1. The Therapy of the Soul
The subject of the therapy of the soul is extremely important for the Orthodox Church because it expresses the essence of spiritual life. Before elaborating on this crucial topic, I would like to give some introductory explanations.
First, when discussing the therapy of the soul, we do not believe in dualism, which makes a clear distinction between soul and body, as is the case in ancient Greek philosophy or some present Eastern religions. Man has two hypostases[1], since he consists of soul and body. The soul is not the whole man but just the soul of man; the body is not the whole man but just the body of man. The body is tightly connected to the soul and takes part in all its states. The body receives both the fall of the soul as well as its resurrection. Thus we speak about the death of the body, which is an outcome of the death of the soul, and about the deification of the body, which comes as a result of the deification of the soul. Saint Gregory Palamas teaches that the nous[2] is man’s first physical intelligent organ and also teaches that the Grace of God is ferried through the soul to the body, which is attached to the soul.
Second, the teaching that the Church is a spiritual Hospital and that true theology is related to the therapy of the soul is not an isolated part of the teaching about the Church, but rather the way and requirement for the experiencing of church life and the acquisition of the Orthodox church spirit. Of course, the basis of church life is the holy Eucharist, in which man partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ. But the entire teaching of the holy Fathers for the therapy of man is a prerequisite for the correct partaking of the holy Eucharist. It is well known that the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is light, Kingdom of God, and Paradise for those in the proper spiritual condition for the holy Communion to act. At the same time, it is Hell and “condemnation” for all those not cleansed. The teaching of the Fathers of the Church on this point is telling indeed. Furthermore, the sacrament of Baptism is, and is called, an introductory sacrament that makes us members of the Body of Christ. But, in the ancient Church, Catechism, which aimed at man’s therapy, preceded Baptism, and asceticism followed Baptism. Christ said: “Go and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to do what I have given to you” (Matt. 28:16–20).
Third, when speaking about the therapy of the soul and, more generally, the therapy of man, we mean nothing else but Orthodox hesychasm. As it is known, Orthodox hesychasm forms the basis of all Ecumenical and Local Synods, because through hesychasm we obtain the experience of Revelation through which we know that Christ is the true God, that the Holy Spirit is God, that the natures are united inseparably, unchangeably, and undividedly. For this reason, the fourteenth-century Synods that confirmed Orthodox hesychasm, in the presence of the great Church theologian and Father Saint Gregory Palamas, in reality presented the method through which man can be saved, deified, and go from the image to the likeness. Orthodox hesychasm consists of the transformation of the powers of the soul, of man’s deliverance and liberation from the evil one who rules over man with the spiritual and bodily passions, of the deification of soul and body. In fact, the fourteenth-century Synods state that if a Christian does not accept the teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas and of the monks who speak about Orthodox hesychia as a method for the cleansing of the soul, he should be expelled from the Church.
The Church offers the true life; it transforms biological life, sanctifies and transforms societies. Orthodoxy, if experienced properly and functioning according to the holy Fathers, is a communion of God and man, heaven and earth, living and deceased. In this communion all problems emerging in our life are truly solved.
Other religions, particularly those originating from the East, are indeed the opiate of the people, because they transfer the problem to the transcendental world, they alienate men from society, they tear apart interpersonal relationships and destroy man. The Orthodox Church is true precisely because it heals man; it functions as a therapeutic center, an infirmary of souls, a Hospital. This is why it is very modern to be an Orthodox Christian.
NOTES:
1. Hypostases are persons, or essential natures.
2. Nous: The word has various uses in Patristic teaching. It indicates either the soul or the heart or even the energy of the soul. Yet, the nous is mainly the eye of the soul, the purest part of the soul, the highest attention. It is also called noetic energy, and it is not identified with reason.
2. The Main Task of the Church Is to Cure
The objective of the Church is to lead man to God, after curing him. Man’s fall from Paradise, the true communion with God, brought terrible changes to anthropology and sociology. Christ’s incarnation healed man and led him to communion with God. Therefore, the main task of the Church is to cure man.
This objective of the Church is seen in Christ’s well-known parable of the good Samaritan. According to Saint John Chrysostom’s interpretation, the man who fell into the hands of robbers is Adam and his descendants who stepped down from the heavenly polity to the polity of the devil’s deceit, which wounded them deeply. The good Samaritan is Christ, who incarnated to cure the wounded man. He gave life to the almost-dead man with wine and oil, that is, with His Blood and the Holy Spirit. Then he carried him to the inn, which is the Church, to be healed. The innkeeper is the Apostles and after them the clerics, who have the commandment to heal men wounded by the devil. Thus, in this parable it is clear that the Church is a Hospital that cures men who are sick because of sin, and the bishops-priests are therapists of the people of God.
