Augustine of Hippo on Faith vs Contemplation

'I am the way, and the truth, and the life' (John 14.6).  Faith is our way, contemplation is the truth and the life.  'For now we see in a mirror dimly' (I Corinthians 13.12).  This is faith.  'But then face to face.'  This is contemplation.  Paul says again: 'Christ dwells in our hearts according to the inner man by faith.'  That is the road along which we can catch glimpses only. But he adds: 'You will know the love of Christ which surpasses all knowledge and you will be filled with all the fullness of God' (cf. Ephesians 3.16-19).  Contemplation is this fullness . . . 'You have died,' he says again, 'and you life is hid with Christ in God.'  That is faith.  But 'when Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory' (Colossians 3.3-4).  That is the vision of God.  
   
'Beloved,' John says, 'we are God's children; it does not yet appear what we shall be.'  That is faith.  But he goes on:  'We know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' (1 John 3.2).  That is contemplation. 
   
~ Augustine of Hippo, Sermons, 346,2 (PL 38,1523-4) 
   
TALK ABOUT IT  The Greek word for faith - pisteuo - means to trust or to entrust.  The Greek word for contemplation - theoria - means to look at things through the eye of the soul.  Both are considered divine gifts as well as human effort.  After reading Augustine, what would YOU say is the relationship between faith and contemplation? 
   
NOTE  Allow for some flexibility in the definition of these words in our discussion and practice.  In other contexts, the word theoria is used as a counterpart to praxis - theoria (a spiritual idea or teaching) vs praxis (spiritual experience or practice).  This can be confusing since contemplation (theoria) is often considered a practice.  
    
PRACTICE IT  (INWARD)  Where are you on your spiritual journey relative to faith and contemplation?  Where do you feel called to be?  Who can help you make progress toward your goal? 
    
PRACTICE IT (OUTWARD)  How do/can you practice entrusting others to God and looking at them through the eye of your soul?  
    
AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO ON FAITH AND CONTEMPLATION: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Learning about the Incarnation from Maximos the Confessor

“A sure warrant for looking forward with hope to the deification of human nature is provided by the incarnation of God, which makes man god to the same degree as God Himself became man.  For it is clear that He who became man without sin (cf. Heb 4:15) will divinize human nature without changing it into the divine nature, and will raise it up for His own sake to the same degree as He lowered himself for man's sake. This is what St Paul teaches mystically when he says, '. . . that in the ages to come He might display the overflowing riches of His grace' (Eph 2:7)." 

    

~ Maximos the Confessor, The Philokalia, Text 62, First Century of Various Texts

    
TALK ABOUT IT  What do you think about the Incarnation as the means of atonement (uniting human and divine natures)?  Why then the Crucifixion?  
  
NOTE
Maximos notes that it is love that unites those who have been divided and is able to create a unity of will and purpose.  The praxis he recommends is "simply that we should show mercy and receive mercy" (Text 45).  
  
DOING IT (INNER PRACTICE)  How are you being called to practice receiving mercy? 
  
DOING IT (OUTER PRACTICE)  How are you being called to practice showing mercy?
     
LEARNING FROM MAXIMOS THE CONFESSOR: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Learning from Timothy Ware

Orthodox religious thought lays the utmost emphasis on the image of God in man.  Man is a 'living theology', and because he is God's icon, he can find God by looking within his own heart, by 'returning within himself': 'The Kingdom of God is within you' (Luke xvii, 21).  'Know yourselves,' said Saint Antony of Egypt.  '...He who knows himself, knows God. (Letter 3).  'If you are pure,' wrote Satin Isaac the Syrian (late seventh century), 'heaven is within you; within yourself you will see the angels and the Lord of the angels' (Quoted in P. Evdokimov, L'Orthodoxie, p 88).  And of Saint Pachomius it is recorded: 'In the purity of his heart he saw the invisible nature of God as in a mirror' (First Greek Life, 22).  
  
Because he is an icon of God, each member of the human race, even the most sinful, is infinitely precious in God's sight.  'When you see your brother,' said Clement of Alexandria (died 215), 'you see God' (Stromateis, I xix [94, 5]).  And Evagarius taught: 'After God, you must count all men as God Himself' (On Prayer, 123).  This respect for every human being is visibly expressed in Orthodox worship, when the priest senses not only the icons but the members of the congregation, saluting the image of God in each person.  'The best icon of God is man' (P. Evodokimov, L'Orthodoxie,  218).   
   
~ Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, p 225-226 
   
TALK ABOUT IT:  How does this Orthodox teaching affirm or challenge your own thoughts about human beings? 
  
DO IT (INNER PRACTICE):  If, as in Orthodox teaching, this divine image (icon) is a potentiality to be made real, how can/do you practice realizing it? 
  
DO IT (OUTER PRACTICE):  How can/do you summon this potentiality in others?  
    
LEARNING FROM TIMOTHY WARE: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Learning from Martin Thornton

Spiritual direction assumes the centrality of prayer as power to act... The practical out-going Christian is not someone who, vaguely inspired by Jesus, sets about solving the world's problems and trying to love his neighbors off his own bat - albeit autographed by Jesus.  Rather he is one who, ontologically incorporated into the sacred humanity of Christ, becomes his redemptive instrument.... Christian action is not action of which Jesus approves but action that he performs through his incorporated, and therefore prayerful, disciples.  
~ Martin Thornton, "Spiritual Direction", pp 13-14       
                                                                                                        No images of Martin Thornton
  
TALK ABOUT IT   How does the difference between doing what Jesus would do, and Jesus doing his work through us, matter to you?  
  
