Monday 10 March 2014

Justice to Life and Society According to St. Basil the Great

St. Basil the Great(330-379) was a man of   high spirituality, deep social commitment, excellent education,  and exemplary faithfulness to the Church. His life is a good example for an  authentic Orthodox Christian spirituality. A study of him will help us to be free from the enslaving materialism today and distorted spiritual traditions and it bring us closer to the Gospel of our Lord.

St. Basil was born and brought up  in Cappadocia which is in Asiatic Turkey.  Caesarea (today’s Kaeseri)   was an important city in Cappadocia and as bishop, his headquarters was here. Pontus was another district close to Cappadocia. Most of St. Basil’s life was spent in Cappadocia and Pontus.

The existence of Jews in Cappadocia(Acts 2: 9, 11)  probably prepared the ground for the spread of gospel in Cappadocia.  The Jews who came to Jerusalem to attend the feast of Pentecost and listened to the speech of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost might have brought the gospel to this region.  A remark at the opening of I Peter indicates the existence of Gentile Christians here by AD 100.  Third century witnessed the missionary labors of Gregory the wonderworker who came to be known as the ‘Apostle of Cappadocia’.  St. Basil and his family members used to venerate his blessed memory highly.  Gregory the wonder worker was from Pontus and became bishop of Neo-Caesarea in AD 240.                  

St. Basil  was born about the year 330 into a rich Christian family in Cappadocia. His father also called  Basil who was from Pontus and his mother Emmelia from Cappadocia had four sons and five daughters.  Basil the elder, with the wealth of his estates behind him,  used to teach rhetoric, the effective use of language and oratory, at Neo-Caesarea.  Basil, Gregory and Naucratius, the eldest three sons, followed their father’s footsteps with a traditional classical education. The family is indebted to Basil’s paternal grandmother Macrina, the elder who had been converted by Gregory the wonderworker, to  the Christian faith.  St. Basil’s sister Macrina the younger, decided to lead a life of virginity and slowly developed a community of virgins.  In 380 his younger brother  Peter succeeded Eustathius as bishop of Sebaste. 

St. Basil’s  primary classic education especially rhetoric was under his own father Basil the elder.  Grandmother Macrina gave basic religious education to the young Basil. Most probably at an early age he was sent to a school at Caesarea.  From there Basil went to Constantinople and there studied rhetoric and philosophy  successfully primarily under Libanius.   From Constantinople he proceeded to Athens in 351 for higher education. It was in Athens his friendship with Gregory, another Cappadocian who later came to be known as St. Gregory of Nazianzus,  was strengthened. Even during his studies in Athens St. Basil was particular about the strictness of his devout life. 

When he came back to Cappadocia, there was plenty of opportunities for pursuing a worldly successful profession.  But he devoted his life fully to lead a life pleasing to God by being committed to the Church.  His sister Macrina’s life and intervention influenced him towards this wholehearted self surrender.  St. Basil  visited ascetics in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Syria, Egypt etc.  This spiritual tour of monastic foundations was shortly after St. Antony died in 356 and shortly before setting up his own monastery in 357/358.  In addition to these experiences and insights, one of the greatest influences for the ascetic experiment was from Eusthathius of Sebaste.  Eusthathius who became a bishop of Sebaste in Armenia  was active and famous  in Pontus and Cappadocia for his  rigorous ascetic practices.  In a strict sense St. Basil was not the founder of monasticism in Asia Minor but the reformer of it there.  It was    with his friend St. Gregory that   St. Basil started his monastic experiments.  By renouncing his properties, he began his monastic life in Annesi in Pontus on the side of River Iris opposite to that of St. Macrina’s convent.  Socially committed services were integral part of his vision of monasticism. Community  experience is central to his monasticism. The solitary efforts and individual initiatives of the monks of Egypt and Syria here become a community activity.

Manual labour was also important as prayer for the monks of St. Basil.  It is noteworthy that highly educated and well-born aristocrat St. Basil used to engage in manual labour. He condemned in strong terms the danger of idleness.  In Letter 22 ‘On the perfection of the monastic life’, probably written in 356 he writes that those who are lazy, and can work but do not, should not eat. 

It is noticeable that  serving the poor and sick was an integral part of St. Basil’s vision of spiritual life.   He insists that service to the poor and needy is as important as prayer.  The second commandment of the Lord to love your neighbor as yourself is the heart of  his understanding of charity and social commitment.  He explains this by quoting St. Mathew 25.40, John 13: 35,  15: 13,  etc.  His sermon 6 on the text from Luke 12: 18 (I will destroy my barns and build greater ones)  and sermon 7 addressed To the Rich  condemn avarice of the rich and their insensitivity to the poor and the needy. He unceasingly reminds the need to share the God given resources with the poor.  Basileiados,    the great project of   St.Basil to assist the needy and the poor was a practical expression of his vision of love. He and his monks literally served in this new city of charity. It is commendable that despite the religious difference between the Emperor Valens and St. Basil,  the former gave his support to this great charitable project of St. Basil.  

St. Basil was ordained as Bishop of Caesarea after Bishop Eusebius’s death in 370.  As  a bishop he was an efficient administrator and also a strong defender of the Nicene faith. 

