Orthodox Tradition Magazine No. 3/2003

Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies

orthodox tradition

ORYODOJOS PARADOSIS

Volume XX Number 3 2003

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ORTHODOX TRADITION Published with the blessing of His Eminence, Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili _____________________________________________________________ Editor: Bishop Auxentios Volume XX (2003) Managing Editor: Archimandrite Akakios Number 3 Art and Design: Chrestos Spontylides ISSN 0742-4019 _____________________________________________________________

TABLE OF CONTENTS Staurolatry and Divinization A Homily on the Veneration of the Cross The Harry Potter Phenomenon Sts. Cyprian and Justina Synod News Two Prophecies About the Birth of Christ Book Reviews Excerpts from Flowers from the Desert Publications and a New Book from C.T.O.S.

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“The Old Calendar movement is neither a heresy nor a schism, and those who follow it are neither heretics nor schismatics, but are Orthodox Christians.” Archbishop Dorotheos of Athens (1956-57) State (New Calendar) Church of Greece _____________________________________

Orthodox Tradition is published three times yearly (winter, spring, and summer) by the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies. Postage paid at Etna, CA. Subscription is by voluntary donation. Suggested donations, to defer publication costs and postage, are as follows: $12 U.S., $15 Canada, and $25 foreign [via Air Mail]. Subscriptions are for one year, beginning in January. Subscriptions are accepted after January for the entire year only. Back issues are available solely by subscription and for the current year. Office of publication: St. Gregory Palamas Monastery, 1307 Sawyers Bar Rd., Etna, California. Address all inquiries to: C.T.O.S., P.O. Box 398, Etna, CA 96027 U.S.A.

Staurolatry (Stavroproskynesis) and Divinization (Theosis) The Image of Horizontality and Perpendicularity in Orthodox Hesychastic Thought Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna IN THE EASTERN CHRISTIAN TRADITION, theology can be described as a kind of conceptual palimpsest, arranged in layers of understanding that pass from the literal to the metaphorical to the noetic. This is not untrue of some Western Christian theological traditions, as well, and especially those which build on the non-Scholastic medieval mystics. However, in the West, where systematic theology and rationalism have played such an important role in religious thought, such traditions are more adventitious or eccentric than deliberate, as they are in the East. In this image of a palimpsest that I have attributed to Eastern Orthodox theology, the conceptual layers through which one moves in grasping the core of truth are not unrelated accretions of thoughts and ideas on separate planes; they do not divide the literal from the metaphorical from the theological and noetic. Rather, they integrate these three dimensions, deliberately moving thought through different layers of understanding and thus capturing the whole as a composite that no single layer is adequate to grasp, but _________ This article is taken from a lecture presented by His Eminence in Romania at the International Conference on the Symbolism of the Cardinal Points, held May 8 and 9, 2003, at the University of Bucharest and sponsored by the Center for the History of the Imaginary at the Faculty of History in Bucharest and the Centre du Recherche sur l’Imaginaire at the Université Stendhal de Grenoble, France. It will be published shortly in France in the “Proceedings” of the conference and will also appear next year, in Romanian, in a collection of essays honoring the sixtieth birthday of the acclaimed Romanian historian, Professor Lucian Boia. We wish to thank Dr. Simona Ioan of the University of Bucharest, one of the organizers of the conference, and Dr. Augustin Ioan of the Ion Mincu University of Architecture and Urbanism, in whose series on architectural space with the Romanian publishing house, Paideia Press, the Festschrift will appear, for permission to use this lecture prior to its formal publication.

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which also loses its integrity and internal unity, except in the case of direct spiritual epiphanies, if it is not formed in an ascendency from spiritual empiricism to spiritual theory (pneumatike theoria). It is within this theological tradition that I would like to make a few very basic but, I hope, thought-provoking comments about the four cardinal points, the theme of this fascinating conference, the Cross, and staurolatry (from the Greek “Stau[v]ros,” or “Cross,” and “latreia,” or “worship”); or, more precisely, in the Greek theological lexicon, sta(u)vroproskynesis (again, from the Greek word for “Cross” and the Greek word for “veneration”: “proskynesis”), since the Cross, in the Eastern Church, is not an object of worship, as the word “staurolatry” would suggest, but an object of veneration, as clearly indicated in the decrees of the Seventh Oecumenical Synod held in Nicaea in 787. Let me begin by saying that the Cross is assuredly venerated in the Eastern Church as a physical object. Though this fact is not directly related to the observations which I would like to make about its theological meaning and the notions of horizontality and perpendicularity, the Cross as a literal object is the first conceptual layer that we must consider in moving on to its metaphorical significance and its symbolism at a noetic level. As a physical object, a Cross is formed by the intersection of a horizontal and vertical line, corresponding roughly to the horizontal and perpendicular axes of the Cartesian coordinates. If inscribed in a square, the end-points of its arms form the four cardinal points, while the quadrants formed within the square define, among other things, the positive and negative values of the trigonometric functions. If two Crosses are made to intersect, their three-dimensional presentation entails all of the geographic cardinal points: North, South, East, West, Nadir, and Zenith. To understand the universality of the Cross in its metaphorical and noetic sense, we must first acknowledge that the Cross unites, for the Eastern Christian believer, all of these elements of empirical universality, reinforcing the notion that the physical Cross is more than an external symbol—more than an inscription—and reflective of cognitive markers which, even in primeval times, were imprinted on human consciousness: location, orientation, azimuth, and our very sense of space. It is not unusual, then, that the Cross is venerated, as it is, for its power and force as a literal physical object in Eastern Christianity. It behooves me to remark here that this notion of the literal power of the Cross, drawn, as I have said, from the cosmic significance of its very form, has played an important role in Christianity, beginning with the discovery of the True Cross by St. Helen, mother of St. Constantine the Emperor, in the early fourth century. In our contemporary sophistication, we scoff at the idea of a primal image, such as that of the True Cross, and dismiss it as the stuff of medieval ignorance. Indeed, skeptics have made universal the idea that, were all of the pieces

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of this putative True Cross to be collected together, they would form a Cross the height of a skyscraper. It has always been my observation that such professional skeptics come from among those too intelligent to be duped by intellectual legerdemain but not intelligent or perspicacious enough to understand that things are not “merely as they seem,” that empiricism has been abandoned by better science (one need only reflect on the ruminations of theoretical Physics, today, to aver this point), and that authenticity lies beyond the immediate and touches on what history, scientific intuition, spiritual revelation, and, in nuce, theory bring together (albeit sometimes tenuously and only in the form of compelling but ephemeral glances). As Einstein once commented to Heisenberg, in this vein, “It is the theory which determines what we observe.” Authenticity also lies beyond clichés of the kind that posit a great storehouse of relics of the Cross that has, in fact, never been measured and has never been examined, but belongs to the hyperbole of banal legends perpetuated by those who, unable to fathom the unfathomable, retreat into a literalism which is unreal, an historicism which is naive, and a simplistic empiricism that began to unravel in scientific thinking as early as the middle of the last century. Let us not, then, too hastily set aside the deep convictions of early Christians and contemporary Orthodox, imagining that their insight into, and convictions about, the power of the image of the Cross and the uniqueness of the True Cross are simply matters of superstition, ignorance, and fundamentalistic rhetoric. If we fall to such facile thinking, we fiercely distort one of the layers in the cognitive palimpsest which I am trying to describe. A Greek synecdoche for the Cross is “wood”: “to timion Xylon,” or literally, the “precious Wood” or “precious Tree.” Greek Patristic literature is replete with references to the “wood” or “tree” of the Cross, as are liturgical texts and Orthodox hymnography, all of this imagery deepening and unfolding the many ideational aspects of the veneration of the Cross as a theological metaphor. There are likewise innumerable similes found throughout Greek Patristic, liturgical, and hymnographic texts that focus on the symbolism of the Cross: it is likened to the human body, which, when the arms are held out, forms a Cross; to a staff; to a light in the darkness; to a weapon; to a fountain; and so on. The metaphorical dimensions of this imagery are brought together in the Tree: “to xylon tes gnoseos,” or the Tree of knowledge, the Tree of Salvation, the Tree of Life, etc. Applying the tropes and similes used by the Greek Fathers in describing the role of wood or the tree in capturing the primary cosmological events in human history, we can observe that Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit of a fig tree in Paradise and lost the image of Divinity in which they were created. (Let me note just incidentally, here, that the consensus of the Greek Patristic tradition is that the tree from which

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Adam and Eve ate was not an apple tree, but a fig tree, as evidenced by the fact that they fashioned clothing from its leaves to cover their nakedness). By the same token, by the Tree of the Cross, humans were restored to their former perfection in the sacrifice of Christ. In the Canon of the Orthodox Matins Service for the third Sunday of Great Lent, which is dedicated to the veneration of the Cross, we read several verses that illustrate this closing of the circle from the Lapsus to human restoration in the Wood or Tree of the Cross: first, the Cross is called, in one verse, “Divine Wood, ...shining on the four corners of the earth” (a rather striking reference to the cardinal points that are the focus of this conference); and then we read the affirmation that, “I died through a tree, but I have found in thee [the Cross] a Tree of Life.” Moving beyond metaphorical imagery to the metaphors of theology, we see in the very structure of the Cross a theological model of the intersection of the Divine and the human that is at the core of the Christian notion of the reconciliation of fallen man and God, of sin and perfection, of the earthly and the Heavenly. In the horizontality of one bar of the Cross, representing the human and the mundane, we capture the story of history—indeed of salvation history, or the finite linear history of events and epochs caught in time and bound by the antipodes of creation and the Parousia or birth and dissolution. In the perpendicularity of the intersecting bar of the Cross, we see captured the Divine, the ethereal, the infinite, and that which extends beyond the antipodes of creation and dissolution to the timeless and immutable. And in the intersection of one axis with the other, we see an interaction between the Divine and the human, between the horizontal and the perpendicular, and between the finite and the infinite. This intersection and this integration (if I may use the latter word in a general way and without the necessary Christological and soteriological qualifications that accrue to an accurate understanding of how the Divine and the human are related) are reflected in the nature of Christ, the Theanthropos, or the God-Man, Who is both perfect God and perfect Man; in the humanity of man and the image of Divinity dwelling within him; in the meeting of Heaven and earth which constitutes the substance and language of liturgical worship; and, indeed, in the sacred space of sacred places in the profane space of mundane places. In every sense, the transcendence of dualism and the language of the reconciliation of the imperfect with perfection, the illness of sin with the salutary state of redemption, and time and space with eternity and the boundless are contained in the image of the Cross and the intersection of the horizontality of the finite with the perpendicularity of the infinite. If metaphorical theology uses simile and symbol to approach the ineffable, there is a deeper kind of theology that rises above

