“Understanding the terms of a problem is the first step towards solving it”1 If we proceed from this starting point even further, with regard to what might apparently be considered the context of an issue or problem, then we will be in a position to ascertain to what extent the problem, which challenges us to resolve it, is in fact a problem or constitutes an issue under certain premises; thus, we are led either to break free from deadlocks, in the first case, or to the surest or most correct solution, in the second case. Be that as it may, examining the terms and parameters—that is, the constituent elements of what we consider to be a problem or a question—is our first necessary and decisive step in order to proceed. Consequently, in order for us to reach correct conclusions, we are called upon to scrutinise the positions that are presented either as questions, as problems, or even as affirmative answers.
Orthodoxy and its challenges! If we consider a ‘term’ to be a word that, in short, conveys the dynamism and power of a particular meaning, then ‘Orthodoxy’, according to Saint Anastasius of Sinai, means ‘the true perception of God and creation, or the true meaning of all things, or the knowledge of beings as they truly are in themselves’2 In other words, Orthodoxy represents the true understanding of God and creation, the true meaning of all things, and the true knowledge of beings as they are—in other words, of their truth. Thus, the indestructible and intrinsic relationship between Orthodoxy and truth comes to the fore. This observation shifts the focus of our discussion from Orthodoxy and its challenges to truth and its challenges, a fact which, in turn, elevates our endeavour to its decisive realisation. Is truth challenged, or does it challenge?
Investigating this question leads us, like invisible observers, to the events that once took place in the Praetorium. To Pilate’s insistent question, ‘So, are you a king?’3 is met with4—the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ 5: ‘For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to bear witness to the truth; whoever is of the truth listens to My voice’3. Through the meditative, philosophical and diachronic question ‘What is truth?’6 the Roman governor turned away from the Saviour Jesus Christ, left the Praetorium and addressed the Jews, with the well-known sequence of events that followed.
What is striking, on closer examination of this lively dialogue characterised by brief exchanges, is that Pilate articulates his perplexity, even though the answer to it had already been given by the Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice’7 The phrase ‘everyone who is of the truth’ does not refer to one who seeks or yearns for the truth, but to one who is born of the truth. It points to a bond of birth and rebirth and, consequently, of continuity and a natural connection at a deeper level than that of natural descent from one’s parents. It refers to the one who recognises the truth out of an affinity with it. ‘He who is of the truth’, in short, is a son of the truth.
However, Pilate, being a barbarian, did not recognise the truth, which is why his question was also wrong. Had he attached even greater weight to the Lord Jesus Christ’s answer, his question would not have been ‘What is truth?’, but rather ‘Who is the truth?’. And to this question, the Saviour Jesus Christ had already given the answer: ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’8 The Lord Jesus Christ, consubstantial with the Father and God, is, by nature, the Son of God and the Truth Itself. Therefore, he who is of the Truth is, by grace, a son of God and, by grace, a son of the Truth. This adoption is secured through the recognition of and continual communion with the Truth—in other words, with God—for ‘in this’ [that is, in love ‘in deed and in truth’], ‘we shall know that we are of the Truth’9 St Basil the Great records the same thing, but from a different perspective: ‘God is not the God of all, but of those who have drawn Him near through love’10
In this case, of course, ‘love’ is not understood as a state that is reduced to general approaches, to schemes and slogans of discourse, which aim to stir the emotions of the faithful and cultivate certain impressions, but rather to the deepest existential state of the soul’s positive transformation, to the soul’s constant connection with and attachment to God through living faith, as well as to placing all hope in Him. It is about the experience of divine grace, which is revealed in the pure heart and draws it towards God, and its distinctive feature is glorification.
It is about this unique state, which transcends the notion of communion and in which human life is fulfilled as participation in God, as the garment of the Saviour Jesus Christ, according to the baptismal hymn (‘As many as have been baptised into Christ have also clothed themselves with Christ’), as the model of life par excellence.
The severing of this life of participation on the part of man creates a void in his connection with God—in other words, with the Truth. In this severance, man is confined to the perspective of his own self, to the imaginary admiration of his own mind and its achievements, in a world which he regards as his own property and of which he becomes the self-proclaimed saviour, even though he himself, consciously and for his own benefit, is dissolving it. This man, by opposing the Truth, is, according to Saint Paul the Apostle, of a perverse mind and unfit for the faith 11. He steps out of the Praetorium and becomes one with the crowd, and, severing his connection with the Truth, places it before him, reacts to it, rebels against it 12, yet without being in a position to eliminate it or erase it from his sight. The presence of this Truth within the man who surrenders to the world—that is, within the man who is both a prisoner of and a supporter of the worldly system, within the man who is already a son of the world—presents a challenge to him, for [the Truth] is the One who serves as a criterion [for man] and guarantees the freedom of His sons 13 by grace, wherever they may be, even in the deepest corner of the world, being in the world but not of the world.
