Church Discord and Freedom of Conscience

Nikolai Berdyaev

When this seminal essay was published in 1926, it ignited discussion about freedom of conscience in Orthodox life. It remains a key point of reference for nearly all Orthodox thinkers wrestling with this issue. The essay was originally written in the context of a sharp disagreement in the émigré Russian Church that led on the one hand to a major ecclesial schism and on the other to the formation of Orthodox lay organizations and an academic community that gave birth to what is now known as Russian Religious Renaissance.1

Berdyaev’s essay, published in late 1926 in the émigré magazine Путь (The Way), addressed the decisive schism that followed the council of émigré Russian bishops earlier that year in the Serbian town of Sremski Karlovtsy, where the Synod of the Russian Church in Exile was headquartered. At the council, Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky) of France and Metropolitan Platon (Rozhdestvensky) of America announced that they were leaving the jurisdiction of the Karlovtsy Synod. A significant part of the conflict centered on the relationship between the bishops and various clergy-lay groups formed during the first years of the exile, many of which carried on the torch of the Moscow Council of 1917/18 and its unprecedented breadth of representation. As the present essay makes clear, Berdyaev’s position was firmly on the side of more representative church governance and against the strong hierarchical approach instituted by Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) and supported by several other bishops of the Karlovtsy Synod as well as some priests and laity from the so-called Belgrad Group.

It also bears noting that Berdyaev, though a philosopher of an essentially Western formation, nevertheless frames his theological argument around a familiar oppo- sition of Catholic versus Orthodox mindsets, a dualism that is as traditional to the Orthodox argument as it is limited and based largely on prejudice. It is impossible to do justice here to the complexities of the intellectual schism that followed the ecclesiastical one, but it is important to note that Berdyaev expressed what became the position of not only the Russian Christian Student Movement (ACER) that his essay supported, but also the future Saint Sergius Institute in Paris 1 See Nicholas A. and the postwar Orthodox Fraternity of Western Europe. As such, it deserves to Zernov, The Russian be carefully studied by all scholars of the Orthodox Renaissance of the twentieth Religious Renaissance century. of the Twentieth Century (London: Darton, Longman & Berdyaev’s essay was originally published in Путь 5 (Oct.–Nov. 1926): 42–54. This Todd, 1963). version was adapted from an English translation by Alvian N. Smirensky.

– The Editors 6 Clericalism is alien to Orthodoxy. This an unshakable pillar of authority, has de- negative phenomenon was developed, veloped a fear of freedom of spirit, free- rather, on Catholic soil. But we are now dom of choice. Such tendencies will lead witnessing the birth of Russian clericalist to tragic conflicts of conscience. tendencies and a clerical ideology. Even the better segments of our Orthodox It is only in Catholicism that the concept youth have been affected by this malady. of external, infallible hierarchical author- Among them, this is a childhood disease ity has been fully developed and taken of the Russian Religious Renaissance: a to its logical conclusion. In Orthodoxy passionate reaction to a long period of such a concept can only be incomplete separation from the Orthodox Church. and contradictory. It might be possible Among the elders, the pre-Revolution- to live satisfactorily with one Pope, but ary generation, this is more of a geriatric trying to live with twenty five popes sclerosis, completely incompatible with constantly arguing and condemning creativity and freedom. each other could easily land one in an insane asylum. Of course, Orthodoxy The last Council of Bishops in Karlovt- differs from Catholicism not because it sy set out on a path of a schism in the has twenty five popes instead of one, but Church. It devastated the Metropolitans. because it has no pope at all. This must It practically condemned the Student be thoroughly understood. Christian Movement. It fomented a poi- son of malicious suspicion, desiring to Orthodox consciousness does not recog- infect healthy souls with its senseless nize the concept of infallible authority in mistrustfulness. Its clericalist tenden- any bishop. Only the whole Church in its cies produced a frightful shock, raising sobornost (catholicity) enjoys infallibility, profound questions about the Church’s and those who to whom this infallibility self-consciousness. This is actually a is attributed constitute the whole people positive aspect of this miserable coun- of the Church, of all Christian genera- cil. Sometimes good arises out of evil. tions beginning with the apostles. The Divine providence makes use of evil for 1848 Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs good. The pus-filled boil has burst open, states: “Infallibility is found in the one- 2 and this is a good thing. A horrible blow ness of the Church’s ecumenicity, unit- Berdyaev actually quotes a paraphrase was delivered to the authority and pres- ed by mutual love and the unchanging from the Encyclical tige of the Russian bishops in Yugosla- dogmas, along with the purity of rites. found in Aleksey via and Bulgaria, who have governed all It is not entrusted to the hierarchy alone Khomyakov, these years by spiritual fear. This ordeal but to the whole people of the Church, “Несколько слов must likewise be painfully experienced which constitute the Body of Christ.”2 православного христианина by all those who were susceptible to the The bearers and guardians of Christian о западных illusions of clericalism. truth are the whole people of the Church вероисповеданиях,” and not the hierarchy alone. And there in Работы по A certain segment of Russian youth who are no formal and legal guarantees for богословию (Moscow: were ardently and sincerely religious but expressing the internal authority of the Медиум, 1994). Cf. “Encyclical had not completely thought through or Church. A single Orthodox individual of the Eastern even generally grasped the fundamen- can be more correct than the majority of Patriarchs” (1848) tals of Orthodoxy developed a tendency bishops. There was a time when Saint in Internet Modern to consider each bishop infallible, seeing Athanasius the Great, while still a dea- History Sourcebook, him as something like the pope. This con—that is, in an insignificant clerical ed. Paul Halsall, https://sourcebooks. generation, which has reacted against office—was the defender of true Ortho- fordham.edu/ the Revolution’s destructive calamity doxy against almost the whole of the mod/1848orthodox- and which feels the need to lean against Eastern episcopal establishment, which encyclical.asp, §17.

