>>specifically I'm interested in discussions,
>>explanations, etc. of Christ acting violently.
>>What did people have to say about this paradox?
>>Courtney Hanson<<
Dear Courtney, the following is excerpted from an article by James Moran who
at the time of the writing of this article
[1982] was a London based writer engaged in a comparative study of Eastern
Orthodoxy, Jewish Chasidism (Hasidism), and Zen Buddhism.) It provides an
insight into the "Angry Christ" within the understanding of the Orthodox
Church.
Father Ambrose
++++++ Major preceding snip ++++++++
What then is the good in us distorted by evil? In the Christian
Orthodox ascetic tradition, there are said to be three main expressions
- which are both "faculties" and "energies" - of the spark of the fire
of divinity in human beings. The Desert Fathers call these:
NOUS, or the eye of the heart: "perception," or the intelligent aspect
of the spark.
THYMOS, or the vehement wrath of the heart for truth and against
falsity, and the passion to act in and for the truth: "will," or the
incentive aspect of the spark.
EROS, or the longing of the heart for ecstatic union with God and with
all persons and creatures made by God (Orthodoxy does not accept any
distinction between Eros and Agape, for the former expressed only a more
intense and ecstatic state of the latter): "desire," or the goal-
directed aspect of the spark.
In their unfallen, or original state, one can speak of the clarity of
the NOUS, the strength of the THYMOS, and the power of the EROS.
The fallen state of NOUS, THYMOS and EROS is, at root, simple. But is
has effects at every level of personhood - spirit, soul (psychological
and sociological), and body (biological and physiological). At root
this fallen state is passivity rather than activity, bondage rather than
sovereignty. Instead of being expression of activity and freedom the
three fires become passions which possess us, and so scatter, dilute and
weaken authentic passion. In the Greek language, "sin" means "failure"
or specifically "failure to hit the mark"; the three fires fail to
achieve the TELIOS, or final end, for which they have been created.
This means, also, that they wander off the mark into illusion.
+++++++++ major snip +++++++++++++
The THYMOS is the strength of the will to act decisively on what the
NOUS has seen. The THYMOS is described by the Desert Fathers as
"vehement for truth and against falsity," and shows this discrimination
in all its action. Thus its action has an incisive, as well as
decisive, quality, like the Zen swordsman's cut, or the Zen
calligrapher's stroke. There is no room for brutality or blind force
here. but equally neither for sentimentality or cowardly hesitancy.
Thus the THYMOS is the arousing power of the will, the root power of the
personhood. It is a power inspired by fidelity to truth, and therefore
one ready to declare itself and suffer for truth. This has a very
specific meaning. In a world that fears love, and indeed wants to kill
it. Acting in and for its truth may have a very high cost. Christ
acted from THYMOS when he flogged the money-changers and threw them out
of the temple; when he denounced the Pharisees; and when he accepted
Crucifixion.
Though loving is an action of the will, the action must be made first to
God before it can be made with any discrimination and strength to human
beings. Without giving the will to God first we become victims or
victimizers in our action towards others. Our action is paralyzed at
the core or becomes merely an attack of one kind or another: a
manipulation, a display of power.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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