The Illness of religion Rev.

Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Saint Vlasios Hierotheos

The greatest problem of Western Christianity - and of many Orthodox also is that they have
religionized Christianity and have turned the Church into a religion. In this way, they cultivated
fundamentalisms, hatreds, divisions, a magical perception and relationship with God, also a
competitive disposition of one towards another, a self-centered view of life, a utilitarian and self-
benefiting perception of society, an imaginary interpretation of everything, the sentimental
approach to living and generally the opinion that the others comprise and are- a threat to our
existence.

Thus, in these circumstances, the brightly-lit Christmas trees, the sentimental melodies, the
moral-building analyses, all criminally conceal existential nakedness and make man a tragic
being.

The feast of the Birth of Christ cannot be confined to a few sentimental situations: a festive
dcor, an intellectual, rationalistic interpretation of events, a moralistic framework; it has a very
profound meaning and existential significance. If one remains at an external level, then he is
leaving himself hungry and thirsty, deprived of a life meaning and existential freedom.

The incarnation of Christ was considered and was celebrated by the Fathers of the Church and
the worshipping ecclesiastic community as the abolishing of religion and its transformation into a
Church. In fact, the memorable father John Romanides had said in the most categorical way that
Christ became human, in order to free us of the illness of religion.

The word religion is mention in Homers epics; it is also used by Herodotus to express the
worship and the honor that a person has to offer God. Etymologically, the (Greek) word for
religion is derived from the ancient word that implies ascend, and therefore, with the term
religion, the ascent of man towards God is implied. But even the (Greek) word for human is
etymologically derived from the expression upwards looking, again implying an ascent.

But, it appears at a first glance, that an ascent presupposes the acceptance of the essence of
metaphysics, according to which, a persons soul that has fallen from the immortal and
impersonal world of ideas and is encased in a body, has to rid itself of the body-sign-tomb and
return to the world of ideas. But even the latin word religio which is used to denote the word
religion signifies, according to dictionaries, the bond-unity-union of man with God; it also
denotes the same fact, i.e., the essence and the content of metaphysics. In fact, it also
presupposes if we seek it in eastern religions a faceless expression of mankind, since man has
to disappear like a drop of water in the ocean of the Supreme Being, and thus eliminating the
persona.

As the late Father John Romanides had taught, the term religion implies the relating of the
uncreated to the created, and actually the relating of the representations of the uncreated with the
notions and the words of human thought, and this kind of relating is of course the foundation of
the religion and the worship of idols. Therefore, in this case, the face of God is lost, and so is the
persons face; man becomes gravely ill, since his vices and his imagination are cultivated even
more, and more than this, we can say that the so-called irreproachable-natural vices (hunger,
thirst, etc.) become reproachable vices; causes of social anomalies because of unlimited
ambition, unjust craving for acquisition and unleashed debauchery.

It is well-known that Feuerbach at first, then Marx, had said that religion was the opium of the
people. We can accept this viewpoint, that religion as we see it in the East and in the
religionized views of western Christianity is the opium of the people, since it benumbs the
people, it mortifies societies and leads them to such a degree of deactivation, that it becomes
exploitable material for the institution of a tyranny that deprives mankind of his unalienable right
to freedom.

I would like to submit two characteristic examples of religious expression herebelow.

The first example comes from the Buddhist religion. We know that according to Buddhism, that
which preoccupies mankind is the problem of the pain that originates from the desire to live.
Hence, the ultimate goal of the enlightened one is the discarding of this passion to live. The
mortifying of the desire for life is achieved through a special method called Yoga with its
different variations, such as Hatha Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through physical exercises),
Karma Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through deeds and ritual acts), Mantra Yoga (uniting with
the Brahma through chants and magic syllables), Bhakti Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through
the absolute worship of one deity or the Guru himself), Jnana Yoga (uniting with the Brahma
through mystical knowledge), Kundalini Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through demonic
activities), Tantra Yoga (uniting with the Brahma through unbridled sexual acts). With these
methods, man is supposed to attain absolute Nirvana, which is the extinguishing of his existence
and the riddance of one desire for life, the ultimate purpose being the avoidance of Samsara
the recycling of life, or, reincarnation. Thus, the personal Atman is united to the overall Brahma,
just like a drop entering the ocean.