DO IT (INNER PRACTICE)   How does this difference effect you experience the practice of compassion? 
   
DO IT (OUTER PRACTICE)  How could this difference effect the way others experience your compassion?  

LEARNING FROM MARTIN THORNTON: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION   

Learning from William Johnston

After the Second Vatican Council, scholasticism collapsed.  New theological methods arose.  No one can question the value of the historical critical approach to Scripture and patristics that is now in vogue; no one can deny the immense value of modern, scientific scholarship and research.  Yet the West has to learn an important lesson from the Orthodox tradition: the value of prayer and mystical experience for theology.  Profound wisdom comes not only from scientific research but also from contemplation.  This is the doctrine of Thomas Aquinas who speaks of connatuarality and knowledge that comes from love.  Such wisdom will be all the more necessary as Christianity enters into dialogue with the mystical religions of Asia.
  
~ William Johnson, "Mystical Theology: The Science of Love"
   
TALK ABOUT IT  What could mystical experience contribute beyond reason, research, and rational thought to theological study (the study of God and God's nature, attributes, and relation to the world)? 

DO IT (INNER PRACTICE)  What inner (contemplative) practices are helping you (or what inner practices do you think might help you) to know and understand God's nature and relation to the world?  

DO IT (OUTER PRACTICE)  What relationship can you discover between you inner practice and your outward relationships with / behaviors toward others? 


LEARNING FROM WILLIAM JOHNSTON: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION 

Learning from Nicolas Berdyaev

The greatest Christian mystics of all creeds placed love for God and union with God above personal salvation.  Exoteric Christianity often criticized mystics because for them the center of gravity of spiritual life does not lie in the ways of personal salvation; they proceed by the perilous ways of mystical love...

In the individualistic, ascetic understanding of Christianity as a religion of personal salvation in which one cares only about one's soul, the revelation of the resurrection of all creatures is incomprehensible and unnecessary.  The religion of personal salvation has no universal eschatological perspective, no personal connection of the individual human soul with the world, with the cosmos, with all creation.  The religion of personal salvation denies the hierarchical order of existence in which all is united with all and in which no individual fate can be isolated... I cannot save myself alone, I can save myself only together with my brothers and sisters, together with all of God's creation.  I cannot think only of my own salvation, I must think also of the salvation of others, of the salvation of the whole world.  
   
And even the idea of salvation is only an exoteric expression for the achievement of spiritual heights, of perfection, of becoming like God - which is the supreme goal of the life of the world... 
   
Christianity always, is, and will be not only a religion of personal salvation and terror of damnation but also a religion of transfiguration of the world, the theosis (divinization) of all creatures, a cosmic and social religion, a religion of selfless love, love for God and humanity, promising the Kingdom of God.         
  
~ Nicolas Berdyaev, "Salvation and Creativity" in Western Spirituality: Historic Roots, Ecumenical Routes, edited by Matthew Fox 

TALK ABOUT IT:  What to you notice in this quote that challenges or affirms your own assumptions?  Where did you inherit your assumptions about salvation?  

DO IT (INNER PRACTICE):  How would (do) you practice salvation as participation in a collective transformation rather than as a private transaction with God?  

DO IT (OUTER PRACTICE):  How can (will) you contribute in some way, even some very small way, this week to the transformation of the world into the Kingdom of God?    


LEARNING FROM NICOLAS BERDYAEV: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION 

Learning from Bede Griffiths

The death and resurrection of Christ is a unique event.  In one sense it is a mythological event, an event of supreme symbolism... But it is a sign which is rooted in history... This is very difficult for the Hindu to understand.  The Hindu ideal is to be above all suffering... When one looks at the Buddha, one sees that he is completely calm.  He has passed beyond this world.  But when we contemplate Jesus' suffering on the cross, we see how God has entered into humanity, into our human state, into human suffering and pain, into death.  This is something quite different...
  

The Hindu always tends to think that when you reach the Beyond all your differences, the body and soul, disappear, and you experience only the Divine Bliss... But in the Christian view the whole meaning and purpose of creation was that God should reflect Himself in you, in me, in others, and in everything.  The whole creation is not to disappear, but to be re-created and transformed, to participate in the Divine Life, fulfilling itself in the Divine Bliss, the Divine Glory...  
  
The danger [of Christianity today] is that it over-emphasises the importance of matter and science and history and human progress in this world striving for a better world... And so the modern Christian view needs to be complemented with the constant awareness which the Hindu has of the eternal dimension of being... of the sacramentality of the whole of creation and of the transcendent world beyond time, beyond space, beyond this world altogether.  
  
~ Bede Griffiths, The Cosmic Revelation, pp 125-129
     
TALK ABOUT IT  What does our body matter?  (Is it merely a discardable "vessel" of our spiritual reality.  Is it a sacramental reality that is changed rather than destroyed by death?) 
  
DO IT (INNER PRACTICE)  How does the way you treat your body reflect your understanding of it?  What could God be calling you to do, or be, or change? 
   
DO IT (OUTER PRACTICE)  How does the way you treat creation reflect your understanding of it?  What could God be calling you to do, or be, or change? 


LEARNING FROM BEDE GRIFFITHS: CHURCH OF RECONCILIATION