Spirituality in the Orthodox Church

Spirituality in the Orthodox Church

In the Orthodox Church, spirituality is the everyday activity of life in communion with God (OCA).

The term spirituality not only refers to one’s spiritual life, but also about mind and body as well. Hence, it deals with a holistic approach with regard to one’s spiritual journey - “a journey towards a mystical union with God through living the Gospel teachings in the context of the Church, and participating in her sacraments and Holy Traditions” (Dimitru Staniloae, Orthodox Spirituality).

The goal of union with God is achieved through a long process called deification or theosis. In the Eastern Orthodox spirituality, the culminating state of one’s spiritual life is the union of the soul with God, lived or experienced. Jesus said, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (St. Matthew 5:48). Orthodox spirituality is the journey towards perfection, which includes many steps. The most important step is self- purification through repentance which is accomplished through prayer and meditation. The union with God is realized by the working of the Holy Spirit. The progress of cleansing and self-purification would lead to Christian perfection in Christ attained by getting rid of the passions and the winning of virtues. According to Maximus the Confessor (7th century), a theologian and scholar of the Eastern Orthodox Church:

Deification is an enhypostatic and direct illumination which has no beginning but appears in those worthy as something exceeding their comprehension. It is indeed a mystical union with God, beyond mind and reason in the age when creatures will no longer know corruption.

Deification is expressed as a state of spiritual level; defined as uncreated light in one’s life. The process of enhypostasis is achieved not in the essence (hypostasis) of God but in His energeia (operation) by the grace of God. Energeia is the work of God, which are uncreated and direct manifestations of God. Orthodox spirituality includes faith in the Trinitarian God, holy scriptures, writings of the early Church fathers, communion of saints, sacramental mystical theology, daily devotions, individual and collective worship, and ecclesiology.

The spirituality of the Orthodox Church is the nectar of faith which includes its theological understanding, sacramental experience and daily spiritual exercise, of which the Mystical Theology plays a prime role in defining it.

According to Dionysius the Areopagite, a 5th century Eastern Orthodox theologian, there are three interrelated aspects within the theology which have been termed as symbolic, cataphatic, and apophatic. Symbolic Theology refers to the literal senses, seeing God in nature, through the Scriptures, and in the sacraments of the Church. Cataphatic defines God beyond the literal to consider moral applications; God is revealed of Himself via creative means, statements, poetry, images, (ex. burning bush, decalogue), arts, etc. Apophatic defines God in negative terms, which acknowledges that our affirmations are not enough to define God and must be drawn in by God’s grace. Therefore, negative terms transcend all thoughts and images, and God is known by unknowing (mystical theology).

This way of unknowing is best expressed in the life of Moses where God reveals Himself to Moses through darkness on Mount Sinai (Exodus 20:21). This experience of revelation of God in the thick darkness tells us that God the Holy Trinity cannot be comprehended in Their nature or essence.

In considering these aspects of Orthodox theology it is important to not attribute one way as superior to another. Rather, each can contribute its own value to the spirituality of the Church. Cataphatic form of spirituality is more evident in the Orthodox liturgy as it incorporates images, hymns, holy icons, and music into it. The apophatic approach is more expressed in the hesychastic (contemplative) tradition of prayer – stillness, quiet, and tranquility. Both forms coexist in defining the Orthodox spirituality.

Vocabulary

• hypostasis – Greek, meaning underlying state or reality of something and in the context of the Holy Trinity, refers to each of the three persons of the Trinity
• energeia – Greek, meaning energy of God, or the activity of God in the world; how God reveals Himself to us
• enhypostasis – Greek, meaning in-person, and refers to the merging of the divine and human natures in the person of Jesus Christ.
• ecclesiology – theology as applied to the nature and structure of the Christian Church.
• cataphatic – use of positive terminology to describe or refer to the divine, to try to describe God by His attributes
• apophatic – use of negative terminology to describe or refer to the divine; stresses interiority, imagelessness, and wordlessness.
• hesychasm – type of monastic life in which practitioners seek divine quietness (Greek hēsychia) through the contemplation of God in uninterrupted prayer. Such prayer, involving the entire human being—soul, mind, and body—is often called “pure,” or “intellectual,” prayer or the Jesus Prayer.