The Mystery of Redemption
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THE MYSTERY OF REDEMPTION Vladimir Moss © Vladimir Moss, 2013. Copyright, all rights reserved. 1 CONTENTS HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION .........................................................................3 1. THE “JURIDICAL THEORY” ...........................................................................8 2. THE MEANING OF “JUSTIFICATION” ......................................................19 3. THE SACRIFICE FOR SIN ..............................................................................26 4. THE PRAYER IN THE GARDEN...................................................................37 5. GETHSEMANE OR GOLGOTHA?................................................................50 6. THE THEORY OF “MORAL MONISM” ......................................................57 7. ORIGINAL SIN .................................................................................................64 CONCLUSION: LOVE AND JUSTICE..............................................................76 2 HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION Of mercy and judgement shall I sing unto Thee, O Lord. Psalm 100.1. He wiped out our debt by paying for us a most admirable and precious ransom. We are all made free through the blood of the Son, which pleads for us to the Father. St. John of Damascus, First Word on the Divine Images, 21. The mystery of our redemption by Christ through the shedding of His Blood on the Cross is the very heart of the Orthodox Christian Gospel. With the dogma of the Holy Trinity it is the most important of all the Christian dogmas. Therefore any attempt to explain or reinterpret it by a senior hierarch of the Orthodox Church is an event of great importance requiring the closest attention. Such an attempt was made in 1917 by Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) of Kiev, first first-hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, in a work entitled The Dogma of Redemption1, and also in a later work entitled An Attempt at An Orthodox Christian Catechism. These two works have been a subject of controversy in the Orthodox Church ever since. The controversy consists in the fact that in them Metropolitan Anthony attacked the Orthodox Christian teaching on redemption as expounded by Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow (+1867) and enshrined in his Longer Catechism, labelling it “scholastic”, and presented his own theory, entitled “Moral Monism”, as a radical alternative. The purpose of this little book is to defend Metropolitan Philaret’s teaching as being indeed the traditional teaching of the Orthodox Church by a careful examination and refutation of Metropolitan Anthony’s thesis… Metropolitan Anthony had outlined his ideas already well before the revolution, and he was seen, together with his pupil, Archimandrite Sergius (Stragorodsky), the future Soviet patriarch, as a representative of a new stream of thinking in the Russian Church called “the new theology”. As such, both men were criticised by Bishop Victor (Ostrovidov), the future hieromartyr Archbishop of Vyatka in an article written in 1912.2 After the revolution, further critics appeared both at home and abroad. Thus according to Hieromartyr Paul Borotinsky, the Petrograd Hieromartyrs Bishop Demetrius of Gdov and Fr. Theodore Andreyev were also critical of it.3 In 1925 Archbishop Eleutherius of Lithuania wrote eight long letters to Metropolitan Anthony, subjecting his theory to detailed criticism.4 1 It was originally published in Russian in Bogoslovsky Vestnik 8-9 (1917), pp. 155-167, 285-315, and in book form in the same year in Sergiev-Posad. 2 See appendix. 3 M.B. Danilushkin (ed.), A History of the Russian Church from the Restoration of the Patriarchate to the Present Day, vol. I, St. Petersburg, 1997, pp. 989-990. 4 Archbishop (later Metropolitan) Eleutherius, On Redemption, Paris, 1937. 3 In 1926 Metropolitan Anthony put forward his Attempt at an Orthodox Christian Catechism, which expressed the same theology as in the Dogma in a more concise form, as a substitute for Metropolitan Philaret of Moscow’s Catechism in schools. The Synod of the Russian Church Abroad, meeting in Serbia, was at first inclined to accept his proposal. They did not call Metropolitan Philaret’s Catechism heretical, but simply said that Metropolitan Anthony’s was “shorter and more convenient for assimilation”. And Metropolitan Anthony himself did not ask for Metropolitan Philaret’s Catechism to be removed from use in favour of his own, writing only (in a report to the Synod dated April 9/22, 1926): “In my foreword to An Attempt at an Orthodox Christian Catechism I wrote: ‘In publishing my work as material, I in no way wished that it should completely overshadow the Catechism of [Metropolitan] Philaret in schools, but I have nothing against