By Protopresbyter Fr. Thomas Vamvinis
It will be a long time before the work of the late Protopresbyter John Romanides is assimilated; a theological and historical work or, rather more correctly, as our Metropolitan Hierotheos has pointed out, a work that connects theology with history. The theology of the Holy Fathers was not a disembodied philosophical contemplation. It was a description in created human words of the theoptic experience of those who “crossed over to theoria.” This experience, of course, transcends all representation and all imagination, and therefore cannot be fully encompassed in any logical description. As an experience, however, it had (and still has) tangible effects, which can be studied by various branches of science. And this not only for the holders of the experience, but also for the people who were taught the prerequisites and the way to prepare for this experience, because it influenced the institutions of their society and their relationship with the rest of creation. It oriented their culture, politics, art and daily life – even in its most material aspects – to the theological perspective of man. These people were the citizens of the Eastern Roman State. In these people, thanks to the great figures of the Greek-speaking Fathers of the Church, but also to the political foresight of its leaders, the apostolic tradition found the appropriate – “correct” – conditions to demonstrate the salvific results of the great “experiment” of life in Christ. Father John Romanides often used the terminology of the empirical sciences when he spoke about the real character of Orthodox theology. The “experiment,” therefore, of life in Christ was carried out (and with state participation and support) within specific historical dimensions, among the citizens of the Eastern Roman State. The figures of the Saints were central figures in the history of Romiosini, the spirit of which was identified with the spirit of the “One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.” This identification was a deliberate political choice of its emperors. Proof of this fact are the Ecumenical Synods, which, as Father John Romanides said, were imperial synods that aimed to make the correct dogmatic teaching of the Church, as well as the sacred canons that regulated its life, the law of the State.
In his treatise titled “The Ecumenical Synods and Civilization,” he writes: “...the local synods were part of the primary structure of the Church, while the Seventh Ecumenical Synod was by its nature extraordinary and imperial. One can parallel the Ecumenical Synods with the Apostolic Synod of Jerusalem (Acts 15:6-29). The Ecumenical Synods, however, were convened by the emperor of the Romans with the aim of establishing as Roman law the common faith and practice of the Autocephalous and Autonomous Churches against heresies.”
The reason for the State's special concern for ensuring the correct faith lies in the character of the Orthodox Church and its theology. The view of Father John Romanides, which I will quote below – which is the result of rigorous scientific research into the texts of the apostolic and patristic tradition – is one of his most characteristic: “The key to understanding the transformation of the Orthodox Catholic Tradition from an illegal to a legal religion and then to an official Church, lies in the fact that the Roman Empire realized that it did not have before it simply one more form of religious philosophy, but a well-organized Society of Psychiatric Clinics, which treated those who sought eudaimonia, a disease of humanity, and produced normal citizens with selfless love, dedicated to the radical treatment of their personal and social diseases. The relationship that developed between Church and State was exactly equivalent to the relationship between the State and modern Medicine." "If hesychasm had remained at the heart of national life, it would be included among the positive sciences. This is because the noetic energy of the soul, which prays noetically and continuously in the heart, is a natural organ that everyone has and which needs healing.”
In such a theological vision of Romiosini, how can any ideologizing of theology, or any tribalism, pass? When the aim of the “applications of theology” is the discovery and activation of man’s noetic energy and his transition from selfish to selfless love, how can the historical detection of these applications be characterized as an “ideology of Romiosini” that “refers to fanaticism through anti-Westernism” (Marios Begzos)?
Father John received harsh – even abusive – criticism from certain circles. However, he was free from the ideological shackles that they tried to impose on his work. That is why, with the consistency of an uncompromising researcher, he could point out in his lessons: “Our modern Greek patriotism is full of slogans.” And he cited as an example the consequences of the criticism he made of Aristotle. "When we say that Aristotle was a great man and had great value..., for the modern Greek this means that what Aristotle teaches is true... Because if Aristotle made a mistake, then he cannot be good. Because in Greece only those who do not make mistakes are good. Whoever makes a mistake is bad,... That is, the Greeks of today have identified ethics with science and I have a big problem at the University."
His theological discourse demands freedom from the prejudices that have invaded Greek theology and distanced it from the authenticity of the apostolic and patristic preaching. His discourse emerges from rigorous scientific research and from the spiritual tradition of Cappadocia. He studied under great teachers, but he received the fullness of life from his pious parents, who lived, like the other refugees from Arabissos of Cappadocia, in the atmosphere of the theology of the Cappadocian Fathers, without possibly knowing it. The life of his fellow refugees from Arabissos in their new Greek homeland continued to be strictly coordinated with the canons of the Church. Indicative of his family tradition is the fact that his mother reposed dressed in the schema of a nun in the Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, located in Souroti in Halkidiki. He often mentioned her in his traditions. He had founded his thinking upon “practical” theology. He knew, for example, empirically the inviolability of human freedom as being from God, which is why he said: “A saint cannot be made by force.”
Father John Romanides was a free spirit. He had the freedom of a mature research scientist and a discerning spiritual father. He neither rejected nor accepted anything before investigating it with proven scientific and spiritual criteria. The existence of such great people is like very strong medicines, which, along with their therapeutic effects, present some side effects in certain weak organisms. The physical absence of Father John, I believe, eliminated any “toxicity” of his critical presence in theological matters and left us only with the therapeutic juices of his work. I hope it won't be long before we understand their true power.
Source: From Ekklesiastiki Paremvasi, November 2001. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
