Christian Mysticism in Relation to Eastern Mysticism - Part 3

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Dear All,

 

In Part 2 we concluded with:

 

(P.232) " Clement of Alexandria also made much of a characteristically Stoic

term, 'apatheia'. 'Apatheia' does not mean our modern apathy or indifference. It

means rather a state beyond the passions. Here we touch again the typical Indian

experience that if one wants to reach the knowledge of God, the transcendent,

one has to be free from one's passions. So 'apatheia' was a freedom from passion

which created purity of heart and opened one up to the transcendent. The link

with the " purity of heart " of the Gospel is clear. In Clement for the first time

we have the understanding that this could lead to divinisation or deification

('theopoiesis) which means to be made God or rather to be made one with God.

This understanding of deification becomes a major trend in Christian mysticism

and is of great importance, for it links it immediately with the Indian

tradition. "

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith)

Chapter 11, P., P.232

 

Here now, is Part 3.

 

Enjoy,

 

violet

 

 

Christian Mysticism in Relation to Eastern Mysticism - Part 3

 

(P.232) Another aspect in Clement is his understanding that behind the physical

world is the world of the angels. This as well, as we shall see, develops

further in Christian mysticism and exactly parallels the idea in Hinduism of the

'mahat', the cosmic order. Beyond the physical world is the cosmic order, the

psychic world, the world of the gods, and in Christian tradition that is

encountered as the world of the angels.

 

Clement was followed as leader of the great school of Alexandria by Origen, who

was the major Christian philosopher of the early centuries. [3] (P.233) He is

said to have been a disciple of Ammonius Saccas, of whom very little is known

except that he was a teacher in the school of Alexandria and was the master of

Plotinus, the founder of Neo-Platonism. Origen himself was a thinker of immense

originality and was a great exegete of the Bible. He developed a profound

Christian theology, interpreting the Scriptures in the light of Middle

Platonism, the predominant philosophy of his time.

 

Origen conceived of God as absolute unity and simplicity above thought and

essence. This was a typical Greek view, and it links up again of course with the

Eastern view of God. In the East God is known to be above and beyond the

rational mind and therefore not accessible by thought. Corresponding to the

distinction made above between symbolic and rational language, there is the

distinction made nowadays between the functioning of the right and left

hemispheres of the brain. Symbolic language is the language of the intuitive

mind and is associated with the right hemisphere, while the analytical, rational

mind is associated with the left. For true understanding and spiritual growth

what is important is the bringing together of these two modes of knowing. The

point is sometimes made that in the Hebrew right-brain activity was dominant

while the Greeks developed predominantly left-brain thinking, but now they come

together in the Christian mystical tradition.

 

Starting from his understanding of the transcendent Godhead above thought and

essence, Origen develops an interesting concept of the Trinity. For him God the

Father is God in his own right. He is 'ho theos'. In Greek 'theos' is God and

normally it has an article with it, so 'ho theos' is the usual way of referring

to God. In the New Testament God the Father is always known as 'ho theos', God,

but in the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel, the Son, the Word or 'logos', is

called 'theos', without the article and this makes a subtle distinction. (P.234)

Origen makes much of that distinction, since for him the Father is God in his

own right, the absolute Godhead, whereas the Son is an emanation from the

Godhead, and he speaks of the Son as the first-born of all creation, using the

language of St Paul. [4] The Son, as we saw in the previous chapter, is the

mediator between God and man, and the first-born of creation. But Origen also

says that he dwelt with God and is God, 'theos', and is the archetype of all

mankind and of the whole creation. This is very profound. The 'logos' is with

God and is God in a real sense but is not 'the' God, the source, the origin.

Rather he comes forth from the Godhead as God and is the archetype of all

creation, the mediator between God and man and the first-born of creation. This

subordinationist trend in Origen gives the impression that the Son is lower than

the Father and subordinate to the Father, a view rejected by later theology.

Although an element of subordinationism is certainly there in Origen, it is only

a tendency rather than his full doctrine.

 

For Origen, beneath the Godhead, the Father, and beneath the 'logos' there is

the world of spirits, and in his thinking there was an earlier creation which

was a spiritual creation. He believed that there was in the beginning a

spiritual creation of angels and of human beings in an original unity, and this

for Origen and his followers was the origin of the universe. Then by a rather

curious view, which we would not accept today, Origen held that human beings

received their bodies on account of a fall. Having fallen from their spiritual

nature they were given physical bodies and from then on they had to work out

their destiny through the body. This was another of Origen's teachings that was

not accepted in later Christian tradition, but for him the human person falls,

as it were, into matter and then has to work out his or her salvation through

this material world, gradually rising above it and returning to the source, to

the Father.

 

Origen has also a profound conception of the world as a spiritual being. (P.235)

He speaks of this world as an " immense, gigantic world which should be regarded

as one being, kept alive by God's power and the 'logos', as a single soul. " This

is particularly remarkable today because increasingly we are coming to

understand that the entire universe is an integrated whole. It is one being

where everything is interrelated, from the electrons to the furthest stars in

the galaxies, and where intelligence or consciousness is present in some way

from the beginning. There is a total integration, a total unity. As David Bohm

expresses it, all things were originally implicated or enfolded in one and they

become explicated or unfolded in the universe as we know it. So Origen, and the

ancient world generally, had this vision of a world which is one being, kept

alive by the power of God and the 'logos' or wisdom of God, as a single soul, a

single living entity. Teilhard de Chardin in our day has done much to recover

this vision of the universe.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and Christian Faith)

Chapter 11, P.232-235

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

 

Notes:

 

[3] An excellent account of Origen's teaching is to be found in J. Danielou's

'Origen' (Sheed and Ward, 1955).

 

[4] Colossians 1:15