.My religion VS spirituality series
VIDEO ..so for some reason discussions about
christianity often gets a bit one-sided when most people in at least western and america think about christianity they usually think either about the or about one of the various protestant denominations but included in the diverse religion of christianity is of course also what is known as the churches the orthodox churches represent a form of christianity that while of sharing some of the basic tenets of the religion can sometimes appear quite different from its western counterparts theologies and practices of the two and eastern branches of christianity has different directions across the centuries which has led to some very interesting and fascinating differences unique to both of them and while the western catholic church had a flourishing period of mysticism middle ages with figures that we've already discussed in previous videos or marguerite porret for example the eastern orthodox church has also developed a tradition of mysticism that is just as significant and and one of the most important and of this general mysticism of the eastern church as well as a topic that has been frequently requested by you guys is a tradition known as hessicasm over the course of the early middle ages around the turn of the first millennium christianity had increasingly become eastern part and a western part the western part being characterized by latin language the exalted position of and other theological aspects while their eastern counterparts primarily language and denied the supreme position this is a huge generalization and the reasons for the east-west split is very complex and deserves a video of its own but the gist of the story is that these eventually led to the so-called great into the western roman catholic church orthodox church some placed the schism 1054 but really as i've just said this gradual gradual estrangement rather than a single event in any case since then the two branches of have developed independently in different directions and in various ways emphasizing different theological perspectives practicing in slightly now something that is important to get out of the way early is the fact that orthodox christianity is itself divided in a general sense we often talk about the oriental orthodox churches which include groups like the coptic church in egypt the armenian apostolic church and syrian orthodox church these quote-unquote oriental churches are sometimes also known as non-calcidonion churches on the basis that they split off from the rest of the christians by denying the creed presented at the council of chalcedon in complex theological debate aside the other group of orthodox christianity besides the oriental orthodox is often orthodox church which has been prevailed anatolia and eastern europe especially and in this video we will be focusing on the eastern orthodox church in even if the oriental churches have a lot of interesting things to offer us hopefully in future episodes now when we look at the eastern orthodox church and compare it to the roman catholics we can find a number of distinct features especially after the official while they for example share the same early authority figures and church the two denominations will often different figures as more or less important saint augustine perhaps the most central figure in early theologian of the western church does not play as important of a role in eastern orthodoxy for example and relatively minor figures in the catholic traditions such as clement of or pseudo-dinesius the areopagites have a more major role to play in eastern orthodoxy and this has been one of the reasons that these two forms looked quite different during the middle ages we all know about the great scholastic tradition of western europe for example with figures like thomas peter abelard etc implementing a strongly rationalistic approach to influenced by the greek philosophers this became a central feature of the western church the influence of which is the eastern orthodox church didn't have instead to generalize a bit it approached the religion and its theology in a less rationalistic and more way now of course the word mysticism is problematic and slippery term that i sometimes like to avoid in these kinds um for the sake of this discussion we're as opposed to the scholastic rationalism or the rationalizing i should say of the scholastic philosophers and mystic or the mysticism in this case a an approach where the personal the person and experience of the divine is at its center so so to say don't get me wrong the western church had mysticism definitely as we've seen with figures like eckhart but you could say that the eastern orthodox church were in the eastern the mystical approach is even more strongly integrated into the core features of its theology indeed vladimir a russian theologian of the 20th century writes that the theology of the eastern is essentially mystical quote the eastern tradition has never made a sharp distinction between mysticism and between personal experience of the divine mysteries and the dogma affirmed there is therefore no christian mysticism without theology but above all there is no theology this is perhaps best exemplified by the fact that according to lawsky and other the primary goal of the christian life the very purpose of theology and of all is ultimately to reach union with god quote the theological doctrines which have been elaborated in the course of can be treated in the most direct relation to the vital end that of union with god to the attainment they are subservient this union known in theosis also translated as demonization becoming divine is a particularly central aspect of the eastern orthodox and its spiritual practices including the hesse caste tradition which is the main subject of this video indeed the theology of the orthodox church follows in a line of mystically apophatic traditions of antiquity now what epiphaticism means is the idea that totally beyond any form of human understanding or descriptions in other words nothing can be said about only statements about what god isn't will suffice if even that this apathetic approach to god was many of the church fathers including the esoterically oriented clement of alexandria who writes in his great work that we can't know or attain to god in but only in what he is not but the most significant figure in the development of is the figure known as the a platonizing christian theologian and probably lived in the 5th century in his monumental treaties called the mystical he presents and in a way pioneers the heavily apathetic approach to god that