The Challenge Hedone poses to 21st Century Orthodoxy
When I was at seminary, there were many people who questioned how I could possibly have such a strong aversion to certain elements of Greek culture while also claiming to maintain an Orthodox Christian viewpoint and desiring to one day become a priest in the GOA. “The two are inseparable,” I have often been told. “Whether you like it or not, you are a Greek and you are one of us – the church is inseparable from the culture that gave birth to it.”
My response to their objections have always begun simply, “The scriptures represent a culture all their own – the culture of the prospective Kingdom of God. In the face of all earthly wisdom, it establishes a universal monarchy of God-like generosity – an endless process of supplication and distribution of the love and grace of God throughout all of creation. There are aspects of Greek culture – in fact, every national culture – that are not compatible with the Kingdom of God. Were this not the case, the nation who followed the model would quickly become recognized as heaven on earth.”
The retort I usually receive is that “the Church created the scriptures” which generally is a card that they view as trump in the trick, taking all other arguments to task. The extended argument goes something like this: Since the church created the scriptures, whatever the church chooses to do cannot be corrected by the scriptures – and if the scriptures seem to say anything against what the church presently does, the church is always right. Some folks will go so far as to say that because the scriptures were written in Greek, this immunity from scriptural accountability applies to Greek culture as well.
Throughout the course of my scriptural studies I find more often than not, it is true – the fathers of the church tried as best as they could to preserve the teachings and lifestyle representative of the apostles. They didn’t ‘create the scriptures’ but they held on the essential teachings that brought about significant gains in the face of adversity during the first 200-300 years of Christianity.
As someone who was raised a bible believing Christian and who had what many would consider an exceptional scriptural upbringing, I have always taken to heart the essential purpose of my existence – not just mine but the purpose built into every human being’s anthropology by design. We are called at all points in life to receive the love of God and disburse it as life throughout creation. If a person would do nothing more than follow the commandment “Give Life” they would be blameless before God at any moment.
This sense of stewardship is uniquely Judaic, reflected in the opening chapters of Genesis and in the pages of many Jewish philosophers and theologians who understood that human beings, regardless of where they stand in the mix of things, are sentient of loss and death around them and are intrinsically bound to the balance of world and to the unknown. Rather than fear what is larger, these men and women approach the dark with a commanding spirit. They believed that in communing with the Other, to give is infinitely greater than to receive. Ultimately, to give an idol over to the abyss is to receive the touch of a true living and loving God in its place. That may mean yielding an expectation; halting a projection; turning aside from a false object of adoration… the contextual possibilities and applications are endless.
This attitude was one which St. Paul found to be most useful in the interpretation of Christ’s mission and the purpose of salvation for humanity, and yet in dealing with Gentile populations it was also the greatest struggle for him to fight – for whatever reason, the pursuit of hedone (pleasure, the root of hedonism) has always been a significant part of Hellenism. The possession of the perfect form – be it in art, music, body, or contemplative mind – and achievement of pleasure through material gratification and inner joy has always been expressed in terms of pursuit of what one desires. Even within our own United States constitution we preserve the right to the pursuit of happiness – we associate this with the benefits of living in a free democratic state – all of which are Hellenic ideals.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
© 2006 Jacob Gorny