Members of the First Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in Exile, Sremski Karlovtsy, Yugoslavia, 1921.

was inclined towards Arianism. At that tified only if Orthodoxy itself steadfastly time, the clericalist position would have affirms that freedom of conscience is not been against Athanasius the Great and nonsense but is the greatest treasure of on the side of the Arian bishops. It is Christianity. But we are living in a time entirely conceivable, to the Orthodox of fear and timidity in the face of free- mind, that the lay author A. S. Khomya- dom of conscience, refusing to take upon kov expressed the spirit of Orthodoxy ourselves the burden of freedom, the much better than some Metropolitans burden of responsibility. influenced by scholastic theology, both Protestant and Catholic. Today’s clericalist tendencies reflect a Catholic view of the Church and church Orthodoxy has tolerated a wide freedom authority. And this Catholic view is espe- of religious thought. The great advan- cially strong among those who consider tage of Orthodoxy is found in precisely themselves fanatically and exclusively its lack of external guarantees. It does Orthodox, who hate Catholicism and not view the Church in terms of the are incapable of understanding its pos- kingdom of this world, analogous to the itive qualities. Today there is a reaction state, which demands formal juridical not only against Russian anti-religious conditions. It believes in the direct activ- thinking, which is very good, but also ity of the Holy Spirit. A question which against Russian religious thought of the is presently obscure but which must be nineteenth century, which amounts to acutely posited is whether Orthodoxy ingratitude and an unnecessary break in does or does not recognize freedom of continuity. Russian Orthodox religious conscience as the preeminent basis of thought was exceptionally freedom-lov- 3 Fyodor Tyutchev, spiritual life. [Russian poet and thinker ing; it nurtured the idea of the free spirit, “Encyclica” (1865), Feodor] Tyuchev once wrote, referring freedom of conscience, and was prepar- in Полное собрание to Pope Pius IX: “They were overcome ing a creative spiritual reform, a spiritual сочинений и писем в шести томах by the fatal word: ‘freedom of conscience renaissance, which was wrecked by the 3 (Moscow: Классика, is nonsense.’” These words, so dear to long-gathering forces of atheistic revolu- 2003), vol. 2, 132. our Slavophiles, make sense and are jus- tion and—inseparable from it—the dead- 8 ening, spirit-quenching forces of reac- Freedom of conscience in Orthodoxy tion. Now the creative and regenerative does not mean Protestant individualism. movements in the Church are curbed It is inherently, profoundly connected and paralyzed by the lies of the Living with sobornost. The Reformation was ab- Church and the falseness of church re- solutely correct in its affirmation of the form in Soviet Russia. freedom of conscience but in the end it set out on the false path of individual- For me the issue of freedom of con- ism. Freedom is not isolation of the soul, science is fundamental in Christian opposing it to all other souls and to the consciousness and must be articulated whole world. In the realm of freedom, with the greatest clarity and radicali- of Christian freedom, there is a mystical ty. Freedom always enjoys primacy union of that which is uniquely individ- over authority. Even in Catholicism, ual with that which is universally com- the search for an unshakeable authori- mon. But freedom can never be ended or ty with perceptible attributes is, in the interrupted and it cannot be delegated to final analysis, fictitious and based on another. It can only be enlightened. illusions. The Pope’s infallible authority is contingent on its being accepted I can never accept anything against my and confirmed by the free will of the free conscience, not even God himself, believing Catholic. Papal authority is since God cannot amount to violence not an external objective reality, it is against me. My humility before the high- not a reality of a natural and materi- est authority can only be an enlighten- al order, such as the reality of a stone ment and a transfiguration of my free thrown at us or a tree branch strik- conscience from within, as my mystical ing us from without. It is a reality of communion with a higher reality. a spiritual order. But papal authority becomes a spiritual reality through Even an ecumenical council, Ortho- an act of faith, which is an act of free- doxy’s highest organ, does not enjoy dom, of acceptance, on the part of a formal authority. An ecumenical council religious person. does not have formal, juridical features, consciously discernable; it does not have What is distinctive about the predomi- a legal status. A council should not be nant Catholic view is that it aims quick- made into an idol or an absolute. A coun- ly to put a stop to the exercise of the cil could be a robber council, having all freedom of conscience; it does not rec- the trappings of legitimacy. Well-known ognize the permanence of its exercise. is a sharp criticism by Saint Gregory of In principle, the Orthodox mind does Nyssa, who did not want to attend coun- not recognize this curb on the freedom cils. An authentic ecumenical council is of conscience, or believe that such exer- one at which the Holy Spirit is truly pres- cise is the exclusive prerogative of the ent. The authenticity and spirituality of highest church organs. Freedom of con- an ecumenical council is discerned and science acts without ceasing. That free- affirmed by the free conscience of the dom keeps the catholicity of the Church people of the Church. The Holy Spirit alive. The life of the Church is the unity acts within the Church’s people, in the of love in freedom. In essence, every- Church’s sobornost, and makes a distinc- thing that is significant spiritually—in tion between truth and falsehood, be- the Catholic world as well—presumes tween authenticity and imitation. the freedom of conscience, the free creativity of the spirit, not the action of an The order of church life, as a spiritual external formal authority. existence, is distinguished by its lack of

