Gods’ Image and The Church

Two concepts in Chapter Six of Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church:

Firstly, that the image of God can be considered one of two things: As liberty, or free will, which cannot be destroyed by sin; Or as communion with God. St Gregory of Nyssa speaks of this first consideration: ‘he is freed from necessity, and not subject to the domination of nature, but able freely to follow his own judgement. For virtue is independent and her own mistress.’, and freedom is a necessity for the attainment of perfect cooperation with God.  This concept of the image of God as free will ties into the concepts in the previous chapter.

Secondly, that this image of God applies to the whole of humanity,  not to a single person, much in the same way that the God is the whole of God, not  each person of the Trinity. The divine image is applied to the whole of mankind; it is one common nature to all men, parceled out to each of us, split up, imperfect. Unity between men, therefore, is necessary for us to be remade in Gods’ image: Hence why the church is considered a body. We have one nature, but many persons.

I find this difficult; not in concept, but in practice. I feel strongly that God created us in diversity, so in which sense our divine image is only in unity, and in which sense our individuality is something created and to be considered a portion of that image, I find difficult. Lossky specifically speaks of ‘the person who asserts himself as an individual, and shuts himself up in the limits of his particular nature, far from realising himself fully becomes impoverished. It is only in renouncing its own possession and giving itself freely, in ceasing to exist for itself that the person finds full expression in the one nature common to all.’

I know the key here is ‘in ceasing to exist for itself’, but at what point does ones god given passions, skills and desires need be subsumed in this cessation of selfish living? Consider the theologian, God-gifted with intellect and a passion for deeper thought: These things are natural to him – should they be subsumed in the pursuit of unity?

I don’t know the answer. But I think the concept of a shared nature between all men is a unique argument for the body of the Church.

Creation and Purpose

The fifth chapter of Lossky’s ‘Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church’ takes a sharp turn now, to the topic of cosmology. More specifically, an initially dry chapter on the nature of creation ex nihilo (interestingly noting that the first mention of creation ex nihilo is in 2 Maccabees 7:28, an apocryphal book), turns into a fascinating one on the nature of humanity, and it’s relation to ecclesiology.

The first interesting point, is on the nothingness of creation, and in particular those very special created, humanity:

“All creatures are balanced upon the creative word of God, as if upon a bridge of diamond; above them is the abyss of the divine infinitude, below them that of their own nothingness.”

As we were created from nothing, we are stretched between two extremes; the overwhelming allness of God, and the nothingness from which we came. A humbling concept indeed. But how were we created? The Eastern Church has a concept, ‘thought-will’, to describe what exactly God does to create us: We are more than just the imagination (a thought) of God, but are intention. And these intentions, these ideas, are no the same thing as our selves: In the same way the image of a work in a craftsmans’ mind is not the same as the work itself, even though the work is a physical manifestation of that image. There is ourselves. And God’s idea of ourselves.

We are called therefore to cooperate with God in finishing his creation (us); a agreement between our wills and the thought-will of God. One could say that creation is an uncompleted perfection, and our cooperation with God is necessary for its completion. Whilst Lossky does not go on to speak of our role in ‘finishing Gods’ creation’ outside of ourselves – our role in stewardship of the universe, creation of art, etc. – I feel like this too, is part of our cooperation with God necessary for the completion of creation.

A problem them: What is the will of God? Incomprehensible, that’s what. (We’re reading  a book that is about the mystical theology of the Eastern Church) However, a working definition is that whatever that will is, it is the point of contact between the infinite (God) and the finite (us); and every created thing has a point of contact – a relationship, a will or an intention – with God; and these intentions are all contained within the Logos, the first principle and final end of all things.

All of this means that any distinctions we try to make between first states (of creation as a whole, or of our personal experiences) and what is conferred upon us by an ever increasing participation in Gods’ intention is somewhat fictitious: That intention is our point of contact with God, and it is present from beginning to end. It is only the conversation between our will and Gods’ that matters. That conversation was the entire point of our creation; it is what brings creation to completeness.

Trinity and theosis

The problem is that, if I was to achieve theosis, unity with God, at the moment I was united with God, participating in His essence and nature, God would no longer be Trinity, but rather a God of as many hypostases as people participating in his essence?

So, if I were to believe both doctrines of  theosis and Trinity, I would have to recognise that in God there are further distinctions apart from between the Trinity; there is that part of God which is accessible to us, and that part of God which is inaccessible. That with which we can have union, and that with which we cannot. 

Lossky in his fourth chapter of Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, turns to this conundrum, and separates God into his essence and persons, which are ‘totally inaccessible, unknowable, and incommunicable’, and his energies, through which he ‘manifests, communicates, and gives of Himself’. To break it down:

1. The Energies are ineffably distinct from the Essence.
2. This distinction is how the Trinity can remain incommunicable but at the same time come and dwell within us.
3.  The union to which we are called is neither hypostatic (as in Christs’ human nature) or in the sharing of substance (as in the Trinity), but through His energies, and therefore without our essence becoming thereby the essence of God.
4. Hence, in deification we are (by grace or in the divine energies) all that God is by nature, save by his substance (His identity of nature).

Why must God remain inaccessible, or incommunicable? Well, Etienne Gilson expresses the principle: “Lower even if only for an instant and at a single point, the barrier between God and man which is created by the contingency of being, and you have deprived the Christian mystic of his God, and thus of his mysticism itself.” That is to say, to allow God to be accessible or communicable, would be to allow a God that could be understood and accessed by our own minds and our knowledge; for us to surpass that, to become deified, requires a goal (and a God) that is beyond our understanding.

It is important also to identify the barrier Gilson mentions as created by the contingency of being, as opposed to the revelation I’ve discussed previously: The barrier is between the created and the creator, and definitive, rather than between the revealer and the revealed, and intentional. 

So to finish, a summary by St Maximus, less thorough, but more poetic: “God has created us in order that we may become partakers of the divine nature, in order that we may enter into eternity, and that we may appear like unto Him, being deified by that grace out of which all things exist have come, and which brings into existence everything that before had no existence.”

Christians

A quote by a man named Father Congar, in the first chapter of Losskys’ The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church:

“We have become different men. We have the same God but before him we are different men, unable to agree as to the nature of our relationship with him.”

Is how I feel about most Christians I meet.

Is revelation an intentional barrier?

In Chapter Three of The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, Lossky says this:

“Revelation sets an abyss between the truth which it declares and the truths which can be discovered by philosophical speculation. If human thought guided by the instinct for truth – which is faith, though confused and uncertain – could, apart form Christianity, grope its way towards certain notions that approximated to the Trinity, the mystery of God in Trinity remains inscrutable to it.”

I haven’t spend much time on the concept of revelation; I will have to come back to this. However, this seems to put intention in the barrier between God and mankind. 

I find this difficult. Now, perhaps he is saying that without mystical intention I could not approach the mystery of the Trinity, however, I do not understand why any human, set apart from all others, could not, guided by the instinct for truth, grope its way to the mystery of God in Trinity.

And if it is a question of revelation – if God has set a barrier between us and our understanding of his mysteries, and only he can part this veil, what is the purpose of mystical theology? A gesture? Unless my understanding of revelation is different (and, as I said, I have no theology of revelation) than that of Lossky, this paragraph is insurmountable.

To me this is an intentional gnostic barrier between God and man. We should need no special knowledge to see across this abyss.