Salvation and the Human Intellect
��And Jesus answered and said to her, �Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her� (Luke 10:41-42).
�from T.S. Eliot�s The Four Quartets, Little Gidding, in which he describes a small chapel:
You are not here to verify,
Instruct yourself, or inform curiousity
Or carry report. You are here to kneel
Where prayer has been valid. And prayer is more
Than an order of words, the conscious occupation
Of the praying mind, or the sound of the voice praying.
As graduation draws near for us who are seniors, many of us look back at the past 16 years and try to define precisely what end this long process of education has sought. From childhood on, our education has been oriented essentially towards the same ends as the rest of the culture: the proverbial reading, writing, and arithmetic. The conventional answer to the question of �why� is obvious for these three: they serve as necessary tools for the rest of our lives. The defense of the university education is a little more difficult, particularly at a liberal arts college such as this. But again, the conventional answer holds that this education is intended to hone our minds and teach us to think, preparing us for life after graduation.
As Christians, we have always, but especially over the past several years, tried to balance intellectual honesty and academic integrity with our Christian faith; we have tried to properly compartmentalize the often-conflicting pursuits of an academic and a Christian. For many of us, the encounter with other intelligent, well-informed undergraduates of such a variety of beliefs only heightens the conflict within our own minds and hearts.
At this college in particular, the arguments on the subject of religious belief are frequent and heated. Whether between adherents of differing systems of belief or between members of the same tradition, they can stray into almost any topic, verge on any heresy, in the struggle to achieve an intellectual conclusion that the participants may agree upon as Truth. Or at least to reach some conclusion that leaves us less insecure about our beliefs. The ready defense for what otherwise would appear to only divide and undermine our faith is that, on the contrary, it is this very process that tests and tempers it. We assume that, if we are saved by faith, that faith is essentially equivalent to belief. Hence we must choose carefully in what system of belief we put our �faith.� And thus, almost inevitably, we have come to vest the moment of salvation in a single moment of rational subscription to a syllogism.
But this is dangerous�for if the rational intellect is central to a man�s salvation, then the foremost imperative for a man seeking salvation is to become steeped in knowledge in order that he may discern Truth. The inevitable conclusion is that we come to perceive the highest moral calling in the furtherance of social progress so-called, to provide academic education to all in order that all may read the Bible, study the conflicting Christian traditions and arrive at a salvific conclusion�belief in the Christian God. The Great Commission becomes an imperative to advanced education, demanding that every man become a philosopher and theologian in the grand tradition of Luther, Calvin and Nietzche.
But if this demand is valid, we are left with a dilemma for the man unable to pursue such learning. The vast majority of humankind is and has always been incapable of the intellectual dedication necessary for such a study, incapable not so much because of a lack in intelligence as because the duties of simple survival leave no time or opportunity for such academic rigor. For a thousand reasons, the common man throughout the history of humanity is simply less capable of the intellectual exercise that we apparently consider to be the vehicle of a man�s salvation.
But we academics, ignoring this consequence, continue to act as though our intellectual pursuits are central to our salvation. Indeed, even we who believe spend our time in constant examination of evidence, in the honing of our arguments in order that we may, as we say, give an answer to those who question us. Although we already possess that faith that saves, although we are certain that we are right, we continue to test ourselves, to harp on what actually comprises the bare bones of the Christian faith. Especially in our role as academics, the constant topic at this school is the implication of this or that scientific fact, of this or that academic discipline, upon the Christian system of thought.
But none of this should matter. For none of this is the true end of the Christian life. To quote St. Paul, �Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits� (Hebrews 6:1-3).
None of this is intended to denigrate the pursuit of truth, which is inherently a noble and lofty pursuit. But pursuit of truth, as understood by so many today, is not the point of the Christian life, nor can it be. Think we that the moment we arrive at a conclusion that is completely correct, our lives will be purified, our eyes opened and God appear suddenly before us? The suggestion is ridiculous.
Indeed, one whose life was purified, whose eyes were opened and who lived constantly in conscious communion with God met the intellectuals and philosophers of his day with a gentle rebuke. St. Athanasius of Alexandria tells of two Greek philosophers who once paid a visit to St. Anthony the Great, a man unlettered and of meager education, as he practiced his ascetic labours in the Egyptian desert. As they approached, as Athanasius says, �thinking they could try their skill on Antony,� he recognized them as philosophers and questioned them through an interpreter. �Why, philosophers, did ye trouble yourselves so much to come to a foolish man?� They replied that he was not foolish, but �exceedingly prudent,� and he replied with a rebuke. �If you came to a foolish man, your labour is superfluous; but if you think me prudent become as I am, for we ought to imitate what is good. And if I had come to you I should have imitated you; but if you to me, become as I am, for I am a Christian� (Vita Antonii section 72). And they departed, amazed at him.