It is obvious that in a religious life such as this, there is no personality; man is merely considered
a unit, as there is also no such thing as society; no social life is encouraged, since every lifetime
is considered a beginning of grief.

The second example originates from the theories of Anselm of Canterbury, a scholastic
theologian, who founded a Christian system that prevailed in the West, having in mind the feudal
system of organizing society. But the feudal lord had absolute value and honor that could not be
violated, because every violation of his honor and every disturbance of the feudal system that
was considered a work of God, entailed the punishment of the violator; thus God is the highest
form of justice, He has honor, and has instituted order within creation, therefore, the violator
must either satisfy Gods sense of justice or be punished. Thus, Anselm interpreted the
crucifixional sacrifice of Christ, not as an expression of love for mankind, but as the atonement
of justice by God the Father. This system, with the assistance of the absolute destination, led to
enormous problems in the western world; problems both personal and social, as analyzed by Max
Weber in his book Protestant morality and the spirit of capitalism.

These two examples, one from the east and the other from the west, indicate how Feuerbach
arrived at his motto religion is the opium of the people. Naturally, we Orthodox also believe
that if we give religion this definition, the metaphysical definition, then it can indeed become the
opium of the people, because it will destroy every personal life, eliminate personal freedom, and
even disintegrate social life, and turn man from a person into a unit.

Christianity however appeared in the history of mankind as the end of religion, and the
experience of the Church. The term Church is an ancient Greek term and indicates a
community, the congregation of the populace the municipality that would solve its problems.
Naturally, with the term Church we do not imply something external; we are implying the
personal communion of mankind with God and its fellow-man, as seen in the Prophets of the Old
Testament, in the Apostles of the New Testament, I the Acts of the Apostles, where all those
who believed were of one mind, and had everything common to all; they sold the lands and the
belongings and shared them amongst everyone, for if they had needs.. (Acts,2:44-45); We see
it in the communes of monks, in the teaching of the major Fathers of the Church and it extends
into our time, as seen in the ecclesiastic communities narrated by Papadiamantis and the
Memoirs of Makriyannis. And we know full well, from various studies, that both Papadiamantis
and Makriyannis were not religious people; they were ecclesiastic, not inspired by western
Puritanism, but by the esychastic-nyptic Orthodox tradition.

The greatest problem of western Christianity, and many Orthodox, is that according to Ch.
Yannaras they have religionized Christianity, and transformed the Church into a religion. In this
way, they cultivated fundamentalisms, hatreds, divisions, a magical perception and relationship
with God, also a competitive disposition of one towards another, a self-centered view of life, a
utilitarian and self-benefiting perception of society, an imaginary interpretation of everything, the
sentimental approach to living and generally the opinion that the others comprise and are- a
threat to our existence.

Thus, in these circumstances, the brightly-lit Christmas trees, the sentimental melodies, the
moral-building analyses, all criminally conceal existential nakedness and make man a tragic
being.

If contemporary, speculating people looked for a meaning behind the Birth of Christ, it would be
that with His Birth, Christ abolished the illness of religion and transformed into a living Church
with whatever its authentic meaning entails. This is the need of contemporary man who is
suffering from the tragic trinity as Victor Frankl would have said, that is: suffering, guilt and
death, inasmuch as he feels his life is a pre-death experience, an existential and eternal death, and
not only seeks the experience of pleasure, but perhaps through pleasure, is seeking the survival of
existence.

Orthodoxy as therapy
By Protopresbyter George Metallinos
Dean of the Athens University Schoo
If we wished to conventionally define Christianity, as Orthodoxy, we would say it is the
experiencing of the presence of the Uncreated (=of God) throughout history, and the potential of
creation (=mankind) becoming God by Grace. Given the perpetual presence of God in Christ, in
historical reality, Christianity offers mankind the possibility of theosis, just as Medical Science
offers mankind the possibility of preserving or restoring his health through a specific therapeutic
procedure and a specific way of life.

