Clarion: Journal of Spirituality and Justice

Erasmus and the Fathers - with Ron Dart and Archbishop Puhalo

Modes of Future Thought: Can strategic concepts move beyond ideology? by LAZAR PUHALO

LAZAR PUHALO

Modes of Future Thought: Can strategic concepts move beyond

ideology? Political Ideologies and “Global Thought”: Can there be a

Synthesis of Scientific Theories and Spiritual Traditions? 

Big History encounters a universe’s movement into greater complexity rather than its entropy. We are engaged in studying the great difficulty and limitedness with which such an apparent anomaly occurs. Our own biosphere, which, following the thought of Panov1 and others, includes human civilisations and technologies, is one island of this increasing complexity. Such complexity brings with it fragility and vulnerability, and this is a theme that should be of special interest to us, as our own biosphere is at the point of a singularity which must be examined in all earnestness.

SINGULARITY AND MODELS A Definition

Singularity

The term “singularity” will be defined in different ways by some of the disciplines that speak at this conference. We all agree, however, that our biosphere is at a critical point, which we generally refer to as a “singularity.” In terms of the overall subject of Big History, a singularity is a convergence of compound crises on a global scale. For the context of this paper, we will define the “singularity” as a crisis of transition from Axial I into Axial II, from the First Axial Era into the Second Axial Era. Here, “singularity” designates the critical point in a phase transition which creates a structural conflict among differing premises for the conceptualization, interpretation and expression of systems.

For the rest of this article, click here:  Download Modes of Future Thought

Philokalia - Pt. 2 - with Ron Dart and Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Intro to the Philokalia - Archbishop Lazar Puhalo and Ron Dart

The Gift of the Desert - Ron Dart and Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Ron Dart and Archbishop Lazar discuss the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers in the context of our present era.

Thomas Merton and Personhood -- Ron Dart & Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

To Hell or Not to Hell - Ron Dart (with Kevin Miller and Archbishop Lazar Puhalo)

Thomas Talbott. Universal Salvation? The Current Debate. Ed. by Robin Parry & Christopher Partridge. Foreword by Gabriel Fackre. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003

In this work evangelicals are talking to one another about the controverted question of universalism. It’s a conversation worth overhearing by the wider theological world. Indeed, the authors are much in dialogue with those reaches already, for careful attention is given to the history of the issues in the church universal, and to the contemporary debate in circles beyond, as well as within, evangelicalism. -- Gabriel Fackre

The reason that mature thinkers root and ground themselves in the fullness of the Great Tradition of Christian thought is simple yet often ignored. There is an animated and thoughtful dialogue that has taken place within the history of the ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’ about a variety of perennial issues, and the means used to reach conclusions and conclusions reached are not always one and the same.

The Great Tradition has many traditions, and each tradition can, sadly so, slip into a sort of mindless traditionalism. Many are either born into a tradition or come to the faith journey within a tradition that is merely part of the Great Tradition. The danger, of course, and it is a perennial one, is that many often shrink their understanding of the Great Christian Tradition to the tradition that they assume is the fullness of faith. This is like taking a leaf on a branch on a trunk on a tree in a forest and calling the leaf, branch and tree one sits under the forest. Or, to change the metaphor, many assume the watery stream they sit beside is the only river that flows from the great ocean of faith.

An Orthodox Anglican Conversation (Pt. 1) - Dart and Puhalo

Nihilism, Rapture and End Time Fallacies - Lazar Puhalo and David Goa

Nihilism, Rapture and End Time fantasies. from Orthodox Canada on Vimeo.

Heart to Heart on the Heart of Darkness by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Beauty will save the world: A Word about Supplementary Education by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

There is a certain moral content to beauty. We do not mean the kind of moralism which is purely religious. The appreciation of and love for beauty is a quality which enhances our humanity and softens our perspectives. Perhaps this is what Dostoevskyhad in mind when he said that "beautywill save the world."