You may well ask what all this has to do with anything interdisciplinary. As the Good Doctor has established as the primary criteria for this, the final product of my undergraduate career, that it be interdisciplinary, I here insert a brief apologia for my topic. While I am admittedly not addressing many aspects of the relation between history, philosophy, psychology, the sciences and the classics, I am attempting to define the proper role of all these compartments of human knowledge in the fulfillment of the human reason for existing, the human telos, which we all, I think, believe the Christian life to be. The extreme focus on rational thought and argument is, simply put, not the faith of Scripture, nor of the early church, nor of any saint that has ever lived.
Rather, as Anthony the Great demonstrates to us, the heights of the Christian life are perfectly accessible to all, regardless of one�s comprehension of language or philosophy or even simply the ability to read. Anthony possessed very little of this, being driven to the desert by the calling of the Holy Spirit and his own zeal for the angelic life, as the Egyptian monastic fathers called their lifelong struggle to live completely and solely for Christ. All it needs, indeed, is an unwavering dedication to the call of Christ and an active willingness to abandon all for the prize set before us. And so has it always been.
But this establishes only that knowledge and understanding in the conventional sense are not necessary to the Christian and hence human life. If we are to maintain, however, that there is still profit in education (and as budding academics, it is greatly in our interest to do so), it remains for us to determine what direction those studies must take. In the course of our search, let us keep in mind the words of Solomon, �The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding� (Proverbs 9:10). With that as our guide, let us turn to the fourth century and the clash of the newly legalized Christian faith with pagan learning.
Central to this clash, which resulted in the baptism of Greek thought and culture and laid the foundation for the later definitions clarifying the dogmas of the Christian faith, were the three Cappadocian Fathers, three aristocratic natives of modern Asia Minor, raised in the faith and afforded the best liberal education available in that late Hellenistic period. Intellectuals to the core, they possessed a genuine love for the Hellenistic heritage which was their birthright; nonetheless, their first loyalty was to the Christian faith of their fathers. John Meyendorff summarizes their unique role in that early clash of faith and reason.
�They were influential Christian bishops, concerned not only with intellectual pursuits or individual mysticism, but also with orthodox doctrine, with the Church as a sacramental body and as an institution, now closely connected with the Roman state. The major achievement of their lives was that they had succeeded in maintaining their commitments to the Church, to Scripture, and to the Hellenistic tradition, without compromise and with intellectual and spiritual integrity. The synthesis which they produced was not necessarily a perfect synthesis�which was impossible because of their rejection of syncretism and their obvious prior and ultimate commitment to the Christian faith�but their honesty and consistency won the respect of pagans and Christians alike� (Life of Moses xii).
Of the three, two were brothers: St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa. The third, St. Gregory of Nazianzus, was an intimate friend of Basil�s while they both studied in Athens under the finest Christian and pagan masters; the two remained close for many years after.
It is interesting to note that Basil, despite the piety of his upbringing and strength of his own faith, was nonetheless distracted by the glamour of the literary, philosophical and especially rhetorical training he had received. His brother records this of his return in his biography of their elder sister, St. Macrina.
��when her mother had arranged in a fair and fitting way the situations of her sisters with a view to what seemed best for each of them, the great Basil, brother of the girl we have been speaking about, came back from the school where he had been trained for a long time in the discipline of rhetoric. Although when she took him in hand he was monstrously conceited about his skill in rhetoric, contemptuous of every high reputation and exalted beyond the leading lights of the province by his self-importance, so swiftly did she win him to the ideal of philosophy that he renounced worldly appearance , showed contempt for the admiration of rhetorical ability and went over of his own accord to this active life of manual labour, preparing for himself by means of his complete poverty a way of life which would tend without impediment towards virtue� (Corrigan 32).
Let us examine in particular Gregory�s use of the word philosophy. For this itself is central to an understanding of the manner in which the Cappadocians commandeered the pagan heritage for the strengthening and perfection of their faith. According to Kevin Corrigan in his introduction to St. Gregory of Nyssa�s Life of St. Macrina, this �philosophy� stands ��in stark contrast to the sometimes narrow, academic discipline we know today. Its roots for Gregory lie in a living tradition which includes and, for the Christian, perfects the best of pagan thought, especially that of Socrates and Plato. For Macrina and Gregory philosophy is the spirit of living wisdom which embraces the whole of human life: prayer, manual work, hospitality, care of the sick, of the poor and the dying. It is a life entirely given to God, a life not without risk, a life loved �on the boundaries� of human nature. It includes a vibrant intellectuality, life-long study and a spirit of true inquiry, and it culminates in the divine love of a person, Christ� (Corrigan 23).