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metaphorical knowledge and touches on noetic understanding. This theology is, in many ways, encompassing and integrative, in that it brings to bear Christian theology, anthropology, soteriology, and cosmology on the very question of the structure of existence and being. In this realm, too, the symbol and metaphor of the Cross, raised to a new level of spiritual experience, serves as a didactic tool and universal cognitive key or marker. The noetic aspects of theology in the Eastern Church were fully developed in the fourteenth century by the Hesychasts, whose theological discourses—often, at least in the past, considered by polemical or biased Western theologians to be innovative or to represent an abrupt change in Orthodox theological methodology—are, in fact, a synthesis of the consensio Patrum, the phronema (or mind) of the Greek Fathers, and the ethos and consciousness of an unbroken chain of spiritual development reaching back to the Early Church. These discourses are a simple recapitulation and more systematic explication of the empirical theological traditions of the Orthodox Church—of that “theology of facts,” as one early Church Father put it, that expresses the experience of the spiritual precepts that, though originally common to the Christian East and West, have been primarily and uniquely passed down unchanged in the hiera paradosis, or “sacred Tradition,” of the Eastern Church. The theological vision of the Greek Fathers and of the Early Christian Church differs substantially with regard to the precepts of original sin, redemptive sacrifice, human expiation, Purgatorial purification, and the merits of eternal salvation or eternal punishment for good or evil behaviors that—however simplistic this laconic summary—lie at the core of much Western Christian theological thought. In the anthropology and cosmology of the Greek Fathers, man, because of the Lapsus, suffers under an ancestral curse, having become spiritually and psychically ill. In the soteriology of these Fathers, the Incarnation of Christ, in which human flesh was deified by God’s assumption thereof, represents a restoration of the Divine image in man, marred and darkened by the illness of sin, and his participation once more in Divinity; in the words of the Second Epistle of St. Peter, “having escaped corruption” through Christ, human beings have become once more “partakers of the Divine nature” (1:4) As an aphorism repeated in almost identical form by a number of the earliest Church Fathers so aptly describes this soteriological process, “Christ became man that man might become Divine.” The restoration of man by Christ’s transformation of the human potential, endowing mankind with the possibility of Divinity, recasts the Western notion of salvific expiation in new (albeit the most ancient) terms, equating salvation with photismos, or enlightenment, the cure of an ancestral psychic curse or illness, and theosis or divinization. Indeed, this process of restoring the body, the senses, the mind, the soul, and the whole of the

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human being, not just to their pre-Lapsarian status in Paradise, but even to a greater glory, is, in the words of the great Greek theologian, St. Maximos the Confessor, who flourished in the seventh century, a restructuring of the human being in essential unity with the universe. It is the very reconciliation of all that man and nature are (their logoi, as the Saint expresses it) with the Logos of God, Christ. Finite man, participating in the Divinity afforded by the Incarnation of Christ, becomes a partaker in the Infinite, this very goal being the purpose and meaning of all ecclesiastical, mysteriological, and confessional elements in the Christian Church. As we said above, the symbol of the Cross and the integration, intersection, and the encounter of humanity and Divinity that its horizontal and vertical components represent give us a perfect vision of the God-Man Christ and, we might add, a physical image of the intervention of the infinite into the finite at the point where horizontality and perpendicularity meet, which point contains within itself the properties and qualities of both lines: a perfect intersection between the finite and infinite, the Divine and human, and, thus, not only a Type of the Person of Christ, but of the substance of salvation as we described it above in the anthropological, soteriological, and cosmological context of the Eastern tradition. Moreover, the symbol of the Cross also helps us to understand a basic element of Hesychastic teaching; that is, that in assuming Divinity, human beings do not abrogate the transcendence of God and make mere man God Himself, but, rather, participate in the Energies of God without assuming His Essence. This may at first, at least to those whose philosophies are deliberately anthropocentric, seem to be a meaningless issue. It is not, since God, as Being, is all that is and, as all that lies beyond what is, is also Non-Being. (Parenthetically, as I often point out to my students, the affirmation of the non-existence of God by doctrinaire atheists is, ironically enough, in proper Orthodox theology an affirmation of God in His non-being.) In His Essence, then, God is beyond existence, beyond created beings, and beyond that which created, existent beings become when they participate in His Divinity. The very Identity of God rests in our inability to circumscribe that Identity, thus making it necessary to stipulate that God, as we grasp Him in the infinite verticality of one component of the Cross, does not, when He enters into finite human existence, which we in turn represent along the horizontal component of the Cross, relinquish His Essence in extending, by His Energies, the antipodes of existence (life and death) into eternity. The integrity of horizontality and perpendicularity remain fully intact in this symbol, just as their perfect point of intersection brings together the quality of both without violating the peculiarity of either and the transcendence of verticality. Though in strict theology, the axes of the Cross do not represent

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equal and conceptually isomorphic elements, but are separated, among many other things, by the Essence-Energy distinction which I have only briefly and inadequately described here, they are a perfect didactic model by which to grasp a basic understanding of the notion of theosis, or human deification, Incarnational theology, the subtle relationship between the finite and the infinite, the dimensions of humanity and Divinity, and the transformation of the horizontality of human life by its intersection with the perpendicularity of the Divine. Hence, the universalism of the Cross, its veneration in the Eastern Church, and its elevation and exaltation not only in simile and metaphor, but as a noetic expression of human existence and the Divine Economy.

A Homily on the Veneration of the Precious and Life-Giving Cross Saint Theodore the Studite* IT IS A DAY OF REJOICING AND GLADNESS, for the ensign of joy is present; let there be a chorus of praise and thanksgiving, for the all-holy wood is displayed. O most precious gift! O how beautiful to behold! Its appearance is not an admixture of good and evil, as with the tree of old in Eden, but it is all comely and beautiful, both to see and to partake of. For, it is a Tree that brings life, not death, illumining, not darkening, admitting us to Eden, not banishing us thence. It is that Tree which Christ mounted, as a king mounts a four-horse chariot, and then destroyed the Devil, who had dominion over death, thereby freeing the human race from bondage to the tyrant. It is that Tree whereon the Master, like a champion wounded in battle, in the hands, the feet, and the side of His Divine Body, healed our nature, wounded by the wicked serpent, of the weals of sin; and, if I may cite a hymn, it is that Tree from which the blood of the Master flowed, emitting invincible power, whereby the demons are burned and the world is enlightened. Who, henceforth, will not run to gaze upon this much-desired spectacle? Who will not desire to embrace this Divinely-woven wreath? Come, gather together, all tribes and tongues, every nation and every generation, every rank and every status, whether Priestly or royal, whether ruling or ruled. Since this Feast has been enacted by God, it seems to me that the Angels are attending the celebration with exceeding joy, the Apostles are joining chorus with one accord, as are the assembly of Prophets, the throng of Martyrs, and the company of all the righteous. For, how could they, who are crowned with celestial glory, not make glad with us at the manifestation of that trophy by which, in imitation of Christ, they prevailed over the adverse powers? It seems to me that insentient things are perhaps rejoicing with us, too: I refer to the earth, which brought forth such a fruit, like a mother from her womb; all the trees of the forest, as being honored by having the same name;1 the ever-shining sun, the most luminescent moon, the gleaming stars, the great and complex Heaven itself; because, through Christ’s Passion on the Cross, all change is for the better. Let David, therefore, strike his spiritual harp and chant those

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strains most suitable for the occasion: “Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship the footstool of His feet; for He is holy.”2 With him let Solomon, who is unsurpassed in wisdom, chant: “Bless ye the Wood whereby salvation cometh.”3 For this reason, the Church is seen today as another Paradise, bringing forth the Tree of Life in her midst,4 wherein there is no deceitful demon leading Eve astray, but an Angel of the All-Sovereign Lord welcoming one who approaches. Today, the all-holy Cross is venerated and the glad tidings of the Resurrection of Christ are proclaimed. Today, the life-giving Tree is venerated and the whole world is revived to offer it praise. Today, the three-branched Cross is venerated and the four ends of the earth keep joyous festival. “How beautiful,” Scripture says, “are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.”5 But blessed also, I would say, are the eyes of those who see the trophy of universal peace, and blessed are the lips that kiss this most excellent sign. Abundant is the Grace that is set forth for all, ever-flowing is the fountain that pours forth sanctification, in no way repelling anyone from its plenteous goodness, but rather making yet purer him who is already cleansed, freeing him who is polluted from defilement, humbling him who is overly proud, arousing him who is slow of heart, tautening him who is slack, mollifying him who is inflexible, if each one approaches after pledging to amend his life, not drawing near to the things of God with audacity and arrogance, since the Cross is wont to accept the modest, but utterly to turn away those who behave otherwise. When we behold this life-giving Tree, it heals our sense of sight, which was beguiled in Paradise from looking at the enticing tree. When we touch this life-giving Tree with our lips and mouths, we are delivered from our tasting of the death-dealing tree. O the munificence that is set before us! O the thrice-blessed beatitude! Whereas of old we were slain through a tree, we have now found immortality in a Tree; before, we were deceived by a tree, but now we have repulsed the crafty serpent through a Tree. Wondrous is this exchange! Instead of death, life, instead of corruption, incorruption, instead of reproach, glory! Fittingly, therefore, did the Holy Apostle exclaim: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”6 For, that supremely wise wisdom that flowered from the Cross rendered foolish the boasting of worldly wisdom; the knowledge of every good thing that was borne as fruit on the Cross has excised the offshoots of evil. From the beginning of the world, prefigurations of this Tree have alone betokened most wondrous things. See, you who are eager to learn! Did not Noah, together with his sons and their wives, and animals of every kind, escape the destruction of the flood by Divine decree on a mere piece of wood?7 Did not

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Jacob place the rods which he had peeled in the hollows of the watering-troughs at the time when the sheep became pregnant, and lead them away to the admiration of all?8 What about Joseph’s staff, to the top of which the Patriarch Jacob did reverence:9 is it anything other than a symbol of the life-giving Wood that we now venerate? Again, what about the rod of Moses?10 Is it not a figure of the Cross? On the one hand, it transformed water into blood,11 and on the other hand, it devoured the serpents falsely so called of Pharaoh’s magicians;12 at one time, it divided the sea by a blow,13 at another time joining together the waters so that they returned to their normal state,14 drowning the foe and preserving the genuine people of God. Such also was the rod of Aaron, a type of the Cross, which budded on the same day and showed who the genuine priest was.15 I would have to go on at great length in order to bring together all the prefigurations of the Cross. Abraham prefigured the Cross when he bound the feet of Isaac, his son, and placed him upon pieces of wood;16 Jacob prefigured the Cross when, as he blessed the sons of Joseph, he stretched out his hands in the form of a Cross.17 Come, now, pray understand Moses himself as a figure of the Cross, for he vanquished Amalek by extending his hands.18 Think of Elissaios casting a stick down into water and drawing up iron from the depths.19 Many are the miracles of this figure, not only in the Old Testament, but also in the dispensation of Grace, in victories over barbarians, in putting demons to flight, in delivering from diseases, and in all the other cases too numerous to recall. Do you see what great power there is in the type of the Cross, my dear friend? If there is such great power in the type, how much must there be in the figure of the Crucified Christ. For, it is evident that the more excellent the prototypes are, the more excellent are the things derived from them. Now someone will say: “I desire to know who was shown to be a type of Christ in the foregoing examples.” Those, I respond, who prefigured the Cross. For, just as Moses’ outstretched hands were a figure of the Cross, so Moses himself prefigured the Crucified Christ, Who vanquished the invisible Amalek. The same assumption is to be made in the other examples, when the one figure is juxtaposed and shines forth with the other. “But in those cases the figure is animate,” he objects; “why are you speaking about an inanimate figure?” I do so because in the case of the figure of the Cross, too, where the object of sight, upon which and around which miracles occur, is inanimate, yet the Icon fashioned after the likeness of Christ, just like the cruciform Icon that is manifested together with it, is wont to work miracles among both animate and inanimate creatures, since it contains in itself both the appearance and the form of its archetype, and is identical to the latter as much in honor and veneration as it is in name; and this is altogether obvious. And although these comments

