THERE IS ONE further point that we need to consider before we move onto the subject of identifying where we find the fulfilment of our heart’s desires. The movement of our heart is clearly towards union with what it desires. In older days, to “know’”another person meant physical union, and “knowledge” in the older sense of the word implied participation with that which one “knew.” Union was bound up with the idea of this movement of the heart - the “knowledge” of the heart. This movement towards union is also implicit in the Greek roots of the words ecstasy and eros/erotic, where we seek to meet the object of our desire. Such words are easily hijacked by more carnal, baser longings, but their original meaning was towards spiritual union, not simply physical.
If we look at the range of answers that are offered nowadays to the “spiritual” problems of our day, we must start by categorising their approaches to the person and suffering, and observing their effects on the people who hold that system of beliefs - by their fruits ye shall know them (Matt 7:20). From what we have said so far, it is clear that our heart needs a personal relationship, that this person is not finite, and that we must be able to attain union with that person.
We can observe two opposing trends in religions which distort their purpose. One is where the religions describe God or an infinite power which gradually withdraws from the creation until effectively He is not there at all. The other where God disappears into the created order so that He is believed to be immanent and enmeshed in the created order itself and He is indistinct from His creation. We will consider both trends with representative religious views here, and we are indebted at this point to the works of I. M. Andreyev for providing us with such descriptions.
Starting from one end then, the religious view where God is completely removed from creation in all ways is atheism. Atheism is a belief that the world exists without God (from the Greek prefix ‘a-’ which means without, and ‘Theos’ which is God in Greek). Most modern political systems when they border on religious views fall into this category, along with things such as philosophical humanism, liberalism, vitalism, etc. All fail to satisfy this longing inside of us. Trust ye not in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation (Ps 145:3).
The frightful results of such a philosophy under Hitler and Stalin in the last century are there for all to see, and are still going on. Contact with spiritual men throws such systems into stark relief. In “Father Arseny: Prisoner, Priest, Spiritual Father,” communist and political prisoners are eventually converted by the presence of this virtuous priest because of his loving heart which shines Christian love towards others in the midst of terrible suffering. Papa Nicholas Planas, the wonder worker of Athens, turned a staunch and murderous supporter of Communism to Christianity through patient and long-suffering love that was willing to suffer with him.
Atheism is clearly a religious view, since it asserts faith that there is no God. Closely related are skepticism (doubt of everything’s existence), and criticism (the belief that we cannot know anything higher). Both are unsatisfactory - they do not satisfy what we know our experience to be, and are fruitless in addressing our suffering. Positivism is close, but slightly different in that it holds faith in human progress to overcome all obstacles and answer all questions; that we have somehow “grown out” of needing God as if it were some immature stage of human civilization’s development. We have already seen some of the consequences of this approach under Stalin and Hitler. These approaches do not satisfy us. They are closed philosophically, intellectually dishonest, and completely impotent in the face of human suffering. For in their mouth there is no truth, their heart is vain, their throat is an opened sepulchre, with their tongues have they spoken deceitfully (Ps 5:9).
Deist religions believe in a god or creator who sets the created order in motion, and just sort of sits back and lets things get on with themselves. He is like the scientist who is curious to see how the experiment works so he sets it going and watches what happens, i.e. he is curious about the results but does not really care what happens to his subjects, unlike the Christian God Who “does not desire with desire the death of a sinner but that he should return from his wickedness and live, nor is well-pleased in the perdition of men, but desires that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” Confucianism and a lot of Eastern religions, that assert cosmic order etc. as their basis, deny the existence of anything higher than human beings. The evidence of our own hearts tells us that this is clearly unsatisfactory - our hearts desire something higher, which deist religions simply cannot supply.
Beyond that, religions such as Zoroastrianism and the dualist beliefs of Gnostics and the Manichees are more concerned with a sort of eternal battle that goes on behind the scenes between opposing forces that are utterly unconcerned personally with the lives of those human beings that exist within the created order. There is no chance of finding a personal relationship with a Creator or God within these religions since there is little concept within them of such a personal being existing beyond the bounds of the creation Who desires to make contact with us.
Modern Judaism, some forms of Buddhism, Islam, and related sects are all close to this category. They are clearly unsatisfactory in terms of satisfying our human heart’s need - how we can we desire a God Who has no concern for us personally nor desires a loving relationship with us? Judaism, which has disintegrated into Phariseeism, and Islam, etc. tend towards fatalism, where the loving desire of the believer is subjugated to an absolute submission to the demands of the faith that they practise. Hasidic and Shariah law are dictatorial systems that shape the lives of worshippers, instead of living within a loving relationship with the Creator.
