My Life- My Thoughts but Gods Glory
Contents:
Was anyone emotionally moved? Such are the questions that arise in a family where the patriarch has been involved in music ministry for over forty years. Of course, we all know or at least we should know that worship is meant to be an all-of-life response to who God is for us in Christ Romans The same can be said of our leading. Leading worship starts and ends with the way I live my life, not what I do on a public platform.
Encouraging others to glory in Jesus Christ is an activity that extends far beyond the twenty to thirty minutes I give to it on Sunday mornings. Most weeks I spend about six hours planning and rehearsing for the Sunday gathering. Some leaders I know invest even more time.
All those hours of planning, preparation, and practice are meant to be worship too. Jesus is no less on his throne before the meeting as he is during the meeting. I can glorify God by serving band members when I communicate with them in a timely fashion. I can do all my preparation with faith and joy, knowing that the Holy Spirit is just as present with me before the meeting as he will be when we gather.
The impressions left by these three writers are less clear than the stories and accounts we have been dealing with, perhaps because of the distorting effects of second-hand reporting, time especially in Philoxenus' case , hostility and confusion on the part of the reporters, and a body of by now more or less traditional materials [], but the notes of a "composite godhead", forms of light, and, not least, the chariot and heavenly ascent remain.
Thus, in turning to Diadochus, we find ourselves on familiar ground. This, he states, does not happen in the present life, and. Trust in such apparitions involves the soul in deadly perils []. Do then what des Places calls, in reference to these forms of light and fire, "classically Messalian traits" [], "become for Diadochus purely a metaphor" []? I, for one, am not willing to go so far. First, the "traits" against which Diadochus is warning are hardly confined to "Messalians".
If anything, the latter seem to have a good deal more in common on this score with the "anthropomorphism" we have been tracing than has hitherto been noticed, and it might therefore be more useful to categorize them - to the extent, of course, that they did in fact constitute a distinct group or movement - as one particular instance of a larger, underlying tradition, or complex of traditions, a kind of substratum which appears to have been practically coterminous with the geographical spread of Christianity itself by the late fourth and early fifth centuries.
The fact that our attention is drawn to this layer of popular belief, particularly among the ascetics, in the period under discussion does not necessarily signify that it originated then. Quite to the contrary, I think we can safely assume that it had been around for a very long time. The disturbance which forced this substratum more or less simultaneously into view at many different points of the Christian compass was the great seismic shift of the Nicene homoousion , not so much as enunciated at Nicea itself, since that council had only begun the process, but in particular following the acceptance of its definition as the faith of the ecumene under Theodosius I.
The old Logos Christology had had after all to be junked, how much the more so this archaic complex, with its God of "separable parts"? In fact, I would hazard a guess that the old Alexandrian Christology of Clement and Origen, following Philo's speculations on the Logos, may well have itself been, in part at least, an adjustment of this archaic stratum to sensiblities refined by the requirements of later Platonism.
The reception of Nicea simply brought that process of adjustment to a conclusion, and did so universally. Secondly, regarding Diadochus himself, who can fairly represent for us what occurs in such slightly earlier writers as Evagrius, Cassian, the author of the Macarian Homilies , and any number of other ascetic writers throughout the Christian East, including Ammonas, several of the Fathers of the Apophthegmata, and the Liber Graduum itself, the focus on the visio Dei shifts from the "outer man" of the physical senses to the "inner man" of the spiritual [].
Here Origen had certainly blazed a trail [], but the process is occurring in other writers of our period who did not necessarily have any direct acquaintance with the great Alexandrian's theology, people such as Ephrem of Nisibis or, again, the Liber []. Yet to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the individual writer, all the old terms remain: Furthermore, this shift of the primary locus of the visio , which could look to precedents within the New Testament itself [], did not entail any supposition that the experience to be obtained within was any less real, for all its change of venue.
Des Places is perfectly happy to acknowledge the experiential force of Diadochus' "certain ineffable perceptions" by which Christ "reveals his presence to the heart" [], and likewise notes the Bishop of Photiki's language of ascent and rapture []. But light, fire, and glory also have a place in the latter's account of the experience of God, and that place, I submit, is quite real, not just a metaphor.
Evagrius on the "light of the Holy Trinity", for example, is a perhaps a bit tentative, but the Macarian Homilies are not tenative at all, nor, really, is Cassian []. Neither, I think, is Diadochus. He makes use of these key terms several times in the course of his Chapters. In the same Chp. The "light of the soul" is glimpsed in the "treasury of the heart" [], and likewise we struggle and pray in order to have:.
This is not, to be sure, a physical light, nor an exterior one, nor is it seen by the eyes of the body, but it still sounds real enough to me. As with Cassian, this light is not just to be identified with some feature of the soul, but with divinitas , and, as with Gregory of Nyssa, it is here equated with the Spirit. Thus I do not think it a metaphor when, early in the Chapters , Diadochus reprises the old theme we have been tracing: There is more, however, to Diadochus than his Chapters. In his little treatise, The Vision , he takes on explicitly the matter of God's self-manifestation in the scriptures, and the theme thus of the divine Glory [a].
Early in the work he addresses the Spirit's appearance as a dove at Christ's baptism. The questioner, Diadochus himself in this piece, asks what the form, eidos , of that manifestation meant. The reply, placed in the mouth of John the Baptist, appears to make a remarkable distinction, quite different, I think, than what we found in Augustine:.
I suppose some might argue that this is roughly the same as Augustine's solution. No one of the Persons is mentioned specifically as appearing, save the Spirit in the instance of the baptism. It is God who acts, presumably the whole Trinity, and he does not reveal his nature, but his will.
On the other hand, Diadochus says nothing about the resulting "form" being a created effect. It is rather the operation or action of the divine will itself which appears as the Glory in a form. The saints of Israel saw God himself, in other words, but God as distinct from his hidden nature or substance. While Diadochus' language is more refined, I take him to be in the same territory as Epiphanius' agreement with the Audians that God does appear when and as he wills.
This more refined version is also, of course, remarkably like the fourteenth century distinction Gregory Palamas draws between the divine essence and actions, energeiai , and, as with Palamas, it, too, is offered in order to allow for the possiblility of the vision of light or the Glory, of the radiance of God himself, without at the same time compromising the divine transcendence [].