would so characterize leader mysticism in general he tells us that we know god or what he is since he is in unknowable instead it is through that we may begin to approach the ineffable darkness of the godhead for those of you who have read western mystics like eckhart you will recognize this kind of language eckhart was very pseudodynesis as were many other mystics both in the eastern and western very important for for the history of both christian mysticism but also in and in apophatic theology in general court now god is beyond all that exists to approach him it is necessary to deny all that is inferior to him that is to say all that which is if in one can know what one sees them one has not seen god in himself but something something which is inferior to him it is unknowing that one may know him who is above every possible object of knowledge proceeding by negations one ascends from the inferior degrees of being to the by progressively setting aside all that in order to draw near to the unknown in the darkness of absolute ignorance this is not just an instance of speculative or philosophical abstraction as epiphaticism can often become instead dionysius and many of the other the apophatic approach is very much an one it is a process of purification where the individual turns away from all by removing any positive attributions and association with conceptual thoughts and gradually enters into the darkness where god truly dwells and where he in the words of timothy ware quotes in fact many of those who used the saw it not just as a philosophical divide for indicating god's utter but also and much more fundamentally as a means of attaining union with him through prayer and it is from this spiritual approach that the mystical practices and contemplative traditions within the eastern orthodox church stem and probably the most famous of these contemplative traditions is finally what is known as hezekiasm and thus after a very long introduction we have finally reached the main topic of today's episode hesikasm could be referred to as a tradition of that developed within the eastern orthodox church primarily in the middle even though its origins may have roots earlier it especially became a hot topic of debate in the 14th century but was a very popular way of religious and spiritual practice before that and especially in places like on mount athos the contemplative ascetical tradition has of course existed since the very earliest days of christianity pioneered by the desert fathers and mothers but around the turn of the first there had appeared significant figures within the eastern church that started to put down in writing some of the meditative practices that characterized the mysticism of the one of the most important of these figures is saint simeon the new a byzantine mystic from constantinople who spoke in his writings about the mystical experience of intimacy and union with god the title of theologian does not simply mean that he was a person who speculated about god which is the kind of conventional meaning of the instead in this context the title denoted someone who had a personal and of unity with him in fact this title three figures of the orthodox church the gregory of nazianzus and finally our this great mystic emphasized the direct light and mystical unions through turning inward in contemplation much in the way described by but in a way he is only a foretaste of the hesicast tradition proper now hesicasm is derived from the greek which means inner stillness and when we usually mean a certain form of and prayer this prayer involves certain breathing techniques and prayers to be sought to be united to god and to receive the grace of the holy spirit and by turning inward the meditation itself involves sitting down with one's head one the chin touching the breast the and one's eyes being fixated on the then the breathing is also controlled and then the breathing is sort of done in time with the prayers and indeed that last part is very quote unquote has a caste technique of is after all just that it's a kind of prayer in particular the hesse cast talk about the prayer of the heart and this prayer usually takes the jesus prayer this is a very short prayer lord jesus christ son of god have mercy and in later periods the words a sinner was added so lord jesus christ have a sinner and this prayer this phrase would be repeated by the monks who practiced the hesicast form of or prayer for very long periods of time they would repeat it over and over again while doing also these bodily postures many have of course compared this form of prayer or meditation to other forms of meditation in other religions like yoga for example and while there are many similarities we with making too many of those kinds of the orthodox scholars themselves will bodily postures are simply an aid for concentration and has no other symbolic or any other function really to be a help for concentration the goal is to receive the grace of god something can't be controlled with bodily the hesicasts were often criticized as having a crude materialist approach to because of this kind of misunderstanding the purpose of these contemplative practices was to turn inward to purify the soul of all external things and to make that journey into the apathetic darkness beyond all understanding where paradoxically the light of god is experienced god is not to be reached out there in but rather by turning to the innermost after all as the account in genesis says the human being was created in the image of god this means that we all collectively have a divine part of ourselves which is accessible timothy ware writes quotes each of us is and because we are god's icon we can find god by looking within our own heart by returning within ourselves this point is affirmed again and again in scripture and in the writings of the the kingdom of god is within you says the father of christian asceticism saint anthony of egypt also stated that quote he who knows himself knows god echoing a lot of other statements made by other major figures of different religions even clement of alexandria writes in the when you see your brother or sister you all of us have the image of god within ourselves a connection to the divine that can be cultivated to the point that divinized in christian theology this was the path that was opened up by the person of jesus christ and his sacrifice in the famous words of that very significant church father athanasius quote god became human so that we might now some of you may ask if god is so all created things and beyond all how can one possibly unite with him like uniting with god actually mean