By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
Various antisocial behaviors that provoke us all as well as the social sentiment of justice are published daily. Violent behavior from person to person cannot be justified, but neither can the image of our society, which we have shaped in our own way, be forgotten.
I think the issue that the Church must address as quickly as possible is the secularization not only of society, but also of the very nature of ecclesiastical life. I say this because a society that receives various influences, due to globalization, is constantly changing and is being de-ecclesiastical or de-religious by the various traditional models it has. This cannot be stopped in secular ways, and this also affects the members of the Church.
A. The Epicurean Mindset
Even Kenneth Gergen, talking about "postmodernism" or "postmodernity", writes that postmodernity is defined by three features. First, the "questioning of authority", because there are no authorities; second, "the abolition of logical order", since what is logical for one is not logical for another; and third, the "loss of the recognizable", since the so-called "complexity of things" develops as a given.
After all, according to him, modern societies are expressed by three features, which are, "social saturation", since man cannot limit his relationships to his immediate environment; "the colonization of the self" by knowing himself with many and disparate lifestyle possibilities; and "versatility" which means the "multiplicity of personal disguises".
In our time, there is also another stream of continuation of "postmodernity", which is the woke culture movement, which started in America in the 1960s as a protection of minorities and against racism, and nowadays is used by various anti-systemic groups to the protection of the rights of minorities and homosexuals.
In general, we see that in our societies pansexualism is pervasively embraced by the Epicurean philosophy of the well-known "tetrapharmakos", i.e. the four "principles" taught by the Epicurean philosopher Philodemos, following the views of Epicurus:
1. Don’t fear God (divine power does not threaten man by nature because he does not concern himself with human things);
2. Don't worry about death (death does not cause anxiety, for there is no afterlife, since the soul is material);
3. What is good is easy to get (good is easily acquired through pleasures); and
4. What is terrible is easy to endure (we can easily endure evil).
When you look at the mentality of the people of our time, you will find that it is dominated by pansexualism based on Epicurean philosophy.
The book by Irvin Yalom "Staring at the Sun" with the subtitle "Overcoming the Terror of Death" is typical, in which this psychotherapist writes that in his "therapeutic work" he does not consider the great psychiatrists and psychologists of our time as his ancestors, rather the Greek philosophers, especially Epicurus, who was "the first existential psychotherapist".
These Epicurean principles that were highlighted above prevail in many people in our days, which instead of medicine it is a great disease, and we cannot characterize this as progress of society, but as regression and life before Christ, especially for Christians!
Philosophy professor Haralambos Theodoridis in his classic work titled "Epicurus" and subtitled "The True View of the Ancient World", analyzes both the depth of Epicurean philosophy and the influence it had on the ancient world, but also on the modern world. He characteristically writes that "epicurean teaching became a unique leaven for later Antiquity, over five hundred years, starting from the early Hellenistic times of Rome, and the swallow of summer for modern years after the theological and idealistic flood that covered the world"!
He further writes that Epicurus reigns in Europe: "It was only natural for the reborn bourgeois intelligentsia of Europe to discover its affinity with the great enlightener of Antiquity. The whole, one might say, of modern science and the most genuine humanism follow the positive, unmythologized and immortal direction that he had mapped out."
Of course, we see this in the entire cultural, social and urban life of our country, where the Epicurean principles that center on man, pleasure, the rejection of the fear of death, the questioning of the existence of the soul after death, dominate everywhere.
Father Symeon of Essex said in a sermon that "the modern world is a post-Christian world, that is, a mixture of Christians, former Christians and non-Christians". In fact, he said very aptly: "Christians of our time consider themselves to have come of age and that before them Christians were not mature and their perceptions were naive, childish. Why should they continue along those lines? But this attitude breaks the unity of the Church with its past and shatters its identity throughout the ages" (Fr. Symeon of Essex, p. 92).
B. Entitlements and Rights
Our society is constantly moving towards a pansexualism and within it many rights are expressed, which move away from the so-called "stereotypes" and this is considered by many as progress.
With people who have such perceptions, one cannot discuss them easily, precisely because they do not accept the fixed points that the Church has.
Father John Romanides emphasized here and for many years that a great challenge for the Church in the future will come from so-called "human rights", when they are connected to human nature and society, and are considered natural, and of course interpreted differently every time, depending on the development of things. For the secularized autonomous society, human nature is in constant change and evolution and "there is no static situation to be used as an immutable criterion of moral and legal rights and obligations".
This means that man in every era has different rights; some are expressed by those who are in the era before Christ, others by those who live in the era after Christ, and other rights are expressed by people in different eras and societies, that is, there is an evolution in the demands of rights.
The Church sees things differently, because it sets the foundations of "rights" not simply in the satisfaction of physical desires connected with the intellect and various passions, but in the observance of God's requirements, God's commandments, as we chant: "Teach me Your requirements". The basic human right is the development of noetic energy. This "right" is a free gift of God and is given to all people. When this noetic energy is activated, then all the other special characteristics of the human being are surpassed, without being abolished.
If one examines human justice and the satisfaction of the rights of the natural state of man, he is not going to find a solution, because there are inequalities between the gifts. That is why the development of noetic energy is "the only inalienable right", even when society violates or removes other so-called natural rights.
By this I want to say that we will not be able to find stable bases to discuss with contemporary people who are based on the so-called natural law, and have distanced themselves from God and the Church. We speak different "languages".
C. The Secularization of Ecclesiastical Life
Our modern society is constantly secularizing, which means regulating its life and its organization outside of religious and ecclesiastical traditions. And as I said before, this affects to varying degrees the members of the Church who live in a certain place and time.
Thus, secularization is created in theology, when it is influenced by Protestant and Roman Catholic traditions or paradoxical misinterpretations of Orthodox patristic theology, as neo-patristic or post-patristic or relativistic with a parallel rejection of the theology of the Ecumenical Synods and the Hesychastic tradition.
Also, secularization is observed in ecclesiastical life. The way in which the Mysteries of the Church are celebrated, such as Baptism, Divine Communion, Marriage, have been socialized, that is, they have become social events and the temples in these cases have been transformed into performance halls for people of all social classes, where the only thing they don't do is pray. Some Monasteries left the Orthodox hesychast tradition and turned into secular centers.
Also, pastoral ministry is done with completely secular measures, pastoral guidance is likened to a "psychological training", communication with people is done through entertainment, excursions, social events. Some Clergy say it unabashedly that there is a part of society that wants to be religious and they became Clergy to satisfy the mentality of these people.
At all levels of ecclesiastical life, secularization has entered "for the good", which eats away at the fabric of ecclesiastical life, like a moth eats wood. One must be naive or "theologically illiterate" not to see this reality.
This means that, unfortunately, the Church, i.e. the church structures, compete with other Associations in social actions, Clergy emerge as better managers and diplomats, monks live activist lives and Christians have lost the essence of the Christian life.
In general, we are all affected by the mentality of modern life, as I presented it before.
This does not apply to everything and everyone, but secularization is a spiritual plague that consumes many Christians. Thus, if there is something that the Church needs to deal with in our time, it is the great problem of secularization in the Church, theology and pastoral ministry.
Our society is being formed with new concepts and theories about people, people are affected by new patterns of life, but the Church and its members must remain steadfast in its tradition which is inspired by the experience of Pentecost and gives meaning to people's lives, healing self-love and turning it into love for God and love for others and turning selfish love into selfless love. This is essentially the healing work of the Orthodox Church.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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