This concludes the evidence that I have so far gathered about the anthropomorphite controversy and its results. It is first of all clear that "Egyptian" anthropomorphism was neither confined to a few naive peasants in that country's desert hermitages, nor indeed to Egypt itself. We have discovered in Epiphanius' Audians, in Syria's and Diadochus' "Messalians", in the interlopers troubling Cyril's Palestinian correspondents, and in Augustine's anthropomorphites traits and concerns which appear to be substantially identical.
Put broadly and a little loosely, the phenomenon appears at different points from the Atlas range to the Zagros, and from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf.
When Is My Child Mature Enough to Leave Home?
If the Nicene confession brought this huge mass into view, then the answers which these controversies -- or, rather, this single controversy -- provoked have continued to shape Christian life and spirituality to the present. I say answers in the plural quite deliberately. The East, on the one hand, had fundamentally one dominant reply. The hope of the visio Dei , even in this life, the experience of light or glory, was preserved, save that now the vision becomes an event within the soul, while the Glory, in its turn, loses its occasional specificity as a proper name for the Son in order to become instead the radiance of the Triune God, imparted to the believer in the Holy Spirit through the deified flesh of Christ.
In the West, on the other hand, things work out a little differently. Cassian, certainly, heads off to Gaul carrying the reply just sketched, but another, much louder and more powerful voice had spoken to the issue as well. Augustine allows the theophanies no true appearance of God at all. The vision of God is the vision of the substance of the indivisible Trinity, of the substance which is Trinity, and that vision, so far as I can tell - with two possibly significant exceptions in his corpus - is restricted to the eschaton []. To say the least, this had to have complicated matters considerably, and I leave it to experts in Augustine, Cassian's heirs, and Western spirituality generally the task of describing how this difference has played itself out in Latin Christian spirituality -- or, perhaps better -- spiritualities.
What does seem to me clear is that there was a difference, and that this difference must have had its effects, but with this issue we really end up squarely in the middle of late twentieth century Christian dialogue, which I will happiliy defer to other people at other times and places.
It is time for me instead to ask about this hitherto hidden layer of Christian faith, associated particularly with Christian ascetics, that we have found attracting the attention and ire of so many distinguished bishops and spiritual writers in the late fourth and early fifth centuries. Where did this talk of the Glory, of the form of God and of man, of fire and light and ascents to heaven, of angelic fellowship, or transformation into angels, and, not least, of fiery chariots and thrones come from?
It is obviously rooted in the theophanies of Exodus, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, as well as elsewhere in the Old Testament, but what is it that carries us from the pre-exilic temple of Isaiah's vision, or from the exile and early second temple theology of the kavod YHWH native to Ezekiel and the "priestly" source [], to use the language of Wellhausen, up to the late second temple and early Christianity?
From Ezekiel to the early Church is a gap of six hundred years. What bridges that gap? It is the dream ascent of Daniel 7 ff. Together with the other theophanies, this text has turned up at several points in our investigation, and we have had the added hints of Abba Ammonas' citation of the Ascension of Isaiah , Abba Sopatros' warning against "apocryphal literature", and the interests of Cyril's Palestinian interlocutors in the fallen "Watchers" prominent in I Enoch, not to mention, more remotely, Cassian's reference to "Jewish weakness".
We are in the world of apocalyptic literature, whose importance for the nascence of Christianity has long been recognized [], and whose significance for earliest Christian asceticism, the ambient in which we have found most of our "anthropomorphites" [], has been pointed out more recently []. Many of the better known features of the apocalyptic genre, including the background in oppression of or party strife among Jews, the elaborate symbolism, the use of distinguished figures from the scriptural past for contemporary messages, the preoccupation with the imminent end of the reign of evil, the sharp distinctions between good and evil, light and dark, features which include several of the elements bearing on the origins of Jewish and Christian asceticism, do not particularly concern us here, but rather certain other characteristics of this literature which have been much less remarked upon until quite recently.
These elements include precisely those ideas we have been running across consistently: At this point, and for what follows, I must acknowledge my own scholarly deficiencies. I do not have the vast array of ancient languages needed to probe all the texts in the original or, more often, in the surviving translations , nor am I intimately familiar with the great majority of Old Testament and New Testament pseudepigrapha even in the English language versions provided by the collections edited by Charles, Sparks, Schneemelcher and Charlesworth [], let alone the huge body of rabbinica.
These desiderata must await another day. I might add the names of Ithmar Gruenwald, David Halperin, and Joseph Dan on merkabah mysticism, Gary Anderson and Jacob Neusner on rabbinic traditions, together with David Winston and David Runia on Philo [], but the contributions of this second group will not feature prominently in what follows. Most of the first group, save Scholem and Quispel, have published only relatively recently, and, because their works do not date back much more than two decades, their views have not yet had all the impact which I think they deserve.
So let me testify now that I could not have picked up from the "anthropomorphites" the different themes mentioned just above, nor have seen the unity underlying their several manifestations, had I not been introduced to Scholem by my former teaching assitant now professor in her own right , Rebecca Moore, and to Quispel, Fossum, and Segal by my colleague and friend, Michel Barnes.
It is Scholem who began the process. The second chapter of his epochal study, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism , supplemented later on by Jewish Mysticism, Merkabah Mysticism, and the Talmudic Tradition and The Origins of Kabbalah , describes his foundational discoveries. Seeking the ancestry of medieval kabbalah , he was led to find it in the hekhalot texts of the "descenders of the merkabah ", mystical documents purporting to show the way to ascent through the angelic hierarchies, or heavens, to the chariot throne, hence merkabah , of the Glory of the Presence.
These texts had been thought very late, and it was Scholem who successfully demonstrated their essential antiquity, and who further linked them with the earlier literature of apocalyptic and, back still farther if only glancingly, with Ezekiel's vision itself []. In the process of tracing this trajectory, he touches significantly on parallel developments -- or, better, a parallel stream of the same tradition -- in early Christianity, most notably St.