When we speak about supplementary education we are generally referring to art, art appreciation, music, danceand culture. All of these things have to do with the true meaningof virtue. Virtue (arete in Greek) does not refer to an ascetic mode of life but rather to an aesthetic perspective on life. If a sculptor creates a beautiful sculpture in orderto make moneyfrom it, then it is business. However, if he is seeking to use his skills to create a thing of beauty then it is virtue. Just as the sharpness of a knife is its virtue so the development and use of our natural gifts and abilities in a creative way is the true meaning of virtue.

On the Essence of True Morality -- by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

True morality consists far more in how well we care for one another than in what kind of external behaviour we wish to force on other people. Too often, moralism is confused with morality, but they are far from being the same. The moralistic notion that Christianity has a duty to try to force one or another denomination’s understanding of biblical morality on any nation or community is quite destructive and usually leads to persecutions and violence. People with such ideas will usually ignore the Gospel itself and rummage through the Old Testament seeking a bludgeon to use against someone or some group. Another construct that appears to be problematic is focussing the whole concept of morality on sexual matters, often to the exclusion of other very serious issues. One of the greatest moral problems in our era is the destruction of the environment, and this is rooted in egoism and self-centredness. These two, egoism and self-centredness (or "self-love") are the very bases of all that is genuinely immoral, and moralism itself is a form of egoism and self-focus.

Language of Fire: The Rhetoric of Hate and Violence - Symposium with Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, Ron Dart, and David Goa

A video symposium on religio-political incendiary language from the murder of Hypatia to our current crisis. David Goa asks, 'Is there a way to hold to a serious faith commitment without demonizing those that genuinely disagree with us?'

In this interview, Ron Dart refers to the movie, Agora (starring Rachel Weisz) that recalls the perpetually relevant life and death of Hypatia. Below is the trailer.

In Conversation with Islam -- Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Faith, Freedom and the Human Vocation

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo Abbot of the Monastery of All Saints of North America 

Civil Liaison for the Orthodox Church of Canada

An Invited Paper

The Risale-i Nur: Faith, Morality and the Future of Humankind

An international conference of The Istanbul Foundation for Science and Culture

I

THE LAMP OF BELIEF 

(The illumination of the soul)

    For those of us non-Moslems who have recently been introduced to Sa’id Nursi, his writings are enlightening. The more I read of his thought, the more attracted to him I become. His views and concepts should especially resonate with Orthodox Christians whose formation is rooted in the spiritual milieu of the near and Middle East.

        Had I been able personally to dialogue with Nursi, I should want to have begun with a discussion of "relationships as the manifestation of belief and faith." When we in the Orthodox Christian community speak of "energies," this is precisely what we are referring to, so let me begin with a few words about energy as relationship. In both physics and Orthodox theology, this is the essential meaning of "energy." "Energy" is the manner in which our inner person relates to God and to other human beings. The uncreated energy of God is the manner in which He establishes His relationship with us. We call this uncreated energy of God "grace." The energy with which we establish our relationship with God, we refer to as "faith." Faith is a higher fruit of "belief," for belief opens our hearts toward God so that we can receive the illumination of faith by means of grace. Our energies form the mode in which we relate to other human beings, and this relationship is truly appropriate only when we have a vital relationship with God.

        In the Signs of the Miraculous (V3, p.50.), if I understand Nursi correctly, he tells us that belief in God shines a light into our minds that allows us to seek a reconciliation with our own conscience. Belief is ultimately a gift to those who seek it. Once established in us, belief — which has opened for us the possibility of a relationship with God — provides us with consolation in the face of adversity, and the strength to endure even in the midst of suffering.

        In the Orthodox context, we would refer to this light or lamp of consolation in belief as "the Holy Spirit." Though we express this gift in different forms, the end result, the "relationship" is the same. Here, then, we begin to see the fount of loving dialogue. Nursi would lead our souls to the green pastures that are ever verdant even when the world around us is perishing from spiritual drought and desiccation. This is a quest which is mutual for both Orthodoxy and Islam.

