Christos Yannaras: Towards a New Ecumenism

THE BAPTIZING PHILOSOPHY PODCAST:

Preface to Aphesis: The Impossibility of Subjectivity

Aphesis is a philosophical journey through hell, ending with a brief–perhaps even miraculous–glimpse of salvation. Many readers of the first edition were quick to note that the transition from the atheistic philosophy of subjectivity to the meditations on Christian theology were sudden and did not naturally follow from the reasoning of the previous chapters, but is this not the very way in which the grace of God operates? It is often when the sinner is most lost in this world–totally unconcerned with anything beyond themselves–that the Spirit of God descends into their hearts and shatters all of their prior assumptions and misconceptions.
I found Christ through this book. When I wrote the first word of Aphesis in the summer of 2019, I was a staunch (Nietzschean) atheist, and I wrote the final chapter as a catechumen in the Orthodox Church. When I say that I found Christ through this book, I mean it in the most literal sense. My “moment of conversion” occurred while I was shooting hoops in my driveway, in deep and troubled thought over my inability to complete the final chapter of this book, one which would overcome, or at least provide a reconciliation with, the “impossibilities of subjectivity.” And suddenly, as if a veil had been lifted from my eyes, I perceived the profound truth that the Christian story of salvation provides a “narrow path” out of every paradox and contradiction I found myself lost in. I dropped the ball, and the coincidences I perceived “made me suddenly stand still.”
I then messaged my cousin, my best friend and brother in Christ, to tell him the good news. Over the next two years we discovered Orthodox Christianity. Orthodox Christian theology–which has its foundation in the ontology of communion–posits that the being of beings is found in the other, in communion with the other. Communion is not mere “relating” to the other as if there were an underlying self-relation that only secondarily “relates” to another self-relating being. The radicality of the communal ontology consists of its absolute opposition to the notion of self-relation, which it banishes into the outer darkness. Pure self-relation is not merely something to be avoided–it is strictly impossible. The source of all being, being as such, is the communion between the Persons of the Holy Trinity: “Nothing in existence is conceivable in itself, as an individual, such as the substance of Aristotle, since even God exists thanks to an event of communion.”
The ontology of communion posits that one’s being is not found in oneself but in and through the other. One reconciles with and finds oneself in Christ. Simply put, the life of the individual is not found “in itself,” but in God:
"Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day [...] This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." (John 6:53-57)
The true radicality of Christ’s “hard teaching” is often lost in the English translation. The Greek term translated as “eat” is closer to “munch” or “consume.” The communal ontology sees being as the consumption of the other (which is another reason why the communal ontology is not merely “relational”). But this “consumption” is not selfish devouring and the destruction of otherness, but a full reception of the other’s freely given love, made possible through the simultaneous giving of oneself. If one remains enclosed within oneself, one cannot commune; it is only in abandoning one’s self-imprisonment through self-sacrifice that one becomes open to communal life.

HASHTAGS:
#philosophy #theology #metaphysics #ontology #orthodox #christianity #orthodoxchristianity #communion #church #jesus #christ #catholic #bible #hegel #negation #dialectics #epistemology #psychoanalysis #logic #ethics #theory #socialtheory #apologetics #God #aphesis #subjectivity #paradox #contradiction #reading #books #intellectual #politics #conservative #politicaltheory #sigma #staniloae #trinity #ecumenism

[scottywalks]

Man this was excigilent! Thank you brother 🙏

[ciaranmurphy]

Not all "ecumenism" is harmful. It's a good & just for the benefit of ourselves & the other to acknowledge, & discuss ones commonalities & differences. However, ecumenical movements that call for a common in certain instances, sacrifices divinely ordained-qualitative differences for the sake of a purely human and often quantitative egalitarianism, - failing to upkeep & adhere the Christs words, "No man cometh unto the Father save through Me".

In such cases the so-called "ecumenical” forces in question conceal an agenda, which at times can be heavily financed(WCC is financed by rockerfeller for example) - for the goal of radical secularism and humanism which gripped the West at the time of the Renaissance, which caused Christendom religiously in the West to seperate into sects & ultimately deteriorate.

[ayan]

Seraphim Rose has a great book on this.
Edit: Found the book. is '' Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future''

[ICONFESSONEBAPTISM]

Colossians 2:8
Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Colossians 2:18
Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind

[feeekeewt]

"I dream of an ecumenism which will begin with the confession of sins on the part of each church."

That is, the Orthodox Church also carries a part of sin.
Very interesting, I thought Orthodoxy was the Truth and other denominations have fallen away from that truth.
Remember the meaning of the first seven ecumenical councils.
If you are a true Christian, that is an Orthodox Christian, not an Orthodox Christian who says my church is as sinful as the other church, but who recognises the truth in it and rejects ecumenism and modernism.
Of course you will not find all this in modernism - the heretic Florensky, Bulgakov, Soloviev, Christos Yannaras and others.

[MrHawkMan]

Although I agree with parts of this I'm more on the side of Nikolaos Loudovikos. We shouldn't see the action of ecumenism, dialogue with other churches, as a false interest in worldly issues as opposed to the church's true role as for heavenly interests. Loudovikos would argue this goes against Chalcedon as it builds a dichotomy of the physical fallen world and the pure god which doesn't need to be there. The created world is a gift from god that should have been reciprocated by the created beings but because it wasn't, God sought to transform the created world through his entering into it, to show us that god is not just separate from this world but is also so close that he willingly sacrificed himself for it. Therefore the Orthodox Church should engage with other churches with the need for this same transformation that Christ gave the created world. The Church shouldn't compromise but should engage to help enact christ's love to other churches who sincerely are looking for it, as we all are. Otherwise, we make God too distant, and Christian spirituality along with it, to the point where we forget the immanence of the incarnation and just replicate Origen who claimed Christ was the mediator between Heaven and the world. However, I do agree that all churches should begin by repenting before they discuss who gets what right.
Would you agree with me that the two seem to contradict?