Consequently, Orthodoxy, as truth, stands in the place of the Truth Who is alive, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ, and its presence, just as He Himself once did, always challenges and will continue to challenge, yet without itself being challenged. On the contrary, it invites, and in this invitation to the world, it grants [man] the restoration of his spiritual sight, a change of heart, repentance and, ultimately, his transformation. Truth invites, takes hold of, sanctifies and transforms the world from a society of fearful people—like another Cain, dying in the flesh—into a body of those who have been raised in the Lord Christ.
However, accepting this invitation and participating in this process [of attaining] immortality and eternity require a free breaking away from the chains which man himself has forged for himself and which, for this very reason, are the strongest. At the same time, this acceptance and participation signify the death of selfishness and self-justification, the futility of human satisfaction, and the dispelling of the hallucination of domination and the illusion of omnipotence. For this reason, this invitation is difficult, just as Truth itself seems to be difficult for contemporary man. With his vision transformed, the essential prison of the world, for the man imprisoned within it, appears to him as a paradise of freedom, and the walls, which suffocatingly surround him, he regards as walls that confine the Truth and its own unique invitation. Consequently, the course that man chooses is the opposite: that is, instead of demanding his own freedom, he claims to become the liberator of Truth himself. And he begins to oppose Truth. From this perspective, there have been and will be countless impatient voices demanding that Orthodoxy, because it is being challenged, must conform to the demands of those who clamour. Countless have been, and will be, those who note with enthusiasm that, in fact, it has conformed and yielded to the demands of the times. But what do these cases indicate? They indicate the tendency of the worldly-minded person to guide the truth himself; they reveal Pilate’s misguided question and, in this confusion, the only thing they achieve when presenting their proposals and claims regarding Orthodoxy is to reproduce their own selves within the narrow confines of their secularised outlook. They reveal the links to their own Gnostic ‘truth’, their attempt to describe the Truth based on their personal criteria of a created and transient reality, and, in this way, they miss the encounter—like another Pilate— with the true Truth, Who cannot be precisely ascertained, does not satisfy the worldly way of living and thinking, is not guided authoritatively, is not limited, but reveals Himself, is shareable and remains unchanged, just as He is. The Lord Jesus Christ, ‘is the same yesterday and today and for ever’14 This confusion has two components which manifest themselves either when, through a departure from the Truth, certain elements of it are retained so as to ensure the plausibility of personal judgements—in which case one speaks of error— and its adherents are both led astray and are themselves misleaders, or when the Truth is nullified and inverted, in which case we speak of a lie. It is to these cases that the Holy Apostle Paul refers in his Second Epistle to Timothy, when he says: ‘For the time will come when they will not endure sound teaching, but, having itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers to suit their own desires. And they will turn away from the truth and be led astray by myths’15
Therefore, the path must be one of return. Man himself must submit to the challenge of Orthodoxy as Truth. This surrender points to the One Who, as Truth, is at the same time the Way; the Way that offers itself and leads to Life. The manner and following of Christ is ‘tasting the benefit of walking the path’16). A path trodden for centuries, marked by the traces of the struggles for holiness, for this is, defiantly, the crying silence of the Truth, the life of the authentic children of the Truth, Who scrutinises every false testimony and overturns every accusation. Therefore, Orthodoxy, as the unique and pre-eminent challenge of this age, as the imprint and continuity of the Truth Itself, constantly issues a call to people of every age: ‘Come and see!’17 ‘Whoever comes to Me, I will never cast out’18
- 1
E. P. Papanoutsou, ‘Culture Under Scrutiny’, in The Crisis of Our Culture, published by Noesis, Athens, 1978, p. 46.
- 2
Saint Anastasius of Sinai, The Guide (Ὁδηγός), Chapter II, in PG 89, 76 D–77 A: “A true conception or understanding of God and creation, or a true concept of all things, or the glory of all that exists, just as it is.”
- 3a3b
John XVIII, 37.
- 4
To make the meanings easier to grasp, I have added clarifications, nuances, etc. in square brackets (translator’s note).
- 5
With the author’s consent, I have tacitly supplemented the language used when addressing the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as well as when invoking the Holy Fathers of the Church; in the first instance, by adding ‘the Lord’ or ‘the Saviour’ Jesus ‘Christ’, as appropriate; and, in the second instance, by using the title ‘Holy’, etc. (translator’s note).
- 6
John XVIII, 38 (translator’s note).
- 7
John XVIII, 37 (translator’s note).
- 8
John XIV, 6 (translator’s note).
- 9
1 John 3:19.
- 10
St Basil the Great, Homily on the Psalms (Ὁμιλία εἰς τούς Ψαλμούς), in PG 29, 309 D: ‘God is not the God of all, but of those who have been made his own through love’.
- 11
See 2 Timothy 3:8.
- 12
Ibid.
- 13
That is, the Truth, Who is God (translator’s note).
- 14
See Hebrews 13:8 (translator’s note).
- 15
2 Timothy 4:3–4.
- 16
Origen, Against Celsus, 6, 66: “γεύση ἐν τῇ ὁδῷ τῆς ἀπό τοῦ ὁδεύειν ὠφελείας”.
- 17
A biblical expression, found in John 1:46; 11:34; Revelation 6:1, 3, 5, 7 (translator’s note).
- 18
John 6:37 (translator’s note).