the idea that this or that teacher of the Law of God should sometimes, in his interpretation of the dogmas and commandments, use my thoughts and references to Holy Scripture and Holy Tradition, thereby filling in the gaps in the textbook catechism with regard to various religious questions, of which very many have arisen in the time since the death of the author’”.5 However, strong opposition to Metropolitan Anthony’s proposal was voiced from within the Synod by Archbishop Theophan (Bystrov) of Poltava, former rector of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, and Bishop Seraphim (Sobolev) of Lubny, who clearly regarded his views on redemption as a direct attack on Metropolitan Philaret and a departure from strict Orthodoxy. Now it cannot be denied that Metropolitan Anthony considered Metropolitan Philaret’s Catechism to be “scholastic” and heretical, being identical with the Roman Catholic teaching on redemption of Anselm and Aquinas. Thus in his letters to the Russian Athonite theologian, Hieromonk Theophan (later Hieroschemamonk Theodosius of Karoulia, Mount Athos6), a firm opponent of Metropolitan Anthony’s thesis, he expressed fundamental disagreement “with the juridical theory of Anselm and Aquinas, which was completely accepted by P[eter] Moghila and Metropolitan Philaret”.7 And again he wrote: “We must not quickly return to Peter Moghila, Philaret and Macarius: they will remain subjects for historians”.8 And again: “Apparently you together with your namesake [Archbishop Theophan of Poltava] have fallen into spiritual deception”.9 So it is clear that, for Metropolitan Anthony, as for his opponents, this was a fundamental matter of doctrine. Either Metropolitan Philaret’s Catechism was heretical and Metropolitan Anthony’s was Orthodox, or Metropolitan Anthony’s was heretical and Metropolitan Philaret’s was Orthodox. And whoever was wrong was “in spiritual deception”. 5 Protocols of the Hierarchical Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, 9/22 April, 1926. 6 See “Elder Theodosius the Athonite of Karoulia”, The Orthodox Word, November-December, 2005, pp. 261-287. 7 The Letters of His Beatitude Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), Jordanville, 1998, № 83, p. 235. 8 Letters, № 91, p. 244. A convincing defence of the theology of Metropolitan Macarius (Bulgakov) against the charge of scholasticism can be found in Protopresbyter Michael Pomazansky, “Mitropolit Makarij (Bulgakov)”, Pravoslavnij Put’, 1996, pp. 52-82. 9 Letters, № 31, p. 169. 4 Criticism of Metropolitan Anthony’s work was not confined to the Russian Church. Thus immediately after the publication of The Dogma of Redemption in Serbia in 192610, Protopriest Milosh Parenta wrote in the Serbian Church’s official organ: “The tragedy of Metropolitan Anthony is amazing! A pillar of the faith in soul, a great Orthodox in his heart, a strict fulfiller and preserver of Church discipline to the smallest details. But when he approaches a scientific-theological examination and explanation of the dogmas, then he either insufficiently comprehends them, or he cannot avoid the temptation of, and enthusiasm for, modernism. The explanation of the dogma of redemption offered by the author in this work openly destroys the teaching on this truth faithfully preserved by the Orthodox Church, and with it the Christian Religion itself, because the truth of the redemption together with the truth of Christ’s incarnation is its base and essence. However, it is necessary to recognize that it is very difficult to analyse this work of the author, because in it there are often no definite and clear concepts, although there are many extended speeches which hide the concepts or say nothing, and because in part there are no logical connections in it, nor any strictly scientific exposition, nor systematic unity.”11 The Serbian tradition of criticism of the Dogma has been continued by the present leader of the True Orthodox Church of Serbia, Bishop Akakije, who has published a biography of Metropolitan Anthony’s chief critic, Archbishop Theophan… In the Russian emigration it was not only Archbishop Theophan, Bishop Seraphim and Elder Theodosius who were opposed to Metropolitan Anthony’s teaching. Other critics abroad included Metropolitan Platon of America and Archbishop Anastasy of Kishinev12. A recent history of the Russian emigration in Yugoslavia concluded that Metropolitan Anthony was “an extreme conservative in politics, a bold innovator in theology”.13 However, an open conflict was recognized by both sides as potentially disastrous for the Russian Church Abroad. The consequences of “victory” in the debate for either side would have been unthinkable; it might have meant condemning as a heretic either the most famous Russian hierarch of the 19th century, Metropolitan Philaret, or, in many people’s opinion, the greatest Russian hierarch of the 20th century,