Patrick Comerford
We have been in Ordinary Time, that time between Candlemas and Lent, which begins tomorrow, Ash Wednesday (14 February 2024). Today is known in many places as Shrove Tuesday.
Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday is traditionally a day for self-examination and repentance, for thinking about amendment of life and spiritual growth, asking for God’s help in these areas. The term Shrove Tuesday comes from the word shrive, meaning ‘absolve’.
But popular practices on this day have also involved indulging in sweet and fatty food that might be given up during the 40 days of fasting in Lent, represented, of course, by pancakes. The term Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’, referring to the practice of the last night of eating richer, fatty foods before Lent begins. On Shrove Tuesday, many churches burn the palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday to make the ashes for use on Ash Wednesday.
We spent two days in Paris last week, and so, during these 11 days in Ordinary Time, my reflections each morning have drawn on the lives of 11 French saints and spiritual writers.
When this series of reflections began, I admitted how am often uncomfortable with many aspects of French spirituality, and that I need to broaden my reading in French spirituality. So, I turned to 11 figures or writers you might not otherwise expect. They have included men and women, Jews and Christians, immigrants and emigrants, monks and philosophers, Catholics and Protestants, and even a few Anglicans.
Before the day begins, I am taking some quiet time early this morning for reflection, prayer and reading in these ways:
1, A reflection on a French saint or writer in spirituality;
2, today’s Gospel reading;
3, a prayer from the USPG prayer diary.
French saints and writers, 11: Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky (1903-1958)
Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky (1903-1958) was a Russian Orthodox theologian who lived and worked in exile in Paris. He emphasised theosis as the main principle of Orthodox Christianity.
Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky was born on 8 June (OS 26 May) 1903 in Göttingen, Germany. His father, Nikolai Lossky, was a professor of philosophy in Saint Petersburg. He enrolled as a student at the Faculty of Arts at Petrograd University in 1919. In the spring of 1922, he was profoundly struck when he witnessed the trial that led to Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazansky) of St Petersburg being executed by a Soviet firing squad. Metropolitan Benjamin was canonised by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1992.
Lossky was expelled from Soviet Russia with his entire family In November 1922. He continued his studies first in Prague and then at the Sorbonne when he settled in Paris in 1924. He graduated in mediaeval philosophy in 1927. He married Madeleine Shapiro in 1928.
Lossky was a member of the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique from 1942 to 1958. He was the first dean of the St Dionysius Institute in Paris, where he taught dogmatic theology and ecclesiastical history until 1953, and, from 1953 to 1958, and then professor of dogmatic theology at the Orthodox Institute of St Irene at rue Pétel in Paris from 1953 to 1958.
He was a member of the Brotherhood of Saint Photius and the ecumenical Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius. His best-known work is Essai sur la theologie mystique de l’Église d’orient (1944), published in English as The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church (1957). His great friend and fellow exile, the Russian theologian Georges Florovsky (1893-1979), termed Lossky’s Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church a ‘neopatristic synthesis.’
Lossky and Florovsky both lived and worked in exile in Paris and Sergei Bulgakov, Justin Popović and Dumitru Stăniloae, they are among the more influential Eastern Orthodox theologians of the mid-20th century.
Lossky died of a heart attack on 7 February 1958 in Paris.
Although Lossky was Russian, he was concerned to address the people among whom he lived, and so most of his work was written and published in French. He emphasised θέωσις (theosis) as the main principle of Orthodox Christianity, and his main theological concern was exegesis of mystical theology in Christian traditions.
He argues that Orthodox theologians maintain the mystical dimension of theology in a more integrated way than those of the Catholic and Reformed traditions after the East-West Schism because Western theologians had misunderstood Greek terms such as οὐσία (ousia), ὑπόστᾰσις (hypostasis), θέωσις (theosis) and θεωρία (theoria).
To illustrate his argument, he cites the Philokalia and The Ladder of Divine Ascent by John Klimakos, as well as Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, Gregory of Nyssa, Basil of Caesarea, Gregory Nazianzen, and Gregory Palamas.