Paul's ascent in 2 Cor. One element in Scholem's analysis of particular importance to us is the notion of the body of God's kabod , an idea especially to the fore in a sixth century merkabah text called the Shi'ur Qomah "the measurement of the body". Although this particular piece is obviously late, he provided convincing arguments for the great antiquity of the idea it expresses: In , Giles Quispel took up the connection between the body of the Glory seen on the chariot throne by Ezekiel, and early Christian tradition in an article for Vigiliae Christianae.
He begins by relating Ezekiel's vision of the brilliant form to the eschatological hope voiced by Is.
In the articles's second half, he turns to St. Paul and, in particular, the following texts: With regard to our subject today, his remarks on the passage from Phillipians are perhaps most to the point: Christ as originally "in the form [ morphe ] of God For man is made after the eikon of God and is therefore a faint copy of the divine morphe , demuth " []. It is difficult not to recall Apa Aphou's dismay at the Patriarch Theophilus' letter which, as we recall, "sought to exalt the Glory of God" by denying the image, and now perhaps easier to understand the soothing force of the Patriarch's reply to the crowd of angry monks: Quispel's article was brief and limited in its documentation.
Three longer articles appeared over the next three years, however, which filled in a great deal of detail: All three articles, particularly Stroumsa's second, "On the Form s of God", and Fossum's, support Quispel and Scholem before at the same time as they deepen and extend the range of texts. Here I would like to draw attention to two of Stroumsa's observations as throwing a certain light on that pair of Augustine's remarks which I underlined above, the "contraction and expansion" of the Word in de trinitate II.
In "Form s of God", Stroumsa sets out his view that the kenosis of Phil. When Christ was in the 'form of God', his cosmic body filled the whole world This sounds to me quite a bit like modo se contrahet, modo distendet. Regarding "separable parts and places", Stroumsa remarks, in the course of his article for Revue biblique, that "the concept of the form of God Lastly, quoting Scholem in Major Trends , he notes the "'belief in a fundamental distinction [in the Shi'ur Qomah texts] between the appearance of God the Creator, the Demiurge This would seem to fit in with an understanding of the Second Person as manifestation of the hidden Father, that is, the Son as the glorious form who is both revealed in heaven on the throne, to the saints of the Old Testament, and finally and radically, leaving the heavens temporarilily kenous , in the Incarnation, thus separable parts and, at least for purposes of theophany here below, separate places.
In two mutually supporting monographs, The Name of God and Two Powers in Heaven , Fossum and Alan Segal, respectively, pursue the distinction between the manifest Creator and the hidden God, a distinction based on the Glory tradition, into the origins of Gnosticism, where they discover a surprising coherence, or at least continuity []. The prevelance of just these themes of Glory, Form, Power, and primal Man, together with the notes of ascent and transformation, in the materials discovered at Nag Hammadi, brings me back to that suggestion I made above concerning reasons why Pachomian monks might have been interested in those documents.
On the basis of the visions we noted in the Bohairic Life , I think it safe to say that they were curious about a number of the same things as are discussed in the "gnostic" texts. Not all of the latter are classically gnostic in any case, that is, posit the dualism between evil demiurge and good God. The Gospel of Thomas comes to mind particularly in this connection as less about metaphysics than as a document advocating asceticism, and it had certainly been around for some time in Egypt [].
Its own possible links with the merkabah tradition and mystical ascent to the Presence, very recently explored by April de Conick [], lend additional weight to the thought that it may well have been deemed quite appropriate for monastic reading, as appears clearly to have been the case in the Syrian literature of the Liber Graduum and Macarian Homilies , where Thomas was freely read and cited []. It is also easier to understand what Pachomius may have greatly disliked about the platonist spiritualizing of an Origen, who in addition had directed some very sharp remarks -- the ancestor of Cassian's and Evagrius' criticisms of anthropomorphism, or forms, in prayer -- against the very set of concepts we have been discussing here [].
The "mythical" using this adjective with all due care world of the visions recounted in the Coptic Life , drawn straight from the language of apocalyptic, did not sit comfortably with an intellectual universe which understood biblical images as metaphors.
Abba Sopatros' warning rings true, as does a certain cause for Athanasius' decree against undesirable literature in the monasteries. The matter of visions leads me to the mystical aspect of the ancient documents and its relation to that expectation of the vision of God which we found among the monks. Quispel's article begins with a reference to the fourteenth century Athonite controversy over the "light of Tabor" []. While he does not explain his reasons for this historical reminiscence, he does go on to describe Ezekiel's vision as not only of the glorious form, but of light, and the latter seems to have been a great preoccupation of our ascetic combatants as well, whichever side of the fray they supported [].
Thirty years ago Scholem spoke of the Shi'ur Qomah "as the deepest chapter [of divinity] opened to the Merkabah mystic for his inspection" [], and Fossum observes, twenty years later, regarding the first century text of 2 Enoch 13, that, although "the idea of the unbelievably vast measurements of the Lord purports that God really is immeasurable, still, and this is the paradox of this kind of mysticism, the visionary actually is able to behold the divine body in ecstasy" [].
Segal pursues this idea into the writings of St. Paul in his recent book, Paul the Convert , seeking to find in the Apostle an undeniably first century witness to the roots of Merkabah traditions in later rabbinic literature. He thus reads the account of Saul's vision of light in Acts 9 and 22 as precisely an example of merkabah mysticism, and argues that this insight provides invaluable background for properly assessing Paul's understanding of Christ: Moreover, comparing the transformation into angelic status experienced by Enoch in I Enoch 71 with Paul on the experience of Christ in 2 Cor.
Of this transformation, "the Holy Spirit Glory and light thus, the link between the divine body, Christ, and the imago Dei in the human being, together with the assumption that the vision of this splendor is available for some believers even in this life [], and in fact carries with it on occasion certain transformative effects, however temporary short of the eschaton: It certainly recalls the stories, to recall but one example, of Silvanus' glowing face and ascent to heaven.