The Wheel 21/22 | Spring/Summer 2020 9 © 2020 The Wheel. external guarantees, of legal or mate- diaspora. The extreme and at times fa- May be distributed for rially discernable signs of authenticity. natical supporters of the Karlovtsy Syn- noncommercial use. Everything is resolved through spiritual od’s line against Metropolitan Evlogy www.wheeljournal.com life, through spiritual experience. The represent the extreme right-wing mon- Holy Spirit does not act like natural forc- archist group, which would select the es and social forces. There are no anal- highest church organ and the Metropol- ogies. Introducing such an analogy is a itans not on the basis of ecclesio-canon- temptation and an attempt to identify ical principles but on the basis of their the Church with this world. particular political sympathies and Black Hundredist reactionary aspirations. If The historically inevitable hierarchical the Synod of Bishops and the Council structure of the Church and the devel- of Bishops adopted a more liberal and opment of the canons are occurrences of freedom-loving direction for the Church, a secondary rather than primary order. if they broke with the right-wing mon- Only the spiritual life and what develops archist course, their present supporters within it are primary. This is what main- would desert them and would begin to tains the Church in its holiness. Affirma- reject their ecclesiastical authority. This is tion of the primacy of external hierarchi- just like the Communists, who believe in cal authority is always a self-deception complete freedom for themselves but do and an illusion. Only those whose inter- not let others breathe freely. nal convictions are identical or similar to those of an external hierarchical authori- All these far-right monarchists in the ty submit themselves completely to that diaspora recognize complete freedom authority. No one has ever submitted to of conscience and freedom of choice for external authority if his conscience defi- themselves and admit the authority of nitely opposed it, or at least his submis- the Church where they want and where sion was only in accordance with exter- they like, clothing with authority those nal discipline. metropolitans and bishops who cater to their whims and sympathize with them. This must likewise be said about Cath- In Berlin, I have heard Russians say on olics. External authority of itself has more than one occasion that they do not never been able to convince anyone of recognize the authority of the Metro- anything. Conviction always arises from politan [Evlogy], to whose jurisdiction within and always presumes a collabo- they are subject, because they do not like ration of the freedom of conscience and the direction he is taking. These people God’s Spirit. Clericalism is convincing would never listen to the true voice of only for convinced clericalists, for those the Church, which would condemn their who treasure the clerical structure of aspirations and political sympathies, nor life more than anything else, those who accept it as the Church’s voice. They nev- desire and anxiously await the triumph er wanted to listen to Patriarch Tikhon, of clericalism, who are its partisans. The who is the highest organ of the Russian defenders of authority and the enemies Orthodox Church. The bishops who did of freedom usually recognize complete not like the direction the Patriarch was and unlimited freedom for themselves, taking did not listen to him either. The but they do not want others to have it. very formation of the Synod of Bishops They are the least humble and the most was a willful act, contrary to the wishes self-willed people around. of the Patriarch.

