Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Present by Andrew Louth

Author:Andrew Louth [Louth, Andrew]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2015-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Schmemann’s attitude to, his distaste for, monasticism was something that seems to have characterized at least part of the Russian diaspora. But there is something more. Schmemann is important for the way in which liturgical piety came to be understood in the Orthodox world in the twentieth century (I have put that carefully; I am not convinced that liturgical piety was something discovered, or even invented, by the Russian émigrés; it was, however, something they emphasized). And this manifestation of liturgical piety saw the encounter between God and man in Christ as taking place par excellence in the Eucharist, the Divine Liturgy. Such an emphasis almost inevitably carries with it a mistrust of individual piety, understood as individualistic piety. This seems to me a great mistake, but there is plenty of evidence that it has become widespread among Orthodox Christians who see eucharistic participation as the pre-eminent way in which we engage with the truth: other examples we shall encounter include Metropolitan John of Pergamon (John Zizioulas) and Christos Yannaras. It seems to me important to hold together the ascetic piety of the Philokalia and the liturgical piety focused on eucharistic participation.42 There is no necessary opposition, though sometimes we speak as if there were (for example, Jean-Claude Larchet cites a bishop who is said to have told a group of nuns: ‘The prayer that you make with your komvoskini when you are alone in your cells has no value; what has value is your being together in the church’43).

Finally, there is some kind of conflict between Schmemann’s emphasis on eschatology and the way in which monasticism, at its best, sees itself as preserving an eschatological dimension in relation to a Church that has reached some sort of compromise with the world; it is almost as if Schmemann feared that the very existence of monasticism might let the Church in the world off the hook, rather than being a constant, and often awkward, reminder of the Church’s true vocation.

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