What I found truly remarkable in Segal's account, and I think perhaps even corroborative of his reading of Paul, was his utter unawareness that the themes he sketches as central for the Apostle continued in the Christian ascetic tradition, particularly in the East []. For our purposes here, though, it is the specific issue of Paul's understanding of the glorious body of Christ in his divinity, as linked simultaneously to Gen. Could it be, I wonder, that poor Abba Serapion, weeping uncontrollably at vespers, had actually been closer to the Apostle's own thinking on these matters than that learned deacon whose sophisticated arguments had just overwhelmed him?
That would be wonderful irony, indeed. In any event, I think we have gotten a lot closer to the linkage between the imago and the visio Dei , and the understanding regarding that relationship, which underlay the Anthropomorphite Controversy, than postulating it as either a conflict between simple rustics and philosophical sophisticates, or else as an Origenist plot fabricated in order to discredit the more conventionally "orthodox" monks. There is one more set of ideas discussed by these recent scholars that I should like to touch on before concluding this essay.
In every one of the instances of "anthropomorphism" so far encountered, with the possible exception of Augustine's targets but note the addressee of Ep. The issues of vision and eschatological transformation appear thus as linked to the sources and continuing practice of Chrisitan asceticism, not merely in the fourth century and subsequently, but long before []. Here, too, recent scholarship contributes a number of illuminating connections.
Against the background of these two works, particularly Himmelfarb's, details from the stories of the Apophthegmata and Historia Monachorum , to name but two, take on a surprising familiarity: Himmelfarb begins her book with a passage from 2 Enoch Her summary of this picture is her thesis: She goes on to develop this argument, particularly in her opening two chapters. In the first chapter [] she traces the shift from pre-exilic notions of God's presence in the temple to the adjustments required by the Babylonians' destruction of Solomon's shrine, adjustments apparent in the two different adaptations to the situation represented, on the one hand, by the Deuteronomist cf.
Ezekiel she reads as the basis for the singular development of the earliest apocalypse and template for the rest, I Enoch the "Book of the Watchers" , with its transposition to heaven of the earthly temple and transformation of the earthly priesthood into the angelic ministers, a transposition featuring a number of interesting details such as, most notable for our purposes, the shining vesture of the glorious figure on the throne and of his heavenly clergy as based on the linen vestments prescribed in Lev.
She can then move, in her second chapter, to a discussion of the apocalyptic motif of heavenly ascent as signifying participation in the angelic priesthood: Here we might recall Abba Mark the Egyptian's description of the robe of fire enveloping the celebrating priest, cited above, together with the several accounts of transformation we have run across.
Not only do the shining faces, etc. The white-robed monks of the Historia Monachorum are surely in accord with this apocalyptic theme as well []. Abba Silvanus' ascent to the Glory features him "standing", estamen , before the Presence. Here, too, precisely in the use of that verb, "standing", we may detect an echo of the same idea. As April de Conick remarks, in connection with logia 23 and 16 of Thomas , "'standing' is associated with angelic behavior This, for Thomas , comprises the great calling of the monachos , the ascetic single one, and that association between the ascetic and "standing" before the Glory is thus a notion that not only goes back into apocalyptic, but carries on in the monastic literature, as in the case of Silvanus, and, perhaps most strikingly, in the ascetic tradition of Syrian Christianity, both before the arrival of Egyptian monastic patterns in the ancient local institution of the bnai qeiama [], and forward as well in compositions as varied as the Syriac Life of Symeon Stylites and the Corpus Areopagiticum [].
The ascetic struggles, in short, to become an "equal of the angels", isaggelos , and this desire is again fully in accord with the other elements we have been sketching. We can, indeed, pick up the early resonances of this idea in the Gospels, particularly in the Lucan variant of Christ's reply to the Sadduccees on the resurrection Lk. It is an idea thus coeval with Christian asceticism, and the latter in turn coeval with Christianity itself. The ascetic seeks at once to imitate and to become a participant of Christ, a beholder of the Glory who is Christ, and thereby an equal and concelebrant of the angels, transformed through his or her recovery through Christ, the second and archtypal Adam, of the radiant splendor of the imago.
Abbas Serapion and Aphou, together with Epiphanius' Audians and, quite possibly, the anthropomorphites of Numidia and the "Messalians" of Mesopotamia, were, I believe, all representatives of these ancient currents. But then, so, too, was their "opposition", as represented by Evagrius, Cassian, the Macarian homilist, Diadochus, Ammonas, and indeed Antony himself [].
This brings me to my concluding remarks. In support of his argument against genuine anthropomorphism among the fourth century monks of Egypt, Graham Gould cites a very interesting text at the end of his article, a manuscript edited and published by J. Guy in , and entitled "Un entretien monastique sur la contemplation" [].
The text is late, being dated by both Guy and Gould to the latter half of the sixth century and as probably of Palestinian provenance. It is nonetheless of interest to this inquiry, and I shall take the liberty of translating the relevant section from pp. The "Conversation" is composed as a series of questions and answers:.
What ought such a person [a monk at prayer] do to attend to comtemplation? This [depicting] holds for the present, just as the prophets reported seeing [God], and [for when] the perfect [vision] itself comes, as the. The text then goes on to speak of that perfection of thought as a present possiblity []. As Guy points out, the "then" of this passage has a double sense [].
It is not merely eschatological, in the sense of referring only to the life to come, but looks as well toward possible perfecting of the nous here below, toward a parresia in this life. Like a prisoner released from captivity no longer wishes to go back to the dark, the "Conversation" continues, so the intellect, on arriving at the point where it can see its own "ray", pheggos , has also arrived at the condition where it can remain "on high" [].
The visio Dei is thus a present possibility toward which the Old Testament experiences point. Gould does not stress the last part, but takes this text's use of the theophanies as signaling the absence of anthropomorphism as "a living reality to be combatted" []. He is certainly correct to see this little work as significant. For one thing, it touches on what are doubtless the four most important theophany texts that we have run across.
But he is wrong, I think, simply to project the Entretien back into late fourth century Egypt and elsewhere. This little piece bears, among other things, the distinct mark of Evagrius, down to the use of pheggos for the light of the intellect []. So far as I can tell, what this text in fact signals is rather the general acceptance of what people like Evagrius, the Macarian homilist, Ammonas, etc.
