ORLAPUBS R183: AQUIRING AN ORTHODOX NOUS

Incarnation of the Reason and Wisdom of God,
One of the all-holy Trinity, Who created all that has been made,
and was born of the flesh of the all-holy Mother of God
and thus renewed the entire cosmos

NOÛS is Greek; it refers to living the Orthodox life with a particular mindset or outlook--with an Orthodox mind. It is closely related with sanctification or Salvation--which is through Grace (the uncreated Energy of God's Life), and whose three major phases include, in succession, CATHARSIS or PURIFICATION (Catharsis), ILLUMINATION, and THEOSIS or DIVINIZATION. It should be noted that even approaching the beginnings of the first phase is a rare feat among Christians today. Most of us (with the exception of some Saints) who desire and try to live for Christ, fail to get through the first phase; all three phases will be truly accomplished only in the next life. That consideration offers no grounds for not trying; but it does warn zealous neophytes against taking on too much at once, only to fall into despair as one fails to reach one's highest expectations right off. Salvation proceeds with the Orthodox NOÛS (i.e. mindset, mentality, outlook, world view, point of view, paradigm), a growing feeling for and understanding of God's and the practice of Orthodox piety--Orthodox Worship and behavior. Salvation is evidenced in a longing for Christ that is realized in a synergy of our actions with His uncreated Life--the uncreated Energies of Grace--of which the Holy Spirit is the Energizer and believers are those who consent to use the gift of Grace. But one needs a guide.
Achieving the NOÛS is accomplished through God’s great and unchanging love for us and the Energies of Grace, without which we can do nothing. Manifested directly to us by a growing understanding of revelation and the Church Fathers and Mothers' response to it, the Orthodox NOÛS gives us increasing light for seeing what Orthodoxy is. Conversion can occur in an instant; this is not so of either Salvation or the Orthodox mindset--which is an outlook concerning what is . . . and what has to do with how we both think and will. We can grow up in and with it; or we have got to make the effort to acquire it when we are inclined to embrace the Orthodox Faith--which is to be embraced holistically, not selectively: Gradually does not mean piece by piece. While God’s Essence is and always will be unknowable and imparticipable, His uncreated Energies are revelatory and participable. They can lead us to see at least what God is not; but one can come to relate to God, the Fathers teach, through a properly oriented NOÛS or transrational, intuitive mentality--traditionally located in the heart. The divine energies radiate from the Essence of the all-holy Trinity—the Father and Source of all being, Christ YHWH, the LOGOS ["Reason"] and SOPHIA ["Wisdom] of God, the Creator and Savior of created being; and the all-Holy Spirit or Paraclete and unfailing Inspirer of the true Church and Christ's members.

Christianity, as two correspondents have pointed out, can be either therapeutic (or the hard-to-pronounce "iatric")--a hospital for the wounded--or it can be juridically focused, as so generally
in Western Christianity; Orthodoxy follows the former path.

"God, be gracious to me, a sinner, and have mercy one me"

Don't forget to play Orthodox music when reading the Fathers and the Church's prayers. Disks can be ordered from various booksellers.

Kh. Frederica Matthewes-Green's At the corner of East and now admirably conveys the flavor of Orthodoxy. Many presentations of Orthodoxy--booklets, encyclopedia articles, Bible translations and articles using Western terminology leave readers none the wiser about the ethos of holy Orthodoxy. If you are not Orthodox, skip those presentations that concentrate on how the Church is governed, histories of conflicts with the Latins, etc. . . . and read the prayers of the Church. (One can make an exception to the admonition about avoiding the history of conflicts when such histories portray the heroism of the Fathers of the Church. Resort can be made to various short histories of heroes of the Faith like the divine St. Athanasios, St. Photios, St. Mark of Ephesos, and St. Gregory Palamas for invaluable background reading. I would suggest the volume, The lives of the pillars of Orthodoxy, published by the Holy Apostles Convent, Buena Vista, Colorado.) One must use a proper translation of the New Testament: Orthodox New Testament (2d 3d.; this is also from the Holy Apostles Convent and is soon to be available from Orthodox booksellers or Christian Book Distributors.)

In vain will a newcomer to Orthodoxy look for a book on doctrinal theology that is really what many from other backgrounds will be looking for. Some books that are available are unexceptionally Orthodox or mostly so, but they are not arranged or detailed in ways that either answer an inquirer's questions or offer her or him the flavor of the Orthodox NOÛS. Most are far worse, treating Orthodox government and history with misleading Western terminology. That terminology is at war with the aim of acquiring the flavor and NOÛS of holy Orthodoxy; and such topics treated are quite peripheral to that aim. There are many treatises on Orthodox piety that are very helpful if read with the help of an advisor; but beginners are not ready for some writings of this genre--which can lead to discouragement at one's own failure to attain to the model. It can be off-putting to follow one's own roadmap of what to read. Interestingly, conversion stories have nevertheless proved more compelling in practice for many seekers than have other writings; and lives of the Saints have inspired more seekers than many a theological treatise. But there must at some early point be a paradigm-shift to a new thought world, a new world of understanding (at least grosso modo) what Orthodox Worship and piety are. This is because without that NOÛS, what is read will not come through the way it should and mean what it should. An individual guiding oneself can fall into serious misunderstandings simply by lacking the first vestiges of the NOÛS.