Basil himself articulates a similar approach to philosophy in his 22nd Homily, on the subject of the study of pagan education, citing examples of a proper utilization of pagan education. �No source of instruction can be overlooked in the preparation for the great battle of life, and there is a certain advantage to be derived from the right use of heathen writers. The illustrious Moses is described as training his intellect in the science of the Egyptians, and so arriving at the contemplation of Him Who is� (Jackson lxv)
It is this statement which affords perhaps the simplest example of the methods of the Fathers, for that which is rendered �Him who is� is, in Greek, to ontos. Jackson, the translator, explains this usage in a footnote. �The highest heathen philosophy strove to reach the neuter to on. The revelation of Jehovah is of the masculine o wn, who communicates with his creatures, and says ego eimi� (Jackson lxv, footnote 11).
Once we understand philosophy and, indeed, education, in this way, we will be able to make more sense of St. Gregory of Nyssa�s mystical analogies in his Life of Moses, the overarching point of which is that the totality of the spiritual life is a continual growth or straining ahead (according to the back cover). Speaking of the turbulence of the river upon which Moses was cast as an infant, Gregory says this: �Experience teaches us that the restless and heaving motion of life thrusts from itself those who do not totally submerge themselves in the deceits of human affairs and it reckons as a useless burden those whose virtue is annoying.� Hence he draws an analogy between the ark which bore Moses safely and education �in the different disciplines, which holds what it carries above the waves of life� (Nyssa 56).
This education is not the comprehensive pursuit of learning as we understand it, but the necessary training in matters of faith that is vital to any Christian childhood. For Gregory continues about the daughter of Pharaoh.
�Since the daughter of the king, being childless and barren (I think she is rightly perceived as profane philosophy), arranged to be called his mother by adopting the youngster, Scripture concedes that his relationship with her who was falsely called his mother should not be rejected until he had recognized his own immaturity. But he who has already attained maturity, as we have learned about Moses, will be ashamed to be called the son of one who is barren by nature� (Nyssa 57).
�For truly barren is profane education, which is always in labor but never gives birth. For what fruit worthy of such pangs does philosophy show for being so long in labor? Do not all who are full of wind and never come to term miscarry before they come to the light of the knowledge of God, although they could as well become men if they were not altogether hidden in the womb of barren wisdom?� (Nyssa 57).
�Now after living with the princess of the Egyptians for such a long time that he seemed to share in their honors, he must return to his natural mother. Indeed he was not separated from her while he was being brought up by the princess but was nursed by his mother�s milk, as the history states. This teaches, it seems to me, that if we should be involved with profane teachings during our education, we should not separate ourselves from the nourishment of the Church�s milk, which would be her laws and customs. By these the soul is nourished and matured, thus being given the means of ascending the height.� (Nyssa 57).
�It is true that he who looks to both the profane doctrines and to the doctrines of the fathers will find himself between two antagonists. For the foreigner in worship is opposed to the Hebrew teaching, and contentiously strives to appear stronger than the Israelite. And so he seems to be to many of the more superficial who abandon the faith of their fathers and fight on the side of the enemy, becoming transgressors of the fathers� teaching. On the other hand, he who is great and noble in soul like Moses slays with his own hand the one who rises in opposition to true religion� (Nyssa 57).
Gregory�s lesson becomes much clearer when one recalls the experience of Basil in Athens. Among his many acquaintances, few are more notable than the young Julian, prince of the house of Constantine and the future Julian the Apostate. As summarized by Rowland Smith, Gregory of Nazianzus remembered that he, Basil and their small group of friends �knew only two roads, one to the church and one to the lecture-hall� (Smith 31). Julian, on the other hand, consorted seldom with any friends, frequented primarily the lecture halls of the pagan teachers and seldom (if ever) appeared at the Divine Services of the Christian Church. He was, indeed, a devoted philosopher, but through his intellectualism (combined with other influences), he came to abandon the faith and embrace once more the bankrupt worship of idols. The example serves as a sobering warning to those of us who would dabble too deeply in the speculations of those devoid of faith.