Christ referred to His healing work elsewhere too. He said: “They that be whole need not a physician but they that are sick” (Matt. 9:12). All of His sayings referring to the acquisition of humility, the realization of sin, repentance, and so on, show that the Son and Word of God became human to defeat death, sin, and the devil, and to deify man. Hence, all His work refers to man’s cure.
In one of his sermons, Saint Gregory the Theologian presents Christ’s work as curing. His incarnation was aimed at man’s cure. Christ assumed the whole nature of man because “what is not assumed is also not healed.” Everything Christ did aimed at man’s cure. “All this was to educate us in God and to cure our illness”. This is why Christ is often called a physician, a therapist of soul and body. He is also called medicine because cure takes place by the eating and drinking of the Body and Blood of Christ.
Therefore, Christ is both healer and medicine. There are several phrases in the Liturgy describing these qualities of Christ. By the Grace of Christ, clerics throughout the centuries are also healers of the people. Saint Gregory writes: “We who preside over the others are servants and collaborators for this cure.” Every work undertaken by bishops-priests must aim at man’s salvation, at his deification. This is why it has been said characteristically that the task of the Church is to create relics. This means that when man is cured and attains deification, his body is also deified and becomes a relic, by Christ’s Grace.
3. Theology as a Curing Science
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The fact that the Church’s main task is to cure man implies that this is also the task of theology, which is the voice of the Church. Orthodox theology is not an academic science and reflection; it is not a rational occupation the goal of which is Protestant and philological research, but mostly the science of cure. Theology is either a fruit of the cure or the road to the cure. That is, an Orthodox theologian is he who was cured and acquired personal knowledge of God and also he who heals others.
Saint Gregory the Theologian says that theologians are “those who have passed in theoria[3] who first cleansed soul and body or at least are in the process of cleansing. Theology is closely associated with Orthodox hesychia (stillness), that is, internal purification from images and fantasies that deceive man. These persons are able to help those with a sick soul.
Saint John of the Ladder links theology with perfect purity, man’s perfect cleansing: “… a complete state of purity is the foundation of theology”[4]. This is the person who truly theologizes. And of course, theologizing is not related to intellectual expressions, but to the revelation of God and to the guidance of people to this knowledge.
All these Fathers show that theology is mostly a product of man’s therapy and not an intellectual science. Only the purified ones or at least those who are in the process of purification are able to be initiated to the ineffable mysteries and the great truths, to accept the Revelation and then confer it to the people. Therapy necessarily precedes theology, and then the theologian is able to cure others. This is why in the Orthodox Tradition the theologian is associated and identified with the spiritual father, and the spiritual father is the par excellence theologian, he who suffers the divine and is able to guide his spiritual children unerringly.
There is a magnificent apolytikion[5] that illustrates what Orthodox theology is and what constitutes Orthodox Tradition and apostolic succession. Many of us believe that apostolic succession is just an uninterrupted line of ordinations. We cannot reject this truth, but apostolic succession has an internal aspect too. The apolytikion says:
You partook of the ways, you succeeded in the throne of the Apostles, you were inspired by God and found praxis to attain theoria; because of this you expressed unerringly the word of truth, and you struggled till blood, Holy Martyr Anthimos intercede with Christ God to save our souls.
The Holy Martyr Anthimos, like many other saints, became a successor of the Apostles and partook of the ways of the Apostles. He not only had the ordination of the Apostles, but also their way of life. This means he attained Pentecost, the experience of the Revelation of God, deification. This is why he became “God-inspired.” To reach this state he employed a special method. He ascended to thetheoria of God through praxis. We know very well that praxis is the cleansing of the heart from the passions and theoria is the vision of the uncreated Light.
As a result, Holy Martyr Anthimos expressed unerringly the word of truth and became a martyr for the glory of God. Therefore, we infer that the unerring expression of the word of truth is not a product of intellectual knowledge, but a fruit of the experience of God. Also, martyrdom is not an outcome of a strong will, but of the Grace of God, which strengthened the entire personality, so it is a product of theoria.
This apolytikion manifests, in a most vivid way, what the Orthodox Tradition is, what apostolic succession is, who an Orthodox theologian is, how one is able to become God-inspired, and who the true shepherds of the people of God should be. These theologians guide in an Orthodox way, inspired by God and unerringly guiding their spiritual children toward deification and sanctification.
NOTES:
3. Saint Gregory the Theologian. Or. 27, 3. NPNFns, vol. 7, p. 285.
4. Saint John Climacus. The Ladder. Step 30. CWS p. 288.
5. An apolytikion is a dismissal hymn, otherwise known as a troparion.
4. Textbooks on Cure
Man’s cure is achieved by God’s energy and man’s synergy. The Grace of God is offered to man in the sacraments of the Church. In the Catechismal period man is cleansed from the passions tormenting him; with the sacrament of Baptism he becomes a member of the Body of Christ; with Chrismation he becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit; with Holy Communion he partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ. Of course, his own cooperation is required for the Grace of God to be activated.