To read the rest of this article, Download Faith_Freedom_Archbishop_Lazar

"The External Philosophy": The Fathers and Platonism by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

The “External Philosophy”: The Fathers and Platonism

It is a commonplace of modern scholarship that the Fathers of the Church, Latin and Greek, were Platonist, with exceptions of Sts Leontios of Byzantium, John of Damascus and Gregory Palamas who were ostensibly Aristotelians. In the case of Platonism, it has a long tradition from ancient to modern times. There is more than one “Platonism.” The Platonism of Plato himself and Hellenic Platonism (before Alexander the Great), finally, there is Hellenistic Platonism (after Alexander’s conquest). The latter consists the schools of Plotinus (Neo-Platonism) or Antiochus of Ascalon (Middle Platonism) or some combination of the three above mentioned.

With special regard to the influence of Greek philosophy in general and Platonism in particular on Christianity, many academics tend to agree with the thesis of the liberal Protestant church historian, Adolph von Harnack (1851-1930), that beginning with the Fathers of the second century, the simple Gospel of Jesus Christ, was overwhelmed by Greek philosophy. He described this era in the life of the Church as “hellenization.” Not a few scholars believe that the Fathers were complicit with St Paul in the formation of a Christian metaphysic, or a Christian version of Greek philosophy. Roman Catholic theologians argue that in fact the Fathers, like the medieval Scholastics, created a synthesis of Plato or Aristotle and Christianity. Most Protestants like to think of these syntheses as a detriment to the Gospel and, therefore, justification for the Reformation and its adoption of the “original” ecclesiology.

To view the rest of this article, Download PLATON.

The Neurobiology of Sin by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Outline of a Proposed Paper for the Orthodox Christian Conference on Psychology and Psychotherapy.

1

INTENT 

"Man, with respect to his nature, is most truly said to be neither soul without body, nor...body without soul; but is composed of the union of body and soul into one form of the beautiful” (Saint Methodios of Olympus, On The Resurrection, 1:5)

The purpose of this paper is to examine the roots of what we call “sin” from a perspective which takes into account more fully the understanding that “sin” ultimately means the misuse of our energies.

While I realise that, at this conference, I may be preaching to the choir about the need for greater cooperation between clergy and mental health care professionals, I feel that it is necessary for a hierarch of the church to address these matters. Even in our era there are too many superstitions and mythologies surrounding mental health problems. Because of this we have seen some serious tragedies even in the past few years.

Because we use the metaphor of the Church as a spiritual hospital, we need to call upon our clergy to follow the dictum of Hippocrates of Kos who said of the medical profession, “above all do no harm.” If we consider the church to be a spiritual hospital and the priests to be spiritual healers, then surely we must also apply this dictum. A certain amount of knowledge and awareness are necessary in order accomplish this. Allow me to give some examples in which this dictum was most certainly violated as superstition and ignorance prevailed.

Tragedy by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

The tragedy of one people is the tragedy of all of us. 

So many human tragedies occur around the world in a given year that it is impossible to know of all of them, and of the ones well known, sometimes they seem so great that many minds just shut them out. Yesterday, Haiti, today Chile, everyday Darfur. And the ever present tragedy of our own mentally and emotionally wounded "street people." The tragedy of one human being is the tragedy of all human beings.

There is so little we can actually do to relieve the suffering of these tragedies: the St Maria of Paris centre in Victoria, donations for Haiti, Project Mexico and a thousand others, seek to do as much as they can. Sometimes all we can do is acknowledge in our hearts the tragedies of our fallen humanity, but it also would not be without significance for each of us to light a candle in church in prayer for the people who are suffering and to offer special prayers for each of the events we are aware of, as a way of acknowledge our common humanity, the fact that all mankind shares in a common human nature that binds us together, that every human being is God's creation and each bears not only the wounds of the fall, but also the image and likeness of God. 

It is not possible that a prayer offered in love will have no effect, no matter how unseen. Whatever else we can do, and actually undertake, lets all light a candle, from the heart, for those enduring these tragedies.

Vladiko Lazar.

