To render the western conception of the Filioque as acceptable as possible to the Orthodox, we can say that the Father gives to the Son the energy of spiration, not of origin but of manifestation. But in this case, the perfect balance of the Trinity requires that the Father gives to the Holy Ghost the energy of paternity, which equally is not of origin but of manifestation.

The Holy Ghost is breathed by the Father (origin) for, in, with, through, and by the Son (manifestation); and this dyad entails another, corresponding one: the Son is begotten by the Father (origin) for, in, with, through, and by the Holy Ghost (manifestation). Ek tou Patros dia tou Huiou corresponds to ek tou Patros dia tou Pneumatos.

The Filioque, purely manifestation, is balanced by the Spiritusque, equally purely manifestation. This balance would improve the Nicene Creed, in which the divinity of the Holy Ghost is not sufficiently explicit.

I recall a televised discussion program in which we were asked what was most important in Christianity. Part of what I said was that the only way we can find ourselves is to deny ourselves. That’s Christ’s teaching. If you cling to yourself, you lose yourself. The unwillingness to forgive is the ultimate act of not wanting to let yourself go. You want to defend yourself, assert yourself, protect yourself. There is a consistent line through the Gospel — if you want to be the first you must will to be the last.

The other fellow, who taught the psychology of religion at a Protestant seminary, said, “What you are saying is the source of the neuroses of Western society. What we need is healthy self-love and healthy self-esteem.” Then he quoted that line, “You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.” He insisted that you must love yourself first and have a sense of dignity. If one has that, forgiveness is either out of the question or an act of condescension toward the poor sinner. It is no longer an identification with the other as a sinner, too. I said that of course if we are made in the image of God it’s quite self-affirming, and self-hatred is an evil. But my main point is that there is no self there to be defended except the one that comes into existence by the act of love and self-emptying. It’s only by loving the other that myself actually emerges. Forgiveness is at the heart of that.

As we were leaving a venerable old rabbi with a shining face called us over. “That line, you know, comes from the Torah, from Leviticus,” he said, “and it cannot possibly be translated ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself.’ It says, ‘You shall love your neighbor as being your own self’.” Your neighbor is your true self. You have no self in yourself.

Read on…

Even though the veneration of the Theotokos is old-fashioned and obscure in the modern world, this veneration and supplication for her intercession lie at the very heart of the Christian faith. Our fellowship with the Virgin and our communication with her are realities that exist at the center of life.

There is no such thing as Christian faith without regard for the Virgin Mary. Our supplications to the Theotokos cannot be optional or secondary. The reason why Orthodox Tradition gives so much devotion to the Mother of God is not because it is superstitious or obscure. It calls us to venerate the Theotokos, and to call upon her intercession simply because Orthodoxy is so completely Trinitarian and so fully Christological. We are Marian in the Orthodox Church because we are “conservative” in the best sense of the word – we maintain a deep fidelity to the Apostolic witness of the “theanthropos,” the “God-manhood” of Christ.

The Christian faith, which is fully realized in the Orthodox Church alone, is not merely a set of beliefs and propositions. Orthodoxy is better described as a “relationship” – and even this modern word is inadequate. It is better to use the old word perichoresis, or “co-inherence.”

This old Patristic term describes the current of love which flows within the Tri-Hypostatic Union of the Godhead, wherein the Father begets the Son, Who adores the Father and is glorified by the Holy Spirit, Who proceeds eternally from the Father. That Trinitarian love is the opposite of self-absorption. Instead, Trinitarian love proceeds in Grace, through an infinity of Names, to create the spiritual and physical universe, to redeem that which is lost in sin and death, and to set life upon the way of infinite perfection and communion. Trinitarian love is the source of all beauty and truth.

There is no determinism in the Divine plenitude of love. The Archangel Gabriel announced to the Theotokos, as the very first essentially Christian proclamation, “With God nothing is impossible!” (Luke 1.37). This crucial affirmation is the great theme of all prayer, supplication and intercession. Prayer is possible, simply because “with God all things are possible.” The future is not a prison in the apostolic testimony of the Orthodox Church – it is a mystery charged by the brightness of redemption, an endless set of possibilities that are always changeable by prayer.