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might appear to be a digression, they nonetheless serve to disprove and refute the Iconoclast heresy, which overthrows the mystery of Christ’s œconomy. For, he who removes the image also removes the prototype, since, as any sensible person knows, image and prototype are reciprocal, that is, correlative concepts. We must now return to the Cross and revel, as it were, in the discourse of holy salutation. Cross, currency more valuable than any money; Cross, surest refuge of Christians; Cross, lightest burden of Christ’s Disciples; Cross, sweetest consolation of afflicted souls; Cross, unhindered guide on the path toward Heaven; Cross, length and breadth of the noetic sea monster,20 more comprehensive in its span; strength and might of the Cross, destruction of every adverse power; form and shape of the Cross, more elegant than all others to behold; radiance and effulgence of the Cross, more splendid than the sun; grace and glory of the Cross, gift more beautiful than all other graces; Cross, peace-bestowing conjoiner of Heaven and earth; name of the Cross, supreme sanctification when uttered by the tongue and heard in the ear. By the Cross death is put to death and Adam is restored to life. In the Cross every Apostle glories; by the Cross is every Martyr crowned and every Saint sanctified. By the Cross we put on Christ and put off the old man. By the Cross we sheep are gathered together and placed in the sheepfold on high. By the Cross we gore our enemies and exalt the horn of salvation; by the Cross we put the passions to flight and choose to live a life that transcends this world. He who carries the Cross on his shoulders becomes an imitator of Christ and is manifestly glorified with Christ. When an Angel sees the Cross, he is adorned; when the Devil sees it, he is put to shame; when the thief found the Cross, he entered into Paradise, exchanging brigandage for the Kingdom. When one simply makes the sign of the Cross, he dispels fear and receives peace in return; he who has the Cross as his guardian remains inviolate and is preserved unharmed; whoever loves the Cross hates the world and becomes a lover of Christ. O Cross, much-vaunted boast of Christians; O Cross of Christ, singular proclamation of the Apostles. O Cross of Christ, royal diadem of the Martyrs; O Cross of Christ, most precious ornament of the Prophets. O Cross of Christ, all-shining adornment of the ends of the earth; O Cross of Christ—for I converse with you as with something animate—, may you shelter those who fervently extol you in hymns, save those who embrace you with faith, maintain the obedient in peace and Orthodoxy, convey to all the joyous Resurrection of Christ, guarding both Hierarchs and kings, all monastics and lay people, in Christ Jesus our Lord, unto Whom be the glory and the dominion, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

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Notes 1. Cf. St. Theodore the Studite, Canon for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, Ode 9, Troparion 3 (The Lenten Triodion, tr. Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware [London: Faber and Faber, 1978], p. 345). 2. Psalm 98:5, Septuaginta. 3. Wisdom of Solomon 14:7. 4. Cf. St. Theodore, Canon for the Sunday of the Veneration of the Cross, Ode 5, Troparion 4 (The Lenten Triodion, p. 341). 5. Romans 10:15. 6. Galatians 6:14. 7. Genesis 7:1-24. 8. Genesis 30:37-43. 9. Genesis 47:31. 10. In this and the next two examples the wonder-working rod belonged to Aaron, not to Moses. 11. Exodus 7:19-20. 12. Exodus 7:12. 13. Exodus 14:21. 14. Exodus 14:27. 15. Numbers 17:8. 16. Genesis 22:9. 17. Genesis 48:14. 18. Exodus 17:11. 19. IV Kings 6:6. 20. This may be an allusion to Hades, which Christ destroyed through His Crucifixion and Resurrection. The Fathers understood the sea monster that swallowed the Prophet Jonah as a prefiguration of Hades. For example, in his Canon for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, St. Cosmas of Maïouma writes: “Jonah stretched forth his hands in the form of a Cross within the belly of the sea monster, plainly prefiguring the redeeming Passion. Cast out thence after three days, he foreshadowed the marvellous Resurrection of Christ our God, Who was crucified in the flesh and enlightened the world by His Rising on the third day” (Ode 6, Katavasia [The Festal Menaion, tr. Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber, 1969), pp. 147-148]). * The Greek text of this homily, translated into English, here, for the first time, is found in Patrologia Græca, Vol. XCIX, cols. 692B-700B.

The Harry Potter Phenomenon and Orthodox Reactions by Bishop Auxentios of Photiki THE ORTHODOX CHURCH, contrary to certain well-meaning but misguided efforts by the Faithful and some clergymen to prove otherwise, is not opposed to science, progress, or human intellectual development. Even a cursory survey of the writings of the Church Fathers— from St. Basil the Great to St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, to cite two notable examples—and those of our finest theologians lucidly demonstrates that the fear of secular knowledge, of the West, of science, and of secular intellectual trends is unknown to the Orthodox Church. St. Basil the Great instructs us to benefit from what is good even in pagan writers, while St. Nicodemos adapted more than one spiritual source of Western provenance to Orthodox usage. And the late and renowned Photios Kontoglou, a conservative and decidedly traditional Orthodox thinker, benefited from the writings of classical Greek philosophy and without reluctance fathomed the depths of such Western thinkers as Blaise Pascal. Anti-Western, anti-intellectual thinking is not part of the Patristic consensus, except as the Fathers approach the dogmatic deviations of Western Christianity. We must keep these notions in mind, as we confront technologies, ideologies, social thought, and intellectual trends formed in a changing world and in a secular context that sometimes challenges the immutable truths which shape our thinking and lives as Orthodox Christians. Unfortunately, there has developed in the Orthodox world, of late, a kind of conspiratorial sensitivity to anything new or anything which we do not readily understand, partly reinforced by the exploitation of certain personal opinions in Church literature that, however piously put forth by unquestionably holy individuals, are often not part of the consensus of the Fathers. Bar codes, computers, globalization, and humanistic thinking seem to create a spectre of ominous doom and apocalyptic darkness in the minds of many, today. Preoccupied by the bizarre and irrational bugaboos of unsophisticated American Protestant fundamentalists, some Orthodox writers in Greece and Eastern Europe have even translated and disseminated works of purely Protestant provenance—often based on questionable, if not wholly false, “scientific claims” by individuals whose credentials in the domain of science are

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either exaggerated or dubious—, touting as authoritative voices from the West works and ideas that are dismissed by thinking Americans as crank fluff. Propped up by naive ethnocentrism or xenophobic tendencies (the fear of Jewish conspiracies, Masonic plots, Vatican intrigue, etc.), a growing—and sometimes ugly and irrational—anti-Americanism and disdain for the West, as well as an apocalyptic frenzy of an almost hysterical sort, this kind of conspiratorial thinking has gained such ascendency in a large part of the traditional Orthodox world, that one is hard-pressed to focus the attention of the Faithful on the real and menacing threats that pose such a danger to the Orthodox Church: a degradation in spiritual life; social, political, and unprecedented moral decline in the Orthodox world; religious syncretism and the erosion of our Orthodox identity in the superficies of an ecumenism which, instead of spawning religious toleration and mutual understanding, has divided the Orthodox Church into warring factions; and, of course, a deviation from the sobriety of the ecclesiastical ethos so long preserved and protected by the Church Fathers. I do not, of course, deny that modern technology and intellectual trends can take a wrong turn, and even deliberately so. All things in science can be used and applied in a good or evil way. Thus, the same nuclear science that has led to the healing of disease and new sources of energy also once produced the horrors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. But whatever the potential for abuse may be, when we look at science from the perspective of its prudent and positive application, we must admit that computers, bar codes, televisions, modern advances in medicine, and technology in general have improved our lives in immeasurable ways. Indeed, to ignore the issue of the correct application of science and to imagine that all technological progress is malicious and that the Antichrist (an evil which has tempted and tortured mankind since the Fall) can be reduced to naive numerology, searching for the “Mark of the Beast” (which the Fathers of the Church more often than not left shrouded in mystery) in the simple number “666” and in hidden and clandestine form in bar codes, bars of soap, identity cards, phone cards, credit cards or any modern device—this is to reduce Orthodoxy to the level of sectarian pursuits and to let the psychological weaknesses of insecure believers sully the lofty and sublime teachings of the Church. It is the intellectual counterpart of placing a clove of garlic on an Icon, in order to “frighten away” vampires or the evil spirits that latex paints, a product of modern technology, might attract. Vigilance against evil and the spirit of Antichrist is not achieved in external and irrational fear and a constant search for plots, secret signs, and hidden meanings and symbols; it is to be found in internal watchfulness, in which Christ Himself guides us to “true wisdom,” as St. Nilos the Ascetic (a fifth-century Saint and disciple of St. John Chrysostomos) tells us. We must seek “in Christ” a sagacious spirit, prudence, discretion, deliberation, an understanding of the difference be-

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tween good and evil science and technology (evaluated on how their products and theories are used and applied), and insight into the subtlety with which evil attacks the world. A crude, irrational fear of progress and the forces of evil, disallowing for positive progress through the rational application of science and technology, does not prepare us to encounter and combat the wiles of fallen human nature and the clever deceptions of the Evil One; rather, it clouds our vision, distracts us from the true nature of evil, and makes us theological dullards. It is also true that globalization and the marring of natural distinctions between peoples can lead to the nightmare of universal social and political conformity and the diminution of individual rights. Humanistic thinking, by the same token, can so distort human nature and man’s dependence on God, that human beings, drunk with arrogance and selfreliance, run headlong into disaster and reject both the rôle of God in society and His indispensability in positive human achievement. However, mutual understanding, common human goals, and universalism, when placed in perspective and protected from abuse, can serve the most sacred of Christian goals.1 If we properly direct and form the aims and goals of globalization and humanism, bringing them into conformity with Christian thought and meeting the challenges which they pose to correct Christian apology, we can enlist them in our efforts to ____________ 1. Our failure, as Orthodox Christians, to understand the universal dimensions of our earthly mission has led us, as I argued above, into the ills of phyletism, ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and even Christian exclusivism (perhaps the most striking of all oxymorons). I will make my point vividly with the following anecdote: Several years ago, an Orthodox clergyman—an active ecumenist and a well-known theologian and representative of one of the so-called “official” Orthodox Churches (an appellation that has become popular among Orthodox and which, from a psychological standpoint alone, should cause alarm and misgivings immediately)—told a group of Greek students that the spread of Orthodoxy in the “Western world” was creating a diluted faith, bereft of the “blood cells” of “pure [i.e., ethnic—B.A.] Orthodox believers.” If this observation has any merit, it convicts “pure” or “official” Orthodoxy (which represents the majority of Faithful in the West) of irresponsibility in its missionary efforts. However, of greater concern is the solution which this clergyman proposed to this problem: A concentrated effort to increase the number of Orthodox in the homeland through large families; the maintenance of “pure Greek Orthodox blood lines”; and a conscious effort to “avoid the efforts of the ‘Masonic-Jewish’ forces of globalization and humanistic atheism in the West” (non-Western Israel was the designated chief culprit in this plot) to “extinguish the zeal of true believers.” What this says about the sincerity of the Orthodox ecumenists (who have drawn their putative “official status” from the ecumenical movement itself) is one thing. What it says about opposition to globalization and universalism, when we contrast it to the following words of our Lord Himself, is quite another: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit...” (St. Matthew 28:19).