An Essay on the Understanding of NOUS by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

NOUS: The Concord of Gnosis, Theoria and Theosis  

 1.  According to the 18th century German Philosopher, Emmanuel Kant, reality is divided between phenomena and noumena, that is, the realm of time, space and matter and its relation, if any, to the unknown realm of the spirit.  All knowledge is rational, the result of the synthesis of a priori concepts of the reason (Erkenntnis) and “the manifold of sense perception” or “experience.”  “In the order of time,” he declared, “we have no knowledge antecedent to experience, and with experience all our knowledge begins” (“De Zeit nach geht also keine Erkenntnis in uns vor der Erfahrung vorher, und mit dieser fangt alle”) (1).

     For Kant, the apex of modern philosophy, the quest for “knowledge” is the quest for theoretical or rational certainty.  Ironically, his enterprise  was initiated  by the very thing he undertook to analyze --- reason (Vernunft). He commenced the examination of this “problem” without a “critique” of the principles of ratiocination inherited from the history of Western philosophy, and without resorting to the Biblical God, the Christ of Faith, and the wisdom of the Church Fathers. 

Corporatism, Commonweal and the Just Society by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Is not this the manner of fast that I have commanded: to loose the bonds of repression, to lift the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free, and that you should break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and that you shall bring the poor that are cast out to your own home? Is it not that when you see the naked, you shall clothe him; and that you do not hide from your own weaknesses? Then shall your light break forth as the dawn, and your spirit will quickly spring forth: and your righteousness shall go before you and the glory of the Lord will be your recompense. (Isaiah 58:6-8)

Reflections on Personalism -- by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

I.   INTRODUCTION

    When Dr Andrew Sopko made a comment about Personalism in his examination of my theology, I became curious about the philosophy of Christian Personalism and its French roots. Dr Sopko observed that, unlike some contemporary Orthodox theologians, I had not fallen into "Personalism." From my examination of Personalism, I conclude that there can be no Orthodox Personalism. Whatever our view of it, it is evident that there is no patristic support for Personalism, or for any kind of synthesis of Christianity with Phenomenology or neo-Kantian liberalism.

Understanding Orthodoxy: How we think and talk about God by Archbishop Lazar

THINKING THEOLOGICALLY
    INTENT

    We are not going to re-examine the already familiar list of conflicting beliefs that separate the Western creeds from the Orthodox Christian Church, but rather speak of the way so many people think and talk about God — the way they "theologize" about Him. Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have essentially the same mind — the same culture and history — and, in the final analysis, the same religion; hence, it is not difficult to delineate both together as "Western" in their theological approach and trace this fact to the idea and method of law or what we would call the "juridical concept" of religion, begun in the universities of the Latin Middle Ages.
    The theology, or rather the approach to theologizing, in the Orthodox Christian Church, is sharply different from the Western approach. Her theologizing is different because her Christianity is different — and it is this, more than any other factor, which accounts for the so-called "separation of the Churches" — or, more precisely, the schism of the old Roman patriarchate from the Eastern patriarchates of the Christian Church, and ultimately the creation of the Roman Catholic Church by Charlemagne.

On the Nature of Sin by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

Preface:

    Faith is an orientation of the soul, not an accord with a collection of facts .  Faith is not only the fact that we believe, but what we believe.  God calls us to the former, and has given us the latter. Not all faith is good, not all religion is good. The truth in anything comes by the actions of the Word, Jesus Christ.  He "enlightens every man that comes into the world." Mere faith is not true and living faith.  Mere faith does not "orient" us to God, because mere faith has not the true God and His Revelation as its raison d'etre. Mere faith is not "an orientation of the soul."

JURIDICAL VENGEANCE OR CO-SUFFERING LOVE by Metropolitan Antony

JURIDICAL VENGEANCE OR CO-SUFFERING LOVE
A More Positive Exposition for the Moral Content
of the Dogma Of Redemption^[i]

In order to provide a completely Orthodox interpretation of the dogma of redemption for people interested in theological questions, it is necessary to produce a feasible work in which the interpretation of this dogma is the central thesis. Therefore, we will present our treatise in the same order as we have presented it in public lectures and class discussions, that is, by observing what constantly occurs before our eyes in life.