The writer is in a position to appreciate the coincidence between the medical and ecclesiastic
poemantic sciences, because, as a diabetic and a Christian, he is aware that in both cases, he has to
faithfully abide by the rules that have been set out, in order to attain both these two goals.

The unique and absolute goal of life in Christ is theosis, in other words, our union with God, so
that man - through his participation in Gods uncreated energy may become by the Grace of
God that which God is by nature (=without beginning and without end). This is what salvation
means, in Christianity. It is not the moral improvement of man, but a re-creation, a re-construction
in Christ, of man and of society, through an existing and an existential relationship with Christ,
Who is the incarnate manifestation of God in History. This is what the Apostle Pauls words imply,
in Corinthians II 5:17 : If someone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Whoever is united with
Christ is a new creation.

That is why Christianically the incarnation of God-Logos - this redemptory intrusion of the
Eternal and the Beyond-time God into Historical time represents the commencement of a new
world, of a (literally) New Age, which continues throughout the passing centuries, in the persons
of authentic Christians: the Saints. The Church exists in this world, both as the body of Christ as
well as in Christ, in order to offer salvation, through ones embodiment in this regenerative
procedure. This redemptory task of the Church is fulfilled by means of a specific therapeutic
method, whereby throughout history, the Church essentially acts as a universal Infirmary.
Spiritual Infirmary (spiritual hospital) is the characterization given to the Church by the blessed
Chrysostom (407).

Further along, we shall examine the answers given to the following questions:

What is the sickness that Christian Orthodoxy cures?

What is the therapeutic method it implements?

What is the identity of authentic Christianity, which radically separates it from all of its heretic
deviations, and from every other form of religion?

1. The sickness of human nature is the fallen state of mankind, along with all of creation, which
likewise suffers (sighs and groans together Romans 8:22) together with mankind. This
diagnosis applies to every single person (regardless whether they are Christian or not, or whether
they believe or not), on account of the overall unity of mankind (ref. Acts 17:26). Christian
Orthodoxy does not confine itself within the narrow boundaries of one religion - which cares only
for its own followers but, just like God, wants all people to be saved and to arrive at the
realization of the truth (Timothy I, 2:4), since God is the Saviour of all persons (Timothy I,
4:10). Thus, the sickness that Christianity refers to pertains to all of mankind; Romans 5:12:
death has come upon all people, since all of them have sinned (=they have veered from their path
towards theosis). Just as the fall (i.e. sickness) is a panhuman issue, so is salvation-therapy directly
dependent on the inner functions of each person.

The natural (authentic) state of a person is (patristically) defined by the functioning inside him of
three mnemonic systems; two of which are familiar and monitored by medical science, while the
third is something handled by poemantic therapeutics. The first system is cellular memory (DNA),
which determines everything inside a human organism. The second is the cerebral cellular
memory, brain function, which regulates our association with our self and our environment. Both
these systems are familiar to medical science, whose work it is to maintain their harmonious
operation.

The experience of the Saints is familiar with one other mnemonic system: that of the heart, or
noetic memory, which functions inside the heart. In Orthodox tradition, the heart does not only
have a natural operation, as a mere pump that circulates the blood. Furthermore, according to
patristic teaching, neither the brain nor the central nervous system is the center of our self-
awareness; again, it is the heart, because, beyond its natural function, it also has a supernatural
function. Under certain circumstances, it becomes the place of our communion with God, or, His
uncreated energy. This is of course perceived through the experience of the Saints, and not through
any logical function or through an intellectual theologizing.

Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (1809), in recapitulating the overall patristic tradition in
his work Hortative Manual, calls the heart a natural and supernatural center, but also a
paranormal center, whenever its supernatural faculty becomes idle on account of the heart being
dominated by passions. The hearts supernatural faculty is the ultimate prerequisite for perfection,
for mans fulfillment, in other words, his theosis, for a complete embodiment in the communion in
Christ.