The Church has certain textbooks on cure that demonstrate what exactly the cure is and how it is achieved. There one finds the task of the clerics. Three typical textbooks on cure are the following:
First, the Holy Scripture. Through the Old and the New Testament man learns the will of God, which he must apply in his life. According to recent research, the first three Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are actually catechism companions for the Church. The Catechumens were taught from these Gospels what Christian faith is and how to rid themselves of the rule of the devil. The fourth Gospel (John) is for the baptized ones, to learn the perfection of life in Christ. On the other hand, it is known that the epistles of the Apostles gave answers to topics of concern to local churches of the first period.
Therefore, Holy Scripture is a textbook on cure from which man is taught what illness and health are, how cure is achieved, and how to attain union with God. Of course, the Holy Scripture has to be interpreted from within the Orth-odox church tradition. If it is not part of the church atmosphere, it does not help man to be saved, but rather encloses him within the limits of selfishness, as we observe in the use of the Holy Scripture by various heretics in our days.
What happens with Holy Scripture is similar to what happens with medical textbooks. For someone to learn to operate on various parts of the human body, it is not sufficient to read and memorize a textbook. He must contact the author-doctor, be trained by him on this task. and himself be a surgeon. If he does not study the textbook in this context, he will soon lead people to the cemetery. The same happens with Holy Scripture. To comprehend it and use it for our therapy, we require the knowledge of God as revealed to the Prophets and the Apostles, or at least the knowledge of the Fathers who interpret the Holy Scripture according to the Church. Then we are certain that Holy Scripture cures man.
Texts of the rites constitute a second textbook on cure. The rites of the Church play an important role in the transformation of man’s personality and his rebirth. During the rites, especially the Divine Liturgy, man opens his heart to God and to the suffering of the whole world, since he prays for all kinds of people; he feels the Church as the Body of Christ and receives the Grace and blessing of God.
In the texts of the services, it is clear that the Church is a therapeutic center, Christ is our healer, and the deeper task and purpose of the Church is to heal man who is wounded by sin. In the prayers read by the priest in the Vespers it is said: “Be charitable to us, physician and therapist of our souls. Guide us to the port of your will. Illumine the eyes of our hearts to the knowledge of your truth . . .” In the Matins, while the reader reads the six Psalms, the priest reads twelve prayers. Among these, he prays as in confession: “Lord, have mercy, according to your great mercy, on us who have fallen to many and grave misdemeanors, and blot out our transgressions according to the multitude of thy tender mercies; for we have sinned to you, O Lord, you who know the unspoken and secrets of men’s hearts and have the sole power to remit sins. You, who have created in us a clean heart, and upheld us by a free spirit, and made known to us the joy of thy salvation, cast us not away from thy presence . . .” In another prayer of the Matins the priest prays: “ . . . merciful and all-powerful God. Shine in our heart the true Sun of your justice, illumine our nous and uphold all our senses, so that, as in a day, respectfully walking in the path of your commandments, we reach eternal life.”
In these prayers we see the aim of the Church, which is its deeper purpose. It is the cure of man and his guidance to the uncreated Light, to union with God. The purpose of man’s existence is deification.
All Church hymns refer to cure. They ask for God’s mercy, salvation, which is not an abstract condition and the soul’s exit from the body, but the coming of the Grace of God to the heart. Most hymns of the Church are confessional. Let me cite one of them:
My whole life sinful, my soul lustful the body full of dirt, the nous impure, the deeds all defiled, I am fully responsible for condemnation and conviction. Where shall I turn now? where shall I go if not to you? Our Lady have mercy and come to my salvation.
The third textbook on cure is the Prayer book of the Church. This is a book containing the texts and the order of the Church sacraments, as well as many other prayers used by the priest in his pastoral service. Reading the Prayer book carefully, one can see that the Grace of God takes over man from his birth to his death and is personally interested in him. There are prayers to be read right after birth, then man becomes part of the Body of the Church by Holy Baptism; if he leaves the Church, Grace brings him back by the sacrament of repentance; Grace is present in his wedding and follows him in all his activities until his sleep and beyond. In the Prayer book it is clear that the Church is personally interested in each man.
All these textbooks show that the Church is a Hospital-therapeutic center that cures man. We can see all its work in this perspective. If we have a different view of the Church, then we have in mind a secular Church that does not save man. Instead, it holds him captive to the conditions and circumstances of the fallen world.
This article was originally published by the Monastery of St. John, www.monasteryofstjohn.org, in The Divine Ascent Vol. 3/4.
This and other publications can be found on their bookstore website, www.stjohnsbookstore.com.
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