At a conference organised by the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge ten years ago, the Revd Dr Andrew Louth lectured on ‘Vladimir Lossky and the notion of mystical theology,’ while the late Metropolitan Kallistos Ware gave a lecture on ‘Florovsky, Lossky and the notion of Mystical Theology.’ The conference in Sidney Sussex College, was discussing the ‘Horizons and Limitations of Russian Religious Philosophy.’
The Revd Dr Andrew Louth is Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies in the Department of Theology and Religion at the University of Durham. He placed Lossky within the context of contemporary writers on mysticism, including Evelyn Underhill, who rooted her mysticism in the sacramental life of the Church, Baron von Hügel, and the Catholic modernists in France. He also reminded us that in 1975 Archbishop Rowan Williams wrote his DPhil thesis at Oxford, ‘The theology of Vladimir Nikolaievich Lossky: an exposition and critique.’
Lossky and Florovsky were opposed to the sophiological theories of Sergei Bulgakov and Vladimir Solovyev, who were also discussed extensively at that same conference in 2014.
But Lossky also spent much of his time working on the writings on mysticism by Meister Eckhart, and his doctoral dissertation on Eckhart was published shortly after his untimely death. Lossky found many affinities between the thinking of the Dominican friar and Orthodox mystics.
For Lossky, Christian mysticism and dogmatic theology are one and the same, and mysticism is Orthodox dogma par excellence. He wrote:
‘The eastern tradition has never made a sharp distinction between mysticism and theology; between personal experience of the divine mysteries and the dogma affirmed by the Church… To put it another way, we must live the dogma expressing a revealed truth, which appears to us as an unfathomable mystery, in such a fashion that instead of assimilating the mystery to our mode of understanding, we should, on the contrary, look for a profound change, an inner transformation of the spirit, enabling us to experience it mystically… There is, therefore, no Christian mystery without theology; but, above all, there is no theology without mysticism… Mysticism is … the perfecting and crown of all theology: as theology par excellence.’
Father Andrew went on to say: ‘Mysticism and theology relate as experience and theory. But experience of what? Ultimately of God.’
But that is not where Lossky begins, he said. He begins by speaking of ‘personal experience of the divine mysteries,’ the term ‘mysteries’ being – not exactly ambiguous, but with at least two connotations – meaning both the sacraments of the Church, and also mysterious truths about the Godhead.
The mysterious truths about God – his existence as a Trinity of love, his creation of the world, his care for the world and his redemption of it, pre‐eminently in the Incarnation – are truths that we experience and celebrate in the Divine Mysteries, or the Sacraments of the Church. It is this that gives Lossky’s presentation such a different orientation from what is normally associated with mysticism in the West: it is not detached from dogma, but rooted in the dogmatic truths of the Christian tradition; it is not indifferent to Church organisation, hierarchy and sacraments, but rooted in the structured life of the Church.
It is not individualistic – indeed individualism is seen to be the deepest flaw in Western Christianity – but rooted in the experience of the Eucharistic community, the Church.
The writings of Lossky also informed the late Metropolitan Kallistos Ware when he spoke about ‘Florovsky, Lossky and the notion of Mystical Theology.’ He knew both Florovsky and Lossky personally, took them as his mentors while he was at Oxford, and stayed with the Lossky family. Metropolitan Kallistos was the President of the IOCS, and was a much-loved lecturer at the IOCS summer school in Cambridge each year.
Georges Vasilievich Florovsky (1893-1979) was born in Odessa, the son of a priest. He spent his working life in Paris (1920-1948) as Professor of Patristics and later Professor of Dogmatics, and – after failing to secure an appointment at Oxford – in the US (1948-1979), where he was a professor at Saint Vladimir’s, Harvard and Princeton. His pupils included Metropolitan John Zizioulas.
Florovsky was particularly concerned that modern Christian theology might receive inspiration from the lively intellectual debates of the patristic traditions of the undivided Church rather than from later Scholastic or Reformation categories of thought.