CLICK HERE FOR DIFFERENT WAYS OF
PRESENTING HOLY ORTHODOXY

Interested non-Orthodox should never forget that what the words of the Bible, of the Fathers, and of Orthodox prayers mean in the Orthodox paradigm often mean quite different things in the paradigm they are coming from. (See this page on shifting from one paradigm to another (for paradigms, cf. THIS PAGE); and see this page on the importance of terminology for creating the right atmosphere.) The source materials of the Orthodox NOÛS are to be found in the prayers of the Church and the Fathers. The NOÛS greatly depends on meditating on Christ and the prayers of the Church's services as well as striving to lead a holy life. Hence few have acquired the NOÛS in its wholeness; and a fragment can have negative as well as positive value.

A person moving from an alien paradigm to the Orthodox NOÛS is confronted with a huge difficulty--one that is greater even than most paradigm-shifts are. The dilemma is: To really understand the Fathers, a person needs to have the Orthodox NOÛS, but acquiring the Orthoox NOÛS requires understanding the Fathers. One has got to address both sides of the dilemma hand-in-hand, preferably with a com-petent advisor.

     One could do worse in introducing a college course on Orthodoxy than adopting the following plan:
--On one day of the week: Begin with Chh. 8-9 of Mary the untrodden portal of God by George Gabriel (Zephyr Press, 2000; non-Orthodox should not begin with the early chapters!); then proceed to explain the original Eastern and the two second-millennium conceptual frameworks or axiomatic paradigms of Christianity (the topic of several pages on this website)--with the help of the second volume of the Jesuit convert from Anglicanism, F. Copleston's A history of philosophy and the relevant chapters of J. M. Roberts' History of the world (Penguin; 1150 pages).  The Incarnation and Resurrection themes should not be neglected. The early Fathers, At. Clement and (some of the letters of) St. Ignatios of Antioch are must reading from the earliest moment.
     The black hole of the dull Dark Ages can be made more interesting with James Reston, jr.'s, The last apocalypse (Anchor Books, 1998). This little book details the crisis at the turn of the second millennium (1000 A.D.), a time when important things were happening mainly on the fringes of Europe: Besides Constantinople and Islamic Cordova, the only real cities in Dark-Age Europe--both possessing modern plumbing and other amenities centuries before other places in Europe would--there was Greek scholarship in Ireland. But the momentous movements of the Vikings are related by Reston in absorbing detail. Stretching from their origins in the North they reached North America and Baghdad and spread over all of Europe down to the Mediterranean--where Eastern Varangians eventually fought against Western Normans. Such history is not not irrelevant to Orthodoxy, since St. Vladimir of Kiyev began life as Waldemar the Viking and kept in touch with visiting Swedes and indeed some Norwegians including St. Olaf.

--On the other day of the week: Read Nicholas Cavasilas "On the life in Christ" and   the Philokalia (4 vols; Faber & Faber).   Readings from St. Efrem, St. John of the Ladder, St. Symeon the latter-day Theologian, and other writers of this genre are very useful if done with guidance (see above). There are various collections of the Fathers, though the selections vary in their relevance. The translations vary even more in their quality. Most ignore the energy words of Greek and call the Creator of the cosmos a "Word"! "Assimilation to God" emerges as "likeness of God"; and for "a new creation," we read "a new creature:--both confusing the effect with the energization so clear in the morphology of the Greek language. The use of much Western terminology is certainly at war with acquiring the NOÛS. Perhaps a goophikon of typical errors can be provided to students (see HERE).

In sum, descriptions of Orthodoxy (of whatever genre) need to instill two viewpoints--one practical (about the Orthodox life), one intellectual (the energy and Incarnation-Resurrection paradigm as well as an understanding of both the use and limits of reason). According to St. John the Evangelist and St. Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles, Jesus is the LOGOS ("Reason") and SOPHIA ("Wisdom"--practical reason) of God in the all-holy Trinity; and in creating all that has been created, the LOGOS made the cosmos logikós--rational. But Mysteries beyond the created world are not analysable by finite reason. We have to stick with what the Spirit has revealed (e.g. John 15:26). The divine Being-beyond-being is not comprehensible as such; but in Jesus Christ as well as in the revelations of His Prophets and Saints, His love and care for us are revealed in many ways both in words and in experience.

The saving Resurrection of the Flesh
of our Lord, God, and Savior,
Jesus Christ--the defeat of
Satan and sin, of death and decay

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