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transform the world and save it from the very evils of phyletism, ethnocentricity and ethnic strife, selfishness, provincialism, war, and terror that global visionaries and humanists themselves would strive to confront but which, lacking transformation in Christ, they are not only unable to conquer, but often, with the best of intentions, turn into more hideous evils. In embracing universalism and humanism in a Christian context, we are carrying out the mandate of the Gospel, which calls us to see all men as our brothers and to transcend the selfishness of family, country, and kin; to focus on our Heavenly homeland and not the fleeting world of today; and to spread the message of Christianity across the whole globe, embracing others in unconditional love, which is the true mark of Christianity and the true Christian. Finally, I cannot deny that the Orthodox Church has suffered from the plots, assaults, and intrigues of hostile forces—sufferings often misunderstood or ignored by unfair and myopic Western historians and writers. If anti-Semitism has sadly and shamefully marred the Christian witness (both in the East and West) from early Christianity to modern days, there have also been reprehensible instances of anti-Christian violence among less-enlightened Jews (a fact to which more militant Zionism attests in our very days). Similarly, though the Orthodox are surely not without their faults in the mistreatment of Roman Catholics, the Fourth Crusade and the Uniate movement leave a huge and indelible black mark against the Vatican in its abuse of Orthodox believers. There is also no doubt that many organizations (such as the Masons) which are today—while incompatible with Orthodoxy, on account of their doctrines of religious syncretism and their maintenance of quasireligious rituals of highly questionable origin—largely benign social clubs and benevolent societies (in America, at least) were once deeply involved in activities inimical to, and frequently a direct threat against, the Orthodox Church, its ethos, and its activities. But to maintain, on the basis of often fanciful, deliberately-forged, and inane evidence that the historical rivals of Christianity are engaged in a relentless desire and immense common conspiracy to corrupt, harm, and denigrate the Orthodox Church in our days is to make a mockery of our Faith. With regard to the West and America specifically, neither the Western world nor America can claim to have treated the Orthodox world fairly at all times. Western European and American policy in Eastern Europe, the Balkans, Cyprus, and the Near East, the traditional centers of Orthodox Christianity, has not been without faults. American policy, for instance, has often been misguided and not always marked by pure motivations free of economic and political self-interest. But it is a great leap from these observations to an assumption that the West is somehow the enemy of Orthodoxy, thereby aligning the attitudes of traditional Orthodox populations with those of militant Islamic fundamentalists and terrorists, who witlessly call America the “Great Satan” and who have, ironically enough, inflicted their violence to some extent on

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almost every Orthodox land (indeed, the same kind of Islamic imperialists who, more than half a millennium ago, reached the gates of Vienna in Western Europe itself). America has its oil interests, as any objective observer will admit. Its Mid-East policy is not, in the opinion of many, a very balanced or prudent one. However, the same country that can be accused of these foibles in policy and aims also helped rebuild Europe after World War II. It gives hundreds of millions of dollars to the Moslem neighbors of Israel, has—whatever its policy towards oil— suffered at the hands of Islamic terrorism at the same time that it has tried to overthrow tyrannical régimes in the Moslem world (albeit some that it unwisely supported in the past), and cannot be faulted for its admission of past wrongs, such as racism and social inequities, which it has tried to address and to correct. To vilify the West for its faults, without acknowledging its good points, simply reinforces a provincialism in the Orthodox world that is unfair, unjustified, counter-productive, and even ungrateful, given that the West and America have made gargantuan efforts to aid the emerging countries of Eastern Europe. The resulting xenophobia once more obfuscates the spiritual splendor of the traditional Orthodox world and impedes the inimitable spiritual force of Orthodoxy in a century which was meant in every way to be its own. Into the intellectual, ecclesiastical, and cultural atmosphere which I have described—an Orthodoxy turned in on itself, beset by superstitious and silly provincialism and fundamentalistic preoccupations borrowed from outside sources, and possessed by a fear of technological progress and of intellectual trends that it views with xenophobic suspicion or in a spirit of anti-intellectual simplism—the advent of a series of children’s books, the Harry Potter series, written by a thirty-sevenyear-old single mother from Scotland, J.K. Rowling, has prompted an outcry of fear in Greece, Bulgaria, Russia, and in some Orthodox circles in Romania that has Westerners looking on in astonishment. In Western Europe and the United States, a few fundamentalistic groups have also condemned the Harry Potter series (now numbering five volumes) as a nefarious plot to poison Christian children with the evils of black magic. These stirrings in the West, however, have simply been dismissed as the typical anti-intellectual inanities of unthinking individuals. Unfortunately, this kind of ridicule has also been expressed by those Westerners who have studied the reactions to the Harry Potter series in Orthodox countries, since the rationale for the opposition in these countries seems to be precisely that of the fundamentalists in the West (from which that rationale is, in fact, borrowed). Typical of these Orthodox reactions to the Harry Potter books are several volumes published recently in Greece (see, for example, Na‹ ≥ OXI stÚ Xãri PÒter? [Yes or NO to Harry Potter?], by Ioannes Meliones [Athens: The Panhellenic Parents’ Union, 2002]; or MayÆmata Mag¤aw ka‹ SatanismoË épÚ tÚn Xãri PÒter [Lessons in Magic and Satanism from Harry Potter], by K.G. Papademetrakopoulos [Kantza:

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Photodotes, 2002]). In Greece, as in Bulgaria, Russia, and Romania, the Harry Potter phenomenon (dubbed “xaripoteroman¤a,” or “Harry Potter-mania” in Greece) is clearly seen, at some level, through the jaundiced eyes of xenophobia and a certain fear of what is “global.” Almost every critical article or book on the Harry Potter series in these countries emphasizes that these books are “foreign,” that they have been sold in many millions of copies in several hundred countries, that the series has been translated into almost fifty languages, and that it has won many literary prizes. Indeed, such statistics would normally constitute impressive accolades; but instead, as a young Romanian student of theology wrote to Archbishop Chrysostomos earlier this year, “...for the Orthodox world the popularness [sic] of these books is [a] sign of the coming end of the world, brought about by the transformation of our children into magicians by ‘practitioners’ of magic from [the] foreign lands of Antichrist and above all of them—forgive me—America.”2 It is often pointed out that the Harry Potter books, purportedly by the author’s own admission, contain genuine “magical incantations,” that they constitute an attempt to make a distinction between “black” and “white” magic (and thus in essence advocate magic), and that they are, as Mr. Meliones (vide supra) observes, “an irresistible [ékatamãxhto] weapon of the New Age of Aquarius in the proselytization of our children.”3 Despite these ill-founded xenophobic and perhaps hyperbolically fearful elements in their writings, I do not for a moment doubt the sincerity of many of those who have joined the crusade in Orthodox countries against the Harry Potter phenomenon. (Indeed, even the American fundamentalist Protestants whom they mimic, however naive and unfounded many of their accusations and fears, are not generally individuals of ill intention.) Mr. Meliones, for example, is certainly to be commended for his care for the welfare of Greek children and his desire to protect and preserve the better things of Greek culture and an Orthodox outlook on life which, though it is obviously and rapidly disappearing, ____________ 2. A.M., Bucharest, Romania, to Archbishop Chrysostomos, April 27, 2003 (electronic transmission); document in author’s hands. It is perhaps worth emphasizing that the author of the Harry Potter series is, of course, not an American. However, a Greek-Canadian critic of Rowling, observing that the author hails from Scotland (Skvt¤a, or Skotía, in Greek), ends one of her articles with the triumphant exclamation: “T‹ êllo y°leiw?” [“What more do you want?”]. (See “ÑO Harry Potter ka‹ tå Mãgia” [“Harry Potter and Witchcraft”], Sãlpigga Sof¤aw [Trumpet of Wisdom], No. 17 [March 2003], p. 35). I should note for those who have no Greek, that “Skvt¤a” sounds like the Greek word for darkness, “skÒtow” (or skótos), though the former word is differently spelled and derives not from the Greek word for “darkness” but the Latin for “Scotland”: “Scotia.” 3. Quoted in A Ü giow KuprianÒw (St. Cyprian), No. 313 (March-April 2003), p. 224 (inside back cover).

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has nonetheless been essential to that country’s survival as a Christian nation. Undoubtedly, the majority of Harry Potter critics in Bulgaria, Russia, and Romania are motivated, in their efforts, by similarly sincere goals. However, these goals, prompted in part by a sense of hysteria—expressed in the frenzied apocalyptic tones of Protestant fundamentalism—and insufficiently filtered through the prism of Patristic sobriety and reflection, degrade into hyperbole and a kind of black-andwhite approach to literature: an approach which is both intellectually dangerous and misleading. For example, as we shall see subsequently, while one may, however presumptuously, argue that the Harry Potter books provide lessons in “magic,” to argue (as do many Protestant fundamentalists in the U.S., as well) that they teach “Satanism,” as Mr. Papademetrakopoulos (vide supra) does, is to push the proverbial envelope past speculation and presumption to speciousness. The misleading nature of the hyperbole employed in these popular fundamentalistic condemnations of the Harry Potter books, both in the West and in Orthodox countries, is very well addressed in a recent book by John Granger (a Reader in one of our parish Churches here in the United States), The Hidden Key to Harry Potter: Understanding the Meaning, Genius, and Popularity of Joanne Rowling’s Harry Potter Novels (Port Hadlock, WA: Zossima Press, 2002). Quite rightly, Dave Kopel, in a review of this book in the widely-read, conservative American political magazine, The National Review, says that Mr. Granger ...demonstrates the absurdity of the claim that Harry Potter is anti-Christian. And even if you’ve never worried about charges brought by misguided fundamentalists, The Hidden Key will substantially augment your understanding of what’s really at stake in Harry’s adventures.4

Mr. Granger is, indeed, at his best when forming his arguments against American fundamentalists of the “Evangelical right” and their citations of evidence for occult, anti-Christian, and Satanic teachings in the Harry Potter books. These arguments are especially pertinent to what I have said about such claims by Orthodox writers. Among the various fundamentalist commentaries on the series that he scrutinizes is Richard Abanes’ Harry Potter and the Bible: The Menace Behind the Magick (Camp Hill, PA: Horizon Books, 2001), a book which is a veritable encyclopedia of fundamentalistic interpretations of the Harry Potter books and one from which almost all of the Potter critics, including Orthodox writers abroad, have drawn. Noting that, in his “close reading,” “nothing escapes Mr. Abanes’ microscopic examination of the books in his search for what is wrong with them—except, of course, their larger meaning,”5 Granger contends that Abanes ____________ 4. “Deconstructing Rowling,” The National Review, June 30, 2003. See the full review online at: “http://www.nationalreview.com/script/printpage.as p?ref=/kopel/kopel062003.asp.” 5. The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, Appendix B, p. 354.

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...reads the Bible as a Muslim reads the Koran: as an ideological guide and work of jurisprudence, rather than the voice of tradition understandable within that tradition. Ms. Rowling as a traditional and orthodox Christian is of an incomprehensible world view to Mr. Abanes. It is [thus] difficult to read his book after the first few pages, because it descends into a diatribe and harangue.6

In his more expansive treatment of Abanes’ grasp of the images of good and evil in the Potter books, Mr. Granger admits that, while Abanes’ “concerns about careless spirituality and the dangers of the occult are real ones,” his preoccupation with these concerns “blind[s] him to all and everything good in Harry Potter.”7 He goes on to give us an example of this blind fundamentalistic approach: Take...his charge of moral ambiguity. At first blush this seems a stretch. Harry Potter is a good guy and Voldemort the bad guy and there seems little common ground for confusion or ambiguity. To Mr. Abanes, however, because the ‘white’ hats are a little gray, not lily white, and the ‘black hats’ are not inhumanly evil without any redeeming virtues, the picture of right and wrong has been clouded. Let’s hear him explain it [:] ‘Rowling downplays Harry’s other moral issues by elevating two virtuous characteristics above all others: bravery and courage. As she herself has stated, “If the characters are brave and courageous, that is rewarded.” What Rowling seemingly fails to realize, however, is that even in her own books “evil” characters are brave and courageous, too. ...The only difference between them [the good and evil characters—B.A.] rests in the rules that they choose to break, the lies they choose to tell and the goals they choose to pursue. (Abanes, Magick, p. 136)’8

This example tells us much about the “careless” scholarship of the fundamentalists, who, in their search for what is evil and for every threat lurking behind what is not within their domain of thought and Weltanschauung, lose objectivity; they find what they want to find at all costs. It is tragic that this weakness in approach is also all-too-characteristic of most Orthodox critics of Harry Potter, who once again—their occasional anti-Western bias notwithstanding—have adopted and mimicked the style of their Western counterparts in the world of Protestant fundamentalism, thereby also inheriting their mentors’ foibles. In view of what I have said about the intellectual, cultural, and religious climate in which the more negative Orthodox views of the Harry Potter series of books have been formed, there are a few general points which can help us as thinking, rational Orthodox Christians to answer precisely the question that one of the Greek critics of Harry Pot____________ 6. Ibid., pp. 354-355. Note that Mr. Granger describes Rowling as an “orthodox Christian,” using the adjective “orthodox” in the lower case and in its alternative English form; that is, describing her as a “conformist” to the doctrines of her Presbyterian confession. 7. Ibid., p. 74. 8. Ibid., pp. 74-75.

