Light Through Darkness by John Chryssavgis,
Darton, Longman & Todd, London, 2004, ISBN
0232524734
Rrp. $29.95
Reviewed by Robert Braun
This charming and insightful study of the
Orthodox tradition is another in this publisher’s
series: Traditions of Christian Spirituality.
The author, who has divided his time between
Athens, Oxford and Sydney, seeks to provide an
accurate and balanced historical and thematic
treatment of the Orthodox tradition in the areas
of spirituality, liturgy and sacrament, monasticism,
theology and ecology, and spiritual direction. The
one hundred and forty two pages, plus carefully
arranged endnotes and suggested further reading,
make this a valuable source of knowledge for all
those who treasure the wisdom and insight of the
Orthodox East.
The author’s references and quotations span a
vast treasury of wisdom, from the early Fathers to
Dostoyevsky and Colleen McCullough!
He draws on writings from the Anglo-Orthodox
bishop Kallistos Ware, to the saintly Romanian
scholar, the late Fr Dumitru Staniloae. He also
distils wisdom from many of the publications that
have come from St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, New
York, which has been responsible for so many
scholarly works on the Orthodox faith.
Touching on tradition, the author repudiates
those modern Christians who give the impression
that God stopped speaking to the world two
thousand years ago. He reminds us that it is the
flames and not the ashes of the Church Fathers that
enliven the church today, through a living tradition
that communicates itself down the ages. Close
proximity in time to the early church is not seen
as the hallmark of authentic tradition, but closeness
to the faith.
In the life of the Orthodox Church there is no
sense of any interruption between the ‘primitive’
Christian era and the contemporary world. The
connectedness between twenty-fi rst century
Orthodoxy and the church of Chrysostom and
Gregory Palamas is almost tangible — an unbroken
living tradition. The author reminds us that in Orthodoxy there was nothing comparable to the
Scholastic revolution in the west, the European
Renaissance or the Protestant Reformation.
However little is said by the author about the
various divergences that have taken place, even in
the Orthodox ecclesia over the past two millennia,
created by differing theological, ecclesial and
nationalistic views.
Chryssavgis expounds a most interesting and
moving theology of ‘Tears and Brokenness’, and
contends that brokenness and darkness are the
only ways to healing and light. He explores the
interesting phenomenon of tears in three classics
of spirituality: the desert fathers and mothers, John
Climacus, and Symeon the New Theologian. He
relates ‘tears’ to Baptism, and believes the sacrament
is renewed by the tears of the penitent.
He says, “Tears are a way of knowing ourselves;
we weep because we have lost our paradisial
identity …” This leads us to affi rm that what is
far more important and insightful than learning
to live, is learning to die. One is reminded of the
paradoxical epitaph on the tomb of one of the
Renaissance popes, “He lived as if to die, so that
dying he might live”.
As he develops his theology of tears, the author
says, “Tears symbolise the fullness of life, with all its
sorrows and joys. I weep; therefore, I am”.
The concluding chapter of the book is like a
fi ne Easter homily. The author reminds us that
even the Orthodox sometimes forget that they are
a church of the cross, not just a church of light
and resurrection. The two mysteries of cross and
resurrection are inextricably linked. The red of the
Orthodox Easter eggs is the colour of the blood of
the cross.
The Venerable Robert Braun OGS is Anglican
Archdeacon of Brisbane.
The Lambeth Diary
Church Book and Desk Diary 2006
ISBN 1853116327 Rrp $49.95
A valuable resource for all things Anglican and
liturgical, with interdenominational notes.
However, next year the editors could consider
the eyesight of the aging Anglican population and
raise the typeface a point or two.