That theme of “co-inherence” also describes the relationship of the Virgin Mary with her Son, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It describes the mutual surrender and the gift of self to the other. Thus, it beautifully depicts the profound and life-long surrender of the Theotokos to her God, her Son and Saviour.

When there is this deeply psychic exchange of life, Mary represents her Son to humanity. She becomes the pre-eminent icon of the Christian, the example to us all in how life should be lived, and how holiness should be pursued.

But there is another side to the exchange. Jesus, in turn, represents His Mother and all humanity to the Godhead. God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit respond to human need and concern. God responds because the Holy Spirit moves His creatures to pray – and the one who is most sensitive to the promptings of the Spirit is the Virgin Mary herself. She prays best, because she knows God best – more than any other saint, more than even the angels. She was the first to receive Jesus into her heart, and she bore Christ God in her womb, and suckled the Son of God in the Manger.

She knows God better than the Angels, because she knew Christ in His humanity. She knows God better than the rest of mankind, because she knew Jesus in His divinity. She adores her God Who is also her Son. Jesus, the Son of God, loves His Mother, who is also His creature.

In that singular perichoresis between God and the Theotokos, there is the tenderness of Mother and Son … there is also the compassion of the Infinite God for His creature, and the awestruck adoration of the deified Virgin Mary for the Everlasting God.

It is that singular relationship we appeal to whenever we pray. Our prayer to God is founded and rooted in this very first Christian “co-inherence.” Our supplications to the Theotokos rely upon the primacy of the Virgin Mary over all humanity, in her ability to intercede in her “maternal boldness,” with her Son Who is also God.

This we see portrayed in tender warmth in the very first of the Gospel miracles, the Wedding at Cana. In this homely and familiar story, we see the Mother of God become aware of a very human, humble concern. The problem strikes us as unworthy of a miracle. It is a wedding party, after all, and the problem seems not to be as serious as later needs for the miraculous intervention of Christ. The need is for wine, as it ran out prematurely. That does not seem so important as the need for healing or exorcism. But despite the smallness of the need, the Virgin Mary presents this request to her Son.

And despite the apparent priorities of the ministry of Christ, Jesus is moved by His mother’s maternal boldness to respond to the need. And, as is always true of His miracles, His intervention results in an excess of Grace. His miracles are always “more than enough.” There is never mere “efficiency” in Grace: the Trinitarian radiance of Love can never be characterized as “just enough.” There are always leftovers in the aftermath of the Power of God. There is too much wine. There are twelve baskets of bread. There is 153 fish in a net. There are aliens, Canaanites and Samaritans who are accidentally healed, despite historical strictures. There are Messianic secrets that are always broken. Animals speak, the rocks cry out, entire storms are soothed into Peace.

This was always true in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ. Now that Christ has ascended, and now that Christ has assumed His Mother into His fellowship in Paradise, the miracle of the Wedding of Cana is repeated over and over again. It is replayed, afresh, beautiful like the first time, established in truth in a myriad of enactments, every single occasion when we call upon the Virgin Mary for her help and intercession.

She is present with us, borne upon the wings and breath of the Holy Spirit. While she is not omnipresent and omniscient, the Holy Spirit certainly is. The entirety of the Theotokos’ intercessory ministry is enabled by the inspiration and fullness of the Spirit of God. It is by the Grace and Power of God that the Theotokos hears our supplication. It is by this same Grace and Power that she responds. And it is by her relationship with her Son – a relationship that is the example for all human adoration of God – that our prayers are answered.

I say all this, not only because of the moment this day’s Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos, but mainly because the intercessory ministry of the Virgin to us in the twenty-first century is crucial, and cannot be done without.

Can this be doubted? Are you surprised that I emphasize so strongly the necessity of the Virgin’s prayerful assistance? It is a symptom of the age, and how myopic and dark it has become, that it is possible to even consider that we could do without the intercessions of the Theotokos.