This is obvious from the example of the These self-willed people of the right- right-wing clericalist trend among the wing camp have never recognized the

10 freedom of the Church and have always supported the dominance of the state over the Church—or rather, not so much of the state but of their own political leanings and interests. The first Kar- lovtsy Council, which was condemned by the Patriarch, was conducted under the banner of the right-wing monarchist organization, which exercised its dominance over the Church. Of what use is hierarchical authority here? They do not recognize it when they do not like it. Today, in right-wing émigré circles, church authority is recognized where it endorses and encourages reactionary restorative political desires, where there is an aura of the spirit of obscurantism and spiteful paranoia about a “Jew- ish-Masonic” conspiracy. No one pays much attention to canons unless they are needed for a false and hypocritical cover. It is quite clear that, from the canonical point of view, legitimacy is on the side of Metropolitan Evlogy, but the right-wing clericalist sector recognizes the ecclesiastical authority of the Synod of Bishops inasmuch as the latter expresses their spirit and their aims. The right-wing clericalist segment in fact consists of people who want to dominate the Church with their politics, their monarchist view of government. It also recognizes the primacy of freedom over authority—but only of their own freedom. It projects its freedom, its will, upon the organ that it likes and that is convenient for it. This lie must be exposed, and it is being exposed by life itself. cant moral authority for the whole of the Metropolitan Evlogy The Karlovtsy episcopate is a specif- Russian Orthodox world. Not a single (Georgievsky). ic party, a particular trend. It is not the bishop or priest in the emigration has voice of the Church as a whole. The any moral right to pass judgement upon claim of this trend of the émigré Ortho- bishops and priests who are doomed to dox Church to autocephaly, its preten- a martyr’s life in Russia. There are those sion to be the head of the whole Rus- who speak with disdain and judgement sian Orthodox Church, is pathetic and about Patriarch Tikhon [Bellavin] and laughable. A significant proportion of about Metropolitan Benjamin [Kazan- the émigré hierarchy (not all) consists of sky]. This is a godless, repulsive display. bishops who deserted their flocks, and No one can know how such a disdain- for that reason it cannot have any signifi- ful and judgmental individual would

The Wheel 21/22 | Spring/Summer 2020 11 © 2020 The Wheel. behave himself in Soviet Russia. Would We are entering upon such an epoch, May be distributed for he not join the Living Church, as did a one very difficult and trying, full of re- noncommercial use. number of former Black Hundreds sup- sponsibility but also joyful in seeing the www.wheeljournal.com porters, since they are so experienced in beginning of a creative movement. The servitude and denunciation? We already structure of the Orthodox soul must un- know that both Patriarch Tikhon and dergo a change. A new order is coming Metropolitan Benjamin, in their own to Orthodoxy. One must prepare his soul ways, suffered martyrdom. for a violent era of discords. There is no turning back to the old calm and stabil- We have entered upon a lengthy ep- ity, nor should there be. One cannot di- och of church discord. For anyone who vest oneself of the burden of the freedom knows church history, there is nothing of choice; one cannot lean against an ex- new in this. But we Russians have be- ternal, unshakable pillar for support. We come accustomed to a lengthy period must find support within the depth of of peace and stability in the Church. our own spirit. The Orthodox people lived in a stable milieu, in a strong cohesion of Church We are living through that moment in and state. In the nineteenth century, the history of the Orthodox Church at the the Russian world experienced stormy end—the liquidation—not only of the movements, which resulted in crisis Petrine Synodal period but of the whole and catastrophe, but the Church re- Constantinopolitan period in Christiani- mained—in appearance—in a state of ty. We are now at the beginning of a new deathly calm and immobility. Perhaps Christian era. The Church must redefine the current catastrophe is the result of its relationship to the world and what is the Church’s inertness. The monarchy taking place in the world. The Church protected the peace of the Church but must be free and independent of the along with this it stood in the way of state, of Caesar’s kingdom, of worldly el- any creative activity, even forbidding ements. It must relate to the creative pro- the calling of a council. cesses of the world in a more meaningful way, it must bless the world’s move to- Many Orthodox people thought that ward Christ and Christianity, which are this calm and inertia would be eternal. as yet unrecognized, it must welcome But to a more acute observer, it was ev- the prodigal son’s return to the Father ident that all was not right and peace- in a different way than it has done up to ful in the Orthodox Church. Internal this point. processes took place, internal contra- dictions arose, which were not exposed In times of a historical crisis and change, only because the Church was in slavery during the destruction of the old world to the state. The prevailing style of the and the birth of the new, the Church’s imperial Church was one of deathly hierarchy does not immediately and inertia and immobility. There were no fully recognize the magnitude of events church discords or disputes because taking place, nor does it assess the re- there was very little creative activity, or ligious significance of what is taking it was so insignificant that it was pow- place and its effect upon the Church. erless to express itself. When disputes A part of the hierarchy remains com- arose in the first-century Church, there pletely in the past and longs for the res- was also a stormy creative life. Church toration of the old, peaceful, immobile unrest can be the flip side of a vital in- life. It is not sensitive to the historical re- ternal life, of religious tension and inter- ality. It is blind to what is taking place in nal struggles of the spirit. the world. It looks upon the tragedy of

