Father Vasilios Kalliakmanis Professor of the Department of Theology, University of Thessaloniki.
The lifestyle in the big cities has been deteriorating in recent years. Air pollution and the accumulation of pollutants, electromagnetic and noise pollution, the lack of greenery and the ecological crisis, the distances between home and work, traffic congestion, and the alienation and isolation of people, despite abundant social networking, all add to the heavy atmosphere. The permanent residents are leaving the central parts of the cities and looking for a clearing to breathe. This is evident from the unprecedented residential activity on the outskirts and outskirts of the megacities and the increased traffic on the major motorways and in the country’s ports during holidays, holidays and vacations. However, even these escape attempts do not always provide the desired peace of mind and inner peace. Interruptions without spiritual awakening and grace feeding leave a great inner void, which despite the best efforts of the mind is usually not filled. And questions arise, such as:
Could one be refreshed not only physically but also spiritually on the occasion of the holidays?
Does a hurried and stressful lifestyle contribute to missing out on opportunities that could be a source of inspiration and spiritual growth? Can contact with nature help in this direction?
Man is directly connected to the natural environment not only to feed and sustain himself, but also to create culture. The Ionian philosophers argued that there are four elements in nature: the “lifeless fire”, i.e. fire, air, water and earth. With the contrasts of these elements, a successive recurrence and “callistic harmony”, as Heraclitus used to say. Aristotle added a fifth element, ether, to this tetrad, which was established as a quintessence. This element was believed to be found in the upper layers of the sky and is unborn, indestructible, unadulterated, unchanged, and unchanging. With insight and intuition, philosophers reached high levels of inquiry, in a way preparing the world for the acceptance of Christian revelation.
The beauty of creation can contribute to spiritual enrichment. Of course, it matters a great deal how one sees nature. As an indifferent and indolent visitor or as a sensitive seeker? In ecclesiastical hymnography, for example, the beauty of creation is described in a poetic and eloquent way and is linked to the quality of life. The natural environment exists for man and draws him to the Creator. “The heavens tell the glory of God and the firmament proclaims the poetry of his hands” (Ps 18:1), writes the psalmist, while the Nobel Prize-winning poet Odysseas Elytis speaks of the “Poet of clouds and waves who sleeps within us” (‘Axion Esti, The Passions, Reading b, f).
However, in order to be reduced from the sensible beauty of the creatures to the Creator and Creator of the universe, in order to awaken the man created in the “image of God”, trained spiritual senses are needed. Internal cleansing from the burdensome weight and the fog of corrupting passions. Thus material creation, which is an expression of God’s providential energy towards his most perfect creature, can become a source of inspiration.
Hymn writers with a pure heart connect the beauty of the building with the glory of the Creator. Lovers of divine beauty, the sacred poets introduce man to a secret path of divine knowledge. The beauty and harmony of the buildings, although not comparable to the beauty of the divine splendour, contribute to the purification of the senses and bring us to the all-glorious God. The colours of the plants, the natural variations of the mountains and plains, the formations of the rivers and lakes, the forests with their richness, the sea, the sun and the stars with the harmony of their movements, or even a drop of water on a flower, the rustle of tree foliage, a ray of sunshine in the deep shade, the subtle breeze in the heat of summer can lead to a praise of gratitude to the Creator. August in particular is considered a month of relaxation, holidays and summer heat. However, for our country it is also a month of spiritual quest, of sacred prayers to the Lady of Angels, a month of the great feasts of the Transfiguration and the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. And when the rest of the body is combined with spiritual nourishment and a corresponding contemplation of the beauty of creation, it is a real blessing for man.
Then the holidays may well become an occasion for holy pilgrimages, unique emotions, opportunities to feel our Christian cultural tradition. Thus the anxious person begins to calm down and acquires a “delicate and poetic soul”, as Hosios Porphyrios used to say. “Take advantage of the good times,” the saint continues. “Beautiful moments predispose the soul to prayer, make it delicate, gentle, poetic. Wake up in the morning, to see the king sun coming out of the sea in full bloom. When you are delighted by a landscape, a chapel, something beautiful, do not stay there, go beyond it, go on in praise of all that is beautiful, to live the only Beautiful. Everything is holy, and the sea and the bathing and the food. All things rejoice. All enriches us, all leads us to great Love, all leads us to Christ… Nature is the secret Gospel”!
However, for man to consider the beauty of nature in this way, he needs faith, even as a “grain of mustard seed”, and spiritual exercise of the senses. Ulysses Elytis in the Little Nautilus states: “When we discover the secret relations of concepts and walk them in depth, we will emerge into another kind of clearing, which is Poetry. And poetry is always one, as one is the sky. The question is from where one sees the sky.” Poetry, especially ecclesiastical poetry, is a clearing. The Church on every feast day invites us to this clearing, so that we may join the mystical rays of the Spirit and see the world around us in praise, thanksgiving, reduction and reflection on the beauty of the Creator. It invites us to look at the natural environment not so much from the point of view of profit, indiscriminate exploitation, overconsumption of material goods, but from the point of view of self-criticism, repentance and spiritual search. In this way we will respect it, protect it and discover through the beauty of nature the coherent and providential energy of the Creator, who “wisely made everything”.
Greek philosophy and Christianity
From the Wisdom of Goddess Athena to the Wisdom of God
The Greek, in his history, has a God-centered existence. Atheism in ancient Hellenism is unknown (to be introduced in the last centuries by Western Europe). The most ancient Greek written texts, the Homeric epics, are the triumphant affirmation of the dialogue between God and man.