There is no such thing as Christian faith without regard for the Virgin Mary. Here, at the conclusion, I would go one step further. It is impossible to continue on as an Orthodox Christian in this age of idols and confusion, without the intercession of the Virgin. It is impossible to even “be” a Christian at all anymore, without the intercession of the very first and best Christian, who is the Virgin Mary and Mother of our God.

There are many today who try to be Christian on their own, in their own little self-enclosed, existentialist envelope. They try to live for Christ without appealing to the Saints and the Mother of God. Theirs is a desperate struggle that will grow all the more difficult as the years pass by, and as the future rushes toward the Day of Judgment.

As time goes on, I want you remember this: the coldness of unbelief, and the darkness of the modern age, will boil down the Christian options of civilization into only one hopeful possibility – and that will be the Holy Apostolic Church, charged with liturgy, hiearchy, sacraments and tradition, eternal order, and filled with the veneration of the Theotokos.

And the main reason for this single possibility is mainly because of the tender, maternal affections of the Mother of God, whom we glorify this day.

Bucharest, Romania, October 29-31,1979, a follow-up of the dialogue held in March of 1977 in Lucerne, Switzerland. Under the Sponsorship of Patriarch Justinian of Romania and Chief Rabbi Moses Rosen of Romania

By Father John S. Romanides

The meeting was chaired jointly by H.E. Metropolitan Damaskinos of Tranoupolis,² Director of the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at Chambesy, Switzerland and Prof. Shemaryahu Talmon, Chairman of the Jewish Council for Inter-religious Consultations in Israel, Professor of Bible, Institute of Jewish Studies and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The papers presented during the sessions of the first day had been prepared and presented by Prof. Michael Wyschogrod of the City University of New York entitled “Tradition and Society in Judaism” and the Orthodox paper had been prepared by Deacon Elie Jones Golitzin of the Institut Des Sciences Bibliques, Faculte de Theologie; Suisse entitled “The role of the Bible in Orthodox Tradition”.³

Before the meeting began I had distributed a study about the Logos in the Old Testament according to the Fathers of the Orthodox Ecumenical Councils. The Jewish representatives reacted by pointing out that is was the first time that they encountered Christians who could point out Who the Logos is in the Old Testament and also asked permission to reproduce this little paper and distribute it.

The two conference papers on “Bible and Tradition” had essentially such similar positions which made it possible to terminate discussion early. In the light of this I asked whether I may pose a question to the Jewish chairman in the light of the paper I had distributed before the meeting began. My question was, “Is the Angel of the Lord Who appeared to Moses in the burning bush a manifestation of God?” “Of course it is!” came the rapid answer.

I reacted with the following question, “Is He created or uncreated?” Then the reply shot back, “Of course uncreated! We Jews do not believe that God reveals Himself by means of creatures!”

I quickly retorted, “That is our Orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity”.

Then the Jewish chairman reacted with, “then why all the philosophical terms like “one essence,” ” three hypostases” and “homoousion”?

I replied that “These terms were reactions to heretics who had been transforming the Church’s doctrine into philosophical systems, whereas,” I continued, “the only purpose of such terms was to guarantee the cure of the center of the human personality by means of the purification of the heart, its illumination and the glorification of the whole person”.

The Jews reacted with the information that this is the Hassidim tradition. Then I asked whether this is also that of the modern Hassidim. They answered that, “as far as we know it probably is”.

But this is not only the tradition of the Hassidim. It was and has been the very foundation of prophethood and apostleship of both the Old and New Testaments and the ongoing life of the Church since Pentecost. The only way one becomes a member of the Body of Christ is by means of the purification of the heart completed by its illumination and glorification both in this life and the next.