12 mankind without love or compassion. leftist [Living Church] synodal trends in It remains full of pharisaical self-justifi- Soviet Russia. There is no freedom for cation and has a closed mind. Another the Church on either side. part of the hierarchy begins to sense that some changes are taking place Spiritual truth and canonical truth is but without being entirely conscious entirely with that part of the hierarchy of them. A third part recognizes these that guards the freedom of the Church, changes more fully. This variation in that places the Church above world- disposition and consciousness engen- ly elements and political passions, that ders strife within the hierarchy itself discerns the magnitude of the histori- and discord in the Church. As always, cal revolution that has taken place and intellectual motivations are mixed with precludes forever any possibility of personal and class agendas, with class returning to the past. This portion of struggle and personal competition. the hierarchy abroad is represented by Metropolitan Evlogy. The point here has The Karlovtsy bishops, the Karlovtsy nothing to do with Metropolitan Evl- Synod, and the majority of the Sobor ogy’s personal views, but with the fact represent the trend within the hierar- that he is the instrument of the highest chy which finds itself entirely in the will, of divine providence, during this decaying past, the period in Orthodox difficult and torturous transitional peri- history that is withering away. They od the Orthodox Church abroad is un- neither see nor understand what is tak- dergoing. Such was Patriarch Tikhon for ing place. They are spiritually blind and all Russia. It is clear that here we have embittered at the tragedy taking place help from God. in the world and in humanity. They are modern-day scribes and Pharisees, for Neither a patriarch nor a metropolitan whom the Sabbath is greater than man. can be a spokesman for any kind of ex- The last Karlovtsy Council and its con- tremism in the life of the Church, and demnation of every creative movement they rarely are the initiators of anything in Christianity is the final convulsion other than a placid movement. Their of the Church’s dying era. It is Mono- mission is to maintain the Church’s physite in spirit, in that it rejects man; equanimity in the face of discord and it is Caesaropapist in the flesh, in that disturbances. But in their mission they it deifies Caesar on earth. This kind of should not interfere with creative initia- a trend must hurl anathemas at every- tives that emerge. They can give them thing that is taking place in humanity their approval and incorporate them into and in the world. It is captive to mali- the mainstream of church life. cious mistrustfulness and suspicion. It sees only the advent of evil, since it is The equilibrium of the Church’s life, her only interested in the old life and hates unity, cannot be supported by way of any new life. compromise with the decaying segment of the hierarchy that condemns creative It is tied not to the eternal in the Church life and blocks the Church from enter- but only to that which is corruptible ing a new epoch. This decaying trend is and transient. It stands in the way of the doomed to be sloughed off. The Church’s emergence of new life in Orthodoxy. development is found on the opposite Such a tendency lacks not only spiritual side of that deadening policy, which truth but also canonical truth. The right- chokes off the spirit. I believe that a split wing synodal trends within the dias- is inevitable sooner or later (the possibili- pora are formally compatible with the ty of a temporary truce cannot be exclud-