Eastern Orthodox perspective on "the End Times" by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

As in most Christian sects, Orthodox Christians do believe in a “Final Judgment”, but the Orthodox differ in their belief in that people - ultimately - judge themselves...One Orthodox prayer says that God is "...everywhere present and fills all things.” Therefore, Hell, to the Orthodox Church, is only a metaphor. Hell isn’t a place of eternal punishment inflicted by God, but a human soul's inability to participate in God's infinite love, which is given freely and abundantly - to everyone - for all time.

On 8.19.07, Jerome McDonnell interviewed Archbishop Lazar on Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ 91.5 FM). To hear the interview, click here or on the "listen" link.

Paschal Message 2007 by Archbishop Lazar

Paschal Message of
Archbishop Lazar (Puhalo)
Abbot of the Canadian Orthodox Monastery
of All Saints of North America (OCA).

PASCHA 2007

This is foremost in the saving ekonomy in the flesh: to bring human nature into unity with itself and with the Saviour, having destroyed the evil cleavage, to renew the original unity, just as the best physician, by applying treatments, again binds together a body which has been broken in many places" (St Basil the Great, Ascetic Rules, Ch.18).

The Evidence of Things Not Seen - Book Review

BOOK REVIEW:
By Dr. John Mavroides, Emeritus Professor of Physics,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

THE EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN--ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY AND MODERN PHYSICS by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo (Synaxis Press)

In this very clear and well-referenced book, Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, a hesychastic theologian, uses the historical approach to contrast the theology of the Orthodox Christian Church to that of the Western Christian Churches. In addition to presenting a lucid and accurate exposition, without any phyletic distortions of traditional Orthodox theology, the theology of the Apostles, the Patristic Fathers and the later Church Fathers, as one would expect of a hesychastic monk, this gifted theologian is also comfortable with the rather difficult field of quantum physics.

Corporatism or Commonweal by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo

The concept of the “common good” is one that has fallen out of favour in recent years. Over the past two decades, it has become increasingly common to dismiss the notion that we all share an interest in the broader community, that society is more than simply a collection of individuals all pursuing their own individual material self-interest.[1]

In Socrates’ Apology, he tells a story that illustrates the tension between corporatism and commonweal.

Zeus, Socrates relates, decided to help mankind create a human society. He sent Hermes to distribute the necessary technical and managerial skill to certain people. The result was a society based on self-interest and expertise. Such a society was centrifugal and fragmented. As philosopher John Ralston-Saul observes, Zeus had created a society based on the corporatist model.[2] The economic and social structures were based on professional self-interest. People were defined by what they did. In more contemporary terms, this would be the corporatism of consumer capitalism, also based on self-interest and self-centeredness: defining people by what and how much they consume.

Zeus sees the error and decides to remedy it by having Hermes distribute social reverence (aidos) and right-mindedness (diki) to every person. Social reverence signifies a sense of “community,” a shared awareness, a shared knowledge of self-constraint and belonging. Right-mindedness relates to a sense of social justice, integrity, freedom, and social order: a shared sense of responsibility. This is what we refer to as “commonweal.” It defines people simply as “fellow human beings,” as members of a community that we call “humanity.”

Corporatism, which is a fundamental aspect of our modern consumerist economic system, is essentially inimical to Christianity. It is also contrary to God’s Law, as anyone who has studied the socio-economic decrees of the Bible’s Book of Deuteronomy is well aware.

Corporatism reorganizes society with the reduction of the individual to his status as a consumer. To consume is patriotic; to consume in excess is to raise the level of one’s social status. This new economic world order presents us with intense moral and ethical contradictions, arguing that greed, self-gratification, and excess consumption are simply aspects of human nature. This argument, taken from the doctrines of Social Darwinism, is certainly questionable. As author Linda McQuaig observes:

