The Shepherd, March 2009
THE writings below are taken from the Synod in Resistance website http://www.synodinresistance.org/index-en.html. They require and deserve careful reading, but they address very precisely certain misconceptions which contemporary Orthodox Christians have about their Faith, and the consequent failures in contemporary church life and administration, as well as answering fundamental questions raised by the current “media debate” about atheism & belief.
The Sickness of Religion and its Orthodox Cure
Orthodoxy and Religion*
by Father John Romanides
† 1st November 2001
1. Orthodoxy Is Not a Religion
MANY people are under the impression that Orthodoxy is one of many religions and that it is primarily concerned with preparing the members of the Church for life after death; that is, with securing a place in Paradise for every Orthodox Christian.
Thus, they reckon that Orthodox doctrine offers an additional guaranty (because it is Orthodox), and that if someone does not believe in Orthodox doctrine, this serves as just one more reason for this person to go to Hell—apart, that is, from the fact that his personal sins will in all probability send him there.
Any Orthodox Christian who believes that such a thing is Orthodoxy has associated Orthodoxy exclusively with the future life. Such people do not do much in this life, but rather wait to die in order to go to Paradise, since in their lifetime they were Orthodox Christians!
Another portion of the Orthodox are active within the domain of the Church, being interested not in the next life, but primarily in the present life. In other words, what interests them is how Orthodoxy will help them to live well in this life.
Such Orthodox Christians pray to God, have Priests say prayers, bless Holy Water, read supplicatory Canons, and anoint them with Holy Oil, etc., so that God will help them to have a pleasant life, to avoid falling ill, to provide for their children, to secure a good dowry and a good husband for their daughters, to have their sons find nice girls with good dowries to marry, to have their work go well, and even to help them with their stocks or businesses, etc. [Nowadays a primary concern seems to be to get children into good schools or to pass exams! - Shepherd editor.] So we see that these Christians do not differ significantly from the faithful of other religions, who also do pretty much the same things.
In other words, from the foregoing, one sees Orthodoxy as having these two points in common with all of the other faiths: Firstly, it prepares the faithful for life after death so that they might go to Paradise, as each one imagines it; secondly, it ensures that Christians do not pass through sorrows, worries, disasters, illnesses, wars, etc., in this life—that is, God takes care of everything according to their needs or desires. Thus, for the second group of Christians, religion plays a major rôle in this life, and especially in everyday life.
Deep down, however, who, among all of the aforementioned Christians, is interested in whether God exists or not? Who is seeking Him? For such people, whether or not God exists is not an issue, since it would simply be better if God did exist, so that we can call upon Him and ask Him to satisfy our needs, that our jobs might go well, and that we might have some happiness in this life.
Thus, we see that man has a very strong proclivity to want God to exist and to believe that God exists, because it is a human need for God to exist, in order that He might secure for him all of the things we have mentioned. Well then, since it is a human need for God to exist, ergo, God exists!
If man had no need of a God and could self-sufficiently secure a livelihood for himself in this life in some other way, then no one knows how many people would believe in God. Such is frequently the case, even in Greece.
We see, then, how many people, though previously indifferent with regard to religion, become religious towards the end of their lives, perhaps after having been frightened by some event. For they can no longer live without calling upon some God to help them—that is, out of superstition. For these reasons, human nature helps man to become religious. This does not apply to Orthodox Christians alone; it applies to the faithful of all religions. Human nature is the same everywhere. Thus it is that man, after his fall—darkened as he is by nature, or, rather, contrary to nature— inclines towards superstition.
|