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ter whom I have cited laconically poses for us: “‘Yes’ or ‘No’ to Harry Potter?” In enumerating these points, it behooves me, as an incidental note, to point out that fundamentalists have a proclivity towards the sensational, often predicting calamity and the end of the world with something akin to excitement and glee. In fact, “Harry Potter-mania” will doubtlessly fade in the public memory almost as quickly as it appeared; and, despite the popularity of the series, there is some evidence that book critics and apocalyptic soothsayers, alike, have already gone on to more fertile fields of late. Nonetheless, the insight provided by the points that I would like to make about the Harry Potter phenomenon certainly generalizes to, and helps us to understand, the task which I set forth at the outset of my essay; that is, the confrontation of technologies, ideologies, social thought, and intellectual trends formed in a changing world and in secular contexts that sometimes challenge the immutable truths which shape our thinking and lives as Orthodox Christians. In approaching the Harry Potter books, the fundamentalists, both Orthodox and heterodox, have fallen to a classical logical fallacy—post hoc, ergo propter hoc—in literary form; i.e., maintaining that, because the magical imagery used in the Harry Potter books corresponds, in modern times, to the nomenclature and artifacts embraced by ancient alchemy and magic, it follows that the former have their conceptual roots in alchemy and magic and, by extension, advocate the latter. Between the past and the present, many years have passed; and science, as well as individuals educated in the arts and sciences, would seriously challenge the idea that the incantations of alchemists and ancient and medieval witches are efficacious and to be taken seriously. There is, of course, a sure case to be made against the deliberate invocation of evil through such devices, since evil manifests itself where evil is conjured up. However, the power of magic and wizardry lies not in words and incantations (a primitive belief), but in the evil which empowers them; and, to be sure, such empowerment rests on the intentions and goals of those who purposely invoke evil. The use of historically accurate alchemical and magical imagery and language by an author wishing to create a world of magical fantasy to capture the imagination of children—this is a pursuit as innocent and as old as Greek mythology, Aesop’s fables, and the fairy tales of the brothers Grimm, which present—in a world of magical fantasy replete with witches, pagan gods, and talking animals—lessons in enduring values, examples of the triumph of virtue over evil, the tragic hubris of false gods marred by human passions, and the power of purity and innocence over the intentions of the wicked. Ms. Rowling is not a Satanist, as I have pointed out, but a believer in Christ. (I will not address, here, the fundamentalist and parochial view that, because her Christian confession may not be that of an Orthodox Christian, she is not a believer and is therefore a miscreant, if

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not a Satanist, by default. I leave it to the fundamentalists to argue that issue out in the quagmire of their religious bigotry.) Suffice it to say that she says of herself in a passage quoted by Reader John Granger from Michael Nelson: “‘I believe in God, not magic.’ ...‘If I talk too freely about that,’ she told a Canadian reporter, ‘I think the intelligent reader—whether ten [years old] or sixty—will be able to guess what is coming in the [next] books.’”9 And what is coming? Images of death, resurrection, and the triumph of good over evil. Hardly the stuff of Satanism! In fact, Mr. Granger places Rowling in the tradition of those literary figures, such as C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, whose writings, as Kopel comments, may “never mention Christianity overtly,” but “aim ‘to baptize’ the imagination of the reader” and lead that reader to struggle “for the right, no matter how powerful the forces of evil may be.”10 And, indeed, Rowling has openly admitted that she is a great fan of Lewis and Tolkien, who both use magical imagery and the fantastic world of fairies and talking animals to convey, in their celebrated literary genre, distinctly and indisputably Christian ideas and values—a powerful apology for Christian teachings in Western literature that has never been associated with black magic or Satanism, except by intellectual troglodytes of the darkest ilk. The Harry Potter books, then, were not written to portray some esoteric struggle between “black” and “white” magic, are not meant to teach lessons in magic incantations, and have nothing to do with Satanism. The religious “right” from which our Orthodox fundamentalists have adopted such notions is made up of the very same individuals who, here in America, characterize the Orthodox veneration of Icons as “idol worship” and who mistake the traditional dress of Orthodox clergymen as “the black robes of Satanists.” Such individuals are as ignorant of the tenets and history of Orthodoxy as they are of the history of alchemy (which, in fact, played an important rôle in the development of chemical science), its distinction from wizardry and witchcraft, and the difference between the complex historical development of these latter two phenomena and overt Satanism or devil-worship. They also display an appalling nescience of literature, the classical analogies, similes, and tropes used in literary expression, and the principles of developmental psychology which explain why the world of magic and fantasy can innocently focus children’s attention on moral lessons and help form their Christian consciences, without furtively leading them into some realm of the “dark sciences of Satanism.” Failing to understand literature at anything but a parochial level, both Protestant fundamentalists and their Orthodox followers have failed to see the profound Christian symbolism in the Harry Potter books, as well as their value in teaching fundamental Christian values to children. ____________ 9. Ibid., p. iv. 10. Kopel, “Deconstructing Rowling,” op. cit.

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A cursory reading of Mr. Granger’s book avers all that I have said about the positive intent and value of these books. Although it may be a stretch to deduce this from his assertion that “Harry Potter” pronounced with a Cockney accent is a key to the Christian core of the series (i.e., that Harry is “heir” to the Potter, or “Creator,” and thus a Christ image), and though his attempt to establish Harry’s [spiritual] “royalty” by associating him with “Harry Hotspur (the Prince of Wales)” represents an uncharacteristic gaffe in his many and accurate literary allusions (an error, incidentally, which Mr. Kopel cites without apparent notice in his review of The Hidden Key to Harry Potter11), Granger lays open the Christian content of the series with skill and in a persuasive manner. The evil antagonists in the series, Draco (the serpent) and Malfoy (a man of evil faith), for example, emerge in contrast to the virtuous antagonists, such as Harry’s parents, James (the brother of Christ) and Lily (the Easter flower).12 Granger also identifies many of the myriad symbols of Christ in the Harry Potter books (Chapter 8), themes of transformation and transfiguration (Chapter 6), and issues such as prejudice, freedom of will (choice), temptation and selfishness, each centered on the force of moral choice and consequent spiritual growth. One leaves his book with a firm conviction that the fundamentalist critics of the series, whom he objectively and charitably exposes for their total lack of understanding of Harry Potter and his fantastic adventures, have missed the spiritual forest for the sake of their fixation on the magical imagery of the literary trees. In so doing, he highlights, again, the unfortunate religious myopia of our Orthodox fundamentalists, who, despite their well-intentioned zeal, have reduced the open, intelligent, and expansive intellectual view advocated by the Church Fathers to a kind of literalistic religious myopia which little serves Orthodoxy, its witness, or, in the final analysis, our youth. I am not, in making the observations that I have made—observations perhaps painful for our Orthodox brethren who have unwittingly succumbed to fundamentalism—, arguing that there are not, perhaps, better ways to teach Christian values than through literature that employs magical imagery and which reaches out to the youthful love of fantasy. I am saying, however, that such a literary tradition, to which J.K. Rowling clearly belongs, is not evil, Satanic, or harmful, even if it is not of Orthodox provenance. It is also my conviction that, if we set aside the xenophobia, subtle religious bigotry, and anti-Western phyletism that have led Orthodox fundamentalists to a blindness about the good things of the Western and heterodox world, we can certainly accommodate literary traditions such as those represented by Lewis, Tolkien, and, indeed, Rowling. Supplemented with readings in the lives of the Orthodox Saints, inspiring spiritual literature from Orthodox ____________ 11. See “Deconstructing Rowling,” op. cit. 12. The Hidden Key to Harry Potter, op. cit., p. 252.

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writers, and the moral fables of the pre-Christian world of Greek classicism (which are also foundational texts for the instruction of children in the Western world), works like the Harry Potter series can serve to instruct our children in a harmless way. Let me further say that there is nothing negative about a series of books that introduces children to reading. I dare say that children who have heretofore never touched a book—children largely bereft of instruction in moral choice, the confrontation between good and evil, and the presence of Christian symbolism in the secular world and the realm of fantasy—have found in the Harry Potter books a wonderful and challenging new world. They have opened their minds, embraced learning, and found a path which, however secular it may be (and I would maintain that Rowling’s writings are not really secular), will one day lead them to open the writings of the Fathers and explore their Orthodox Faith. All of us know, whether we wish to admit it or not, that our Church is suffering from a plethora of unread “experts” and a dearth of those who, in the traditional spirit of seeking and reaching out, have been humbly formed in the spirit of the Fathers, which rests not in social and intellectual paranoia, but in a vision of what is universal, expansive, overwhelming and as rich and exhilarating, in its Christian essence, as fantasy and magical imagery are to children. If we, as serious scholars of the spiritual life, must eschew fantasy and the imagination, as the Fathers teach us, our first encounters with the guides who lead us to a mature spiritual foundation begin with the formation of our immature minds in those things of the world that appeal to us and which teach us, in shadows and imperfect images, the values and moral precepts that eventually lead us to an encounter with the Perfect Image. I am thoroughly convinced that the Fathers would never have endorsed the pedestrian and provincial anti-intellectualism of today’s Orthodox fundamentalists. It is a discredit to the Fathers for us to imagine so. Therefore, while I do not doubt, as I have said, the sincerity of Orthodox critics of the Harry Potter series and other such readings, I would remind them that, in their fundamentalistic fury, they are bowing to such human passions as ethnocentrism, crude religious intolerance, and attitudes inimical to the Patristic witness. How, indeed, can we attract our children to their Orthodox Faith, which we hold to be the criterion of Christianity, if we denigrate and fear, with narrow-mindedness and foggy thinking of foreign provenance, that which we have not even tried to study or grasp? The negative reactions to the Harry Potter phenomenon that we see today are, in essence, neither truly Orthodox nor expressed in the spirit of catholicity which is the core of Orthodox Christianity.