“The rapaciousness of certain business leaders has been much in the spotlight recently. In the wake of the ENRON scandal, even conservative pundits appear shaken by the astounding greed and dishonesty at the heart of... corporate culture. Still, some shrug it off as simple human nature, saying that we are inherently a competitive, acquisitive species, naturally inclined to push our own self-interest as far as we possibly can. But is this the whole picture? Is our society really nothing more than a loose collection of shoppers, graspers and self-absorbed swindlers? Perhaps we are in danger of becoming such a culture, but it is important to remember that culture itself is a learned set of rules.”[3]

And yet, as Paolo Virno has suggested:

“At the base of contemporary cynicism is the fact that men and women learn by experiencing rules rather than ‘facts’... Learning the rules, however, also means recognizing their unfoundedness and conventionality. We are no longer inserted into a single, predefined ‘game’ in which we participate with true conviction. We now face several different ‘games,’ each devoid of all obviousness and seriousness. Only the site of an immediate self-affirmation—an affirmation that is much more brutal and arrogant, much more cynical, the more we employ, with no illusions but with perfect momentary adherence, those very rules whose conventionality and mutability we have perceived.”[4]

At this point we may examine the corporatization of morality and, to some extent, of the Christian Church.

The concept of commonweal—the common good—is fundamental to any authentic Christianity. A clear and profound doctrine of commonweal permeates the Old Testament. It is made law in the book of Deuteronomy and constantly enjoined by the Holy Prophets. Jesus Christ reaffirms this “law of commonweal” with his great moral imperative, “love your neighbour as yourself.” Elevating it above its original statement in the book of Leviticus, Christ makes this moral imperative (together with unconditional love of God) the very foundation and essence of the Law and the Prophets. The fulfillment of such a moral imperative certainly requires a direct encounter and interaction with culture and society. Unfortunately, this is an encounter that has been either abandoned, corporatized or reduced to outbursts of moralism by many Christian bodies.

Contrary to this trend, the Christian community must address society and interact in the shaping of our culture. However, this interaction must consist of something more than merely scolding politicians and demanding the law enforce on all citizens the sort of behaviour we consider to be correct. We must avoid the inner contradictions of moralism and address the whole scope of true morality.

Morality or Moralism?
How can Christians consider it to be an authentic expression of morality to oppose the killing of unborn children while ignoring the killing of children who are already born? Is it truly moral to protect the lives of unborn children but ignore or trivialize the fact that they will have to grow up in a world where, because of our own excess, they may not have sufficient food and many of the necessary natural resources will have been squandered and climate change will have made their lives precarious and uncertain? Is it actually moral to demand that governments enforce the sort of correct personal behaviour that our own ideologies demand while turning consumer capitalism into a religious doctrine that cannot be subjected to critique and criticism?

One fatal flaw in the preaching of Christianity, which has had especially negative effects in North America, is the failure to distinguish between morality and moralism. From an authentic Christian point of view, true morality has to do not only with salvation but with every aspect of our inter-human relations; it is not simply a system of correct behaviour.

True morality is not a system of law which, if obeyed, makes one a moral person. It is necessary to have such laws for the sake of society, but that has little to do with the change of a person’s heart and an inner transformation into the image of Christ’s love. Morality is not a form of bondage but a path of liberation. When we speak of “the law of God,” we are not speaking of an ordinary, worldly notion of “law.” God’s law is not given to repress us but to protect us. If we are driving along a dangerous highway and the signs warn us to slow down because there is a dangerous curve in the road, that is a “law.” The speed limit is set by law. If we disregard that law and crash over a cliff because we are driving too fast, we do not claim that the government punished us by making us crash. On the contrary, the government tried to save us from serious injury or death by making that law. This is precisely the meaning of the “law of God,” of our system of morality. God has revealed to us a manner of life that can keep us from much pain and suffering and from many disasters. He has called upon us to realize that his law is a law of love, and that we should obey it out of love and trust in him, not from fear of punishment. Moreover, such true morality constrains us to imitate God’s love in our dealings with the world. This is the essence of true morality.