In its supernatural faculty, the heart becomes the space where the mind can be activated. In the
Orthodox terminology codex, the mind ( - appearing in the New Testament as the spirit of
man and the eye of the soul) is an energy of the soul, by means of which man can know God,
and can reach the state of seeing God. We must of course clarify that knowledge of God does
not imply knowledge of His incomprehensible and inapproachable divine essence. This distinction
between essence and energy in God is the crucial difference between Orthodoxy and all other
versions of Christianity. The energy of the mind inside the heart is called the noetic faculty of the
heart. We again stress that according to Orthodoxy, the Mind () and Logic () are
not the same thing, because logic functions within the brain, whereas the mind functions within the
heart.

The noetic faculty is manifested as the incessant prayer (ref. Thessalonians I, 5:17) of the Holy
Spirit inside the heart (ref. Galatians 4:6, Romans 8:26, Thessalonians I 5:19) and is named by our
Holy Fathers as the memory of God. When man has in his heart the memory of God, in other
words, when he hears in his heart the voice (Corinthians I 14:2, Galatians 4:6, etc.), he can sense
God dwelling inside him (Romans 8:11). Saint Basil the Great in his 2nd epistle says that the
memory of God remains incessant when it is not interrupted by mundane cares, and the mind
departs towards God; in other words, when it is in communion with God. But this does not mean
that the faithful who has been activated by this divine energy withdraws from the needs of
everyday life, by remaining motionless or in some kind of ecstasy; it means that his Mind is
liberated from these cares, which are items that preoccupy only his Logic. To use an example that
we can relate to: A scientist, who has re-acquired his noetic faculty, will use his logic to tackle his
problems, while his mind inside his heart will preserve the memory of God incessantly. The person
who preserves all three mnemonic systems is the Saint. To Orthodoxy, he is a healthy (normal)
person. This is why Orthodoxys therapy is linked to mans course towards holiness.

The non-function or the below-par function of mans noetic faculty is the essence of his fall. The
much-debated ancestral sin was precisely mans mishandling from that very early moment of
his historical presence- of the preservation of Gods memory (=his communion with God) inside
his heart. This is the morbid state that all of the ancestral descendants participate in; because it was
no moral or personal sin, but a sickness of mans nature (Our nature has become ill, of this sin,
observes Saint Cyril of Alexandria - 444), which is transmitted from person to person, exactly
like the sickness that a tree transmits to all the other trees that originate from it.

The inactivating of the noetic faculty or the memory of God, and confusing it with the function of
the brain (which happens to all of us), subjugates man to stress and to the environment, and to the
quest for bliss through individualism and an anti-social stance. While ill because of his fallen state,
man uses God and his fellow man to secure his personal security and happiness. Personal use of
God is found in religion (=the attempt to elicit strength from the divine), which can degenerate
into a self-deification of man (I became a self-idol says Saint Andrew of Crete, in his Major
Canon). The use of fellow-man -and subsequently creation in general- is achieved by exploiting
them in every possible way. This, therefore, is the sickness that man seeks to cure, by becoming
fully incorporated in the spiritual hospital of the Church.

2. The purpose of the Churchs presence in the world as a communion in Christ- is mans cure;
the restoration of his heart-centred communion with God; in other words, of his noetic faculty.
According to the professor fr. John Romanides, the patristic tradition is neither a social
philosophy, nor a system of morals, or a religious dogmatism; it is a therapeutic method. In this
context, it is very similar to Medicine and especially Psychiatry. The noetic energy of the soul that
prays mentally and incessantly inside the heart is a natural instrument, which everyone possesses
and is in need of therapy. Neither philosophy, nor any of the known positive or social sciences can
cure this instrument. This is why the incurable cases are not even aware of this instruments
existence.