Now, as we have just seen with the Old Testament theophany texts, it is also a general rule of theology or spirituality, according to a friend of mine, that whenever a hitherto traditional element is rejected at some stage of later thought, it rarely disappears altogether, but tends to find a way back, albeit returning in a manner consonant with the adjusted intellectual terrain. The outward visions an Evagrius or a Diadochus so deplore never vanish entirely, and even these writers' careful excision of horatos, with reference to divine manifestation in this life, does not remain absolute [], but the general principles they established do abide.
Christ and his light are henceforth to be sought first and foremost within the intellect or heart, and one is to find him by living out the virtues, acquiring humility, long-suffering, etc. Everything changes, yet everything is still present -- ascent, vision, angelic likeness -- in the liturgy of the heart become heaven [].
Regarding interiorization, it is also true that the fourth and fifth century opponents of "anthropomorphism", as I have sketched the latter, had precedents of their own, not only in the great Alexandrian tradition of Philo, Clement, and Origen who themselves, likely as not, were in part responding to aspects of the kabod traditions [] , but in the New Testament itself. One can point, for example, to texts like I Cor. These texts appear with great frequency in the ascetic literature I have been discussing []. Interiorization was no new thing, nor was caution against seeing God in a human form, thus for example Dt.
What interests me, though, and what prompts this essay is at once the universalization of what I just called an "interiorized apocalyptic", and the continuity which this process also sought to ensure. Giles Quispel began his article on Ezk. I hope that what I have discussed in these pages helps point the way toward understanding how the Christian tradition, particularly the Eastern Christian tradition, both Greek and others Syrian, Copt, Armenian, etc.
For it was Nicea, I am convinced, or rather the general reception of Nicea following the Council of Constantinople in , and the latter's enforcement by Theodosius I, which necessitated this empire-wide adaptation. The Second Person could no longer serve as, in esse , the hypostatic form of the Father's immanence or manifestation, anymore or, in fact, less than he could continue to act as the subordinate Logos, if he were at the same time to be confessed as of one being with the Father, coeternal and coequal.
Worship Is My Life, Not My Role
Nicea required that the Second Person make his own the Father's hidden divinity. God, as Augustine -- or, for that matter and so far as I gather, Arius himself -- insisted, could have no "parts", a higher and a lower, a hidden and a manifest, or, worse, a greater and a lesser. What we then see in the Egyptian controversy is what we also find at several other points in the Christian world around AD: Athanasius orders the removal of the apocryphal literature Abba Sopatros warns against and that we found Abba Ammonas using , and the Pachomian communities comply -- hence the Nag Hammadi trove [a]?
More openly, Theophilus pontificates on the imago , and the monks of Scete and elsewhere rise up in a protest fated ultimately to fail. To be sure, as the monks' doomed resistance indicates, this universalization of Nicea required the reconfiguration of certain cherished and ancient ideas, demanding in our particular case the identification of the "glory" and "majesty" of the godhead with the esse of divinity or, the will, as in Diadochus? The "form" and "body" of God do remain the exclusive prerogative of the Son, but are firmly reserved for his historical manifestation as Mary's Son [].
Yet, as I noted just above, the old language never disappears entirely. Witness the Eastern and some Western monks' continued fascination with both the Apocryphal Acts of the Apostles and the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, an interest which carries on throughout the Byzantine era and, in places such as Russia and especially Ethiopia, right into modern times [].
And, too, as Quispel alluded to so briefly, the vision of the maiestas divinitatis retained a central place in Eastern Christian spirituality. These two survivals are clearly related to each other. Apocalyptic preached that some, be it only a very few, had seen the "Great Glory". Paul claimed the same incarnate in Jesus of Nazareth, and further held that in him, "in the body of his glory" Phil. More than anything else, I believe, it is this idea which lies at the root of the later Eastern Christian insistence on theosis as key to the divine economy and the Christian hope.
Yes, certainly, Nicea entailed a "sea change" in the believers' conceptual furniture, and this change entailed a lot of grief, not least the rumblings of that widespread controversy whose echoes appear in the texts discussed above. Yet I would also insist that the fundamental emphasis lived on through, on the one hand, the dogmatic adjustments made by such as Athanasius and the Cappadocians, and, on the other hand, and quite as importantly, the interiorized spirituality of such as Evagrius, Cassian, and the Macarian homilist.
Mamas in Constantinople, New Rome, at the turn of the second millenium. In his tenth Ethical Discourse , Symeon both echoes the language of our controversy and proclaims its results. That visitation of Christ which comes to the sanctified believer, he tells us:. John Cassian, Collatio X , in Collationes , ed. John Cassian, The Conferences , tr. For example, Sozomen C; ET on the monk's exegesis: This is also the usual view of most scholars, as in, for example, the remarks of J.
McGuckin, in a passing observation concerning the letters of Theophilus' nephew, Cyril of Alexandria, writing some thirty years later to Egyptian monks troubled by persistent anthropomorphites: His letter also discusses the problem of Messalians in the monasteries We shall see that "Messalians" were perhaps not unrelated to the issue see discussion below and n. The letters that McGuckin cites were edited by L. Wickham, Cyril of Alexandria: Select Letters , Oxford: Wickham is in harmony with McGuckin's assessment, but, oncemore, we shall see that Cyril was quite possibly facing something quite like what we shall cover below.
Stroumsa, "The Incorporeality of God: Context and Implications of Origen's Position", Religion The remark in question comes, almost offhand, at the articles conclusion They are considered to have been primitive fellahin Further research, however, might investigate the possibility that they rather were, like the above-mentioned Palestinian rabbis, the bearers of mystical conceptions of God's morphe. For Cassian, supra n. The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis , tr. For Apa Aphou, see E. Drioton, "La discussion d'un moine anthropomorphite audien avec le patriarche Theophile d'Alexandrie", Revue de l'orient chretien 20 and For Evagrius' system generally, see A.
For the texts particularly relevant to our discussion, see first De Oratione and , Greek text under the name of Nilus in Philokalia ton hieron neptikon Athens, 3rd rep: Ware, Sherrard, Palmer, et alia London: For comment, see A. Guillaumont, "La vision de l'intellect par lui-meme dans la mystique evagrienne", in Melanges de l'Universite St.