The Wheel 21/22 | Spring/Summer 2020 13 © 2020 The Wheel. May be distributed for ed, of course, but it would not last). The not result in spiritual insight. It might noncommercial use. Orthodox Church will not cease to exist even dry up and harden the heart. The www.wheeljournal.com because of this and will not lose its unity. devil is also an ascetic. Another element What is essential is unity in truth, not a is necessary in the spiritual path, with- compromise of truth with falsehood. The out which asceticism is deprived of its fear that the reactionary-restorationist transfiguring and enlightening purpose. faction might break away for good and Asceticism without love is fruitless and then die off is not a religious-ecclesiasti- dead. “If I speak in the tongues of men cally grounded fear, but rather a political and of angels, but have not love, I am a fear, since this would be a mortal blow to noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I the entire right-wing monarchist move- have prophetic powers, and understand ment. This blow must be administered all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I since that movement stands in the way have all faith, so as to remove mountains, of the healing of Russia and the Russian but have not love, I am nothing. If I give people. It is blocking the begetting of a away all I have, and if I deliver my body better life. to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love The extreme right-wing party in Ortho- is not jealous or boastful; it is not arro- doxy clings to the idea of ecclesiastical gant or rude. Love does not insist on its nationalism. It wants to isolate Ortho- own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it doxy from the Christian world. It does does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in not understand the ecumenical spirit. In the right. Love bears all things, believes all likelihood we will experience a new all things, hopes all things, endures all Old Believer (or Old Ritualist) schism, things.” (1 Cor. 13:1–7) but in the worst possible sense of those terms. The old schism had a genuine- The hierarchs who gathered for the ly popular basis, but this will not be so Council of Bishops in Karlovtsy failed in the new schism. This new schism is to carry out the testaments of Apostle possible in Russia itself as well as in the Paul. There is no love in their words and diaspora. One should prepare for it spir- deeds, only a profound malevolence, a itually. It will demand courage and de- lack of love for man and for God’s cre- cisiveness. ation. They are neither “patient” nor “kind.” They are “boastful” and “resent- Our own epoch in the life of the Church ful,” they “rejoice at wrong,” they “bear” presents us with a very difficult and nothing, they “hope” for nothing, they complex spiritual problem. What does it “endure” nothing. The monk-ascetic can mean when a bishop who is well-known observe the commandment to love God, for his ascetical life, an authentic mo- but if he does not observe the command- nastic, who carries out the testaments ment to love his neighbor, does not love of the holy fathers, who is known for man or God’s creation, if he sees nothing his spirituality, turns out to be spiritu- but evil in man, then his love for God ally blind, unable to test the spirits, and is perverted and distorted. Then he is sees in the world around himself and nothing but “a noisy gong or a clanging in mankind nothing but evil and dark- cymbal.” ness, and is doomed to spread nothing but condemnation and gloom? This is Monastic-ascetical malevolence, lack of a very alarming problem, calling for love, suspicion of the world of man and thoughtful concern. Apparently, asceti- of any activity in the world is a perver- cism in and of itself does not bring about sion of Christian faith. Christianity is higher spiritual achievements and does the religion of love for God and love for

14 man. Love for God alone without love it needs clarification and an explanation for man is a perversion of love for God. of its context since one can attribute com- Love for man without love for God (hu- pletely different meanings to it. manism) is a perversion of love for man. The mystery of Christianity is the mys- The churching of life could be under- tery of the God-man. The monk-ascetic stood in the spirit of a false hierocracy or whose heart has hardened and cooled, clericalism, in the spirit of the old Byzan- who loves God but treats man and the tine theocratic principles that have been world without love, is a practical, living done away with in history and cannot Monophysite. He does not confess the be restored. Some understand “church- religion of the God-man. He is the cul- ing” as a submission of all facets of life to prit of the advent of Godless humanism hierarchical authority, subject to the di- in the world. rect rule of the hierarchy. This is more a Catholic than an Orthodox understand- Orthodoxy has had experience with the ing of churching, a Catholic theocratic Monophysite distortion and now we are idea from which even many Catholics seeing its evil fruits. We are witnessing free themselves. It is hard to understand the last vestiges of a Monophysite, mis- how such an idea has arisen among a anthropic Orthodoxy, or—more correct- certain segment of our youth, who look ly—of a pseudo-Orthodoxy. This spirit upon the hierarchy as possessing a kind is bound for oblivion. It treats man in evil of infallibility and a special charisma ways and condemns any movement of of knowledge and teaching authority. life. This problem is pointedly raised in In fact, there is no such teaching in the the discord within the Church. Presently Orthodox Church, even though some there is a struggle for Christianity as the individual hierarchs have espoused it. It religion of the God-man, uniting with- fundamentally contradicts the principle in itself the fullness of love for God and of sobornost that lies at the foundation of man. Asceticism without love is dead. the Orthodox Church. The sobornost of It makes one blind, without vision. It the Church, which cannot be expressed makes of man a self-made eunuch.4 This in formal or juridical terms, is incompati- truth must be realized through suffering ble with a belief in the infallible authority in the time of our discord. He who is ex- of the episcopate and its exclusive char- clusively concerned with the salvation of ismatic primacy in doctrine and teaching his soul while being cold and cruel to his authority. neighbor, that person kills his soul. The bishops who passed their resolutions at The Spirit breathes where it wills. For the the Karlovtsy Council show no signs of Orthodox, the Church is not an unequal Christian love. They are carrying out a organization. The priesthood has, before deed without love, one that is inimical anything else, a liturgical meaning, and to man. They are Monophysites in the in this it is infallible and does not depend spiritual-ethical meaning of that word, upon human qualities or talents. But no matter how loudly they profess the ir- Christian truth is revealed to and guard- reproachable ecclesiastical and dogmat- ed by the whole people of the Church, ic formulas. In this is the metaphysical among whom may be people with spe- meaning of current state of things. cial, individual gifts of teaching.

