03. II. The Syrian Ascetic Vision
03. II. The Syrian Ascetic Vision
According to Ted Campbell, Wesley "understood true Christianity after the age of Constantine to lie principally in isolated pockets of Eastern Christendom," particularly among the ascetics, of which Ephrem and Pseudo-Macarius of Syria are prime examples (Campbell, 50). Syrian spirituality emerged with strong biblical grounding, Hebraic connections, and poetic imagery. This illumination-driven and Holy Spirit-centered tradition represents a radical form of ancient Christianity with many interesting features, including: perpetual virgins (women and men) living together in Christian households; hermits perched high on meditation columns, transcending normal human life and spiritual boundaries; holy fools and vagabonds roaming the earth, begging for food, challenging social structures; and a diverse company of charismatic characters with supernatural charm and power, all informed by the wild card of Platonism or what Peter Brown calls "angelic freedom"-a capacity for transformation and readiness "to step out of the category of the human by making visible, among one’s fellow-humans, the awesome freedom of angels" (Brown, p. 331). In this theological context, we meet Ephrem and Macarius.
A. Ephrem and the Luminous Eye. Ephrem, a fourth-century Syrian hermit, biblical exegete, and spiritual poet, consistently made Wesley’s essential reading list. According to Outler, Wesley regarded Ephrem as "the most awakened writer, I think, of all the ancients" (Outler, John Wesley, Journal, October 12, 1736). Peter Brown cites approvingly a commendation of Ephrem as "the greatest poet of the patristic age, and, perhaps, the only theologian-poet to rank beside Dante," whose extra-ordinary poetic power is preserved in Armenian hymns (Brown, 329). Behind the legends, not much is known about the life of Ephrem. He lived in Nisibis, near the border of southeast Turkey and Syria, and served as a deacon and catechetical teacher in a local church under four bishops. During a famine he organized relief for the poor. He spent considerable time in the desert, believing that mystical union with God through practicing asceticism brought divine perspective on suffering and other temporal realities. Granted a relatively long life, Ephrem died in 373 at about the age of 70.
During their Oxford days and beyond, Charles and John Wesley were inspired by Ephrem’s teachings on the purgative value of suffering, the original nature of humanity as a perfect being clothed in a "garment of light," spiritual illumination as a faculty for knowing, union with God as the fruit of contemplation, and how past and future realities are simultaneously and eternally present in God. Wesley called Ephrem "the man with a broken heart" and considered him an inspired teacher. Ephrem’s model of theosis, according to Sebastian Brock (on whom I rely for this section), is one of eschatological return to Paradise where humanity’s original, angelic nature is restored and perfected (Brock, 1992). Theosis in Ephrem is suggested poetically in successive images:
1. The Chasm or Great Divide: Aware of the sharp distinction between the uncreated One and the created many, Ephrem refers to this ontological gap as a great "chasm" or "divide." Citing Jesus parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, he says it is impossible for humanity to cross over the divide and access pure divine being without divinity first crossing over into the mortal sphere, putting on human nature, and showing us the way to Paradise.
2. The Ladder of Divine Descent (kenosis). How can God restore humanity to Paradise-the state of perfection? "God wearies himself by every means so as to gain us" (Faith 31:4). The whole aim of the divine descent is to draw humanity up into God. According to Brock, the concept of divine condescension and descent is basic to Ephrem’s theology, and essential for understanding his concept of theosis (Brock, 62-66).
3. The Ladder of Human Ascent (theosis). By what means can humanity be drawn up the ladder to God? How is progress made? Ephrem likens the divine ascent to that of a baby bird hatching from the egg, learning to sing, and then to fly: A bird grows up in three stages, from womb to egg, then to the nest where it sings; and once it is fully grown it flies in the air, opening its wings in the symbol of the Cross. (Faith 18:2)
Similarly, the soul grows in stages into divinity: from human birth to spiritual birth (baptism); from milk at mother’s breast to the meat of the gospel. The maturing child of God learns to sing (praise) and to feed on divinity (Eucharist); finally it soars in the air, opens its wings and flies to God-becoming in the process a Christ-figure in the form of the Cross.
