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A Different Christianity, by Robin Amis

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A Different Christianity i SUNY Series in Western Esoteric Traditions David Appelbaum, editor ii A Different Christianity Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought Robin Amis STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS iii Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 1995 State University of New York All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without writ- ten permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher. For information, address State University of New York Press, State University Plaza, Al- bany, N.Y., 12246 Production by Marilyn P. Semerad Marketing by Bernadette LaManna Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Amis, Robin A different Christianity : early Christian esotericism and modern thought / Robin Amis. p. cm. (SUNY series in Western esoteric traditions) Includes index. ISBN 0-7914-2571-1 (alk. paper). ISBN 0-7914-2572-X (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. SpiritualityOrthodox Eastern Church. 2. MysticismHistory- -Early church, ca. 30600. 3. Monastic and religious life. 4. OccultismReligious aspectsOrthodox Eastern Church. 5. Orthodox Eastern ChurchCustoms and practices. I. Title. II. Series. BX384.5.A39 1995 248dc2094-40813 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 iv Now seekers after knowledge must know exactly how to make out true orthodoxy for themselves by using natural examples; and especially such as are drawn from our very selves, for they are surer and are a true means of proof. Saint Gregory the Sinaite, Discourse on the Transfiguration v vi Contents Preface. The Forgotten Christian Inner Tradition xiii An Accident of History xiv The Modern Situation xvi Acknowledgements xxi Introduction. Searching in the Ruins 1 A Research Report 4 A Method of Therapy 9 Saints Are Always Somewhere Else 11 From Investigation of the Past, a New Vision 13 Chapter 1. The Royal Road of the Early Church 19 The Path of Heart 20 Pray for Help 23 The General Resurrection 25 Unchanging Truth 26 Loss of Ancient Knowledge 27 The Sources of My Investigation 30 The Teachings of the Bible 32 The Apocrypha 32 The Fathers of the Church 33 Eastern Monastic Practice 36 Monastic Rules 37 Church Liturgies 38 Great Spiritual Texts 38 Alchemical and Mystery Teachings 39 vii Chapter 2. The Burning Bush 41 A Hermit Speaks 43 Trial by Fire 44 Symeon the New Theologian on Inner Experience 47 Saint Maximos on the Fall 48 Our Nature Is Fundamentally Good, but Has Been Distorted 51 Modern Man’s Inability to Remember Inner Experience 54 A Theory of Knowledge Is a Barrier to Faith 55 Gregory of Nyssa’s View 58 Chapter 3. The Rediscovery of Spirit 61 The Christian Overcomes the Fall 63 The Life of Moses 64 Philosophy in the Early Church 65 Saint Isaac’s Prayer for Gnosis 69 Two Very Different Kinds of Knowledge 70 The Inner World as a Window onto the Invisible World 71 The Role of Knowledge in Spirituality 75 Saint Maximos on Contemplation 77 Chapter 4. The Wise and Foolish Virgins 79 The Quest for Energies 80 The Wedding Garment 82 Shining Faces 85 “Ask, and it shall be given you.” 89 Christianity as a State of Being 90 The Startsi 91 The Prayer of Joseph the Visionary 92 The Control of the Senses 93 The Five Virgins as the Senses 94 Koinonia as Communion 96 Chapter 5. Gnosis Is Not Gnosticism 101 An Experiential Gnosis 102 Different Worldviews 103 False Gnosis 105 viii The Alexandrian Tradition 107 Knowledge of God’s Omnipotence 111 A World Without Gnosis 114 The Question of Education 115 Paideia and Catechism 116 Chapter 6. The Work of God 119 The Working of the Word 120 Surrender into the Hands of God 121 Doing the Will of God 123 Gregory of Nyssa and the Chariot Parable 126 Work on Oneself 130 Modern Solutions 131 The Biblical Paradox of the Knowledge of God 134 Ascesis as Work on Oneself 137 Chapter 7. Three Renunciations 141 Three Renunciations Defined 143 The First Renunciation: “Dying to the World” 145 The Turn Toward Reality 145 The Two Nights 147 Bitter Waters 150 The Second Renunciation 154 “Transcending Knowledge with My Thought” 157 The Third Renunciation 158 The Parting of the Ways 164 A Fourth Stage 165 Theosis: Deification 165 A Modern Understanding of the Three Renunciations 167 Saint Silouan of Mount Athos 169 Chapter 8. Faith and Assent 171 The Philosophy of Assent 172 The Psychology of Assent 175 Two Stages of Faith 176 Faith Without Works 178 ix Faith of Consciousness 179 The Common Ground of Faith 181 Chapter 9. The Eye of the Soul 183 Transformation of the Heart 184 The New Man as the Prodigal Son 186 Mneme Theou 189 The Struggle for Metanoia 191 “The love of the soul is its