4 Much is said in our time about the “chur- To the priesthood belongs leadership A reference to the heretical Skoptsy sect ching” of life. This is the maxim of the on the spiritual path, for the salvation of in nineteenth-century Russian Student Christian Movement. souls, but not on the path of creativity, Russia, which prac- The maxim is undoubtedly sincere but which is the prerogative of mankind. For ticed self-castration.

The Wheel 21/22 | Spring/Summer 2020 15 © 2020 The Wheel. May be distributed for example, starchestvo [spiritual leadership creative initiative in spiritual life belong noncommercial use. of startsi or elders], which is so charac- to him. Even Catholics recognize that in- www.wheeljournal.com teristic of Orthodoxy, proves that even wardly, priesthood belongs to all Chris- spiritual gifts for the guidance of souls tians, and in a certain sense all Christians are not directly linked to the hierarchical are priests. It is only in the sphere of out- order. The starets is an individual gifted ward manifestation that the Catholics with personal charisma discerned by the affirm the hierarchical principle in an people, a spirit-bearing individual and extreme form. Orthodoxy recognizes the not a member of some particular hierar- potential universal priesthood to an even chical order. The startsi, more often than greater degree. This accords with the not, were persecuted by bishops (very doctrine of the apostles and many teach- enlightening on this point is the life of ers of the Church. By contrast, hierocracy Father Leonid, one of the first great start- is a deviation and a distortion, a refusal si of the Optina monastery). to recognize that the Holy Spirit acts in all of Christian humanity, that Christ is It is without question that disciplinary present among his people. This is the power, without which church adminis- temptation of the Grand Inquisitor [in tration would be impossible, belongs to Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Kara- the bishop within his diocese. But this mazov], the rejection of the Spirit’s free- does not constitute infallible authority or dom and the renunciation of the burden a special gift of teaching. The bishop is of freedom of choice, the delegation of at the head of the hierarchal structure of responsibility to the few and its remov- the Church; he maintains the unity of the al from the conscience of all Christians. Church and preserves Orthodox tradi- It is unfair to blame the Catholics alone tion. But lordship over the entire creative for this. life of the individual and of the collective does not belong to him. He does not ex- The churching of life can be understood ercise lordship over people’s knowledge, in a diametrically opposite sense. It can over their social endeavors. Nor does be viewed as the placing of greater re-