Evagre le Pontique" in Aux origines du monachisme chretien Bellefontaine: Golitzin, Et Introibo ad Altare Dei: Stewart, John Cassian , esp. I am most grateful to Dom Columba for having had the kindness to provide me with a manuscript copy and see n. For discussion of Evagrius on the visio Dei , see below, note Hmm, yes, I prefer to be unemployed so that I can go with dirty clothes, empty stomach, broken shoes and without medication. Do not tell me that GOD is with me all the time. He was not there when I needed Him. Plans for our lives He says!?!?!
Are you kidding me. Do not quote scripture about His plans. I know the Word but it was never real to me. How can it be real when death is all around. How can it be real when, when you call out He ignores you? I can go on and on, but I live in the real world. The church has become a financial institution and politically correct. Sermons are spoken about what people want to hear and not need to hear.
I agree with some of your thoughts Dimitri. Humble,Serve, give, put people first, selfless acts, taken abuse from people in my inner circle. I know this guy who called me complaining about being at a VIP event and nobody noticing him. I would act like I belong there at that event! God has alot of people spoiled. Strip them of the house money and success.
And yes I have listen to mega church preachers because I figured they would guide me. But I got guided right into the valley instead of following my instinct. Because there are alot of idiots who are getting them. Along with favor and success! God is letting them mess up, screw up along the way. That would be very nice to have success and God allow me to mess up along the way.
And learn as I go. It makes you frustrated and question God. Trump, the corrupt greedy bankers, judges, The 1 percent ,and corrupt government people should be in the valley rock bottom. Not good people who are trying to do right by this crazy world. I think the wealthy hide there money in these churche banks. And pay the pastors to watch over it. It sounds like you know what it feels like to be misunderstood, rejected, lied too and discouraged by religion or people. How awful must it feel to patiently wait, suffer and try your hardest for something and never see it go your way.
That same dissapointmemt you feel from him is what he feels also when he looks around at everything going on, except he trusts you enough to finally see that through your circumstances and be the person you believed he called you to be. Just a suggestion, try praying from that perspective if you still pray and see what happens. I almost given up.. I frequently ask myself…why is it that I have to experience countless rejections?
Then in July I started to focus on something else, tried to learn some new things, busied myself learning , studying on my own.. And at last just this October one bright idea past my mind and out of nowhere I have created an accounting program which eventually turned out to be in-demand in most of the businesses in our country. Now things are getting clearer, and blessings keep on unfolding one after the other..
It was a miracle how in the world I have created a software without an exceptional skills in programming. I know for sure that He helped me. Prayers and faith can save lives, keep on praying and believing, I will pray for you Dimitri and Jimmy H.
Worship Is My Life, Not My Role | Desiring God
May the good Lord show you the way as He shown me mine. In fact, there is a stone right at your feet. Why not command that stone to become a loaf of bread? The point is, Satan hit Jesus with this temptation at the precise moment that Jesus was hungry. He bides his time until you are vulnerable, and then he moves in with his subtle suggestion of evil. I know how you feel brother but God is not the one to blame.
So personally the only time we are ever going to be truly happy is when we go Home to Heaven. As Christians our hope is in Christ and eternity in His arms. I go to sleep every night for almost 50 years dreaming of HOME. Please, anyone that reads this…my note on my devotional today says to pray for a man living in Florida who is lonely and in debt. Thanks to all, and again…. Dimitri, I am available to talk or just lend a sympathetic ear whenever you need to.
My email is Email removed. Dmitri, I came across this site an comments because I am going through a really tough time. My whole life I have been through many tragedies. Some were my fault and some were out of my control. I can feel your pain in the comments you have written and does seem like you have been through alot in your life.
To me it sounds like you have gone to churches looking for answers and all they have done is let you down. I have not only been studying the bible but also history that pertains to the things I have read in the bible. God has opened my eyes in a way I am not sure I have words for. But what I see is the lies and manipulation and how things have come to be the way it is in our generation.
What we are witnessing is a prime example of when Jesus turned over the money changers tables. Go back and read every time Jesus rebuked the pharisees, you can actually see it is just like in our time. Leaven of the pharisees! It has manifested even deeper in our time. Tithing had nothing to do with money, it was about food! God does not care about money, it is man made. What do you suppose was meant when Jesus said give to Caesar what is Caesars but give to God what is Gods? God does not want your money. Yes money can help those who really need it but it is not what God is talking about or Jesus.
These churches have fallen apostate just like the scriptures said it would. Churches are now organizations, not bibically inspired. Revelation says to Come out of her. Church is about people, not a building. Church can be exactly where you are and all around you. Not the opinions of others with some biblical degree. You have to change your mind and heart and persevere.
Every trial is for a reason and it is to teach you something. God does not cause evil to come upon you, we do by allowing sin to manifest in our lives. You have to let go of yourself and let God bless you. It is far deeper than worldly things. I pray you will be okay and will find the true Creator that the world has tried to destroy.
Let Him in and He will show you but you have to look with your heart instead of your eyes…. Dmitri God loves you and we all wonder why things happen or why He allows for things to hurt others. Understand that He is love and no matter how we see things we cannot comprehend why, in our earthly mind set. Yes God could stop it but would that be true free will? If you could message me at -http: I know the world is a scary place. I feel sick when I read the news, but it shows me how far people have come from God. I love this part of the article above: I still stand in the way at times when I let my selfishness get in the way, but before I allowed the spirit to work within me, I was so much less caring and more selfish.
I blamed others for unhappiness. I think differently now. I hear the plight of people hurting around the world and I want to help. There are bad Evangelists and there are bad in every group, but there are good ones too. Ones that are making a difference around the world for starving people and people living empty lives surrounded by abundance.
I find so many things to be thankful for when I am seeking God with my whole heart. I do pray that you would let the Holy Spirit work in your life too. I think that is the essence of Ephesians 3: I will have compassion over you and tell you that everyone has a dream from God, not matter how bad our lives are or been, God sees everyone through the heart. He weighs everyone through their thoughts, their motives, what they say and what they do.
