Confession
13 August 2007 - 30 אב 5767 by Huw
I have trouble finding a creative tension between two things:
- The idea that the human supposed to pay attention to the “immortal things” because the flesh passes away.
and
- The idea that the human was created to be a Body-Spirit synergy that, while currently broken because of, is restored in Christ.
The former seems very Gnostic. The latter seems, somehow, more Christian.
The former leads to all kinds of ascetic wooji-wooji. The latter is the reason the best worship rites involve all the senses - singing, visual beauty…
The former is the reason that some services come close but stop short of involving real humans. The latter is why some rites involve laughter (not the charismatic “holy laughter”, thanks) and tears and dancing and drums and children making a lot of noise.
The former, while certainly “scriptural”, seems to have been more solidly woven into Christian theology from sometime after monasticism took over (ie the “imposition of the monastic typikon” as Schmemann says). The latter seems to have been the louder voice earlier.
I tend to excesses in both directions.
Back to working on balance.
I grew up with option 1, so now, I’m trying to grow into option 2. It’s not always easy that’s for sure!