this is a very legitimate question and a question christians and eastern orthodox church at the time or still do but also back in this was a question that came up in particular when the hezekiah claimed that they had experienced god's light in this experience of that seemed to go against the central doctrine of god's complete transcendence possibly be experienced in that way this resulted in the great hesi cast controversy that peaked in the 14th century when an orthodox scholar by the who was outraged by the hesse cast and their claims when he visited mount ethos called their practices and claims heretical and blasphemous how could god's essence or light be experienced and seen with the eyes as the heza cast had claimed or as he at least interpreted them as this experience must be of a created light not that of the creator himself it is because of this critique and the controversy around hesitation in the that we get one of the most significant theologians in the history of because indeed a monk from mount athos called gregory palamas would come to the defense of the hessy castes against its critics and was so successful that his theological ideas basically become mainstream in eastern in treatises like triads for the defense of those who practice sacred quietude he defends the hesse cast against baralam's theological attacks and he did so primarily by making the between god's essence on the one hand god's energies on the other being a good apathetic christian theologian he totally and unequivocally considers in other words god in his absolute reality as totally beyond all comprehension or experience quote god is not a nature for he is above all he is not a being for he is above all no single thing of all that is created has or ever will have even the slightest the supreme nature or nearness to it however when it comes to god's energies the situation is different the energies of god are the relationship of god to the created world they are the ways that god you could say to creation and through our experience now this is a complex theological doctrine of course that requires a lot but god's energies are not created things they are uncreated and are fully god himself they're not separated but they are the ways that he communicates himself to humans and to vladimir lovsky writes quote god's presence in his energies must be understood in a realistic sense it is not the presence of a cause operative and its effects for the energies are not effects of the divine cause as creatures are they are not created formed ex nihilo eternally from the one essence of the they are the outpourings of the divine nature which cannot set bounds to itself for god is more than essence the energies might be described as that mode of existence of the trinity which is outside of its inaccessible god thus exists both in his essence and god in his essence is completely beyond completely transcendent and inaccessible to any form of experience or but in terms of his energies god is his energy is permeating all of creation all of existence quote all creation is a permeated but not consumed by the ineffable and wondrous fire of god's this idea of god's essence versus god's is considered to have been part of orthodoxy since the earliest church but it was definitely clearly formulated for the first time and most with the figure of gregory palamas by palamas was trying to solve the transcendence versus imminence paradox or debates and to defend the practices and claimed experiences of the hesse castes when the hazy casts through their meditation practices reach an intimate experience of god's light and of union with god it isn't god's essence that they are experiencing but it is his energies quote to say that the divine nature is communicable not in itself but is to remain within the bounds of right so when a person becomes united with god energies that one is united with not the light of god that is experienced by the mystic which is considered to be experienced by the apostles during the transfiguration of jesus on mount tabor is again god's energy which is identical yet not the same as his essence ultimately the defense of gregory palamas was largely successful his theological formulations were made part of official doctrine in two councils during the 14th century and is still an important part of because of palomas and his doctrinal justifications for hesicasm this tradition has continued to thrive within the church even to this day we not only find people still practicing the hesse cast forms of meditation and but also see traces of the theological and mystical doctrines and expressions one of the most important aspects of the hesi cast tradition in the eastern is a book or collection of texts called the philocalia is again a collection of texts written by various spiritual masters from within the hesse cast including simeon the new theologian gregory palamas and many others published for the first time in venice this quote-unquote book is a significant spiritual work dealing with quote the philocalia which was intended by its editors for laypeople living in the world as well as for monks is devoted especially to the theory and practice of inner prayer and in particular the jesus prayer it has become the central textual source for hesitation and its tradition since and shows how this tradition while remaining consistent in its practice and remains alive and relevant to eastern orthodox christians today as always this has been a very short introduction to a topic that could be discussed for hours and hours without doing a proper justice the hesikass tradition is in summary a form of contemplation and prayer within the eastern orthodox church it inevitably reminds us of other kinds of meditation in other religious even if we should always be careful to but i think it also shows us how a religion like christianity which many secularized people today and spiritually shallow actually contain deep and vibrant spiritual features and not just as fringe parts or fringe aspects of the religion but as central parts of its doctrine this video is brought to you by our patrons and i would like to give a special shout keys adnan chaumet and brian h k who are three of my new patrons in the so thank you all so much for making all i hope you liked this video if you want to support this channel and its attempts scholarly and academic information about the world's religious traditions consider supporting us on patreon monthly donation or through a one-time on paypal if not then feel free to leave subscribe to the channel or leave a and i'll see you next time
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