Christos Yannaras, a popular professor of philosophy, author and columnist, reposed at his country residence in Kythira on August 24, 2024, aged 89. He left behind a rich amount of written works, which besides philosophical topics also included topics related to Orthodox Christianity. His 1970 book The Freedom of Morality is considered to have defined the core of what was later called "Neo-Orthodoxy" and has been described as "the May of '68 in Orthodox theology and ethics."
Something Small for the Great Christos Yannaras
By Father Andreas Agathokleous
By Father Andreas Agathokleous
It was back when, in adolescence, that we entered Catechism School as a way of safety from sin and ... "sinful society" was lurking to devour us. All ideologies emphasize danger, so that you run to them and suffocate in their arms. And we, teenagers at the time, were grateful for the suffocation, the deprivation of our freedom, the use that was made of us with... good intentions.
Fortunately, however, we had foundations: from the mother who said in difficult times "God will provide" and lived it; from the understanding of the neighborhood about the extramarital relationship of the divorced woman with five children; from the tolerance of the alcoholic neighbor who did not leave her alone with his songs; from the experience of the community with its negatives and positives.
And so, Yannaras's books - forbidden, of course, by our theologians - were the opportunity to justify our reaction to something that did not express us. We could, by reading them secretly, compare the ethos that came from the Catechism Schools and what we knew as children. We could feel that our reaction was not based on "adolescent immaturity and disorder", but on Orthodox Theological foundations.
Decades later, the above may no longer mean anything. They may seem incomprehensible when the Orthodox ethos, freedom, the rejection of pietism and moralism and what Orthodoxy holds as a treasure with its Tradition, became the property of many through another "Catechesis", a different experience.
An important person who contributed to this change, or rather a return to our roots, was Christos Yannaras. His words, written and spoken, exuded vitality. He was in pain, speaking about the perversion of our Tradition and he longed to minister to people with his words. He taught based on the knowledge he possessed as a researcher, without wanting to convince by suppressing your freedom.
He was fought by those who he fought with his words. He emphasized, perhaps excessively, what he said, aiming for understanding. He defined his era and helped many who wanted to dare change.
It is not my aim to promote Christos Yannaras and his work. Enormous is the man's person and his work. Simply, as gratitude for what he has been, unbeknownst to him, for me: he helped me to dare Theological change, moving from the commitment of the "proper" Christian, to the freedom that Orthodoxy professes through asceticism and her whole Tradition. And also, to be able to distinguish the Orthodox from the heretical ethos and thus help those whom God will bring into my life, having in the Church the ministry of a shepherd and spiritual father.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
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