In spite of his time consuming tasks,  he used to make enlightening theological treatises.    His writings  bear witness to his  philosophical approach as well as to very practical aspects of ethics and Christian message. St. Gregory Nazianzen testifies that St. Basil’s writings were highly appreciated by his contemporaries for their content as well as for their form.   In addition to  numerous letters and sermons, he has written  a few dogmatic, ascetic, pedagogic, and liturgical  treatises.  Against  Eunomius,   On the Holy Spirit, Hexameron,  Moralia,  Monastic Rules etc are a few of his classic theological  and spiritual writings.

Even if  St. Basil has not written any scholarly commentaries  to the books of Holy Bible,  his numerous homilies display his skills in biblical interpretation  and ancient rhetoric.  As Quasten  rightly observes,     “He is certainly one of the most brilliant ecclesiastical orators of antiquity, who combines rhetorical display with simplicity of thought and clarity of expression.  Above all, he appears as the  physician of souls, who does not want  to please his listeners, but to touch their consciences.”[1] 

According to St. Basil the real human being is  inner man.  That is why he says “we are that which is within”.  By creating man in the image of God man is bestowed with reason. He describes “reason as mastery  of the passions.” This is the meaning of the command to rule given immediately after the creation of man.   Based on this insight he highlights the contradiction in man concerning authority and freedom:  “First the power to rule was conferred on you. O human, you are a ruling being. And why do you serve the passions as a slave?  Why do you throw away your own dignity and become a slave of sin? For what reason    do you make yourself a prisoner of the devil? You were appointed ruler of creation, and you have renounced the nobility of your own nature.”[2]
Ultimate goal of human existence is to be like God especially in kindness. There is a God given potential in all human beings to grow towards perfection. Human efforts- acts of disciplining oneself and compassion to all – have a significant role in fulfilling  human being. There is no contradiction  or conflict between grace and work in the process of spiritual  progress.  St. Basil interprets the power to rule given to man in terms of taming the beasts, birds etc as well as  in terms of the rule over passions and thoughts.  He describes anger, greed, hypocrisy, lust etc., as beasts and asks the question: “Have you truly become ruler of beasts if you rule those outside but leave those within ungoverned?”[3]

  Two root causes of social injustice and the huge gap between the rich and the poor are the failure to rule passions like greed and lack of compassion. St. Basil’s teaching especially his anthropology gives a sound basis for addressing these issues to build up a just society as well as the spiritual fulfillment of the being of man.
Since both man and woman have inherited image of God equally,  there is equal potential in both to be like God. “You become like God through kindness, through endurance of evil, through communion, through love for another and love for the brethren, being a hater of evil, dominating the passions of sin, that to you may belong the rule.”[4] This is a summary statement of his anthropology

He criticizes the consumerist culture of his time.   The rich are forced to spend their money on many unnecessary things:  “It is not on account of food or clothing that wealth is sought by most. Rather, some device has been concocted by the devil, suggesting innumerable spending opportunities to the wealthy, so that they pursue unnecessary and worthless things as if they were indispensable, and no amount is sufficient for the expenditures they contrive.”[5] Insensitivity and injustice of the rich are further exposed thus “You gorgeously array your walls, but do not clothe your fellow human being; you adorn horses, but turn away from the shameful plight of your brother or sister, you allow grain to rot in your barns, but do not feed those who are starving; you hide gold in the earth, but ignore the oppressed!  And if your wife happens to be a money loving person, then the disease is doubled in its effects.  She stirs up the love of luxury and inflames the craving for pleasure, spurring on fruitless pursuits."[6]

For St. Basil those who directly kill or rob alone are not murderers and robbers. Those who refuse to support the marginalized and those pave the for the slow death of the needy can also be counted like murderers and robbers. He explains this insight in his treatise I will Tear Down My Barns, “Who are the greedy? Those who are not satisfied with what suffices for their own needs. Who are the robbers? Those who take for themselves what rightfully belongs to everyone. And you, are you not greedy? Are you not a robber? The things you received in trust as a stewardship, have you not appropriated them for yourself? Is not the person who strips another of clothing called a thief? And those who do not clothe the naked when they have the power to do so, should they not be called the same? The bread that you are holding back is for the hungry, the clothes you keep put away are for the naked, the shoes that are rotting away with disuse are for those who have none and the silver that you keep buried in the earth is for the needy. You are thus guilty of injustice toward as many as you might have aided and did not.”[7]

St. Basil  thinks that  disorder in nature is  primarily because of human injustice and lack of love.  He views natural calamities as Judgment of God on the selfishness  of man.  After describing  the miseries of a severe famine, he gives a rational explanation for it thus:   “Our storehouses groan with plenty, yet we have no mercy on those who groan with want. For this reason we are threatened with righteous judgment.  This is why God does not open his hand: because we have closed up our hearts towards our brothers and sisters. This is why the fields are arid: because love has dried up.”[8]

Trust in God means conviction about Divine providence also.  When wealth is spent as per the direction of the Lord,  it will come back in a miraculous way.  Trust in His providence is the inspiration for giving even limited resources.   So St. Basil  goes to the extent of  advising  those who suffer famine and drought to share their bread with the needy:   “If you have only one remaining loaf of bread, and someone comes knocking at your door, bring forth the one loaf from your store, hold it heavenward, and say this prayer, which is not only generous on your part, but also calls forth the Lord’s pity:  ‘Lord, you see this one loaf, and you know the threat of starvation is imminent, but I place your commandment before my own well-being, and from the little I have I give to this famished brother. Give, then , in return to me your servant, since I am also in danger of starvation. I know your goodness, and am emboldened by your power. You do not delay your grace indefinitely, but distribute your  gifts when you will.’  And when you have thus spoken and acted, the bread you have given from your straitened circumstances will become seed for sowing that bears a rich harvest, a promise of food, an envoy of mercy.”[9]  This is a strong reference to a deep faith which encourages to put into practice    the commandments of the Lord.