We cannot equate morality with behaviour that is acceptable to a given society, because often a society accepts behaviour that we know is contrary not only to our salvation but is also inimical with the concept of commonweal. If we preach only a legal morality that does not encompass the two moral imperatives of Jesus Christ,[5] then we are mere moralists. Moralism is cold, unforgiving, full of hatred, and spiritually destructive. It is self-centred, and it deforms the idea of morality for the advantage of one or another class in society to the detriment of others.

When we speak of true morality, we are not referring to simple obedience to a system of law but a free accord with a system of spiritual healing. The authentic Christian spiritual life really does provide us with the means for moral healing, but even among our own people, we see so many who never experience such healing. This is because they encounter only moralism: “Obey this law or God will do something bad to you.” Moralism does not take into account what is necessary to actually heal a person and deliver them from the bondage of their inner suffering so they can lead a moral life; it thinks only about condemnation and punishment. But let us indicate how these ideas have a direct bearing on our subject. Our modern consumerism inclines a society not only to excess but also to self-centeredness and indifference. One can opt to blame such attitudes on Satan, but when one does, let him remember that the power of Satan in our lives can be defeated only by means of unselfish love, by adopting a sincere sense of commonweal—to love your neighbour as yourself—in place of a desensitized self-interest. There is no such thing as Christian morality without an inner struggle toward unselfish love, self-constraint, and a sincere concern for the welfare not only of those around us but even for future generations.

Moralism condemns, usually with arrogant self-righteousness, while a spirit of true Christian morality seeks one’s own moral healing and the moral healing of those around us so they might be liberated from bondage. This is the concept of morality that can keep us alive spiritually in our consumerist and secular culture; this is the image of morality that will attract others to Christ and to authentic faith, a concept that can help form in us a truly Christian sense of commonweal.

The Corporatization of Morality
The corporatization of morality may be a product of radical individualism. It arises almost automatically when Christianity is transformed from a living faith into an ideology informed by such categories as “liberal,” “conservative,” “leftist,” “right wing,” and so forth. Morality then becomes corporatized into various categories of correct behaviour, defined by an essentially political mindset of one or another religio-political ideology. This narrows the concepts so clearly stated in the Old Testament down to “horror at those things condemned” with little regard for those things enjoined: social justice, non-condescending care for the poor and all those in need, and a powerful sense of mutual responsibility for the common good of the nation, of all the inhabitants of that nation.[6] In the Old Testament law, there are clearly ecological provisions for the care and nurturing of the land: a Sabbath for the agricultural land is just as much a part of the Law as a Sabbath for man (Leviticus 25:4-6). This care of the land, which must be cherished and nurtured, is surely as much a moral law as any in the Old Testament. Just as surely, it shows a deep concern for the common good of the whole population which must be fed from that land. This concern so obviously extends to future generations.[7]

Organizing and spending large sums of money to protest and lobby against certain forms of personal behaviour may be useful, but there is an inner contradiction that is inexcusable when the same organizers refuse to condemn corporate immorality or organize and finance lobbying about environmental issues that relate to the very survival of whole populations and the health, welfare, and survival of future generations. The destruction of the environment is every bit as immoral and kills just as many children as abortion. Any truly Christian concept of morality will encompass corporate and environmental immorality with the same fervour that it addresses personal morality.

We may have a “fallen human nature,” but it is clear that humankind is essentially good and, as the image and likeness of God, has an innate inclination toward virtue. We will all live in the new world order of consumer capitalism and secularism. We will all partake of the benefits of consumer capitalism and enjoy its positive aspect. But as Christians, we will also have to face the moral challenges of its negative side. It is urgent for us, as moral human beings, to recognize that future generations will pay a terrible price for the excess and overindulgence of our era. We cannot separate spirituality from moral responsibility and here, consumerism poses yet another challenge. Since consumerism thrives on over-consumption, not only must products not be durable, as we mentioned before, but they should not be reasonably “upgradable” either. Computers, for example, are discarded and replaced regularly. People are shocked to learn that, in our monastery print shop, we are still using a computer that we purchased in 1988, yet it is perfectly adequate for our typesetting needs. Let us look at the moral tragedy of this problem.