This said, it is almost surprising that Gregory of Nazianzus does not simply condemn pagan philosophy. Indeed, in his eulogy for St. Basil, he praises it as possessing much power for edification, saying, �I take it as admitted by men of sense, that the first of our advantages is education; and not only this our more noble form of it, which disregards rhetorical ornaments and glory, and holds to salvation, and beauty in the objects of our contemplation: but even that external culture which many Christians ill-judgingly abhor, as treacherous and dangerous, and keeping us afar from God� (Orations 43-11).
He goes on to explain that, even as we do not neglect the heavens, earth or air, but honour them as works of God and �reap what advantage we can from them for our life and enjoyment.� He even goes so far as to say this. �We must not then dishonour education, because some men are pleased to do so, but rather suppose such men to be boorish and uneducated, desiring all men to be as they themselves are, in order to hide themselves in the general, and escape the detection of their want of culture.� (Orations 43-11).
The simple criteria, however, for pursuit of this education is that it be coupled with spiritual advancement, says Nazianzus. Lack in either leaves a man lame, as it were. Speaking of Basil, he says �he was trained in general education, and practised in the worship of God, and, to speak concisely, led on by elementary instructions to his future perfection. For those who are successful in life or in letters only, while deficient in the other, seem to me to differ in nothing from one-eyed men, whose loss is great, but their deformity greater, both in their own eyes, and in those of others. While those who attain eminence in both alike, and are ambidextrous, both possess perfection, and pass their life with the blessedness of heaven� (Orations 43-12).
This is needed primarily, however, for the sake of communication and communion with other men. As Gregory says of Basil�s skill in rhetoric, �Eloquence was his by-work, from which he culled enough to make it an assistance to him in Christian philosophy, since power of this kind is needed to set forth the objects of our contemplation. For a mind which cannot express itself is like the motion of a man in a lethargy. His pursuit was philosophy, and breaking from the world, and fellowship with God, by concerning himself, amid things below, with things above, and winning, where all is unstable and fluctuating, the things which are stable and remain� (Orations 43-13).
This conclusion is far more palatable than that with which we began. For even Anthony the Great meets the criteria�for he, despite his lack of formal education, spent his entire lifetime in pursuit of that knowledge which is useful, both for communion with God and with man. And simply in his confrontations with numerous pagan philosophers we see that his lack of formal education did not leave him as a one-eyed man. Perhaps, indeed, simply through his constant prayer and communion with God, he was perfected in all that is necessary for life. Or perhaps there is no exception to be explained. For Anthony�s method from the first was to flit from ascetic to ascetic as a honeybee, learning from each whatever he could of that which is profitable for the ascent to that deeper communion with God which is the fundamental calling of human existence. In this manner he himself exemplified the method of Cappadocian Fathers, learning all that was profitable for salvation and setting aside as utterly irrelevant that which might have undermined his faith. He did so in a manner befitting his character�as a man unlettered he sought that which was accessible to him with all his heart and was greatly blessed by God.
Let us not, then, as we pursue our academic interests according to our own characters, be seduced to leave the straight course of faith�our place is not to prove the faith, but to live it. Thus we may, and must, garner what we can from our studies for the shoring up of our faith, and leave the rest as irrelevant. For this Faith is not subject to the judgment of any secular system of thought as regards its validity. The ultimate criteria will be clear to any who has eyes to see�even as Anthony said to the philosophers who approached him, behold me and become like me, for I am a Christian. The proof is in the fruit�let us then occupy ourselves with bearing fruit, and leave the rest in the hands of Him who is the Author and Finisher of our Faith. He who tries to prove the faith from the outside will bear no fruit. Again, even Moses needed his mother�s milk to sustain him through his years in the Egyptian court. Let us rest assured that, had he lacked that foundation, he would never have, for the sake of Christ, �refused to be called the son of Pharaoh�s daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.� (Hebrews 11:24-26)
So let us do also.
Addendum�one final comment:
Assumed in the course of this has been a strong training in the Faith, as Proverbs says, �Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it� (Proverbs 22:6). Many today are inclined to condemn such training as propaganda. And, indeed, as it is practiced so frequently, it is little more than this. For we in America, vesting salvation primarily in the rational intellect, �train� our children in the faith by a comprehensive indoctrination regarding the evils, excesses and errors of those who do not share our beliefs. This is not that of which I speak.
Training in the faith should be positive, not negative, concerned with building up in the child the understanding of the fundamentals of the Faith and even more with fostering an organic, vivid communion with God, so that the child is raised not to be subscribe to a syllogism, but to live a life�a more abundant life. Let it not be concerned, as it so frequently is, with merely undermining all other systems. If our faith is true, then our children will find fulfillment in it of all their needs. We have no need to disprove other religions�for by our fruit they shall know us.
posted by Fr. A at 12:52 PM
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