The Temptation of St. Justina and the Repentance of St. Cyprian* The Feast and commemoration of Sts. Cyprian and Justina bring to mind some important truths deriving from the experience of the Orthodox Church. The holy members of the Church have always been subject to temptations, in accordance with the wise Providence of God, but have always been victorious. They have, thus, become the cause of the conversion of others—until then enslaved to the darkness of the Devil—to the light of Christ’s Truth. ST. JUSTINA WAS a model of love and virginal dedication to Christ, just like the Holy Protomartyr Thekla, the Equal-to-the-Apostles. Her pure heart, ablaze with Divine love, prompted her to frequent God’s Church, fashioned by human hands; the Grace of the Holy Spirit made her heart an altar, not fashioned by human hands: a “temple of the living God.”1 When Cyprian the sorcerer sent evil spirits to vex her and induce carnal desire in her, so as to befuddle her and make her a plaything in the hands of a licentious youth, Justina resisted valiantly and resolutely. Demonic assaults and the temptations which they provoke are not without limits or checks: “The demons...cannot fulfill their own evil will to cause the destruction and perdition of another when God, Who governs all things, does not so will; but even when He does so will, He sets limits as to how much harm they should do.”2 In this way, while a person’s freedom is tested, his will is not forcibly dominated by Satan. The Devil acts through the passions and stimulates us with feelings of pleasure. And when, because a person is vigilant, he cannot act through the mind, he stimulates the body, in order to arouse it and thereby seize the mind.3 But constant vigilance on the part of a person, wakefulness, and prayerful alertness render him a vessel of Divine Grace, and thereby the attacks of the Evil One are repulsed. The dew-laden Grace of the Holy Spirit quenches his fiery arrows. When the sign of the Cross is not made merely perfunctorily and externally, but reflects an inner disposition of crucifying one’s carnal desires, the invincible power of the Precious Cross banishes the Devil and puts an end to his unclean machinations. Unceasing invocation, in a spirit of repentance, of the Divine Name of Jesus, the Crucified and Risen Son of God—Who annihilated the Devil—and union in the Eucharist with the Lord of Glory, our God and King, truly crush and overwhelm Satan. So also in the case of St. Justina: a powerful nocturnal temptation

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at the hour when she awoke for prayer prompted her to oppose it at once with her spiritual weapons and to make the enemy disappear through the sign of the Cross: “I saw a sign of some kind and I trembled!” admitted the Devil. However, until he was finally destroyed, the enemy did not cease to war against what is good. He also appeared to the Saint physically, in the form of a maiden, in order to deceive her. And he has this property. “The grosser demons fight against a man’s body.”4 In their endeavor to destroy a man, demons can approach him in two ways: “either through a dense material substance, or through a very refined immaterial substance”;5 that is, either visibly and corporeally, which happens rarely and only according by God’s Providence, or invisibly and incorporeally, as usually occurs. The enemy, therefore, attempted to inject his poison and corrupt the Saint’s thoughts, “as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtility,”6 and he brought upon her, albeit for a moment, perplexity, turmoil, and mental confusion; for, the Saint saw one who was supposedly a virgin and fellow-struggler, but heard words that emanated from a profligate antagonist! But once again, the sign of the Precious Cross, made with faith and prayer, drove the tempter away in shame. The consequences of this victory of the virgin Justina were incalculable. A new triumph of the Faith was beginning. The admission of the demons to their devotee, Cyprian the sorcerer, that they were powerless and had failed in their mission, initiated the reversal of his situation. The son of darkness became a son of Light through repentance, renunciation of the Devil, and recourse to the Church of Christ. Justina was the instrument used by Grace to bring about St. Cyprian’s repentance. Cyprian himself recognized this immediately: “I must grasp the feet of Justina, so that she might bring about my salvation.” When the evil spirits attacked him fiercely, he cried out: “O God of Justina, help me!” On hearing this, the demons vanished. They did not, however, abandon their efforts, but returned, using thoughts of despair to impede Cyprian’s repentance. They maliciously assured him that he would once again come under their power, since God would surely reject him as someone abominable and impious. In truth, Cyprian appeared for a moment to be overwhelmed and, under the weight of his sins, to doubt God’s inexhaustible goodness and the possibility of his complete conversion and sincere repentance. Could he return to Him Who is Life? With the aid of certain pious people, the Lord of life encouraged him at this critical juncture in his journey towards the healing of his diseased nature; Satan’s malevolent activity was exorcised, Cyprian’s thoughts of despair were banished, and his return to God was accomplished. The presence of God is the advent of His Kingdom, which is

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manifested through a life of repentance. There is no other way in which a man can be restored and saved. “Repentance is a return from the unnatural to the natural state, from the Devil to God, through asceticism and toil.”7 Repentance, the “door of Grace,” is the first step on the path towards knowledge of God; it is also a condition that persists throughout the course of our ascent to God, an ascent which involves both cleansing and perfection. Repentance is not simply remorse for certain deeds and sins, but rather, a struggle to “encounter” God and achieve union with Him. This union is attained through labors and tears over one’s past and present loss of God. Only thus is a man’s nature transformed, and only thus is he preserved from the spiritual delusion of self-justification, complacency, and acquiescence. “For this reason, repentance is demanded of all people and at all times, and there is no limit to the perfection of repentance; for, even the perfection of the perfect is incomplete, and hence, until the hour of our death, repentance is not confined to particular times or particular deeds.”8 To give up repentance is to give up making any spiritual ascent and is a symptom of spiritual death, whereas unceasing repentance and its blessed fruit—that is, the gift of a contrite and humbled heart and the repetition of the prayer of the Publican, “O God, be gracious to me, a sinner,” until we reach the very door of the Kingdom—constitute a sure sign that our hearts are possessed by Divine love. The purification of human nature through repentance and tears is ultimately perfected by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, which penetrates a man’s heart and transforms it. This was the Grace that delivered the maiden Justina from her temptation, converted Cyprian the sorcerer from the captivity of darkness, sanctified both of them, transformed them into vessels of Divine glory, and, after crowning them with the wreaths of martyrdom, finally entrusted them to the Church as protectors of the Faithful and expellers of unclean spirits. * Translated from the Greek periodical A Ü giow KuprianÒw, No. 310 (SeptemberOctober 2002), pp. 161-163. Notes 1. II Corinthians 6:16. 2. St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 3. 3. St. Maximos the Confessor. 4. St. Diadochos of Photiki, Ascetical Discourse, §81. 5. St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 84. 6. II Corinthians 11:3. 7. St. John of Damascus, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book II, ch. 30. 8. St. Isaac the Syrian, Homily 55.

Synod News Publications In early May 2003, the Bucharest publishing house Editura Vremea released a new book by Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna, Flori din Deéert: Pilde despre Smerenie, Ascultare, Pocäinçä éi Iubire ale Sihaétrilor Creétine din Vechime (Flowers from the Desert: Sayings on Humility, Obedience, Repentance, and Love from the Christian Hermits of Ancient Times). Translated by Professor Remus Rus of the Patriarchal School of Theology at the University of Bucharest, His Eminence’s latest book, the fifth of his works to be published in Romania—volumes on pastoral psychology, historical theology, and Patristics—, contains collected texts from his numerous volumes of English translations from the Greek aphorisms of the Desert Fathers.

Metropolitan Vlasie, Bishop Auxentios Honored His Eminence, Metropolitan Vlasie, Chief Hierarch of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania, and His Grace, Bishop Auxentios of Photiki, Acting Exarch of our Church in America, were honored in late May 2003 by Archbishop Chrysostomos during a series of formal events commemorating the establishment of the U.S. Fulbright Commission in Romania, the inauguration of the Commission’s impressive headquarters in Bucharest, and more than forty years of Fulbright activity in the country. The two-day anniversary celebration was marked by a formal reception hosted by the President of Romania, Mr. Ion Iliescu, at the Cotroceni Palace; a formal luncheon at the historic Athenée Palace Hilton in Bucharest, attended by visiting dignitaries from the U.S. Department of State and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars, officials from the U.S. Embassy in Bucharest, representatives from various Romanian governmental ministries, Romanian diplomatic and academic leaders, and American and Romanian alumni of the Fulbright Scholar program in Romania; an academic conference on Fulbright activities at the Palace of the Parliament; and an evening concert in honor of the Commission at the Sala Mica auditorium in the former Royal Palace. Orthodox clergy from the Romanian Patriarchate, the Old Calendar Church of Romania, and the Old Calendar Church of Greece were also invited to the anniversary festivities. The Bishop appointed by the Patriarch to represent him was unable to attend; Metropolitan Vlasie, Archimandrite Flavian, Archimandrite Eftimie, and Hierodeacon Nifon represented the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania; and Bishop Ambrose of Methoni represented Metropolitan Cyprian, Chief Hierarch of the Old Calendar Church of Greece, who was unable to attend because of ill health. Bishop Auxentios of Photiki represented the American Exarchate of our Church.

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Above, Le Diplomate banquet room at the historic Athenée Palace Hilton, Bucharest. At the podium, Archbishop Chrysostomos. At left, l. to r., President Iliescu, the Archbishop, Metropolitan Vlasie, and, at right, Archimandrite Flavian.

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Cotroceni Presidential Palace, Bucharest: at center, Archbishop Chrysostomos; directly behind His Eminence, left to right, U.S. Ambassador Michael Guest, Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mircea Geoana, and President Ion Iliescu. In two separate ceremonies during the events—at the luncheon banquet and during activities at the Palace of the Parliament—, Archbishop Chrysostomos, Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission in Romania, presented Metropolitan Vlasie and Bishop Auxentios with gold pen sets commemorating the Fulbright anniversary. His Eminence thanked Bishop Auxentios for his support and aid and thanked Metropolitan Vlasie for his contributions to the preservation of Romanian culture “in a country which is primarily Orthodox by religion and ethos but distinguished for its religious tolerance and cultural diversity.” His Eminence also expressed his gratitude to Metropolitan Cyprian for allowing him to direct the Fulbright program in Romania and to Metropolitan Vlasie for affording him ecclesiastical hospitality in serving at the many monastic communities and parishes of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Romania. In response, Metropolitan Vlasie thanked the Archbishop for his aid to the educational development of Romania and for his “love for, and service to, Romania and its people.”

Clergy Conference On the weekend of May 25 and 26, 2003 (Old Style), the American Exarchate of our Church held its annual clergy conference, after a one-year lapse, at the St. John the Baptist Church in Cedar Rapids, IA. The conference began on Saturday morning with opening prayers and hymns, chanted by the parish choir, followed by a brief introduction by Archimandrite Akakios,

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Abbot of the St. Gregory Palamas monastery. Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna then spoke on the nature, significance, and breadth of the traditionalist Orthodox movement. (See below.) After His Eminence’s presentation, a special guest lecturer, Dr. Ernest Latham (below, at left), spoke to the gathered clergy and guests. A colleague and personal friend of Archbishop Chrysostomos, a former Fulbright Schol-

ar in Romania, immediate predecessor to the Archbishop as Executive Director of the U.S. Fulbright Commission in that country, and former Cultural Attaché at the American Embassy in Bucharest, Professor Latham, though an Anglican, has a deep interest in the Orthodox Church. Like the Archbishop, he is convinced that the twenty-first century is “the century of Orthodoxy.” He noted, in his remarks, that as Orthodoxy overcomes a long history of persecution under the yoke of hostile political forces and some of the ethnocentric and xenophobic deficits which have heretofore tended to obfuscate its profound witness, it will emerge as a “particularly vibrant spiritual and moral force” in the contemporary world. A seasoned diplomat and presently an instructor in the Foreign Service Institute at the U.S. Department of State, Dr. Latham is an expert in Cold War Eastern Europe, a scholar and writer of some note, and a veteran of foreign service assignments in the Middle East, Cyprus, Greece, and the Balkans. He thus brings to his conviction about the importance of Orthodoxy in the twenty-first century the weight of considerable experience and scholarly research. He is not only an expert in Romanian studies, in particular, but has a wide

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knowledge of the history and rôle of the Orthodox Church in Romania. This fact, too, lends special weight to his predictions about the importance of our Faith in the coming years—predictions which the conference attendees heeded with special attention and interest. On Sunday, Archbishop Chrysostomos and Bishop Auxentios concelebrated the Divine Liturgy with the gathered clergy (below). The beautiful and moving service was chanted in Greek, English, and Slavonic. Protopresbyter Benedict Markley, from the parish of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco in Medina, OH, and Father Demetrios Sarlakes, from the parish of the Ascension in Winnipeg, Manitoba, were unfortunately unable to attend. A buffet banquet, held in the afternoon after the Divine Liturgy at the Collins Plaza Hotel (see below), brought the successful conference to an end.