After describing the oppression of the poor by the rich, St. Basil draws their attention to  their mortality or transience.  He challenges them for an active reflection on their destiny:  “you might carefully consider to what end your pursuit of material things has led you. You have acres and acres of arable land: fields and orchards, mountains and dells, rivers and springs. But what comes after this? Is not all that awaits you a six- foot plot of earth? Does not a small quantity of rocks and soil suffice to cover this mortal flesh?”[10]  On another occasion while explaining his anthropology he takes up this theme which  is a salient feature of all ancient spiritual traditions thus: ““Be Attentive to yourself, mindful that you are mortal, that you are earth, and to earth you will return. Look around, examining those of like eminence before you. Where are those who possessed civil authority? Where are the unconquerable orators? Where are the leaders of public assemblies, the brilliant horse breeders, the generals, the governors, the despots? Are they not all dust?  Are not the memorials of their lives a few bones? Stoop and look into the tombs to see if you can distinguish which is the slave and which is the master, which is the poor one and which is the rich. ..So having remembered your nature you will not then be conceited.”[11] Since life is transient and death can come at unexpected time St. Basil exhorts to give to the needy as early as possible what belong to them

Highlighting the example of life in jungles, St. Basil  teaches the need of  considering wealth as a resource to be used commonly: “Let not we who are reasonable show ourselves to be more savage than the unreasoning animals. For even the animals use in common the plants that grow naturally from the earth. Flocks of sheep graze together upon the same hillside, herds of horses feed upon the same plain, and all living creatures permit each other to satisfy their need for food.  Bu we hoard what is common, and keep for ourselves what belongs to many others.” His vision of humankind as one family helps him to think all resources given by the Creator as common wealth which is to be distributed equally to all.  Seeds of an ideal socialism are seen in this Basilian teaching.  As a summary statement of his vision of social justice he says,   “if we took only what was necessary to satisfy our own needs, giving the rest to those who lack, no one would be rich, no one would be poor and no one would be in need.”[12]

Cappadocian Fathers generally and especially St. Basil the great has written a lot to substantiate the Nicene creed  by refuting the teaching of Eunomius, a follower of Arius.   They distinguish reality basically into two;  the divine and temporal or Creator and creation.  For them Father,  Son and Holy Spirit, belong to the first category.  So the Son and the Holy Spirit are not created beings.  It is their foundational teaching that  essence of God is unknowable or incomprehensible.  We know God through his revealing activities.  As St. Basil puts it in one of his letters: “God’s activities descend to us, but his essence remains inaccessible.”[13].    Theology is basically reflection  on God’s own revelations.  So none of the names applied to God can  give us a full picture of the essence of God.

They unambiguously taught that Father Son and the Holy Spirit share the same divine essence (ousia) or nature  but having three different hypostasis. Ousia and hypostasis were two Greek words which had been used as synonyms before St. Basil.  But he distinguished the implications of these terms and used ousia to imply that which is common and hypostasis to mean that which is particular.   The names Father Son and the Holy Spirit point to particular  property of each person in the Holy Trinity. But they are having  a common nature which is the principle of unity  of the Holy Trinity. Ousia can be translated as nature, essence or substance and homoousios in the Nicene creed means of the same essence, nature or substance. Based on the revelation  fathers like St. Basil describes the non-temporal begetting of the Son from the Father and also His eternal presence with the Father. The Holy Trinity means three persons having the same essence and existing eternally with one will and goal.

Even if the exemplary life of St. Basil the Great in history  came to an end on January 1st  370 AD,  his life and teachings continue to enlighten and encourage many to grow in Christ and fulfill their being. 

Endnotes



[1] Quasten, Johannes.   Patrology  Vol. III  Maryland:   Christian Classics INC, 1992 p.216
[2] On the Human Condition tr. By Nonna Verna Harrison.  New York:  SVS Press, 2005 p.37
[3] On the Human Condition tr. By Nonna Verna Harrison.  New York:  SVS Press, 2005 p.47
[4] On the Human Condition, p.46
[5] On Social Justice.  tr. By C. Paul Schroeder.  New York:  St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009p.44
[6] On Social Justice.  tr. By C. Paul Schroeder.  New York:  St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009 p.47
[7] On Social Justice.  p.70
[8] On Social Justice.  p.76
[9]  On Social Justice p.83
[10] On Social Justice p.51
[11] On the Human Condition p.100, 101
[12] On Social Justice p.69
[13] Epistle 234.1

Lent and Mission

Editorial of Sahayatra December-February 2014 

We are in a Lenten journey which leads us to experience crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this process we are also crucified and resurrected with a new vision and life. This vision is different from the vision spread through the market economy with a missionary zeal today.