Lossky was committed to the Moscow Patriarchate, attaching great importance to links with the persecuted mother church, and disapproved of other Russians loyalties. On the other hand, Florovsky was among the Russians who belonged to the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
Florovsky often spoke without notes, something Lossky would never have done at a major public meeting. Florovsky disagreed strongly with Bulgakov, including their ideas on limited inter-communion with Anglicans, but never did so publicly. His major work is Ways of Russian Theology. His collected works are available in a 14-volume collection published between 1972 and 1989.
Metropolitan placed Lossky and Florovsky within the context of two 20th century movements in Orthodox theology, Russian religious renaissance and the neopatristic school.
Florovsky is the mastermind of the movement for a return to the Church Fathers. His vision of the neopatristic synthesis became the main paradigm of Orthodox theology.
His evolving interpretation of Russian religious thought, particularly Vladimir Solovyov and Sergius Bulgakov, informed his approach to patristic sources.
Florovsky’s neopatristic theology is often contrasted with the modernist philosophies of Pavel Florensky, Sergius Bulgakov, and other representatives of the Russian Religious Renaissance. He critically appropriated the main themes of the Russian Religious Renaissance, including theological antinomies, the meaning of history, and the nature of personhood, and the distinctive features of Florovsky’s neopatristic theology – Christological focus, ‘ecclesial experience,’ personalism, and Christian Hellenism – are best understood against the background of the Russian religious renaissance.
Bulgakov’s sophiology provides a polemical subtext for Florovsky’s theology of creation, and Florovsky’s theology is marked out by his use of the patristic norm in application to modern Russian theology.
Florovsky was concerned with a living tradition, and Metropolitan Kallistos summarised his thinking as not being ‘Back to the Fathers’ but as ‘Forward with the Fathers.’ He suggested that to follow the Fathers is not to quote them but to acquire their mind, where theology and prayer become one.
He also traced Florovsky’s influence on Anglican-Orthodox dialogue, his advocacy of Christian Hellenism and the debate about whether he had neglected the heritage of the Latin, Syrian and Coptic Fathers, and his role in the ecumenical movement. He understood that the canonical limits of the Church, as understood in Orthodoxy, are not the same as the charismatic limits of the Church.
A plaque on the house where Vladimir Lossky lived in Paris reads: ‘Expelled from Russia in 1922, with his philosopher father. In love with France, mediaevalist, became a naturalised French citizen in 1939. Member of the Resistance. He moved into this building in 1947 and died here in 1958.’
Mark 8: 14-21 (NRSVA):
14 Now the disciples had forgotten to bring any bread; and they had only one loaf with them in the boat. 15 And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Watch out – beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod.’ 16 They said to one another, ‘It is because we have no bread.’ 17 And becoming aware of it, Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? 18 Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ They said to him, ‘Twelve.’ 20 ‘And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you collect?’ And they said to him, ‘Seven.’ 21 Then he said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?’
Today’s Prayers (Tuesday 13 February 2024):
The theme this week in ‘Pray With the World Church,’ the Prayer Diary of the Anglican mission agency USPG (United Society Partners in the Gospel), is ‘Ash Wednesday Reflection.’ This theme was introduced on Sunday by the Revd Jessie Anand, Chaplain, USPG.
The USPG Prayer Diary today (13 February 2024) invites us to pray in these words:
Heavenly Father, help us prepare for the holy season of Lent. Allow our focus to be fully on You and the Cross.
The Collect:
Almighty Father,
whose Son was revealed in majesty
before he suffered death upon the cross:
give us grace to perceive his glory,
that we may be strengthened to suffer with him
and be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory;
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Holy God,
we see your glory in the face of Jesus Christ:
may we who are partakers at his table
reflect his life in word and deed,
that all the world may know his power to change and save.
This we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Additional Collect:
Holy God,
you know the disorder of our sinful lives:
set straight our crooked hearts,
and bend our wills to love your goodness and your glory
in Jesus Christ our Lord.
Yesterday’s Reflection (Jacques Derrida, 1930-2004)
Tomorrow: Ash Wednesday, Introducing Early English Pre-Reformation Saints
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
No comments:
Post a Comment