When Kireyevsky discovered that the divine philosophy of the Holy
Fathers is capable of elevating human reason to heights never before
imagined, he wished to share this with others. He realized from his
own experience that nothing could stimulate and enlighten the mind
more than the Fathers; and nothing could bring a man to see reality
better and more clearly than they, for patristic philosophy is such
that a man may worthily dedicate the rest of his life to its study,
never exhausting it, and never ceasing to thrive and grow in its
ever?green pastures.
Western man lives in a world created by medieval thinkers, but it
is hard for him to understand their creation. The complexities of
abstract thought, such as the scholastics loved to pursue, are
quite beyond the average man today. And so we do not understand
why our civilization is the way it is; we often assume that if
it could be nothing else or, worse, that this is the "best of all
possible worlds."
Given this kind of shallow thinking, converts easily think that they
are not affected by the culture around them. They seem to think that,
having come at last to the saving faith, they are automatically
wrapped in some kind of protective shield that keeps the world at
bay. (This is not far from the fundamentalist Protestant conviction
that the man who "believes in Jesus" is automatically "saved.") But
the premise of western civilization has sunk so deeply into our
minds that we are governed by it without even knowing it.
Kireyevsky saw that European philosophy had reached its end and could
now generate only "an almost universal feeling of dissatisfaction
and deceived hopes," so that "for all the glitter, for all the
convenience and outward improvement of life, life itself has been
deprived of its essential meaning ... for the cold analysis of many
centuries has destroyed the foundation upon which European education
stood from the beginning of its development." It has now become a
mass of contradiction, unrecognizable ruin and rubble.
Still, Kireyevsky felt great compassion for those who had reached
this dead end and had not yet discovered Orthodoxy: It must
be very difficult for the man who is weighed down by an inward
thirst for divine truth and has not found the pure religion which
could satisfy this all-penetrating need." What is the honest man to
do? There is a way out, and it begins with a very simple yet critical
realization: a man must see that all of western thought, as well as
both Christianity and atheism in the west, are built upon the same
intellectual foundations. They share the same basic assumptions
about man and life. Therefore, one must not look to them for answers.
Is all philosophy then incompatible with religion? No, Kireyevsky
said, and we must beware of "condemning reason altogether as
something opposed to faith" lest we "harm religious conviction
even more than the philosophers themselves. For what kind of
religion would that be which could not bear the light of science
and knowledge?" What kind of faith is it which is incompatible
with reason?
Here Ivan Kireyevsky seems to be speaking in riddles. He asks us
to see philosophy as futile and deceptive, yet states that reason
is not necessarily incompatible with faith. Here is his explanation:
Western thinkers suppose that the mind, if properly trained,
exercised, and sharpened, is alone capable of coming to a knowledge
of the truth. If one's premise is correct, westerners believe,
and if strict logic is adhered to, then one's conclusions must
be true. This, Kireyevsky says, is rationalism, the belief that
reason alone, unaided by Divine Revelation, is the only valid basis
for knowledge.
Rationalism is foreign to Orthodoxy because, first, through Adam's
transgression, human nature is fallen, imperfect, and, although
not in itself evil, it is mixed with evil.
In his study of Saint Makarios the Great, Kontzevitch wrote:
"The mind was originally pure, remaining in its own rank, and it
beheld its Master; and Adam, remaining in purity, reigned over
his thoughts and was in a blessed condition, being covered with
Divine glory ... Having fallen away from God in the transgression,
man began to live a false life, a 'life of death.'"
Therefore, as Saint Paul says: "The natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness to him: neither
can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned." (I Cor. 2:14)
Saint Isaac the Syrian explains that in this "natural" (i.e. fallen)
state, unassisted man is capable of only the lowest kind of
understanding, that which comes through the senses. He can be fooled
by that which is transitory and unreal. He must ascend an inner
ladder, one which is hidden in the soul, in order to achieve full
knowledge of the truth. He cannot do this without hard spiritual
labor and the help of God.
Orthodox Christians "respect human reason as no one else, and they
never violate it. They regard it as one of the useful factors in
detecting falsehood and uncovering error. But they do not accept
it is capable of giving man certainty, of enlightening him to
see the truth, or guiding him to knowledge . . . Certainty is not
a matter of intellectual harmony; it is a deep assurance of the
heart ... The experience of knowledge is something which cannot
be expressed in human words. When the Apostle Paul came to know,
he said that he had heard unspeakable words - something which is
impossible for man to express."
Secondly, Kireyevsky points out that for Orthodox believers the
mind is not an end in itself. Rather, the goal of knowledge should
be wisdom, and wisdom is not a series of abstract concepts, but a
living Being, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who said, "I am the way,
the truth, and the life." Here we have not an idea, but a Person
who, as God, is Himself Wisdom, who has "given to us exceeding great
and precious promises; that by these ye might be partakers of the
divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world"
(11 Peter 1:4).
Saint Nil the Ascetic expressed it this way:
"Many of the Greeks and not a few of the Jews undertook to reason
philosophically but only Christ's disciples strove after the true
wisdom, for they alone had Wisdom itself as their teacher."
Since "the Word Himself ... was everything to Adam, before the fall,
whether knowledge, or experience, or inheritance or instruction,"
so also must He be for us, Orthodox Christians (Saint Makarios
the Great). In other words, let us not think that our reasoning
capacity can do for us what only God Himself can do; let us not
worship rationalism.
But reason is different from rationalism. Reason itself
is the capacity for sound and sane thought, good judgment,
discrimination. Saint John Chrysostom says that just as birds
are given wings in order that they might avoid snares, so was man
given reason, "that they may avoid sin." Therefore, reason can be
a life-preserving tool so long as the darkness of rationalism does
not pollute it.
Yet western man is trained from youth to exalt rationalism above all
else. This is why "a whole new world must be born in a westerner's
heart in order for him to understand something of Orthodoxy. How can
someone who has breathed the dry air of rationalism from the cradle
and learned to worship human cleverness as an idol be humbled and
become simple as a child?"