 Being the body of Christ, the church needs to constantly remember Christ and reflect life in accordance with the vision He imparted to us. The vision of priorities in the light of Gospel inspires us to commit to the welfare and fullness of  life to the disabled, the poor, the illiterate, the victims of injustice and casteism, the sick and the suffering. This is a vision of mission to serve as agents of peace-making in the context of conflicts of communalism and to promote sustainability of environment. This vision facilitates freedom and communion with God, the Ultimate Mystery. This is a vision of the joy of relationship and loving, motivated and empowered by Jesus Christ and inspired by the Holy Spirit. Exercises like fasting and lent must give spiritual nourishment to fulfill this mission.

Separation of spirituality and mission or witness, is a dangerous rift. Sacrificial service to the rest of the world also needs to be part of the vision of spirituality. H.H. Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world beautifully affirms this holistic vision. Just to have a taste of this let us have a look at a few sentences from it: “ When we live out a spirituality of drawing nearer to others and seeking their welfare, our hearts are opened aside to the Lord’s greatest and most beautiful gifts. Whenever we encounter another person in love, we learn something new about God … If we want to advance in the spiritual life, then, we must constantly be missionaries.”

The usual  separate understanding of spirituality and mission are overcome with an integral vision here which is a true echo of ancient Christian wisdom. The fourth century saintly Bishop, Basil the Great, while interpreting the rich young man’s failure to follow Christ’s instruction to share his wealth with the poor, says “when the great physician of souls and bodies, seeing your deficiency in this vital area, wishes to make you whole, you do not accept the joyful news, but rather turn sad and gloomy”. In the same treatise ‘To the Rich’ he further says, “ When I go in to the house of one of these newly rich individuals, and see it bedecked with every imaginable hue, I know that this person possesses nothing more valuable than what is on display, such people decorate inanimate objects, but fail to beautify the soul.”

Today, these words needs to be understood not only in connection with the insensitive individuals but also with the parishes and churches which rejoice in accumulating money and fail to do the mission of God. May the Lent enlighten us to regain the mission of simplicity and sharing in accordance with the Gospel. As we grow in Christ, it is essential to progress in sharing the joy of the good news of Jesus Christ with others. Efforts for both inter-religious dialogue and personal evangelization need to be understood as part of spirituality or Divine Love for a new world.

The Church as a whole has been called as  the body of Christ to make the presence of Jesus Christ present in today’s world.  All the members of the Church received baptism and anointment with the Holy Mooron  as a commission to grow in Christ and to continue the mission started by Him. Traditional understanding of the Church as an institute which prepares its members towards heaven in the  life after life experience needs to be compensated with a vision of the Church as a sign and instrument of the Kingdom of God in history.  Church is to be God’s Jesus to give freedom and fullness of life to the world.  When the Church fails to remember Christ and the  calling of it  to continue His ministry, it may fall to be a party or race or club or a business firm which is concerned about its own name, fame and welfare. 

Lent is a season of repentance which need not be limited to a few personal evil habits or failures.  Parishes need to repent for using its money for luxurious flag posts and other constructions,  for not using its potential and wealth for enhancing the life of the marginalized and restoring justice to  the victims of discrimination, corruption and other injustices.  The churches need to repent for being insensitive to peacemaking and for ignoring the weak and the poor for being extremely luxurious in its vestments, worships, meetings and constructions. Late H.G. Geevarghese Mar Osthathios continue to remind us of “the sin of being rich in a poor world.”  Those who have a vision of mission cannot be excited about being rich or luxurious. Christians have also  to repent for not leading a life in accordance with the Gospel and also not to share Jesus Christ  as a source of freedom, joy and fullness to their relatives and friends.      

A few papers originally presented in the Seminar on the vision of Mission held at St. Thomas Orthodox Seminary on February 3rd , 2014 are reproduced in this issue for further reflection on the theme.    The seminar was one of the programmes organized by the seminary to celebrate the blessed memory of H.G. Pathros Mar Osthathios,  one of the greatest missionary of Malankara Orthodox Church who was deeply committed to the liberation of the Dalits in 20th century  and to evangelization.                


                                                                                                                                    

Friday 14 February 2014

Gregorian Answer to the Question ‘Who am I?’

                  Scientific explorations have led us to the distant corners of the space and also  to the core of atoms. Great thinkers of all ages give wise guidance to balance this scientific quest for knowledge with human self understanding. Sages and philosophers of ancient period used to take the question ‘Who am I?’ very seriously. Upanishadic philosophy of India equated man with God whereas certain western Christian thinkers  considered man as basically a sinner. Modernism   replaced God with man.  This  essay is an attempt to have a glimpse of the understanding of man in the thought of late H. G. Paulos Mar Gregorios, the renowned philosopher and theologian and the bishop of the Indian Orthodox Church. Based on the  teaching of the ancient Christian  fathers especially that of St. Gregory of Nyssa, H.G. Paulos Mar Gregorios(here after mentioned as PMG) develops an enlightening and  balanced  answer to the question of human self identity  which is very relevant to the people of post modern era. Let us  try to see how he develops the Christian understanding of man as the image of God, how he describes the process of the fulfillment of human potential to be like God, and also his vision of human vocation to shape the world in relation to mediatory role in creation, to social and political justice, gender justice, the humanization of science and technology, sustainable environment and peace and unity of the world.
1. A glorious Portrait of Human
1.1. Sin as extrinsic to human nature /Essential goodness of man
PMG holds  comparatively a glorious picture of man. He  affirms the basic goodness of creation and especially of human beings whose ultimate source and ground is God.                       St. Augustine(4th century CE) has influenced the western theology enormously and even the reformers have imbibed some of his viewpoints into the reformed theology. For Augustine human beings without grace from God can do no good at all. PMG  is   trying to give an alternative theology to correct this pessimistic understanding of humans. He avoids both the overemphasis of human sinfulness in the western Christianity and the over glorification of  man in secular philosophy. PMG’s theology seems to take a moderate path which makes man neither a beast nor a god but gives due emphasis to human potentiality. As he rightly says St. Augustine’s “understanding of man as totally sinful, without any capacity for good in him, could be understood only as a pious confession of human frailty, but not as a matter of faith to be taken wholly seriously.”[1] PMG cannot tolerate a theology, which regards evil itself as central to human nature and the whole of humanity as a lump of sin out of which no movement towards the good can come.