In Canada alone, 140,000 tonnes of computer equipment, cell phones, and other types of electronic equipment. are discarded into waste disposal yards every year. That is the weight of about 28,000 fully-grown adult African elephants. This results in 4,750 tonnes of lead, 4.5 tonnes of cadmium, and 1.1 tonnes of mercury being leached into the water system and food chain every year.[8] These toxic heavy metals are already creating havoc on people’s health and causing a loss of drinking water reserves. Future generations will pay a devastating price for all this. Whether we care enough to do something about it or to resist this aspect of consumerism is a moral issue. It is also a barometer of our spirituality.

Yet we need not succumb to what Habermas calls “personality systems without any aspiration to subjective truth nor secure processes for communal interpretation.”[9] This is why it is so important for us to consider the role authentic Christian morality can play in this unfolding drama of our present era. We cannot have such a role if we opt out of the political dialogue and refuse to engage culture and interact with the society around us in a creative and healing way.

Archbishop Lazar Puhalo is abbot of the Canadian Orthodox Monastery of All Saints of North America in Deroche, British Columbia, Canada.

 

[1]. Linda McQuaig in All You Can Eat: Greed, Lust and the New Capitalism, (Penguin Books, 2000)

[2]. In Queen’s Quarterly, Spring, 2002, p. 38.

[3]. Lost in the Global Shopping Mall, Queen’s Quarterly, Spring 2002, p.43.

[4]. “The Ambivalence of Disenchantment,” in Radical Thought in Italy: A Potential Politics, eds. Paolo Virno and Michael Hardt (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1966), pp. 17-18.

[5]. The second is “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

[6]. See Deut.24:19-21, for example.

[7]. See Deut.20:19, for example where destruction of trees that produce food is forbidden even in time of war, for the sake of future generations.

[8]. Source: The Globe and Mail newspaper’s financial magazine, Report on Business, Vol.20, Nr.8, February, 2004, p.13.

[9]. Jürgen Habermas, Legitimation Crisis (Boston: Beacon Press, 1975). This not a direct quote, but given as nearly as I remember it from the text of the book.

When is Morality Heresy? by Archbishop Puhalo

Is morality a heresy? Morality is a heresy when it becomes a substitute for our life in Christ. Morality becomes a substitute for our life in Christ when we reduce religion to a moral code, when we reduce the faith to a system of correct behaviour instead of a struggle to purify the conscience and acquire the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. We cannot acquire the Holy Spirit by means of correct behaviour, which is just a matter of human works and legalistic works at that. Such an approach fills us with so much judgement and condemnation and arrogance and self-righteousness that the Holy Spirit remains alien to us. We begin to think ourselves to be moral and everyone who is not like us somehow immoral.

We set ourselves as the criterion of morality, but there can be no true morality without the inner transformation of our person. Perfect holiness consists only in perfect love, not in correct behaviour. Righteousness does not consist in correct behaviour, but in genuine co-suffering love and pure faith. No deed has any moral value unless it proceeds from the heart motivated by love. Otherwise it is simply ethical or correct behaviour according to one or another system of law—a human work which anyone in any culture, with or without faith in God, can attain to. The Old Testament law could help to preserve society but it could not save anyone, no matter how diligently they fulfilled it to the letter. Moreover, since it could not transform the heart, it could not even preserve the nation from falling constantly away from God. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only One who fulfilled perfect righteousness was motivated solely by love, co-suffering love. And that is why our Lord Jesus Christ became our righteousness on the Cross, and imputed that righteousness to us through faith. Only righteousness is the fulfilment of the law and righteousness consists only in perfect love. The self-righteousness, the arrogance that we have which makes us judge and condemn others, by which we put our foot on the heads of the weak and push them deeper into darkness by our arrogance—this is the apex of unrighteousness and it is a great sin. That is ultimately what our struggle of prayer is all about, trying to acquire perfect, co-suffering love in ourselves, becoming truly conformed to the image of Christ, so that we may actually share in His glory, the glory of the Living God, receiving by grace through faith, "the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." being "changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord." (Phil 3:14, 2 Cor. 3:18)