4. Garments of Light. Adam and Eve (humanity) were created in an intermediary blessed state-neither mortal nor immortal, but with the potential of becoming divine. Had they obeyed the divine instruction, God would have rewarded them not only with the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, but also with the fruit of the Tree of Life. They would have grown up to be immortal. "Ye shall be gods" would have been a promise realized. As it happened, they disobeyed, shed their "garments of light, and were prevented from eating of the Tree of Life. Naked and ashamed, they found fig leaves to cover up their nakedness, their loss of light" (Gen. 3:7). [17]
5. The Flaming Sword. Once banned from the Garden, a Cherub with a sacred sword was assigned to guard the gate to the Tree of Paradise. Christ has now overcome the sword with the lance at his cross. By passing through the flaming sword with Christ and his lance, humanity can return to Paradise. Baptism anticipates this re-entry into eschatological Paradise-a state which is more glorious than the primordial one. Ephrem’s poems are preserved as Armenian hymns, many of which are cited and translated by Brock as illustrative of Ephrem’s eschatological vision of theosis. For example: With the blade of the sword of the cherub was the path to the Tree of Life shut off, but to the Peoples of the Lord of that Tree has given Himself as food... Whereas we had left that Garden along with Adam when he left it behind, now that the sword has been removed by the lance we may return there. (49:9-11, Brock, 100)
6. The Robe of Glory. The purpose of the Incarnation is to reclothe Adam (humanity) in primordial clothing lost in the fall:
Christ came to find Adam who had gone astray, He came to return him to Eden in the garment of light. (Virginity 16:9, Brock, 87) By "putting on humanity" in the Incarnation, God not only restores persons in "garments of light" but transforms them into perfect beings adorned in "robes of glory." This state of primordial and eschatological Paradise belongs to sacred time and space, ever present through faith and connected to the pattern of salvation (Brock, 32ff).
Blessed be He who had pity on Adam’s leaves and sent a robe of glory to cover his naked state. (Fast 3:2)
7. The Medicine of Life. Full salvation, as Ephrem envisions God’s gift to fallen humanity, is spiritual restoration to the primordial state requiring radical healing by Christ-"the Medicine of Life." Christ in the Eucharist is the elixir of life eternal-the immortal drink of Fire and Spirit! In his compassionate descent, the whole of Him has been co-mingled with the whole of us, resulting in a new creation: When the Lord came down to earth to mortal beings He created them again, a new creation, like the angels, mingling within them Fire and Spirit, so that in a hidden manner they too might be of Fire and Spirit. (Faith 10:9)
Divinity descends to humanity in the image of Fire (the Holy Spirit). Perfection is putting on the "garments of light." Theosis, for Ephrem, is crossing over the chasm that divides the Creator from the creation by means of "inter-penetration"-the mixing of fire and water and the human participation in the life divine. The Divine Liturgy (Communion) for Ephrem is a deifying sacrament. Partaking daily is a key to the achievement of theosis. This conviction parallels Wesley’s "Duty of Constant Communion." One receives the life of Christ in the Eucharist, according to Ephrem:
Christ’s Body has newly been mingled with our bodies, His blood too has been poured out into our veins, His voice is in our ears, His brightness in our eyes. In His compassion the whole of Him has been mingled in with the whole of us. (Virginity 37:2)
Literally, physically, spiritually, mystically-Christ is being formed in us. In partaking of the Sacrament, one should realize:
We hold God in our hands... Once He has entered, He takes up residence with us...." (Armenian Eucharistic Hymn 47) [18]
8. The Luminous Eye. The prerequisite for theological inquiry, according to Ephrem, is divine illumination. Although universal revelation is available to all, the human cultivation of spiritual senses is required to access knowledge of divine things. Similar to the doctrine of gnosis in Clement and Origen, the inner "luminous eye" of Ephrem is a spiritual capacity to "see all things, even the hidden things of God," as his poetry on faith makes clear:
Whenever I have meditated upon You I have acquired a veritable treasure from You; Whatever aspect of You I have contemplated, a stream has flowed from You. There is no way I can contain it: Your fountain [of truth], Lord, is hidden from the person who does not thirst for You. (Faith 32:2-3)
Ephrem’s "luminous eye" is similar to if not the source of Wesley’s doctrine of "spiritual senses." [19] In reading Ephrem’s theological poetry, it is easy to see why Wesley was so attracted to "the man with a broken heart," and why he shared Ephrem’s poetry with Sophy in Georgia.