. According to the original sin concept of western Christianity  Adamic sin or the sin of the ancestral parents is transmitted down through the generations and  since the sexual union is sinful, the product of that union is tainted by sin. As a typical Orthodox theologian PMG could not subscribe to this. Quoting eastern fathers like St. Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, Severius of Antioch, he totally rejects the original sin concept as such.[2] Sin is not transmitted. Sin’s consequences can be transmitted. Death and corruption or distortions of the image of God in man were communicated to the generations from the ancestral parents. Innocent children cannot be called sinners. PMG upholds the dignity of human sexual union in the married life. There is no evil in such a blessed act. With the support of eastern patristics, he attempts to emphasize the fact that sin is not part of human nature. But death and corruption are part of the fallen human nature.
1.2. Knowledge of God
Mar  Gregorios upholds the view of the Cappadoceans who believe that God in his essence is basically incomprehensible. What humans can undesrstand is the knowledge of the works of God and not the essence of God. Growth in even this knowledge of God is correlated to moral growth. In other words knowledge of God is dependent on ethical maturity.[3]  And ethical maturity is closely associated with worship also. So ‘good works’ and communion with God help humans to grow in their knowledge of God. As he   puts it “the knowledge of God can not be separated from the love and worship of God and from the love and service of fellowmen.”[4]  So it is holiness and obedience to God rather than theology that leads to the knowledge of God.  

1.3. Faith as Foundational to Human Existence
PMG portraits the ongoing human struggle for meaning and existence in a beautiful way: “Our being has an emptiness at bottom; we have to fill this in some way in order to feel our existence. The whole of human existence is the struggle to find the foundation on which we can establish that existence.”[5]  He  is fully convinced about the fickleness  of the  foundations like wealth, sex, popularity, education, race or tribe, nation etc[6]    It is faith or trust in God that gives true assurance of security in human life. What we proclaim in Nicene Creed according to PMG  is not merely knowledge about the Trinity and church but our trust in them, which gives a solid foundation in otherwise a bottomless pit or emptiness or abyss of this life. He enumerates the advantages of faith thus: a) Faith delivers persons from all fear of the future and worry about past guilt, from fear of death and anxiety about condemnation; establishing the person on the firm foundation of Christ and opening up channels to the powers of God available in the new life.      b) Faith provides confidence that the future of all is safe in God’s hands, that evil cannot finally triumph and that the good will be finally liberated from the mixture with evil. This gives one the courage to face the power of evil, to challenge it, and where necessary to accept martyrdom. e) Faith provides persons and communities with the courage for integrity and self –sacrificing love, since the knowledge of the grace of God in Christ frees one from the need either to justify oneself or to seek one’s own. This integrity and love manifest themselves in new ways of beneficent creativity. [7]
1.4. ‘Image of God’ Explained
Following Gregory of Nyssa’s thought PMG endorses the special and unique fashioning of humans: being created in God’s image, human beings can participate in God’s nature and manifest Him. Participation in God’s nature or becoming like God is the soul of eastern tradition. It is by acquiring the qualities of God in communion with Him that human beings fulfill their potentiality to be God’s image. For PMG divinization is humanization: “the very nature of humanity is to be like God, for that is what it means to be created in the image of God. The more humanity becomes like God, the more it becomes itself. Divinization is humanization. Theosis is anthropesis.”[8] So it is when humanity becomes what it is i.e. when it manifests its true nature as the Image of God that it becomes fully human. In other words it is when man becomes good as God is good that he or she becomes God like and God’s presence on earth and thus fully human.

Jesus Christ manifested the meaning of being in the image of God because he was the true image of God. He is the measure of man’s relationship with God and responsibility to serve the world. An understanding of PMG’s Christology and vision of freedom are necessary to get the full picture of being the image of God.
 PMG maintained a deep conviction of the equality of men and women. They share equally in the image of God. Domination of men over women is a development in the fallen state. Progress in divinization or growth towards the perfection in the image of God brings about proper fellowship of men and women.
1.5.  Freedom as Fullness of Life                                                    
By detecting humans’ danger of overthrowing all kinds of authority hoping for freedom, PMG attempted a deeper analysis of the meaning of human freedom. The titles of his books like ‘The Joy of Freedom’, ‘The Freedom of Man’, ‘Freedom and Authority’, ‘Love’s Freedom a Grand Mystery’ etc. refer to his special concern for freedom and dignity of humans. It seems that a proper understanding of his concept of freedom will disclose the beauty of the major portion of his theology and especially his understanding of man.