The need for man to be cured is a panhuman issue, related firstly to the restoration of every person
to his natural state of existence, through the reactivation of the third mnemonic faculty. However,
it also extends to mans social presence. In order for man to be in communion with his fellow man
as a brother, his self-interest (which in the long run acts as self-love) must be transformed into
selflessness (ref. Corinthians I, 13:8) love.does not ask for reciprocation..). Selfless love
exists: it is the love of the Triadic God (Romans 5:8, John I 4:7), which gives everything without
seeking anything in exchange. That is why Christian Orthodoxys social ideal is not common
possessions, but the lack of possessions, as a willed resignation from any sort of demand. Only
then can justice be possible.

The therapeutic method that is offered by the Church is the spiritual life; the life in the Holy Spirit.
Spiritual life is experienced as an exercise (Ascesis) and a participation in the Uncreated Grace,
through the Sacraments. Ascesis is the violation of our self-ruled and inanimate through sin nature,
which is coursing headlong into a spiritual or eternal death, i.e. the eternal separation from the
Grace of God. Ascesis aspires to victory over our passions, with the intention of conquering the
inner subservience to those pestiferous focal points of man and participating in Christs Cross and
His Resurrection.

The Christian, who is practicing such restraint under the guidance of his Therapist-Spiritual Father,
becomes receptive to Grace, which he receives through his participation in the sacramental life of
the ecclesiastic corpus. There cannot be any un-exercising Christian, just as there cannot be a
cured person who does not follow the therapeutic advice that the doctor prescribed for him.

3. The above lead us to certain constants, which verify the identity of Christian Orthodoxy:
(a) The Church as the body of Christ- functions as a therapy Centre-hospital. Otherwise, it would
not be a Church, but a Religion. The Clergy are initially selected by the cured, in order to
function as therapists. The therapeutic function of the Church is preserved today, mostly in
Monasteries which, having survived secularism, continue the Church of the Apostolic times.

(b) The scientists of ecclesiastic therapy are the already cured persons. Those who have not had the
experience of therapy cannot be therapists. That is the essential difference between the poemantic
therapeutic science and medical science. The scientists of ecclesiastic therapy (Fathers and
Mothers) bring forth other Therapists, just as the Professors of Medicine bring forth their
successors.

(c) The Churchs confining itself to a simple forgiveness of sins so that a place in paradise may be
secured constitutes alienation and is tantamount to medical science forgiving the patient, so that he
might be healed after death! The Church cannot send someone to Paradise or to Hell. Besides,
Paradise and Hell are not places, they are ways of existence. By healing mankind, the Church
prepares the person so that he might eternally look upon Christ in His uncreated light as a view of
Paradise, and not as a view of Hell, or as an all-consuming fire (Hebrews 12:29). And this of
course concerns every single person, because ALL people shall look eternally upon Christ, as the
Judge of the whole world.

(d) The validity of science is verified by the achievement of its goals (i.e., in Medicine, it is the
curing of the patient). It is the way that authentic scientific medicine is distinguished from
charlatanry. The criterion of poemantic therapy by the Church is also the achievement of spiritual
healing, by opening the way towards theosis. Therapy is not transferred to the afterlife; it takes
place during mans lifetime, here, in this world (hinc et nunc). This can be seen in the
undeteriorated relics of the Saints that have overcome biological deterioration, such as the relics of
the Eptanisos Saints: Spiridon, Gerasimos, Dionysios and Theodora Augusta. Undeteriorated relics
are, in our tradition, the indisputable evidence of theosis, or in other words the fulfilment of the
Churchs ascetic therapy.

I would like to ask the Medical scientists of our country to pay special attention to the issue of the
non-deterioration of holy relics, given that they havent been scientifically interfered with, but, in
them is manifest the energy of Divine Grace; because it has been observed that, at the moment
when the cellular system should begin to disintegrate, it automatically ceases to, and instead of
emanating any malodour of decay, the body emanates a distinctive fragrance. I limit this comment
to the medical symptoms, and will not venture into the aspect of miraculous phenomena as
evidence of theosis, because that aspect belongs to another sphere of discussion.