Celebration of the 25th anniversary of Metropolitan Evl- ogy’s consecration to the episcopate. Ca- thedral of Alexander Nevsky, Paris, 1928. 16 sponsibility upon all the people of the itative action of the hierarchy; Christian Church, upon all Christians, a more freedom must operate in it. powerful action by the freedom of the Spirit. One can and must recognize as The assertion that divine grace acts only potentially “churchly” that which does under authority and not in freedom is not have an official, formal, juridical mistaken and arbitrary. Some have ob- stamp of “churchliness.” served that freedom has been responsible for many mischiefs in this world, and The churching of life is an invisible pro- have concluded that it is dark and with- cess; it does not hit us over the head. out grace. Yet authority has also been God’s kingdom comes invisibly, in the responsible for no small amount of mis- depths of people’s hearts. People are chief and has multiplied darkness and tired of the conventional lies of external malice in the world. There is no guaran- churchliness, which symbolically sanc- tee in either authority or freedom since tifies life but without any real transfig- behind authority there can be a mani- uration or improvement. The authentic festation of malicious freedom, self-voli- churching of life is not limited to the tion, and arbitrary rule. But freedom can processes that formally belong to the be enlightening and full of grace. The Church’s hierarchy and are subject to a Spirit of God acts through freedom. symbolically established form of sanctification. It includes above all those Where God’s Spirit is, there is freedom. processes that truly change and trans- Without freedom, God’s will can not be figure life in accordance with the spirit executed in this world. Man’s free con- of Christ, and in which Christ’s truth be- science may have been darkened by orig- comes manifest. These processes on the inal sin, but it has not been destroyed. surface can remain free and can appear Otherwise the image and likeness of God autonomous, but within them Christ’s would have been erased in man and he Spirit can act. [Aleksandr] Bukharev, would have been incapable of receiving one of the most remarkable of Orthodox any revelation; religious life would have theologians, says it well when he speaks been impossible for him. Man’s freedom of the “descent of Christ upon the earth,” was reborn and enlightened from within about our assimilation to Christ in every through Christ’s redemption, and a free act of our life. conscience was affirmed in man as a -di rect result of Christ’s light within him. The churching of life is a true, ontolog- ically real Christianization of life, the Fearless affirmation of the freedom of introduction of Christ’s light, Christ’s spirit, of freedom of conscience, has Truth, Christ’s love and freedom into all a special significance in our critical spheres of life and creativity. Such a pro- epoch, in this epoch of ecclesiastical cess demands spiritual freedom. It can- trouble and religious storms. Free- not be the result of an external authority dom is tough and requires strength or coercive act. of spirit. But this toughness and strength are much needed today. It is The churching of life is not merely a precisely in our era that it is impossi- sacramental process, a process of the ble to lean exclusively on external au- sanctification of life, but it is also a pro- thority, on a pillar that towers above phetic process, a creative process, one us and is not within us. We must that transfigures life, changing it and not experience this absence of external merely sanctifying it. For this reason, it guarantees and external firm support cannot flow from the exclusive, author- in order to realize this. Only then will

The Wheel 21/22 | Spring/Summer 2020 17 that immovable foundation be dis- from me. The discords in the Church covered within us. that are now taking place inside Russia and in the diaspora demand firmness, This does not mean in the least that fortitude, and strength, they demand God has abandoned us. The work of the the power of freedom in us. Without the Holy Spirit might well be greater than spirit of freedom, one cannot conquer ever. The faltering of all external au- the temptation of Communism and can thorities and the crushing of all illusions offer nothing in its stead. have providential significance. This has been sent to us as a test of our Christian It has not been given to us to cast off freedom, of our internal fortitude. No the burden and the difficulty of free- Orthodox Christian is exempt from the dom, the striving towards it. As para- freedom of choice, from acting on a free doxical as it sounds, we have in a cer- conscience. One cannot run away from tain sense been forced toward freedom this, seeking a safe shelter. The highest by the very tragic events taking place levels of hierarchy need the free con- in the world. Our consciousness must science of Christians, the freedom of rise to meet the events of history. The their choice, during this time of trouble sorrowful events that took place at the and confrontation. God needs man’s Council of Bishops have their positive free conscience, man’s free determina- side: they liberate us from illusions and tion, man’s unfettered love. The whole temptations; in a negative way they meaning of the creation lies in this. To remind Christians of their birthright, reject the freedom of conscience as the their higher calling. The suspicious supreme origin and primary principle attitude toward the Russian Student of religious life is to reject the world’s Christian Movement, the most valu- purpose; this rejection is a slavish op- able thing in today’s diaspora, teach- position to God, a temptation, and a es the youth that Christian rebirth is derangement. The spirit of a free con- impossible without freedom of spirit. science is not the spirit of a formal and It is clearer now than ever before that indifferent liberalism. It is part and par- the Orthodox Church holds fast not to cel of the very content of Christian faith. external authority, not to external or- ganizational unity, but to the internal Everything that I say here is not about spiritual freedom, Christ’s freedom, the freedom that I demand from God, the freedom and grace in man through but about the freedom God demands the action of the Holy Spirit.

Nikolai Alexandrovich Berdyaev (1874–1948) was an exis- tential philosopher and Orthodox intellectual. His writing reflected an abiding concern with social and cultural issues, even as his early engagement with Marxism gave way to an interest in Christian spirituality. He spent the latter part of his life in Paris.