‘Freedom’ came to be accepted as a widely accepted watchword of modern scientific civilization. From the time of Renaissance onwards, people in the West struggled hard to free themselves from the extreme authority of the church and also from the sovereign God as presented by the western church. In the post-renaissance, secularist phase of human civilization, the centrality of God was ruled out and an anthropocentric worldview was overemphasized. What PMG tried was to uphold the dignity and freedom of man by rejecting the vision of a freedom hating sovereign God and highlighting  a God who is basically love and freedom.

PMG develops his theology of freedom mainly based on the teaching of St. Gregory of Nyssa  who saw the freedom of man as the central element to which everything was to be related. Being created in the image of God, man should have all the good things in God and among these the most important is freedom. God is free. He is not bound by his creation; he is transcendent because of the difference of his essence from that of the creation. God is independent in other dimensions also. He chooses and do good without any external pressure. Since God is free, humans who are His images can also be free and independent. Modern de colonization struggles, womancipation movement, liberation struggles etc. endorse this human thirst for freedom.  Freedom from personal evil, from socio-economic oppressions, from parochialism, bold access into the presence of God and doing good or shaping a world of justice and peace are expressions of human freedom.
1.6. Grace as constituent of nature
Opposition between grace and nature is one of the fundamental defects of the western Christian teaching. PMG traces its history back to St. Augustine whose theology contributed enormously to the development of this bane of the Christian theology. PMG presents this root issue in very simple terms  thus: “In Western Christian anthropology, the distinctive thing about man is that he is a sinner by nature. Nothing good can come from him by nature. Only grace can produce the first movements towards the good. By nature he is not free. Grace coming from outside humanity, outside nature liberates him to will the good and thus restores to him the limited freedom of being able to do good.”[9]  As a remedy to this PMG highlights the grace in creation: “It is the double grace – the grace of simple creation by will (of God)and of the second creation after His own image- that constitutes our being as body and soul. Grace is thus not opposed to nature, but is the constituent of nature.”[10] This grace in nature or creation is further strengthened by sacramental grace or the grace received through spiritual exercises.

2. Fulfillment of Human Potential   
2.1. Vision of the whole
            Interconnectedness of the reality is a recurring insight in PMG’s writings. He refers to the worldview of various religions to affirm the vision of the whole. The point is that there is a continuum of four levels of reality-inorganic matter-energy, organic level or bio level, the level of consciousness, and the transcendent level. It is when he explains the impact of whole in healing process that we get a clear picture about his vision of the whole, which contributes, to the human fulfillment. “The human system is a subsystem of the whole universe, and is integrally related to it. Disturbance in that integral relation constitute disease. Restoration of that relation to the whole is healing, and the whole itself is the healing force –the whole is the energy source from which matter, life and consciousness all originate. …We need a framework for modern medicine in which we see matter, life and consciousness as a single continuum. …Consciousness, and its various levels, including the transcendent and hypnotic, should also be engineered positively in the interest of healing.”[11]

2.2. Christological dimension
Already we noticed PMG’s view of faith basically as a trust. When he explains personal salvation in Christ it becomes more evident: “To have personal faith in Christ is not simply to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, but to be secure in Christ. It is to be aware that our life in Christ is already a risen life, no longer subject to the final death of extinction. …Neither are we afraid of condemnation. It is to know the joy of realizing that our life is identical with the life of Christ. Neither national defeat nor global catastrophe, neither personal disaster nor the machinations of the enemy, neither disease nor poverty –nothing at all can separate us from the life that Christ lives in us. Personal salvation is thus the end of all anxious concern about oneself. It liberates us to live without fear. It gives us a sure foundation on which to live, to live in the community of joy and hope, to live with and for others.”[12]

2.3. Ecclesiological dimension  
2.3.1. Becoming the Body of Christ
Each one initiated into this community can have a unique union with Christ. In other words each one is growing in Christ and becoming like Christ through the church. Church’s ministry in the world is a transforming ministry of a community being transformed in Christ. So in the ultimate analysis building up of the church is for the fulfillment of humans in the church and through the church.
There are various references in PMG to the cultivation of human life in the church, which is primarily through the worship and prayer and discipline. It is not merely the preaching but the body and blood of Christ that nourishes the church. An ordained minister who is a sacramental presence rather than a vicar of Christ in the church is used by Christ to facilitate the growth of the community in freedom

2.3.2. Worship
Among the various important themes in PMG’s theology, worship seems to be one of the most important ones. He emphasizes the need of authentic worship as part of his fight against the negative impact of secularism and a deep concern for the fullness of life. It seems that he  describes worship primarily as a duty rather than for getting anything special. “The ministry of prayer and worship is primarily our due response to God’s mercy and grace, ancillary to no other purpose. Secondly, it is a ministry of intercession on behalf of the whole creation. Only in the third place should we regard any personal benefits that may accrue to us through worship and prayer.”[13] Worship is a special prerogative of the children of God. It is an important mission of the church, which is the priest of the creation.
Worship or prayer is for the fulfillment of humans. His definition of prayer is noteworthy in this regard: “Prayer is communion or communication with God – opening ourselves to Him and receiving His love. It is by living consciously in this relationship of love that we can be transformed into the image of God. By prayer we become more like God, more loving, more wise, more powerful, more kind and good.”[14]  So by communion with God man becomes like God. Prayer is to fulfill the human potentiality for divinization: “Prayer is therefore a way of training the will to desire the good, as well as of turning our wills towards the highest concentration of all good, namely God.”[15]
                 