I have been a member of WCC General Assemblies since Nairobi 1975 and of Central Committee since Vancouver 1983. I have heard a lot of Protestant claims of being moved by God’s Holy Spirit. However, the only sign of being really moved by the uncreated Holy Spirit of God is this purification, illumination of the heart, and glorification, which is the foundation of the Ecumenical Councils sponsored by New Rome. This therapy cures fantasies, among which religions are capable of being extremely dangerous. This is why the tradition — of the Old and New Testaments and the Ecumenical Councils sponsored by New Rome — is not at all a religion. On the contrary this tradition is the cure of the sickness of Religion.

Although the Jews at this meeting pointed out to us that our Orthodox tradition of the cure of the human personality by means of the purification and illumination of the heart and glorification was that of Old Testament Hasidim, this did not become part of the résumé of our discussions which follows.

“The center of discussion was the relation between Scripture and Tradition with a focus on the interpretation of Scripture in Tradition. It was found that both sides agree that the interpretation that the interpretation of Scripture was always inextricably bound to the text of Scripture since tradition is first and foremost the tradition of revelation. Furthermore, both sides stressed that Scripture and Tradition came into existence in a faithful community which preserves them but also, which interprets and applies them to its ongoing life, as the authority and source of its identity”.

“The text of Scripture and its interpretation are both the result of or part of revelation at whose center is God’s revelation to Moses on Mt Sinai.

“The Jewish tradition of the revelation of the written and oral Torah on Mt. Sinai was found to have a parallel in the Orthodox Christian tradition whereby God revealed on Sinai His uncreated Torah [the Logos] and thus inspired Moses to give His chosen people the created or written Torah”.

“The centrality of God’s revelation of Himself to Moses for Jewish and Orthodox Christian understandings of faith and spirituality became evident from the discussions”.

“It was found that in spite of the well known differences in belief there are nevertheless areas of identity and similarity which would be worthwhile to explore in an ongoing dialogue”.

“It was therefore decided that the subject of investigation for the next meeting would be the subject of the law in the spiritual and social life of the Jewish and Orthodox Christian tradition”.

Footnotes

1. Jewish Participants: 1. Rabbi Balfour Brickner, Union of American Hebrew Congregations: 2. Dr. Andre Chouraqui, Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations of Israel; 3. Michael J. Klein, World Jewish Congress; 4. Dr. Moses Rosen, Chief Rabbi of Romania; 5. Rabbi Elie Sabetal, Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece; 6. Zachariah Shuster, American Jewish Committee; 7. Israel Singer, World Jewish Congress; 8. Prof. Shemaryahu Talmon, Jewish Committee for Inter-religious Consultations; 9. Prof. Michael Wyschogrod, Synagogue Council of America.
   Orthodox Christian Participants: Father Dumitru, Prof. of Old Testament at the Theological Institute of Sibiu, Romania; Bishop Anthony, Vicar of the Patriarchate of Romania, Bucharest; Father Cyril Argenti, Marseilles, France; Prof. Ion Bria, World Council of Churches; Deacon Emilian Conritescu, Theological Institute of Bucharest; Metropolitan Damaskinos of Tranoupolis, Director of the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Chambesy, Switzerland; Deacon Elie Jones Golitzin, Institute des Sciences Bibliques, The Faculty of Theology, Lausanne, Switzerland; Deacon Vassilios Karayannis, Orthodox Center, Chambesy, Geneva; Prof. John S. Romanides, University of Thessaloniki, Greece; Slavco Valcanov Slavov, The Theological Academy of Sofia, Bulgaria.
2. Currently also Metropolitan of Switzerland.
3. Papers evidently not originally programmed but read at this conference were as follows: “Tradition and the Bible in the Orthodox Church,” by Rev. Cyril Argenti from Marseilles, France: “Le role des diversses traditions dans la vie de l’Eglise Orhodoxe,” by Rev. Dumitru, of the Theological Institute of Sibiu, Romania: “Peace and Justice in Biblical Tradition, ” by Cand. theol. Slavco Valcanov Slavov: “Jewish Community in the Light of Jewish Tradition,” by Israel Singer of the City University of New York and The World Jewish Congress.