Essays on Eastern Orthodoxy
Terrible Grace and Ugly Glory, pt. 1
Essay on the Mystery of Divine Love
June 28, 2006
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In Bible College I was taught that Dispensationalist theology was all about proclaiming the glory of God. When I got to seminary I discovered that some Reformed theologians said the heart of Reformed theology was also the glory of God, although the more common view was that Reformed theology’s heart was divine grace. Harry Emerson Fosdick, one of the great American Presbyterian preachers wrote what is possibly the quintessential Presbyterian hymn by tying these two themes together and putting it to what is arguably the quintessential Presbyterian hymn tune, Cwm Rhondda. A more rousing hymn to open a worship service cannot be found, especially when sung at a Presbytery meeting with all those preacher men in full voice filling out the tenor and bass lines. (Women are rarely in short supply around Presbyterian churches and gatherings, but it seems to take a Presbytery meeting to fill out the bass and tenor sections.) Although it really has little to do with this essay, it is worth being reminded of those inspiring lines (and feel free to sing along):
God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power.
Crown Thine ancient church’s story,
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.
If we assume, for a moment, that the heart of Reformed theology is divine grace, then there is another doublet that we must consider: Grace and gratitude. God’s grace calls forth our gratitude. And this is Reformed theology in a nutshell: God’s antiphonal hymn with creation—that is, God’s song of grace calling forth our response of gratitude—leads to the furtherance of divine glory.
Grace and gratitude is the stuff I cut my theological teeth on. It speaks to a natural flow back and forth between God and humans. Grace and glory, in turn speaks to the grandeur of God in all his works, both of creation and redemption.
Over time I’ve come to realize that this is a very different picture of theology than is found in the Eastern Orthodox Church. If the heart of Dispensationalist theology is Glory and the heart of Reformed theology is Grace, then it would have to be said that the heart of Orthodox theology is Love. Applying such terms to different theological systems may seem a bit of sophistry, but over time, I’ve come to realize how profoundly different these theological systems are and how well these words—glory, grace, love—distill the essence of the differences of approach to our knowledge of God.
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| The Evangelists Luke and Matthew on the north wall. |
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| The Evangelists John and Mark on the south wall. |
I’ve never actually heard an Orthodox theologian say that the heart of Orthodox theology is love, but I make that claim based on an icon that look at every weekend during Vespers and Matins. (I can’t see it from where I sit in choir for Divine Liturgy.) It’s the icon of John the Evangelist. The significance of that particular icon is only recognized in conjunction with the icons of the other three Evangelists (or Gospel writers). The four icons are near the front of the church, two on the north side and two on the south side of the nave. All four Evangelists have quill in hand and are writing their respective versions of the Gospel. Three are focused on the page in front of them, but John is distracted from his writing. He’s looking over his shoulder (and because of the specific position of the icon) and over the top of iconostasis down toward the altar. In other words, while the other three are busy writing “an orderly account of the events that have been fulfilled among us” (Luke 1:1), John is gazing directly into heaven.
The term theologian is reserved for only three Orthodox writers. There is Gregory the Theologian, who received the title because his poetry, particularly that expounding the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, was widely considered to have surpassed the Greeks of antiquity. Symeon the New Theologian was also a poet who wrote about our ability to experience the Spirit of God directly. Gregory, as part of the Second Ecumenical Council, was a primary shaper of the Nicene Creed, the only Creed of the Eastern Church, and the document that shapes our public spirituality. Symeon’s works became foundational for the Hesychasts, and thus was foundational in the shaping of our private spirituality. It is no accident that both are poets, for the truly sublime thoughts of God cannot be expressed rationally. Poetry (or hymnody, for they are the same in this context) is able to much better express the fulness of our experience of God.
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| St. John the Theologian and Evangelist. |
The other theologian of the Church (and the preeminent one) is, of course, the Apostle John, the author of the Gospel that bears his name. Again it is no surprise that he was given this honor over the other three Gospel writers because of the mystical and poetic character of his work. The icons of the four Evangelists, with John looking over his shoulder as if into heaven itself encapsulates the heart of Orthodox theology better than any essay or theological treatise.
And when we consider the Johannine corpus, the theme of love practically jumps off the page. “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son.” “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me,” “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another,” “abide in my love,” “Peter, do you love me?” “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are.”
What is particularly striking about love as the heart of Orthodox theology is the way it encapsulates what I see as the two biggest differences between East and West. The first difference might be summed up with the word “relation.” One of the remarkable realities is that God is love. This idea needs to be distinguished from the truth that God loves us. Love necessarily reaches out and involves the other. Thereofore, built into the reality that God is love from eternity is truth of God triunity.
The Trinity is a material building block for Protestant theology. Reformed theology, in particular, has been tri-fold, developing out of each person of the Trinity. But Protestant theology, while being materially rooted in the Trinity is not primarily about the Trinity. Evangelical theology tends to be about the Bible. More traditional Reformed and Lutheran theology tends to be about revelation (not the last book of the Bible, but about God’s communication to us). Since the Bible talks a lot about God and indirectly a lot about the Trinity, that is a major component of Protestant theology, but only to the extent that it s the subject of scripture itself.
In contrast, Orthodox theology is preeminently and sublimely about the Holy Trinity. Toward that end, scripture is certainly a source book of theology, but so is the worship service and the prayers of the church. As the Latin phrase so succintly puts it, lex orandi lex credendi. As the church prays, so she believes (literally, the rule of prayer, the rule of belief). Theology is the Church’s experience of the Holy Trinity. With that definition in mind we could go so far as to say that scripture is not only divine revelation, it is a theology book. It is a second order source for theological reflection, since it is a record (albeit, a Spirit-led record) of other people’s experience of God. That in conjunction with our corporate experience of God becomes the grist for the theological mill.
Thus, the idea of academic theology is foreign to Orthodoxy (except in the context of what is often called “the Western Captivity of the Church,” a period when Orthodox theologians tried hard to be like Western theologians). Theology cannot occur in the academy because it is not a pursuit of knowledge, it is a pursuit of God. And this brings us full circle back to love as the heart of Orthodox theology.
Continued on p. 2
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Copyright © 2006 James E. Nelson (Just Another Jim). All Rights Reserved.
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