2.3.3. Theosis
PMG’s understanding of theosis (becoming like God) is very significant to know his anthropology. He describes it as the key to the Asian African Christian tradition. In western Christian tradition the goal of mystical life seems to be the vision or knowledge of God where as this eastern Orthodox tradition emphasizes the human participation in God and becoming like God. Being created in the image of God man has the potentiality for this process of becoming like God. Quoting Gregory of Nyssa, PMG describes it as an eternal progress.  Being liberated from evil, humans can progress through spiritual discipline by participating in God. Personal cultivation and participation in the church are facilitating this process of divinization.
So becoming like God means becoming like Christ, which is the vocation of man on earth. Thus man becomes true image of God or presence of God. So in the ultimate analysis theosis means becoming fully human which is the result of cooperation of God and man

2.4. Pneumatological dimension
PMG’s pneumatology (Understanding of the Holy Spirit) is not limited to the church or the individual Christian. Along with the Logos the Holy Spirit is also immanent in the creation imparting wisdom and power to all and at the same time transcend in the Trinitarian eternal realm. So the Holy Spirit is playing a role in human evolution and in all his creative activities. [16] He goes on to say that the Holy Spirit works in humans by respecting their freedom: “the Spirit of God does not act compulsively on the agent. The Spirit of God groans and struggles with the human spirit, seeking to persuade rather than to compel, to illumine than to teach.”[17]
In the second level he  focuses on the presence of the Holy Spirit in the Church. Baptism is an initiation into this community of the Spirit. Pentecostal experience imparted mainly three virtues or powers to the community namely courage to stand before God and men with confidence, unity and obedience to Gospel. This means in short worship, fellowship and service to the needs of fellow human beings.
In the third level PMG explains the special and personal charismata of the Spirit. The presence of Spirit in the Church does not mean that all the operations of the Spirit go on automatically. That is why the church prays for special operation of the Spirit in all the sacraments. He  also makes a distinction between the general operation of the Spirit, which is common to all members of the Church, and the special gifts, which are differently distributed, to various members, all for the common good.

3. Global Management: Human Vocation to Shape the World

3.1. Corporate Existence of Man
                        Unity of the reality and especially the corporate nature of mankind is a recurring theme in PMG. “Man is primarily corporate. His individuality is secondary. Body is the principle of individuation in an entity called man who is essentially corporate. Perfection itself belongs ultimately to the whole of mankind; the individual’s free goodness is contributory to the perfection of all good.”[18] He believes that God who works in the world is constantly encouraging us to think beyond the personal, group or national interests. Thus the mankind is in progress towards its perfection. But it will be complete at the end of history when evil ceases to exist. His Christology always presupposes this unity of mankind and verbalizes Christ’s cosmic impact. In an article on the finality of Christ he writes: “We must get an image of humanity past, present, and future as a single unit, the Great Adam, flowing through time, and of the presence of the Incarnate Christ in this Adam as a continuing phenomenon affecting the life of humanum in perceptible and imperceptible ways.”[19]

3.2. Man as co-creator with God
Showing Nyssa’s theology as a corrective to the general Christian anthropology, PMG writes about the human calling to be  co creator with God: “Christian theology has been generally reluctant to accept this idea of Gregory’s – that Man is not simply a creature pure and simple, but a co-creator of himself and his world. … To see the human enterprise as a joint operation between God and Man is neither dishonoring God’s sovereignty nor exalting Man above his created limit. It is in this context that both the notion of virtue as rectification and the free cooperation of man as a necessary element in God’s plan for the creation have to be understood in Gregory’s thinking.”[20]
Overcoming the limited views of Augustine, Luther, Barth, etc. PMG gives due importance to the role of human efforts to shape this world which is integral to the human vocation to be the image of God. So it is the human responsibility to  mediate for the world before God and bring the blessings of justice and unity to the world.
With science and technology humans have enormous power to recreate this world. While appreciating the positive contributions of them for the welfare of humanity he exposes the misuse of them for exploitation and injustice. Humans, being the image of God, are to use these extensions of power to address the enslaving threats of humans. He upholds a pure vision of a “science and technology liberated from the shackles of bondage to war and profit and redeployed for the elimination of poverty, for wiping out ignorance and want, redeployed for helping humans to find meaning and fulfillment through serving each other, so that all of us can live dignified human lives.”[21]
3.3. Environmental concern
PMG develops his vision of a sustainable ecosystem mainly based on a holistic creation theology.  For him the concept of nature as alienated from man is harmful to a healthy eco system. Human being is integral part of the creation and he is supposed to handle the creation as an extension of his body. The energia of God is the source, goal and dynamic of creation that has no self-existence. So his holistic vision completely rules out the concept of nature as a separate entity. He thinks that nature as the non –human part of creation plays a more central role in human perception when the transcendent dimension of reality becomes recessive. It is noticeable that it is in the post renaissance secularist phase that the concept of nature became prominent. So PMG recommends that “the idea of an objective world independent of man has thus to be abandoned, and there are no two realities called Man and Nature which can somehow be separately observed.”[22]  When man fulfills his being by participating in divine nature he will be a healing presence of God in the creation. Being the image of God man ought to share God’s concern for the welfare of the creation and develop a reverent receptive approach towards the creation.
4.  Man beyond History
In line with the patristic understanding PMG believes that history has a temporary value serving as a training centre of humanity for its fullness in eternity. History is not final reality; it is a time of freedom, when the fashioning of man is completed, by the human choices. PMG, while interpreting Gregory of Nyssa’s views on the fullness of man,  says: “Man in the world of history is like a seed in the ground, an embryo in the womb. His full potential is not at all evident here. …no amount of biology, psychology, sociology and history, can reveal to us the true nature of man. …The exaltation of human nature (by Christ)to the right hand of God thus determines its true locale-not in history, but in meta-history. History is the womb in which the embryo is formed, but it is being prepared to go out of the womb, through the trauma of death into meta-history. The First –Born, the Protokos, Christ, is that precisely because he was the first to be born this way through death and resurrection.”[23]  So the fullness of man is not achieved in history. And Christ’s life is the point of verification for eschatological fullness of humans. In the eschaton there is no place for male-female distinction, the passions that rage in the body, birth and death.  For him, man being created as an integral body-soul organism, achieves fullness not by rejecting body but by the right use of the material body and its feelings and desires that becomes the basis of virtue.[24] The point is that our historical existence has a role to play even in eternal existence because humans have capacity to determine, by free choice, the essential nature of their beings.

