Quote of the Week: Pavel Florensky
Only the mysticism of the human center, which makes man accessible to grace and nourishes his core, corrects the personality and allows it to grow from measure to measure. All other mysticisms necessarily disrupt the already shaky equilibrium of life and ultimately pervert the nature of sinful man.
The danger of false mysticism lies precisely in the fact that the more conscientiously a person who has fallen into this mysticism tries to work on himself, the worse it will be for him. Only the foulest fall can force him to come to his senses and to begin to destroy what he has so painstakingly built. Just as a wayfayer who has taken the wrong path will diverse further from his goal the more he hurries, so an ascetic who has deviated from the path of ecclesiality will perish from his asceticism. It is not for nothing that spiritual elders warn novices: ‘Do not fear any sin, do not even fear fornication; fear nothing. But fear prayer and ascetic feats.’
–Pavel Florensky, The Pillar and Ground of the Truth. trans. Boris Jakim (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997), 195.
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The crisis of death which begins with isolation from a loving other has its root in the diruption of a loving and safe bond with the mother. Theoretically, this crisis is passed on from one generation to another in our genetic history which will predispose us to a myriad of fearful reactions in response to the environment into which we are born. Our basic personality will influence how we internally experience the environment and our behavioral response to that experience. This is hardwired into our limbic brain that is fully formed at birth. The more instinctively sensitive the child is to the fragility of human attachment the more reactive the child will be in her or his response. Fear can trigger withdrawal or aggression depending on the personality of the child.
Either way what occurs in this scenario is the development of a personality structure that defends the vulnerable self from potential harm. One extreme of the defense is to withdraw from emotional attachment to the source of fear and the other extreme is to defend oneself with aggression and attempts to dominate others. What eventually evolves is the development of a “false self” that relates to the world from a distance or one that attempts to dominate the world in whatever interaction occurs.
Those who are more introverted tend to withdraw and can be seen as the ascetics. Those who are more extroverted tend to be in positions of power or at least are willing to compete for those positions.
What I have written is extremely simplistic and it does disservice to volumes that have been written about this.
The only way to reach that human core of mysticism is to be vulnerable and to stop judgment through the development of honesty with self that begins with taking responsibility for the fear and rage that each of us have in response to that lost love in the beginning of our lives, that pain that results when we give up our self and attempt to become what others want us to be. We must be defenseless and transparent.
Excellent post.
I always was suspicious of spiritual works which emphasized stages of progress, as they all to easily lead the seeker to forget that at our deepest core we are always in the most profound need of grace. And a joy in grace can only come about in a lasting manner whenever we surrender our need for control and our only-human pursuit of perfection, as we feebly conceive of them.
Henry, Can you outline your take on that quote?
Mark
Right; it’s of course not saying there is no role for our effort and will, it’s just we need to realize that we can’t rely upon ourselves and think we can create perfection via ourselves and our “programs.”
MS
The quote points out the central role of grace in any serious progression. As long as we try to do things for ourselves, in our own effort, by our own constructed methodologies, thinking they will necessarily produce holiness, all which comes is a false sense of holiness which limits the human person, deconstructing it without any reconstruction in grace. Grace perfects nature, and so asceticism is meant to help us return to that which is natural; programs (such as some forms of theology of the body, even) which seek to construct holiness as a “science” ignore the grace, and the means to an end become an end in itself. That’s what we need to fear, because once we think we can become self-sufficient, we close ourselves off from grace, and end up like the Pharisees of old.
Very good. This is exactly what the ‘real’ dark night does for us.
Ronald,
How can I send you what I promised? Could you send me an email through my website? The email link is on the left underneath my picture. Then I will forward you the sections on the spirituality of youth violence I have completed.
“The only way to reach that human core of mysticism is to be vulnerable and to stop judgment”
Not now, but at some future point, I want to add to your insight here on the need for vulnerability in interpersonal relations. The acceptance of total vulnerability and the ability to not show fear in dangerous settings was key too my surviving on the street for five years when I was photographing and recording the stories of violent youth, the homeless, and substance abusers.
“We must be defenseless and transparent.”
Absolutely true. Otherwise we cannot love.
Immediately preceding this quote, the author states that Catholicism, at least in part, is a false mysticism of the stomach, as were the pagan and orgiastic religions.
Would you please make it clear that this is an Orthodox Christian work that is, at least in part, polemical and inimical to the Catholic Church?
It’s unfortunate, because the quote itself is important.
Timothy
While St Pavel Florensky can at times be polemical, that is often the case also within intra-Catholic works as well. And what he is responding to was in part to problems within Catholicism which others, within the Church, began to take notice a couple decades later; but yes, the work is a work of Orthodox dogmatics, and it will contain elements of Orthodox/Catholic debate, but, despite that, it’s a tremendous work, and indeed, one of the best pieces of theology in the 20th century. And St Pavel Florensky is a martyr of the Church, and worthy of our veneration (we can recognize Orthodox saints, and Easterners like me do).