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Sample Chapter

CHAPTER 1

Partakers of the Divine Nature


"God created us that we should become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1: 4); that we should partake of His immortality and that we should be like Him (1 John 3: 2) through deification by grace"
St Maximus the Confessor


In the 19th Century, the Russian philosopher Chadaev (1856), no friend of traditional Christianity, wrote that western scholasticism is not theology but rather zoology. Indeed modern secular man is generally defined in terms of Aristotle's rational man, a highly intelligent animal at the pinnacle of evolution. For the Orthodox Christian however, man is divine. He is a little Christ who according to Orthodox tradition is a macrocosm within a physical microcosm. He is a spiritual world within this material universe. In the lives depicted in this book, we will discover what it means to be truly human. We will meet man as God originally created him, a divine being created in the image and likeness of the Creator.

If we follow a purely rational-animal approach to humanity we arrive at a naturalistic understanding of man's nature. From a Christian, evangelical perspective, man is not merely an intelligent physical organism but a child of God, endowed with an immortal soul and the potential to be like God. This potential is apparent in man's creative talents and energy. For how can this physical universe produce the genius of Bach or Shakespeare?

In comparison with the universe at large, man is a puny organism, subject to annihilation by the minutest change in the earth's atmosphere. He is vulnerable to the simplest virus and yet he has been placed on this earth as a lord of creation.

According to Orthodox spirituality, man is considered in terms of his spiritual achievements and not in terms of his rational accomplishments.

The true man has the ability with the help of God, to detach himself from earthly interests and to establish within himself, the Kingdom of God. God created man to become a partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter 1: 4).

It is his spiritual nature that distinguishes him from other rational creatures and it is his aptitude for an interior life as a son of God that demonstrates that man has been given an immortal soul. "I said ye are gods, and ye are all the children of the most High". (Ps 81: 6).

St Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain says that God created the invisible world and then the visible world. "After everything else He creates man, of an invisible soul and a visible body". Just as the physical universe appears to be endless and considered to be continually expanding, so the soul of man with its natural powers is able to transcend physical boundaries.

For Elder Serafim of Vyritsa, padlocks and locked doors did not exist. Blind Matrona could take a student of architecture on a tour of the splendours of the Piazza and advise her how to correct and improve her doctoral thesis. Father Alexander when serving the Liturgy was able to transport those around him to the heavenly realm. One felt the presence of grace in the altar where the clergy served together.

As St Gregory the Theologian affirms, God places man on the earth like a second cosmos and what is more, as a greater cosmos within a smaller, physical one. Again St Gregory Palamas concurs when he writes that man is a cosmos, which encompasses universes, the visible and the invisible. "Your true self, that which is principally man, is not the visible body but the invisible soul, the inner man" (St Basil the Great: 329 - 379). The inner man is immortal while the outer man is temporal and perishes.

For those who belong to eastern religions such as Buddhism or Hinduism - man is God. For the Orthodox Christian man is a son of God. If you belief that God truly made man in His own image and likeness, then you are most likely to accept the Gospel definition of man rather than the scholastic view based on Aristotle's rational man.

Man is a son of God. Man is divine. This is the definition that I would like to present to you in this book. In reality, in the everyday murk of life, the divinity of man is often hard to find. For the perfect man of the Gospel is Christ. To be truly human is to be like Christ. Apart from the physical and psychological make up of man there is a spiritual dimension that separates him from the animal kingdom. This spiritual dimension is more than intellect, creativity and invention. It is a state that transcends the physical world and yet at the same time encompasses it.

If we take Christ as our model, we find that men do indeed have the spiritual characteristics of the God-Man. For man is able to endure suffering, to forgive his enemies, to seek peace and in some instances to work miracles. He too can eat with his friends, weep and rejoice and do countless things that Christ did on earth. And as Christ promised: "the works I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do.." (John 14: 12).

The men and women presented in this book witness to the Lord's promise. They are to be found not only in the distant past in the lives of the saints, but in our present time and in recent history. Such people have demonstrated a likeness to Christ, which borders on that perfection for which man was created in the first place.

Who are these people? Are they really human or some kind of super beings? Who are these people who live outside the boundaries of what we consider to be the normal? How can anyone live beyond the ordinary laws of this physical universe? To answer this question we need to look within ourselves and discover who we really are.

However this journey into the inner man can be a fearful venture, especially if our view of life is based solely on rational and tangible physical phenomena. Feuerbach once said we are what we eat. From a health perspective this is true. A healthy diet promises a healthy and fulfilled life at least at a physical level. Fasting for example has been known to help cure schizophrenia, while certain foods can help fight clinical depression. Yet the kingdom of Heaven is more than meat or drink and those who worship God must worship Him in spirit and in truth. (John 4: 24).

 

 

 

 
  
 

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