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Title: The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church
ISBN: 0913836311
Author:
Vladimir Lossky
Publicate Date: 1997-03-01
Publish: 1997-03-01
List Price: $20.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.5
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $15.95
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| Customer Review: |
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1: The Trinity vs. Hell
"Between the Trinity and hell there lies no other choice... No philosophical speculation has ever succeeded in rising to the mystery of the Holy Trinity...only after Christ on the cross had triumphed over death and the abyss of hell...was the human spirit able to receive the full revelation of the Godhead" (Lossky 66).
At this point I stopped reading: 'apophatic' seems not to apply to the Godhead. So this 'most brilliant of Orthodox scholars' is just another True Believer, preaching fear to poor mankind. What would Confucius say?
Thomas Thornton
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2: Tough but necessary
This is a difficult read. Sentences that span half a page or more, convoluted clauses and word after word that needs a glossary--all this makes the book an uphill climb which is, like so much in this life of loving God, of course always worth the while.
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3: The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church
I did not like the book at all. It was difficult to read and not near the quality of writing I have found in other Eastern Orthodox books on theology. I would not recommend it.
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4: Sublime, Beautiful, a Holy Teasure
Lossky demonstrates how theology and mysticism are one in the Eastern Church. Using an apophatic framework he relates Trinitarian theology, pneumatology, contemplation, Divine Light and other topics back to the central theme of theosis. His writing is clear, precise and immensely meaningful. Lossky also displays an incredibly nuanced understanding of various Patristic authors in building his case. This is the best book I have ever read.
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5: an ever-greater plenitude,
"...the mystical approach is set up against systematic theology, the contemplative against the liturgical, the saints against the Church." V. Lossky
"An ever-greater plenitude, in which knowledge is transformed into ignorance, the theology of concepts into contemplation, dogmas into experience of ineffable mysteries" Edward Moore
All Theology is Mystical:
Lossky has carried his contradiction to great lengths, against the historical reality which forced Western theology into a preconceived pattern of Scholasticism and the Reformation. Lossky stresses that, "an ever-greater plenitude,, inasmuch as it shows forth the divine mystery: the data of revelation. On the other hand, mysticism is frequently opposed to theology as a realm inaccessible to understanding, as an unutterable mystery, a hidden depth, to be lived rather than known; yielding itself to a specific experience which surpasses our faculties of understanding rather than to any perception of sense or of intelligence." V. Lossky
Thus the mystical approach is set up against systematic theology, the contemplative against the liturgical, the saints against the Church. Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow, declared that 'Sermons and Addresses', 1844, as expressed in Lossky's own words, "We must live the dogma expressing a revealed truth, which appears to us as an unfathomable mystery, in such a fashion that instead of assimilating the mystery to our mode of understanding, we should, on the contrary, look for a profound change, an inner transformation of spirit, enabling us to experience it mystically. Far from being mutually opposed, theology and mysticism support and complete each other. One is impossible without the other."
God became man that men might become gods:
It is the Christian East, or, more precisely, the Eastern Orthodox Church, dominate the field of mystical theology. This limitation is somewhat artificial since, 'Christian theology is always in the last resort a means: a unity of knowledge serving an end which transcends all knowledge. This ultimate end is union with God or deification, Established by the Alexandrines as 'God became man that men might become gods', and advanced as the theosis of the Greek speaking Fathers. It may seem paradoxical, that Christian theory has a practical end; mystical as it is, it eventually aspires to the supreme goal of union with God.
Mystical Theology of East & West:
Lossky expressed it best, "In reality, since the cleavage between East and West only dates from the middle of the eleventh century, all that is prior to this date constitutes a common and indivisible treasure for both parts of a divided Christendom. The Orthodox Church would not be what it is if it had not had the Latin fathers. No more could the Roman Catholic Church do without St. Athanasius, St. Basil or St. Cyril of Alexandria. Thus, when one would speak of the mystical theology of the East or of the West, one takes one's stand within one of the two traditions which remained, down to a certain moment, two local traditions within the one Church, witnessing to a single Christian truth; but which subsequently part, the one from the other, and give rise to two different dogmatic attitudes, irreconcilable on several points."
Eastern Orthodoxy & Jungian mysticism:
In a recent study, it has been argued that, one touchstone of scientific validity is the universality of observations independently made. A comparison of the cosmological, theological, and anthropological assumptions that underlie the mystical traditions of the Eastern Orthodox Church and those of Jung's mystical observations about the universe, God, and humankind, the common ground of the two divergent systems of Eastern Orthodox and Jungian mysticism, by Bishop Chrysostomos and Thomas Brecht, suggests a universality and scientific validity in Jung's assumptions about the great unknown (Apophatic) .
BOOK REVIEW:
Lossky explores the roles of apophatic, or negative, theology, and kataphatic, or positive, theology in the Orthodox tradition, and the manner in which their union leads to an ever-greater plenitude.
Edward Moore, an Orthodox expert wrote a compelling theological analysis, of 'The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church,' on Theandros - An Online journal of Orthodox theology and philosophy; Read it on: [...]
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