3 - 2002

Renaissance of spirituality

The Glory of the Lord Shines around us

The longing to behold the divine Light - the mysticism of the Eastern church

by Peter Zimmerling

In view of the widespread longing for spiritual experience in Western culture, curiosity about Orthodox mysticism is especially strong today. The writer portrays the closeness of mysticism, in Orthodoxy, to the church and its sphere of influence.

The vision of the divine Light represents the central mystical experience in the Eastern church. Like the Old Testament prophets, mystics have their eyes opened into God’s invisible realm. They have the same experience as the shepherds in the fields near Bethlehem in the Christmas story: ”The glory of the Lord shone around them ...” (Luke 2.9)

When Orthodox mystics behold the divine Light, the kingdom of heaven has already begun for them. Their descriptions of it reveal the limitations of human language in expressing such experiences. The vision of the divine Light takes hold of these mystics in such an existential way that it affects the whole of their theological thinking. From now on, they can only do theology in the ”light” of their experience of God. The theologians of the ancient church, the monastic fathers and more recent Orthodox theologians agree that God is not to be known through the development of logical thought, but only through the experience of practising one’s spirituality.

The experience of God in the Eastern church normally takes place in worship. Thus to bring up a child in the Orthodox faith is mainly to introduce him or her into the full experience of worship. In Orthodox worship services in Russia, grandmothers can be seen introducing their grandchildren, usually of preschool age, to what happens in church. This includes teaching them to cross themselves and light candles in prayer before the icons, and to carry themselves reverently while walking through the church. The children are being taught to express adoration in worship with their whole bodies.

Experiencing God in worship is a process sprawling throughout one’s life. Repetition is an essential element in it. It must be realised that Orthodox worship has remained more or less unchanged for a thousand years. The same liturgy transmitted through generations, celebrated anew each Sunday, allows the faithful great familiarity with the order of worship. Each time they come to church, they feel more at home with what happens in the liturgy. So, according to the Orthodox understanding, the mystical experience of God is a process of growing up into the spiritual sphere of the church.

But it is not only the liturgy, in the narrower sense, which communicates the Presence to Orthodox worshippers. The church building itself is the meeting place of the invisible God with his creatures. The Orthodox see their house of God not only as a place of prayer, but as the embodiment of the church in its goodness. It shows, through its architecture and works of art, God’s love turned towards humankind in Jesus Christ. As the hymns sing the reality of heaven in the hearts of worshippers, the icons are a place of encounter with the invisible heavenly realm. The saints, by their presence in the worship space, show the faithful that they are not alone and that a life according to God’s will is within their reach.

The entire experience of worship has a mystical and symbolic realism. The encounter with the heavenly realm is not confined to hearing the Word and receiving the sacraments, in Orthodox worship, but takes place also through art forms: the church architecture, the music and the icons. The celebration of the liturgy and the arrangement of the worship space together form a work of art which is designed to open the innermost heart of a human being towards God.

Moreover, Orthodox worship calls for bodily participation, showing the wholeness of the encounter with God. Through crossing oneself, bowing and kneeling, as an Orthodox believer, one keeps being drawn with one’s whole body into the worship event. Thus Orthodox worship is not anything like attending a lecture. Knowledge of God is communicated not only through the intellect, but rather holistically. It is meant to be an encounter between Creator and creature which embraces all the various dimensions of being human.
The mystical orientation of Orthodox faith is apparent also in everyday life. Until the revolution, every home in Russia had a ”special corner” with icons handed down in families for generations. This special corner makes one’s dwelling a place of prayer. It is intended to remind Orthodox Christians that even in their day-to-day lives they are in communion with the invisible.

This Orthodox emphasis on mystical experience, on faith as a lived experience, can be a helpful source of inspiration for Western theology and practice. Orthodox theology does not belittle the intellect as such, but rather the one-sidedness of intellectualism. It aims for a holistic experience of God, embracing body and feelings as well as thought. Many people in our Western culture are seeking wholeness in their lives. Thus when theology remains largely rational and ethical, it leaves many unsatisfied in their religious ideas and desires. They wander off to New Age movements or to sects, where their need for wholeness in religion seems more likely to be met.

The closeness of theology to the practice of the faith in the Eastern church could inspire Western theology to be more concerned about rediscovering the other aspects of faith besides the rational. This includes above all the practice of personal devotions, with the hunger to encounter God. Only rediscovering the experience of God in their theology and spiritual practice will free the Protestant churches from the lack of reality in the way they talk about God.

Dr. Peter Zimmerling is a lecturer at the Protestant Theological Seminary of the Universities of Heidelberg and Mannheim. This article, here slightly abridged, appeared in zeitzeichen magazine, No. 6, June 2002.