B. Pseudo-Macarius and the Holy Spirit. Macarius of Egypt (301-391)-who Wesley assumed (incorrectly) he was reading in the Spiritual Homilies-is one of the most revered of the desert fathers in Eastern Orthodoxy. Pseudo-Macarius, according to some scholars, was a Messalian monk (part of a sect condemned as heretical by a synod in 383). [20] Outler advanced Jaeger’s notion that the author of the Fifty Spiritual Homilies was a fifth-century Syrian monk "whose conception of Christian spirituality was derived almost exclusively from Gregory [of Nyssa]." [21] If this be the case, says Outler, it means that Wesley was actually in touch with "the greatest of all the Eastern Christian teachers of the quest for perfection. Thus, in his early days, he drank deep of this Byzantine tradition of spirituality at its source and assimilated its conceptions of devotion...." [22] On board the Simmonds, Wesley read Macarius and learned about the stages of divine ascent, holiness of heart, progressive perfection, and the affective manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer.
Orthodox writer David Ford critically compares Macarius’ vision of theosis with Wesley’s doctrine of Christian perfection and finds that in significant areas "Wesley departed from the spirit and the specific teachings of Makarios." Ford identifies six instances in which Wesley departs from an accurate interpretation of Macarius: (1) Wesley’s tendency to regard both justification and sanctification as specific, identifiable experiences or works of grace to be sought for and definitely attained; (2) his emphasis on the "instantaneous" impartation of the state of entire sanctification/perfection/holiness; (3) his emphasis on one’s own role of faith in gaining the experience; (4) his stress on the inward "witness of the Spirit" as assurance of salvation and perfection; (5) his encouragement of followers to testify of their own perfection to others; and (6) his conception of entire sanctification and its attainment as the highest goal of the Christian life, "rather than simply the seeking of God himself, and of participation in his life, which cannot be categorized." [23]
Concludes Ford, perfection according to Macarian is not a specific, identifiable experience, but rather a yearning after God and progressive participation in the divine nature which in the end presents itself as deification. The purpose of the Lord’s coming, according to Macarius, was to alter and create our souls anew, and make them, as it is written, "partakers of the divine nature," and to give into our soul a heavenly soul, that is the Spirit of the Godhead leading us to all virtue, that we might be enabled to live eternal life. (Homily 44.9)
Macarius’ reference to the gift of a "heavenly soul" or the "Spirit of Godhead," according to Ford, is an affirmation of Ireneaus’ concept of the Holy Spirit as originally a constitutive part of Adam’s nature which was lost in the Fall. [24] Before original sin there was original blessing. Since God became human in Christ, says Macarius, our original human nature can be restored and surpassed, our potential divine nature realized, in the dynamic process of theosis in which "...sin is rooted out and one recovers the original configuration of pure Adam. Humankind, however, thanks to the Spirit’s power and to spiritual regeneration, not only measures up to the first Adam, but is made greater than he. Man is deified." (Homily XXVI) For Wesley, perfection is not the return to the original angelic nature of Adam in the garden (as in Ephrem). It is the removal of the power of sin and the perfection of the will to love God and others, not in any absolute sense, but in perfect love, without blame. For Macarius, perfection is nothing less than the surpassing of human nature and becoming in some sense divine (the creature perfectly reflecting the Creator). For Wesley, a distinct work of grace is required for the attainment of entire sanctification. For Macarius, water baptism, regular Eucharist, and on-going in-fillings of the Holy Spirit are the means to, but never the end of, perfection.
Wesley urged his followers to testify to having received the gift of "full salvation" - the experience and assurance of love made perfect in the soul. According to Ford, Macarius did not urge Christians to seek or claim a specific state or experience, but to seek simply God. He did not teach any doctrine of "assurance" nor identify any single moment of perfection, but "warned repeatedly against ever making such a claim." [25] Wesley himself apparently followed Macarius’ wisdom and humility in never claiming to have actually attained perfection or entire sanctification in his lifetime (Preface to "A Collection of Forms of Prayer for Every Day of the Week" (1735), Works, 14, p. 72).
Despite these differences, Wesley commended Macarius as an excellent model of Christian perfection and stated in his preface to the Homilies: "Whatever he insists upon is essential, is durable, is necessary" (A Christian Library). Yet, according to Campbell, Wesley edited Macarius and "omitted references to ascetic life and to the notion of theosis - ’divinization’ or ’deification’ - perhaps the most distinctively Eastern note in the Macarian literature" (Campbell, p. x).