(e) Lastly, the divine texts of the Church (Holy Bible, Synodic and Patristic texts) do not constitute
coding systems of any Christian ideology; they bear a therapeutic character and function in the
same way that university dissertations function in medical science. The same applies to the
liturgical texts, as for example the Benedictions. The simple reading of a Benediction (prayer),
without the combined effort of the faithful in the therapeutic procedure of the Church, would be no
different to the instance where a patient resorts to the doctor for his excruciating pains, and,
instead of an immediate intervention by the doctor, he is limited to being placed on an operating
table, and being read the chapter that pertains to his specific ailment.

This, in a nutshell, is Orthodoxy. It doesnt matter whether one accepts it or not. However, with
regard to scientists, I have tried -as a colleague in science myself- to scientifically respond to the
question: What is Orthodoxy.

Any other version of Christianity constitutes a counterfeiting and a perversion of it, even if it
aspires to presenting itself as something Orthodox.

Bibliographical Notes
Fr. John S. Romanides, Romans or neoroman Fathers of the Church, Thessaloniki 1984. Fr. John
S. Romanides, Religion is a neurobiological ailment, and Orthodoxy is its cure, from the volume
Orthodoxy, Hellenism Holy Monastery of Koutloumousion Publications, Volume B,, 1996,
pages 66-67. Fr. John S. Romanides, Church Synods and Civilization, from THEOLOGY, vol.63
(1992) pg.421-450 and in Greek vol.66 (1995) pg.646-680. Fr. Hierotheos Vlachos (presently
Metropolitan of Nafpaktos), Orthodox Psychotherapy, Edessa 1986. Fr. Hierotheos Vlachos
(presently Metropolitan of Nafpaktos), Minor Introduction into Orthodox Spirituality, Athens.
Fr. Hierotheos Vlachos (presently Metropolitan of Nafpaktos), Existential Psychology and
Orthodox Psychotherapy, Levadia 1995. Also by the author, the following studies: Fr. G.
Metallinos, An Orthodox View of Society, Athens 1986. Fr. G. Metallinos, Theological witness
of ecclesiastic worship, Athens 1996. (N. B.: In these books one can find more bibliography)
Notes Clarifications
1. The Uncreated = Something that has not been manufactured. This applies only to the Triadic
God. The Created = Creation in general, with man at its apex. God is not a universal power, as
designated by New Age terminology (everything is one, everyone is God!), because, as the
Creator of all, He transcends the entire universe, given that in essence He is Something entirely
different (Das ganz Andere). There is no analogous association between the created and the
Uncreated. That is why the Uncreated makes Himself know, through His self-revelation. 2. A
significant Christian text of the 2nd century, The Poemen (Shepherd) of Hermas, says that in
order for us to become members of the Body of Christ, we must be squared stones (=suitable for
building) and not rounded ones!
3. According to fr. John Romanides, to whom we essentially owe the return to the Philokalian
(=therapeutic-ascetic) view of our Faith, and in fact at an academic level; Religion implies every
kind of associating of the uncreated and the created, as is done in idolatry. The religious
person projects his predudices (=thoughts, meanings) into the divine realm, thus
manufacturing his own God (this can also occur in the non-Patristic facet of Orthodoxy). The
aim is atonement, placation of the divine and finally, the utilizing of God to ones own
advantage (the magic formula: do ut des). In our tradition however, our God does not need to be
placated, because He first loved us (John I 4:19) Our God acts as Love (John I, 4:16) and
selfless love at that. He gives us everything, and never asks for anything in return from His
creations. This is why selflessness is the essence of Christian love, which goes far beyond the
notion of a transaction.

4. This is expressed by the familiar and oft-repeated liturgical chant: Ourselves and each other,
and our entire life, let us appose unto Christ our Lord.

Proper incorporation is normally found in Monasteries, wherever they function in the orthodox
tradition of course. That is why Monasteries (for example those of the Holy Mountain) continue to
be the model parishes of this world.

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