I can admit that there are self-righteous Christians and sometimes they misrepresent Christ wrongfully but even Jesus corrects His people through love and never would he want you or anyone to perish. Yes, they hurt you and maybe they tried to put themselves at a high level and take the glory, but God sees everything. He sees all who have done His will accordingly and were lead by the Holy Spirit to correct and edify the church. I left and I found people who did encourage me and love the way that God intended to love me, and I cried and I lost a part of who I was, I even got yelled out by my own pastor for leaving and God revealed to me that it was necessary for me to leave.
He wants everyone to repent. He never has the intention of everyone to perish in hell. By repenting, you let go of the hatred and hurt, the resentment and pain, and at the same time, Christ has a way of restoring you in a way you have never though. You gotta leave that pain and gain a better way of thinking because God loves you still, He loves everyone, and yes I can admit that there are counterfeit Christians, those who assume they take the glory or have the power but God has the ultimate judgement and if you allow Him to touch you, He can heal your heart.
You need to love your enemies You need to seek for the things above earthly matters You need to find peace in your heart. I will tell you something, God is angry at His people too but He is giving everyone a chance to repent before it is too late. I have to at least preach to them and let them know that there is a God that loves you and all he wants is your heart, but to repent. Repent from self-righteousness and pride. For those of you Trying to not loose hope, look up Isaiah Those who are so deep in sin, remember Psalm Everyday of my existence god is trying to take me out he wants you dead sso you can be in heaven with him he feels lie you have fufilled your duty.
So you have a crappy life and just when it gets good hes like forget you im gonna make your life miserable until your as miserable as me. I just want to say……. So, I lost my home due to foreclosure. My then boyfriend suggested I move in with him. A few months later he proposed. A month after I found out he was cheating, I left but eventually came back. Things got better I thought. He owned a cleaning company so I quit my job to help him with that. I found out he was cheating again. So, I was completely dependant on him financially. Because I thought what I was doing was right. Sometimes my kids go hungry because my mother is on a fixed income and I have no income.
So, everyday I cry. I just fell in love with the wrong person and now my children are suffering. How do I just not give up? How do I keep going? I catch the bus then wait hours for it to show back up. In certain areas the bus only runs a couple times in the morning and a couple times in the afternoon. My children are great kids. Both get wonderful grades. In after school activities. I volunteered my time in exchange for payments. Knowing that my kids are suffering because of me. I just want to be happy. I just want them to be happy.
Why is that so wrong? What did I do for GOD to turn his back on me and my family? Alexis, I just read your comment after doing a search. I wish there was more I could do or say. Please read Psalm Do you go to a good evangelical Bible based church? My hope is that you can find one and seek their help. However, I have not lost my house yet. I really want you to know that there are people of God out there who will care and comfort you and your girls.
God can never turn His back on anyone—it just seems like that sometimes. My mother and the church family prays for me. But, I still feel alone and lost. Thank you for your reply. Just reading your words brought tears to my eyes. I went to two job interviews today. One is pretty much mine once the background check comes back.
My email address is Email Removed … If you would like to get in touch with me. Thank you for listening. But how often do we get what we want? I could really care less. Seeing all of your stories is painful. Go for your dreams if you still have them! What bothers me is the lack of help or silence. I trust God, but how long? Is there a goal or purpose? Or maybe people are when they tell you to trust God, when in fact you have a life to live as well.
But, last night my youth pastor was talking about pride. Your only making it worse God. I will be praying for you, and everyone else who is struggling. Because he will never leave you!!!! So I quit my government contractor job of 23 yrs and abruptly move. Now here we are in this new city, it took time to get used to the slow paced life being so I was born and raised in fast life metro city of DC. So later I said to myself I have to understand this new city slow life and become adjust to iy and I figure it out and said I will accept thia citu paid raise.
But while living DC i could never get a supervisor or assistant management job. Either folks sneak behind my back and tell them bad things about so they can get the job or it mysteriously disappear and even my co workers were rooting for me to get. I had dealt with music and done all the behind scene work for others artists and ingnore my our music work just so I can help them out, and get nothing in return. My wife suggested that why I need to leave my circumstances life and a new. Now fast forward to new life in Queen City. I had found a overnight job that will pay me lityle bit above their paid raise but it was a catch to it.
Soon became a wear and tear to me starting sleeping behind the wheel while driving or at work and my parenting. My wife did everything she can to help. Since then I have been to several interviews and won them over BUT mysteriously the job not available or all of sudden I need a associated degree for any office work. Yes I have great time to spend with family and even got more of my music work done that I have been putting off. But job seem to just disappear from me. For example today date I came back from an interview for a print job position based on my resume and they told me they have got a print job that can pay more then I did in DC and come in so we can talk about it.
But when I arrived mysteriously again the job offer have been suspended or whatever. All I have is 58 cent in my checking accouny.. Now i have questioning is God mad at me, what am I doing wrong.. Why constantly people lie to me about being great but Im constantly feel like a loser and etc. I need an advice…what can I do.. Sorry to respond so late, but it sounds to me God is planning something for you. Jesus is planning to give you an even better job and circumstance. He wants to help you; He loves you more than you could ever know.
Release all the worry and trouble you have inside, He is here for you. It will all come to pass and your music and your job situation, will be alright. My has been a stormy season for me. Last year, I met a man of God who made a difference — a man who made me see a different side of life. A man who saw me as how God sees me. A man who has given me the courage to believe in myself and to fight for my dreams. We both meant well and did our best to make things work. None of us wanted to hurt anyone anyway. And it was indeed painful — no, it was excruciating.
And I have never been that broken before. Months passed and i now started to wonder if i really meant something to him. I am trying my best to keep going but everytime I do, things would then blow harder and make me take a step back again. As if a broken heart is not enough, financial struggles also came. Aside from that, God has also encouraged me to rebuild a long lost dream, a dream of studying in the premier state university in our country.
It was a dream that seemed impossible for me but God kept leading me to try, and I did. So I did my best. Almost everything in my life right now is breaking my heart to pieces. I started to wonder if faith can really move mountains. I have a friend who has the gift of having visions and dreams.