salvation” 193 Recognition 198 Chapter 10. Metanoia and Ascesis 203 Modern Views of Metanoia 204 Metanoia as Change of Being 206 Saint Paul and the Ascetic Struggle 213 Monastic Forms of Ascesis 214 Agrypnia: The All-Night Vigil Service 217 Fasting 220 Obedience and Cutting off the Will 224 Obedience to the Commandments 225 The Struggle with Eroticism 227 The Passions 229 A Transformed Eros 231 The Hospitality of Abba Moses 232 Chapter 11. Prayer 235 The One Thing Needful 236 Theocentric Selflessness 239 The Just 240 Epiousion 242 Prayer as Relation to God 242 Degrees of Prayer 246 The Inner Room 249 The Jesus Prayer 254 Noetic Prayer 257 Non-Doing 258 x Chapter 12. A Nonmonastic Path 261 Monastic and Nonmonastic Ways 263 The Difficulty of Monastic Methods 264 Renunciation of Inner Possessions 268 Yoga and Discrimination 271 The Two ‘’Legs” of the Tradition 273 Mouravieff’s Method 274 Watchfulness (Nepsis) 276 Presence 280 The Ark as Separation from the World 282 Magnetic Center 285 Passive Unconscious Stage: Attraction to the Way 286 Active Stage: The Struggle 287 Through Knowledge to Detachment 288 Second Passive Stage: Magnetization to God 291 Chapter 13. Memory and Discrimination 295 What We Think Determines What We See 296 The Garden, a Model of Memory 297 Plato’s Wax Tablet Model 300 The Parable of the Sower 301 Illusory Memories 302 The Nature of Diakrisis 304 Cassian on Diakrisis 307 Meat Diet and Milk Diet 314 Chapter 14. Provocation 317 Stages of Provocation 318 1. Provocation (Russian prilog) 320 2. Conjunction (Russian sochetanie) 321 3. Joining (Russian slozhenie) 322 4. & 5. The Struggle Against Habit 323 6. Captivity (Russian plenenie) 324 Observation of Provocations 325 Resisting Provocation 327 xi First Provocation: Gluttony 329 Second Provocation: Lust 330 Third Provocation: Avarice 330 Fourth Provocation: Sadness 331 Fifth Provocation: Anger 332 Sixth Provocation: Accidie 333 Seventh Provocation: Vanity 333 Eighth Provocation: The Demon of Pride 334 The Fear of Opening Ourselves to God 335 Postscript. Healing the Soul: Some Conclusions from Matthew 13 337 The Barbarians Within 338 Need for Christian Teaching 340 Taking up the Cross 341 Reports of a Lost Esotericism 342 The Psychological Method 344 A Method for Today 346 A Christian Origin 347 If Thine Eye Be Single 348 A Different Kind of Concentration 350 Notes 353 Index 381 xii Preface The Forgotten Christian Inner Tradition “The tradition is one,” says Boris Mouravieff in his book Gnosis: Study and Commentaries on the Esoteric Tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. And today, despite claims to the contrary, my observations have convinced me that this links with the fact that Christianity possesses and always has possessed an inner tradition: not a system, but what might be called a discipline. To those with sufficient ex- perience in investigating this field, I believe that this book will convey the same conviction. In addition, I would add to the idea that the inner tradition is onealthough with local variationscertain other observations about it: 1. All the major religions of the world possess a complete tradition of in- ner knowledge (or a version of the one tradition), although it has only reached a small percentage of the most able individuals within that faith. 2. Many or all of the great civilizations of the world are formed by the great faiths of the world. 3. In each case of a civilization formed by one of the great faiths, the inner tra- dition is a fundamental element in the structure of the associated civilization. Yet today there are fundamental differences between the attitude of Chris- tianity to its inner tradition and that of the other great faiths to theirs. For example, faiths such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam are to- day attempting to make their inner tradition better known, yet the West- ern churches either claim that there is no tradition of inner or esoteric xiii knowledge, or reserve it to a clergy who themselves are not expected to give too much credence to it. This has forced countless thousands to turn to East- ern faiths for no other reason than because their inner teachings are more acces- sible than our own: because although Christianity has always possessed its own tradition of inner knowledge, looked at through intellectual eyes, that tradition has been relegated to the status of an intellectual curiosity. As a result some of it has been irrevocably lost, much mislaid, and the remainder has reached only a very small proportion of the population. Consequentlybecause knowledge acts only through being knownit has had little effect on our civilization. This is one reason why many people no longer regard ours as a Christian civilization.
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