I must confess something important about my views on Orthodox culture, or indeed on any Christian culture creation.
It’s essential to keep our goals clear. There are some things that we can’t do. In my observation of Christian culture-makers of various denominations, I’ve noticed a viewpoint that shows up in every Christian context I’ve been in (and I’ve been in several). There is an impression, either conscious or unconscious, that it is within our power to change the world. If we just hit the right formula, the right combination of message and medium, we can turn the broader secular culture on its head and drive evil back from all its strong points in the world.
I don’t believe this, and I don’t believe in believing it. Only God can make a new heaven and a new earth. It is not within our power to change the fact that this is a fallen world. It is fallen, and it will remain fallen for the duration of its existence as we now know it. If we think otherwise, we are not only overstepping our bounds, but we are setting ourselves up for perpetual and bitter disappointment.
Because I believe this, I don’t write Christian novels with the idea that if I just write enough of them, people will stop reading about vampires, experimenting with drugs, or shooting innocent bystanders. I write them because I believe the purpose of creating anything Christian is to help people who are trying to be Christian, at any point in their spiritual journey. I include myself in that group I’m hoping to help. After all, I could probably write a few vampire books myself, if I set my mind to it.
So when I think about how we can create or support an “Orthodox culture,” I’m saying it with the understanding that such a culture would be for the edification, support, and, I hope, enjoyment of any person who wants an alternative to everything hateful and destructive in this fallen world.
Pingback: Orthodox Collective
July 25, 2012 at 9:44 pm
I’m tracking with you Melinda. I agree that it is not within our power to change the world.
Your post pricked my conscience and I went back to examine what I wrote to make sure I’m not inadvertently professing a chilaist perspective.
I did write about cultural movements that I see around me that I think might be congruent with an Orthodox culture, but perhaps left out some explanation that none of these movements are Orthodox in-and-of themselves and some (perhaps) do have a goal of bringing about paradise.
With respect to your comment about the world being fallen and conceiving of Christian culture as something for the initiated only (forgive me if that is a misreading): I’m reminded of St. Seraphim’s exhortation to “acquire peace and thousands around you will be saved.” While we are living in a fallen world, Orthodox Christians simultaneously believe that we are living in a world already transformed. We are what we are becoming. I think that it is not such a problem to hope for “beauty to save the world.”
July 25, 2012 at 9:53 pm
I definitely didn’t mean that Christianity is only for the initiated. I do mean that it is for those who choose it. We can’t choose it FOR someone. But I mean even more that we can’t create the Beauty that can save the world. We can participate, but we aren’t the source. We don’t control the effect. Another thought I had is that salvation is worked out here, but you don’t fully receive it here. It isn’t the function of this world to be heaven, and I think many people break their hearts trying to make it so.
July 26, 2012 at 12:13 am
Thank you for this post. It’s funny, several points in my life recently have been converging on this topic, and your post helped me tie them together. It’s definitely an important point to be made.
It does strike me that we are constantly striving for impossible goals, especially spiritually, and that’s necessary. It is not possible for us to attain perfection in anything, it’s not in our power for us to fully realize the image of God within us, as God is infinite, yet it is crucial that we try. Still, these things have to do with changing ourselves, not changing other people (which implies judgement) or the world around us (which is fatally exhausting), and it is only though God’s grace that we are hopeful in our struggle to accomplish even these things, so your point still stands.
July 26, 2012 at 5:28 am
“But I mean even more that we can’t create the Beauty that can save the world. We can participate, but we aren’t the source. We don’t control the effect. Another thought I had is that salvation is worked out here, but you don’t fully receive it here. It isn’t the function of this world to be heaven, and I think many people break their hearts trying to make it so.”
Amen. Amen. Amen.
= )
July 27, 2012 at 12:59 pm
This is a very strong point and idea to me. There is a real tension for any Christian. We are called to grow and we hear this calling right here and right now. Good thing there are two great commandments as a guide. This post got me thinking about a section in the book of Romans 8:20-22. We are subjected to hope and all creation is growing, I hope and “we live in the tension of already and the not yet, a period in which all of creation is still growning” (Elizabeth Groppe said this in her study of Fr. Yves Congar).