I was trying to take steps to the other side, but the wind going to the opposite side was so strong that my effort of moving forward seemed useless and the wind was destroying everything around me. In that dream, my friend was standing from afar, he was standing on a rock that looked like ivory, and a man on a brown cap was standing behind him. My friend was looking at me as i try to cross the bridge.
I started crying and he heard it resound so loudly. I am constantly trying my best, to keep walking, to keep moving forward, even if some days all i can do is crawl. There were nights when I would get angry at God and speak honestly to Him, but the next day or a few days later, I would just find myself coming to Him again. Mich, you have the strength of a true warrior. The strength that any christian would beg for.
But maybe you were right, your trying to reach the other side, but ask yourself, are you trying to do it in your own strength???? Right now Mich, your going through what some would call a refining period in life. When that happens, God is trying you and perfecting you. In this period of your life, God is trying to either get your focus on him, or on others. In other words, off yourself and your own problems. But always remember, He knows the situation, everything about it.
He knows everything about you. He knows how much pressure you can take, how many times around this pressure, and how much heat you can stand. I will be praying for you, but let God know! Once upon a time I thought I new what God was doing in my life. I can no longer say that. All I can say is that God has literally turned my life upside down and I have no idea why or what to do. The more I pray the worse things get. The more I trust God for good things the more bad things come my way. There was a breech in the relationship. I prayed for God to help restore and heal the relationship.
He did not and led me to end it. Even though I did not want the relationship to end I obeyed because any relationship that I would put before my relationship with God would be doomed anyway. God reads hearts so I know he knows what is best for me no matter how I feel. After the engagement ended God told me not to even contact my ex to be friends.
I obeyed and moved on. I lost weight, got new hobbies and drew closer to God through study and prayer. Yet 8 months later my ex reenters the picture. Why would God let this man come back? The more I ignore him the more he contacts me. This makes no sense to me. I became angry at God about this. Why let this man back into my life when it was so hard to let him go and get over him? God made that clear to me. So, what is God up to? So now the Lord has begun to put it in my heart and on my spirit that it is time to move from the city where live.
I knew it was time and that I need a new start somewhere else. Well I began to pray and ask the Lord to show me where I should move. All sings and leadings are pointing to the city, 8 hours away, where my ex resides. I think once again this is Satan or my subconscious still trying to work up a way to be near my ex. So, I ignore all these promptings to check things out in that city. The jobs are much higher paying there but so is the cost of living. So, I do that. I sometimes listen to random ministries online. I wonder where this ministry is located.
So, I immediately stop listening. I go to the library and the librarian tells me about this great new true story mystery novel arriving soon. I place a hold for it. I read the jacket and set it aside for later. I get all cozy and crack open the book and start to read. Guess where the mystery is centered: My sister buys me chocolate as a gift. I open the package and the name of he chocolate company is named after THAT city. I could go one like this for quite some time. You get the picture.
Is God really telling me to pick up my life and move to a huge crime ridden city where my ex lives and if he is WHY? I liked that ministry but not enough to want to move there. I looked into cities on the opposite coast and started lifting them up in prayer to God. He breaks in my thoughts or someone does with THAT city. On another front, at the same time, I was unemployed for almost three years.
I wanted to work in the IT field and had no background to do so. God gets me into IT! There is no reason I should be in this job other than God put me here. I know that for a fact. I made a huge splash by quickly becoming the highest performer. I am not bragging. I was literally an accidental success. The only thing I will say is that God always reminded me at every new job to work unto all thing as though working unto the Lord. I wanted to do well and I wanted to honor God by not cheating my employer by working hard and trying to do a good job.
Well then I got attacked by people who started saying I was cheating. One of my coworkers posted a nasty message about me on a work related website and has recruited a bunch of her friends at work to constantly nit pick me. Now this same girl is having her family and friends call our work and ask for me and pretend to be customers. I start to help them and they call me names, hang up, etc. My supervisor is aware of it and tries to help but it continues. He spread it all over to the whole company and now people make fun of me.
Plus my ex lives there now. Please pray for me. It might dispel some doubts you have about God or it might not. Either way, I hope it helps. God never said no to your prayer to heal and restore your relationship — this is how He has chosen to do it. By allowing all that your relationship was to be destroyed, He was able to work on both of you in order to make that relationship what He wanted it to be.
He may now be calling you to step back into it. The two of you can get to know each other all over again, with the right mindset this time. God does that sort of thing all the time. I could offer many examples, but just consider His call to Jonah. Jonah really, really did not want to go to Nineva to preach repentance. God wanted him to do exactly that thing.
The thing to take back to God in prayer at this point is whether or not He is calling you to build a new relationship with your ex after all. If He is pushing you as hard as you say He is, and potentially moving your ex as well, it is entirely reasonable that He is guiding and calling you. God has given us the Holy Spirit as a guide and a comforter.
In this way, you cannot be misled by deviant activity trying to pull you back into a possibly toxic relationship — I dont know the dynamic of yours. First and foremost, though, the decider would be whether or not your ex is a Christian…not by birth, but by rebirth, and whether he is a faithfull servant of God. If he is not, it is not of God. I know it has been hard. Most of us on here have a story. You are set for great things in what God is entrusting and building up in you. Even now, in your discouragement, you are an encouragement — already being used by Him.
Stay strong, my sister. GOD would never ever make you be with someone that your heart does not love. Just stick close to god..
God is preparing you for great things
HE is making you into an overcomer!!! I felt the need to reply to you because your story reminded me so much of me. Without trying to be harsh or critical, the only thing I can say to you is have Faith.. He wants us to surrender to him. My point of pain and frustration was so deep that it took me to a level I had never been before.
He will bring us to the brink of feeling like there is nothing left in order for us to give up our independence and to rely completely in him. God may be simply using him as a tool to lead you to your destination of greater joy. I have learned to accept anything that comes my way. Pain, suffering, back stabbing, criticism, all of it, are simply tests of our faith. His way and no other way. Many prayers for you..
I try to turn to our Lord before making decisions and reciting and remembering Proverbs 3: However if this passage does not touch your heart then I recommend turning to the Word of God to find your answer. As followers of Jesus Christ the road is not easy. Let God guide you and forgive which is very hard to do sometime.