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Feast of the Convent of St. Elizabeth On Friday, July 5, 2003 (Old Style), the Convent of St. Elizabeth the Grand Duchess of Russia celebrated its Feast Day. Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna and Bishop Auxentios of Photiki concelebrated an hierarchical Divine Liturgy (see below) on the day of the Feast, together with clergy from the St. Gregory Palamas Monastery, clergy and lay people from the nearby parish of Sts. Cyprian and Justina, and Father John Abraham, visiting with his brother, Reader Jameel Abraham, and Readers Patrick Barnes and Gabriel Hart from the St. John the Baptist parish in Cedar Rapids, IA. Also present were Mr. and Mrs. Nikita Cheremeteff, from CT, whose daughter is a novice in the convent, which has grown to fifteen in number in a few short years. Daily Liturgy is served at the convent by Father George Mavromatis, a married Priest, who also took part in the Feast Day Liturgy.

Appointment as Confessor With the blessing of Metropolitan Cyprian, Father John Abraham was appointed a Confessor by Bishop Auxentios of Photiki during an hierarchical Liturgy celebrated at the St. Gregory Palamas Monastery on July 7, 2003 (Old Style), the Sunday following the Feast of the Convent of St. Elizabeth and dedicated to the memory of St. Kyriake. (See photograph, following page). Father John, a married Priest and the father of three young children, serves as an assistant to his father, Protopresbyter Raphael Abraham, Pastor of the Church of St. John the Baptist in Cedar Rapids, IA. The parish, which now serves a population of ethnically diverse individuals, was originally under the jurisdiction of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, until returning some years ago to the observance of the festal cycle according to the tradi-

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tional Church Calendar.

At center, His Grace, Bishop Auxentios. Left of His Grace, l. to r., Subdeacon Chrysanthos, Father John Abraham; right of His Grace, l. to r., Hierodeacon Nectarios, Archimandrite Akakios.

Canonical Release With the blessing of Metropolitan Cyprian, on August 10, 2003 (Old Style), Father Cassian Sibley, Pastor of the Church of St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco, in Cleveland, TX, was granted a canonical release, in good standing, to the jurisdiction of Bishop Gabriel of Manhattan (Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia) by Bishop Auxentios of Photiki.

Mission to be Established With the blessing of Metropolitan Cyprian, Father Dr. Gregory Telepneff, former instructor at the St. John of San Francisco Academy, will soon be establishing a mission under our jurisdiction—dedicated to St. John Chrysostomos—in the Boston area, where he and his wife will be relocating.

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Dormition Parish Celebrates Our small Exarchate Church of the Dormition of the Mother of God, in Port Townsend, WA, celebrated its second parish Feast Day on August 15, 2003 (Old Style). Present for the beautiful services, chanted in English and Greek, were Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna, who conveyed to the parish the blessings of Metropolitan Cyprian; Bishop Auxentios of Photiki; and Archimandrite Akakios, Abbot of the St. Gregory Palamas Monastery. They were assisted in the Hierarchical services by Father Gabriel Lee and Father Dr. Joseph Miller, the two married Priests assigned to the parish, as well as Reader John Granger. Following the services, a feast was held at the local military post museum (see photographs below).

Two Prophecies About the Birth of Christ by Archimandrite Sergius “Ye search the scriptures...these are they which testify of Me.”1 With these words Our Lord Jesus Christ addressed those Jews who did not believe in Him. Wishing to bring about the salvation of mankind, God had, throughout the centuries, been preparing men for the advent of the Savior through the prophecies of Divinely-inspired holy men, and these prophecies were carefully treasured in the Holy Scriptures. The words of the Prophets not only preserved true faith in the One God, but also miraculously foretold numerous historical events and circumstances in Christ’s earthly life. Their prophecies came to pass with amazing accuracy in the historical person of the Theanthropos, Jesus Christ and are clear and precise....We will elaborate, below, upon but two of these astonishing prophecies—sadly rejected by the Jews—about Father Sergius the time and place of Christ’s birth. A. Some twenty centuries before Christ was born, the Old Testament Patriarch Jacob, who had moved to Egypt just before his death, called his twelve sons together to give them his final blessing. He addressed them individually and prophesied that each of them would become the ancestor of a tribe and that their offspring would have an important place in history. Turning to his son Judah, from whose line Jesus Christ was to come, Jacob uttered the following remarkable words: “A scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from beneath his feet, until He cometh to Whom tribute belongeth; and He is the expectation of the nations.”2 There are two prophecies in these words: first and foremost, that the future Jewish kings and law-givers are to come from the line of Judah; and secondly, that their line will cease when “He cometh to Whom tribute belongeth,”3 Who is to unite spiritually not only Israel, but also all other nations, thereby realizing the plan of Divine Providence for the salvation of the whole human THE VERY REVEREND SERGIUS is a former Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Sofia, Bulgaria. He was dismissed from his professorship when, at the time of the adoption of the Papal (or so-called “Revised Julian”) Calendar by the Church of Bulgaria, he refused to accept this innovation. He now serves at the Protection of the Mother of God Convent in Sofia, under the omophorion of Bishop Photii of Triaditza, Chief Hierarch of the Old Calendar Orthodox Church of Bulgaria and also a former assistant professor at the University of Sofia.

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race. These prophecies were fulfilled in actuality. The Jews instituted a monarchy in the eleventh century B.C., during the time of the Prophet Samuel. Ever since the Holy Prophet-King David (tenth century), all of its representatives in succession were from the line of Judah. This succession was scrupulously observed even amid the terrible vicissitudes in the life of the Jewish people, such as the Babylonian captivity, when the Jews lost their political independence. Yet, even in this plight, the Judæan King Jeconiah was spared by the King of Babylon, and finally, after being held in a dungeon for some time, he was set free and restored to his royal dignity in Babylon.4 Thus, he maintained the seemingly interrupted succession of Jewish kings from the line of Judah even during the time of the most difficult slavery.5 This line continued until the middle of the first century B.C., when the Romans conquered Judæa and appointed Herod tetrarch. This is attested by the first-century Jewish historian, Flavius Josephus, who writes about Antipater, Herod’s father, that “he was greatly honored among the Idumæans and married a woman from an eminent Arabian clan...and had four sons by her, including Herod, who later became king.”6 This is the Herod whom the Romans appointed King of the Jews and who replaced Antigonos, the Jews’ legitimate prince from the line of Judah. This is attested also by Dio Cassius, a historian from the third century A.D. In his history of Rome, Dio writes about the Roman military commander, Mark Anthony, who, after conquering the Judæans, left them to be governed by someone called Herod and had Antigonos bound to a cross and lashed—treatment which no other king had suffered at the hands of the Romans—and afterwards slew him.7

In addition to violating, by such cruelty, the customary generosity of the Romans in dealing with a defeated ruler, Anthony violated another Roman custom: to delegate power over a conquered people to men of royal birth. That is why the Jews [Antigonos, according to Josephus— Ed.] told the Roman army which Anthony subsequently sent to impose Herod’s rule by force that they would be acting unjustly if they gave the kingdom to Herod, who was a private individual and an Idumæan, that is, a half-Jew, whereas they ought to bestow it on one of the royal family, as was their [the Romans’] custom.8

Despite the fact that Anthony was fully aware of all this, being led by personal motives and interests, he “resolved to make king the one whom he himself had previously appointed tetrarch.”9 Since Rome was governed at that time by the triumvirate of Octavian, Anthony, and Lepidus, Anthony was unable to decree anything without the consent of his two colleagues, of whom Octavian, the future Emperor Augustus, was especially influential. This is why Anthony proposed the plan that he did. It was approved by Octavian, who “on account of the hos-

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pitality and kindness shown to him by Antipater [Herod’s father], and so as to please Anthony, who was enthusiastic about Herod, was quite prepared to raise Herod’s dignity.”10 Through this agreement between the two main co-rulers, the question was resolved in principle. The Roman historian Tacitus (first century A.D.) remarks: “The victorious Augustus increased the royal power given to Herod by Anthony.”11 Thereafter, it was a mere formality for the Senate to ratify the decision to make Herod King of Judæa, which actually happened a few days later, in the winter of 40 B.C. In this way the Jewish people were dealt an overwhelming blow: they were placed under the arbitrary rule of a foreigner.12 It is especially interesting that Herod acquired “a kingdom which he had not expected..., since he did not suppose that the Romans, who were in the habit of giving it to members of the royal family, would grant it to him.”13 These extraordinary and unconventional circumstances surrounding Herod’s ascent to the throne are a manifestation of Divine Providence, according to which the succession of Jewish kings of the line of Judah was interrupted, thereby fulfilling the prophecy of Jacob: “A scepter shall not depart from Judah,...until He cometh to Whom tribute belongeth; and He is the expectation of the nations.” As is well known, Jesus Christ was born in the last year of the reign of King Herod, the first Judæan king of non-Jewish stock. This was the birth, not of an ordinary individual, but of an historical personality, Who, even according to His enemies, is incomparable and unique in His glory and powerful influence throughout the centuries—a personality Who is the expectation of all the nations. B. However, that is not all. The same Augustus who enthroned Herod as ruler of Judæa became an instrument of Divine Providence for the fulfillment of another prophecy relating to the place of Christ’s birth. In the ninth century B.C., the Holy Prophet Micah, in a revelation inspired by Divine Grace, cried jubilantly to the small Judæan town from which David, the first king of Judæa, came: “And thou, Bethlehem in the land of Judah, art not least among the princes of Judah; for, out of thee shall come a Governor that shall rule My people Israel, Whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”14 The Divine Leader of Israel and of all mankind was to be born in the same town as David, the first king of the Jews, of whom He was a descendant according to the flesh. This was very well known to the Jewish chief priests and scribes, who responded to Herod’s anxious question about the presumed birthplace of Christ by pointing to Bethlehem and citing the prophecy of Micah.15 But how could this prophecy be fulfilled when all of the living descendants of David at that time (including the Most Holy Mother of God) were distrusted by Herod and exiled to the North in Galilee? It was at that exact time that the Emperor Augustus ordered a census to be taken of the enormous population of his

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empire, which covered the whole of the then-known world.16 Augustus, who assumed power and commenced his autocracy in 30 B.C., insisted on having detailed information about his subjects. According to Dio Cassius, “Augustus ordered a census to be taken, like an individual calculating all his possessions.”17 Another Roman historian, Suetonius (second century A.D.) writes in his biography of Augustus that the Emperor, overcome by a prolonged illness, decided to give up his power, summoned the magistrates and senators of Rome, and “gave them the statistical data (rationarium) about the status of the Empire.”18 Tacitus also testifies that Augustus’ successor, Tiberius, after the burial of his predecessor, “asked for a certain document to be brought in and read aloud; this document listed all the resources of the State, how many citizens it included.... Augustus had written down all of these statistics with his own hand.”19 And thus, around the time of the birth of Christ, Augustus ordered a complete census of the population of the Empire. Such a census confirmed the dependence of all the peoples conquered by Rome, and it was especially painful to the national consciousness and pride of the Judæan people, who could not tolerate being subject to anyone.20 For this reason, the census of the population in Judæa was based not on one’s place of residence, but on the place of origin of one’s tribe, as is mentioned in the Gospel of St. Luke: “And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city.”21 The discontent of the Jews arising from their being subordinated to Rome was hereby mitigated, since it evoked the glorious past of their ancestors.22 Thus, the Mother of God, together with Joseph, both coming from the royal line of David, went to Bethlehem, David’s native town,23 where Jesus Christ was born24 just as Micah had prophesied.25 Summation. The God-Man Christ appeared as an historical personality at a definite historical time and geographical place. At the same time, He manifested Himself as a Messenger from on high and as God Incarnate. That is why His historical birth turned out to be a miraculous fulfillment of prophecies uttered centuries before. The apologist Lutardt has this to say: Jesus Christ is the Goal of ancient history.... He is the answer to the question with which ancient history ended. He is the resolution of its enigma. He is the key to understanding universal history. He is not a product of it, but a Miracle, a miraculous Gift of God, coming not from below, but from above, not from earth, but from Heaven. Though supernatural by nature and origin, He is nonetheless naturally connected to history by virtue of the position that He occupies in it. He bridges that gap left by the history of mankind which it cannot bridge by its own means. Such is the position of Christianity, that is, of Jesus Christ in the history preceding His birth. His position in the history that comes after Him corresponds to that. He is the origin and the power of that history. He inaugurates a new period of time, which is under His supremacy.26

