 15:03:30 EST
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In a message dated 1/14/98 12:59:09 PM EST, remc@uhura.cc.rochester.edu
writes:

<<  I think it's kind of interesting that we Salinger folks refer so much to
 eastern religious and philosophical thought, but The Way of the Pilgrim is
 actually a Christian tale.  I don't really know enough about Orthodox
 theology, and I certainly don't know as much as I'd like to about eastern
 religions, but my gut feeling is that the Orthodox church treads a nice
 middle ground between western Christianity and eastern mysticism.  The
 writings of some of the early Desert Fathers (Christian monks from the
 first few centuries A.D., living and writing in seclusion in the deserts
 of north Africa) include some pretty interesting stuff.  Is there anyone
 out there who has more of a background in theology who could tell us about
 similarities between Orthodox and eastern thought? 
                                       - Rebecca
 
  >>

eh, I've read kinda broadly in Christian theology.  I was raised Catholic,
rejected that for some kind of nihilistic atheism, then converted to
Pentecostalism, which I've been for the last 16 years.  I've read a lot of
Reformed and Anglican theology because, well, Pentecostal Theology is a bit of
an oxymoron :)  Pentecostalism tends to be anti-intellectual, while Reformed
guys like Sproul and Nash seem to make intellect the highest criteria for the
Christian faith sometimes.

My latest interest in theology has been Eastern Orthodoxy.  E. Orthodoxy is
divided up into Russian and Greek (thus, The Way of the Pilgrim being set in
Russia), and what I've read so far is by Vladimir Lossky.  I think he's
actually Greek, but I'm not sure.  I think he tries to write across that
division.  

Eastern Orthodoxy appeals to me because it consciously balances mysticism with
reason.  That is, consciously, deliberately and intelligently.  So, I'd have
to agree with you when you said, "my gut feeling is that the Orthodox church
treads a nice middle ground between western Christianity and eastern
mysticism."  It most certainly does.  It also has in common with Buddhism a
strong emphasis on apophatic, or negative, theology--assertion by negation.
What is God? Not that, not that, not that....etc....in Lossky's words, "The
negative way of the knowledge of God is an ascendant undertaking of the mind
that progressively eliminates all positive attributes of the object it wishes
to attain, in order to culminate finally in a kind of apprehension by supreme
ignorance of Him who cannot be an object of knowledge."

Of course this is reminiscent of many far eastern religions--"he before whom
all words recoil....", but in EO there is a place for positive affirmations of
truths about God.  The western tradition of Christian theology does
acknowledge apophasis to a degree, but the emphasis is far more on reason and
what we can positively know.  EO's emphasis on apophasis places the emphasis
in an approach to God on personal experience, not particular ideas.  

Those are a few basics.  I'm not EO myself, I've just read a little bit.

Jim

   

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