5. Conclusion
Gregorian anthropology overcomes the drawbacks of traditional western theology. Mar Gregorios, with the support of eastern patristics affirm the fundamental goodness of humnabeings and does not hide the fact that man can do good  with the grace integral to his creation.  He emphatically teaches that there is no conflict between grace and human effort. Since he has overcome the nature grace conflict, human efforts to shape himself and the world are not against Gregorian understanding of Christianity.  Being created in God’s image, man fulfills his being in communion with God as power, wisdom and love. The Holy  Trinity uses the church also to fulfill humans. Worship is essential to this growth towards perfection .  To be fully human is to be freedom because freedom is one of the most important characteristic of God the original in whose image man was created. This freedom that is not merely liberation from personal and social evil but also the power to do good. So shaping of the world through good choices and actions is integral to one’s own shaping.  Thus the use of science and technology to recreate this world is closely related to human progress towards perfection. Divinization of humans which the church highlights as the supreme goal of all spiritual exercises and to be fully human and  humanization  of the world are closely related and identical. In other words Gregorian understanding of man  is the key to understand his Christian self identity and commitment to Global peace. To become the manifest presence of God or to be fully human  means to be committed to the welfare of the whole world which is inclusive of sustainable ecosystem and a just and peaceful world.





[1] Gregorios, Freedom and Authority, Madras : CLS, 1974, p41.                                                                               
[2] Gregorios, Paurasthya Christhava Darsanam,  Kottayam: 2000,pp 150-165.
[3] Gregorios, quotes here St. Paul who says the same in his prayer for the Colossians (1:10) that they may “lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”
[4] Gregorios, Freedom  and Authority, Madras : CLS, 1974, p56.
[5] Gregorios, Be Still and Know, Madras: CLS, 1974, p9.
[6] Gregorios, Be Still and Know,  Madras: CLS, 1974, p9. “Even if some of these were to give us support so long as we live, at the moment of death these begin to fall apart, and we plunge into an abyss where these can not provide us with a foothold. Also while we love in this world with these elements in creation as our footholds, there is a growing uncertainty about their strength, which makes us vaguely anxious. And life itself puzzles us.”
[7] Gregorios, Science for Sane Societies, Madras : CLS, 1980, p98. PMG further explains: “The fact that many of these advantages and possibilities are not always appropriated and realized by persons in the community of faith points to the phenomenon of sin which invades also the community of faith and persons participating in it.”
[8] Gregorios, Cosmic Man, Delhi: Sophia Publications, 1980, p 230.
[9] Gregorios, “Humanisation as a World Problem”, Study Encounter, Vol.5, No.1, 1969, p7
[10] Gregorios, “Humanisation as a World Problem”, Study Encounter, Vol.5, No.1, 1969, p 9
[11] Gregorios, Healing a Holistic Approach, Kottayam: MGF, 1992, pp28, 29.
[12] Gregorios, Be Still and Know, Madras: CLS, 1974, p38.
[13] Gregorios, Worship in a Secular Age, p127.
[14] Gregorios, Worship in a Secular Age, p10.
[15] Gregorios, Worship in a Secular Age, p11.
[16] Gregorios, Be Still and Know, Madras: CLS, 1974, p18.
[17] Gregorios, Be Still and Know, Madras: CLS, 1974, p19.
[18] Gregorios, “What is man”, p 5, Orthodox Seminary Archives, Kottayam.
[19] Gregorios, “The Finality of Christ”, p 25, Orthodox Seminary Archives, Kottayam. 
[20] Gregorios, Cosmic Man, Delhi: Sophia Publications, 1980, p154.
[21] Gregorios, Religion and Dialogue, Delhi: MGF and ISPCK, 2000, p147.
[22] Gregorios, Religion and Dialogue, Delhi: MGF and ISPCK, 2000, p7.
[23] Gregorios, Cosmic Man, Delhi: Sophia Publications, 1980, p 191,192.
[24] Gregorios, Cosmic Man, Delhi: Sophia Publications, 1980, p 196.