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It is for this reason that mankind, as an act of homage to Christ, has dedicated to Him its centuries-old history by placing the year of His birth at its chronological and logical center. It is for this reason that the Church of Christ has ordained that each year should end with the Feast of the Nativity of Christ and that, after a week of celebration (December 25-31 according to the old civil calendar and the traditional Church Calendar), the new year should begin as a constant memorial to the new era of the New Testament which began with the birth of Christ. Notes 1. St. John 5:39. 2. Genesis 49:10. 3. “The Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6). 4. IV Kings 25:27-30. Jeconiah was, in fact, imprisoned for thirty-six years [Trans.]. 5. See St. Matthew 1:11-12. 6. Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, ch. 7, §3. 7. Roman History, Book XLIX, ch. 22, §6 [emphasis ours]. 8. Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, ch. 15, §2. 9. On the Wars of the Jews, Book I, ch. 14, §4. 10. Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, ch. 14, §4. 11. Histories, Book V, ch. 9. 12. A.P. Lopuhin, Biblical History in the Light of the Latest Research and Discoveries: Old Testament [in Russian] (St. Petersburg: 1890), Vol. II, pp. 974-975. 13. Antiquities of the Jews, Book XIV, ch. 14, §5 [emphasis ours]. 14. Micah 5:2; St. Matthew 2:6. 15. St. Matthew 2:4-6. 16. St. Luke 2:1. 17. Roman History, Book LIV, ch. 35, §1. 18. The Divine Augustus, ch. 28. 19. Annals, Book I, ch. 11 [emphasis ours]. 20. See St. John 8:33. 21. St. Luke 2:3. 22. Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Book XVII, ch. 2, §2. 23. St. Luke 2:4-5. 24. St. Luke 2:6-7. 25. Micah 5:2. 26. Chr. E. Lutardt, The Apology of Christendom [in Bulgarian] (Sofia: 1899), Vol. I, pp. 225-226 [emphasis ours].

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Book Reviews __________________________________________

CONSTANTINE CAVARNOS, Cuxvfele›w Didaxa‹ toË Fvt¤ou KÒntoglou [Soul-Profiting Teachings of Photios Kontoglou]. Athens: “Orthodoxos Typos” Publications, 2002. Pp. 63. Photios Kontoglou is justifiably renowned, both in Greece and elsewhere, for his almost single-handed efforts to restore the authentic Byzantine iconographic tradition to the Orthodox Church. However, he was just as much a man of letters and an astute theological writer, as is evident from the six volumes of his collected works published some years ago in Athens. Unfortunately, very little of this valuable material has been translated into English and efforts to continue publishing Kontoglou’s work have been sporadic. We can thus be very grateful to Dr. Constantine Cavarnos for his diligence, in the present volume, in compiling some of the numerous articles that Kontoglou contributed to the religious newspaper ÉOryÒdojow TÊpow and making more of this brilliant thinker’s works available. This is the fourth volume in Cavarnos’ series of anthologies of Kontoglou’s writings, consisting of six essays on a variety of topics. The initial essay, “The Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price,” is a beautiful meditation on the Kingdom of God, for which Kontoglou draws heavily upon the writings of St. Isaac the Syrian, St. Dionysios the Areopagite, and St. Symeon the New Theologian. The second essay is a review by Kontoglou of a book on the crisis through which Athonite monasticism passed in the early 1960s. Kontoglou makes some very telling criticisms of certain ideas put forth by the author of that book, Father Gregory (Atsalis). To capture the spirit of this review, we might cite Kontoglou’s comments on Father Gregory’s thesis that this crisis was caused by a lack of love on the part of monastic superiors towards the monks under obedience to them. Kontoglou observes, in response to Father Gregory, that the latter would also do well to show more love towards their superiors. The third essay in the book is a translation into Modern Greek of the Discourse on the Monastic Life by Metropolitan Theoleptos of Philadelphia, a mentor of St. Gregory Palamas. Following a brief but lucid explanation, in the fourth essay, of the Icon of St. John the Forerunner, the fifth essay is an encomium by Kontoglou to St. Tarasios of Constantinople, the great Confessor of the Holy Icons. The sixth and final essay concerns the renowned short story writer Alexandros Papadiamantis, the “Saint of Greek letters,” whose virtues of simplicity,

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humility, kindness, and faith Kontoglou exhorts his countrymen to emulate. I venture to hope that Dr. Cavarnos will someday publish English translations of these and other essays by Kontoglou. In the meantime, I look forward eagerly to the fifth and final volume in this excellent series. HIEROMONK PATAPIOS

Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies ARCHBISHOP CHRYSOSTOMOS OF ETNA, Flori din Deéert: Pilde despre Smerenie, Ascultare, Pocäinçä éi Iubire ale Sihaétrilor Creétini din Vechime [Flowers from the Desert: Sayings on Humility, Obedience, Repentance, and Love from the Christian Hermits of Ancient Times]. Translated by Professor Remus Rus. Bucharest: Editura Vremea, 2003. Pp. 124. This handsomely produced volume is the fruit of Archbishop Chrysostomos’ many years of immersion in the sayings of the Desert Fathers and nicely complements the on-going and pioneering project of translating into English the Evergetinos (the standard Byzantine recension of the Apophthegmata Patrum), which he initiated and which he, I, and others are continuing. The four topics that he has chosen as overall subject headings for these wonderfully instructive sayings and stories correspond to his well-known four-volume series Themes in Orthodox Patristic Psychology, which the Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies is planning to reprint soon in a single volume. It is noteworthy that the first edition of Flowers From the Desert almost immediately sold out in Romania, a phenomenon indicative of a deep spiritual thirst among the Orthodox Faithful of that country. I would only add that the virtues chosen by His Eminence perfectly epitomize the spirit of the Desert Fathers, which—as he movingly states in the dedication to each volume of the English translation of the Evergetinos—his own spiritual Father, Metropolitan Cyprian of Oropos and Fili, “knows, lives, and breathes” as “the source of his traditionalism.” His Eminence frequently emphasizes that a traditionalism bereft of such virtues is not merely devoid of meaning, but even spiritually dangerous, because it all too easily degenerates into fanaticism or empty formalism and fundamentalism. I heartily commend this book to those who can read Romanian. Those who lack this ability will be glad to hear that the C.T.O.S. plans to publish an English version of the book very shortly. HIEROMONK PATAPIOS

Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies

From the New Publication Flowers from the Desert (see Publications, p. 46) Humility An Elder said, “I prefer a defeat accompanied by humility to a victory accompanied by pride.” *** Abba Sarmatias said, “I prefer a sinful man who nonetheless recognizes that he has sinned, and who repents, to a man who has not sinned and fancies that he is perhaps virtuous.” *** An Elder said, “He who has humility humbles the demons; he who does not have humility is a plaything of the demons.” *** Abba Hyperechios said, “Humility is a tree of life that rises up to the height of Heaven.” *** An Elder said, “Just as the earth never falls, neither does the man who humbles himself.” *** An Elder was asked, “What is humility?” He replied, “When your brother sins against you and you forgive him before he asks your forgiveness.”

Obedience A brother asked an Elder, “What does it mean for a man to progress in Godliness?” “A man’s progress is in his humility,” replied the Elder. “The more a man descends to humility, the more he is raised up in progress.” *** For forty years Abba Doulas lived in a monastic brotherhood, where he was, it is said, a perfect example of a good, obedient monk. He then later went into the desert and became a hermit. With the rich experiences which he had acquired, he was in a position to give sound advice to the younger monks. “I have tested all of the styles of monastic life,” he would tell them, and have found that monks living together in a monastery make greater progress in acquiring virtue if they are willing to place themselves under the yoke of obedience.” *** A certain brother asked of Saint Paisios: “What can I do, Abba, since my heart is hard and I do not fear God?”

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“Go and submit yourself to the obedience of an Elder who has fear of God,” the Saint counselled him. “In his presence, you too will learn to fear God.” *** “Obedience, together with temperance, brings even wild beasts into subjection,” said Anthony the Great.

Repentance A brother asked Abba Poimen: “Father, I committed a great sin. Is it enough for me to repent for three years?” The Elder answered: “That is too long a period of time.” Those in attendance asked, with a certain curiosity: “Is forty days of repentance a long enough period of repentance?” To the question of these observers, the Elder answered: “Again, this is too long. It is my opinion that, if a man repents with his whole heart and does not repeat the sin, within three days only God will accept his repentance and forgive him.” *** Yet another brother asked Abba Poimen: “If someone falls to some sin and repents, does God forgive him?” Most pensively, Abba Poimen answered: “Would not He who gave to men the commandment that they must forgive, Himself fulfill this commandment? It is well known that He gave an order to the Apostle Peter to forgive those who do wrong and repent, even seven times seventy.”

Love Abba Agathon was asked how sincere love for one’s neighbor might be made manifest, and this blessed man, who had attained to the queen of the virtues to a perfect degree, responded: “Love is to find a leper, to take his body, and gladly to give him your own.” *** Abba Silouan happened once to visit a cœnobitic monastery with his disciple, Zacharias. In the morning, when they were preparing to leave, the monks of the monastery insisted that they eat, even though it was a fasting day. The Saint and his disciple, in order not to insult the monks, accepted. Later, as they were on their way, they saw a small spring. Zacharias, who was thirsty, asked permission from his Elder to drink some water. “It is a fasting day today,” the Saint reminded him. “But a little while ago we ate, Abba.” “That was a meal of hospitality,” the Saint explained. “Now, however, nothing prevents us from continuing our fast.”

Publications The Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies has published more than than forty-five books, thirty-four monographs, and numerous booklets on themes in Orthodox theology, Patristics, Byzantine history, pastoral psychology, and Orthodox spirituality, as well as various original translations of classical Patristic texts and the lives of the Saints. A catalogue of publications is available from: C.T.O.S. Publications Post Office Box 398 Etna, CA 96027-0398 U.S.A. For online orders, see our website at: www.sisqtel.net/~sgpm/ctos

A New Book from C.T.O.S.

FLOWERS FROM THE DESERT Sayings on Humility, Obedience, Repentance, and Love from the Christian Hermits of Ancient Times Translated from the Greek, compiled, and arranged by Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna $6.00 — 100 pp. (paperbound) A handsomely-printed devotional volume. Perfect as a gift for Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike. The author—wellknown for crisp, witty, and accurate translations—has selected his favorite aphorisms and inspiring stories from the more than ten volumes of translations that he has made to date from the Desert Fathers. A Romanian version of this volume was published in the Spring of 2003 by Editura Vremea in Bucharest, where it met with immediate success.

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