Odysseus’ return to Ithaca through so many trials and ”temptations” reminds us of man’s struggle for his return to Paradise, Hercules’ call to choose between virtue and vice seems to imply something deeper and more essential, a meaning secret beyond life and death, but the shadow still falls over them. For this reason, the Apostle Paul will call the Athenians-Greeks of his day “superstitious” (Acts 17:22),
i.e. “pious”.
Greek Philosophy two simple words, but words full of the richness of great and high meanings. In them is contained the perfect concept of man. In them is recognized the greatness of the human Mind, the height of the human intellect, the power, beauty and beauty of speech, and finally, the divine origin and descent of man.
Ancient Greek literature, especially tragedy, is the projection of the humanistic values that make man authentic and genuine (cf. Menander’s speech: “how graceful man is when he IS man. “Pasa Homer’s poetry of virtue was epeinos” – will be observed by Basil the Great (379 A.D.). The ancient Greek values will take on a universal scope and will “educate” the world to this day. Another key feature of Greek thought is that it did not deify the human intellect. The Greek knows the limits of human reason and that is why he condemns human absoluteness, as “hybrine”. Thus he will be able to proceed with a wonderful transcendence from the knowledge of the created “human knowledge – wisdom, science” to the “Divine knowledge” the “Uncreated” in the “Triune God”.
Thus, from the “good man” or “wise man” of Greek philosophy, we have, in Christianity, the “holy man”, the man who is divinized by grace, who becomes, that is, by grace, what God is by nature (uncreated, immortal, eternal). The Greeks, through philosophy, reached the highest possible limits of development of the human spirit and through language they presented the most perfect possible form of expression, emphasizes St. Sophronius of Essex [1896- 1993].
The gods cannot be anthropomorphic, with human passions and disputes, says Socrates in Plato’s work “Politeia”. Pythagoras, one of the greatest Greek philosophers, said that: “there is a God and he is Lord of all.” Heraclitus speaks of the unified essence of the world and of a supreme principle of everything.
An essential characteristic of Greek thought is the “demand for truth”. In this phrase, the whole Greek Philosophy is summarized and here, let us remember the word of Christ, that “he who seeks is found”. As the blessed Fr. George Metallinos often said, “he who truly seeks, he is the one who is Orthodox”, i.e. he who seeks without empathy and selfishness, can only come to the truth. Rightly, therefore, Fr. George Florovsky, a 20th century Russian theologian, used to say that “we cannot become Christians unless we first become Greeks”. The references even of St. Nektarios in his treatise, ‘On Greek Philosophy as a Preliminary to Christianity’ are admirable.
Deeply knowledgeable in Greek philosophy, he considered it of the utmost necessity to study the ancient philosophers, to draw from them what our ancestors taught us about God, the soul and virtue, in order to offer it to Greek education.
From this study, as he writes, “…. I was convinced that the Greek sages passionately sought the knowledge of truth”. The Apostle to the Gentiles, Paul, testifies to this when he states: “The Greeks passionately seek wisdom” . Philosophy is the foundation for education, the educator of man. The Greek, with her help, came to know the existence of the Divine and that man’s mission is to become perfect and to rise from the material to the spiritual world.
Saint Basil, striving for the proper education of young people, called for young people, apart from Christian education, to be taught ancient literature, stressing “that the duty of young people is to act like bees who do not go to all the flowers, but choose those that can produce beautiful honey”. Thus, the Saint showed all Christian children, including Gentile children, the path of virtue, but at the same time, that children must be able to discern in ancient literature what will benefit them psychologically and that they must be able to understand the values on their own, in order to have ideals and visions, but above all to respect the cultural heritage of their ancestors. Saint Basil managed to spread and preserve the heritage of the ancient Greeks. Homer, Hesiod, Plato, Aristotle, the tragic poets, are preserved in the monasteries’ copybooks. This later led to the dissemination of ancient Greek literature outside the borders of the Byzantine Empire.
This love for the truth gradually led the Greek to the truth from Revelation, to Christianity. It was impossible for the character of the Greek not to be enthusiastic about the principles of Christianity, St.Nektarios stresses again and continues that Greek Philosophy, however, could not be the purpose and the final limit of man’s life, because in his heart there always remained a void and, unable to fill it, he enlarged it, while humanity was seeking Divine Revelation. Greek Philosophy lacked it, but it simply prepared and led humanity to find all this in Christianity, that is, in the faith founded on Divine Revelation.
He was the training and the guide to Christianity. The representation of Greek ancient philosophers (Heraclitus, Thales, Plato, etc.) in the narthexes of Christian churches in Byzantium is the Christian validation of this quest (“as those who foreshadowed the salvation of Christ”).
We will end by borrowing again the words of M. Kingdom:
“…Hesiod… when he composed his verses, which everyone sings, thought that the path of virtue is at first rough and difficult and uphill. That one goes through it with a lot of sweat and a lot of effort. That, for this reason, not everyone can set his foot on this road, with the steepness that it shows, nor, if he walks it, will he easily reach the top. But when he reaches up there, he sees that in reality it was a straight, beautiful, easy, well-travelled and more pleasant road than the other, leading to evil, and which the poet himself said that one can only pass it, because it is near us. I believe it: Hesiod created all this to encourage us to virtue, to push everyone to good, to make us not to give up in the face of hardships and not to stop before the end of the road. And whoever else has sung virtue in such a way, let his word be well received by us, since it leads to the same end.
Sources:
1. St. Nektarios, On Greek Philosophy as a Preface to Christianity
2. St. Basil, To the young people how to benefit from the words of the Greeks
3. Π. George Metallinou, Christianity and Hellenism
