THEOLOGICAL UNDERSTANDING OF THEOBSTACLES TO THE CHURCHING OF MODERN MAN

Abstract

What do we mean by the task of Orthodox theology today? It is necessary to start with this question because the suspicion it pretends to have from the Orthodox point of view seems to prevail in the modern world now. It is characterized by the reduction of theology to a given «situation» or «epoch», a special emphasis on «relevance», which is understood almost exclusively as the dependence of theology, its tasks, method and language, on modern man and his specifically modern «needs». Therefore, we must emphasize from the very beginning that Orthodoxy rejects such a reduction of theology, the primary and unchanging task of which, on the contrary, is the search for Truth, not actuality, the search for words «worthy of God», not man. Theology will be truly «relevant», that is, truly Christian, only to the extent that it remains a temptation for the Jews, madness for the Greeks, and alien to this world, its temporary «cultures» and «relevance». But this does not mean that theology operates in a cultural vacuum.

It is one thing to be dependent on the world, and quite another to be directed towards it. If the first – the perception of the world as the only criterion of theology – should be rejected, then the second (which will ultimately be the foundation of the Christian attitude towards the world and its salvation) is the true meaning of theology. In this sense, any true theology has always been pastoral, missionary, and prophetic, and with the loss of one of these criteria, it has always turned into a kind of intellectual game. The task of theology at any given moment is inevitably determined by the needs of the Church, and the first task of every theologian is to always distinguish and take into account these needs, to be aware of what the Church expects from him. Naturally, a small handful of Orthodox preachers are concerned about the first and foremost important and extremely legitimate preliminary question: what are the needs of the Church, to which they are obliged to respond and with which they must build and plan theological work?

The task is determined primarily by the fact that theologians work within and in the interests of the Orthodox community living in the non-Orthodox world.

Those who have ears to hear and eyes to see probably understand very well that in the modern world, and especially in the West, one cannot be Orthodox without «environmental resistance». A spiritually foreign culture is a constant challenge to Orthodoxy, so faith, even in itself true, must be consciously perceived, clearly understood in its application to life and always protected from militant secularism. And that is why it is here that theology will need to find a pastoral dimension again, which helps to understand the urgent connection of the Tradition of the Church with life, or more precisely, to become both this understanding and this connection in order to reliably ensure the perception of the faith that the soul is looking for.