ΤΗΕ ROLE OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Man
has a sick soul and various sinful passions. So, based on this fact,
we could say that man is literally a "psychopath" (psycho-
is a prefix meaning of
the soul,
and -path
comes from the Greek word pathos
= passion).
So,
man is a psychopath, not in terms of psychiatry, but in terms of our
Patristic Tradition. We do not need to be, let's say, a
schizophrenic, in order to be a psychopath. However, in terms of
Orthodox Patristics, psychopathy (mental-psychic illness) exists in a
person whose soul does not function properly. This person's
soul-energy, the noetic
energy,
according to our Holy Fathers, does not function properly!
So,
when our noetic energy does not function properly (and this counts
for all of us, as long as we have not been healed yet inside this
very hospital, called Church), we are a psychopath. Then, our nous is
full of logismoí (thoughts combined with images), and this actually
justifies our "filth". Concluding, according to our Holy
Fathers, the nous of a psychopath or a sinfully impassioned person is
filthy.
What
determines our psychic illness is the following condition: our nous
is full of logismoí, thoughts, not only bad, but also good ones! Do
you remember what we said our nous is in the beginning?
It
is the noetic
energy
inside of every human heart.
Normally,
inside the region of our heart there is no other thought, there is no
other logismós allowed, than Christ. Our noetic energy should
communicate with God, and this communion is to be established by the
ceaseless prayer (εὑχή, efkhí).
So,
when we have other thoughts inside our heart, our noetic energy is
malfunctioning, is "confused". There is kind of a closed
circuit between our nous and our intellect (diánoia). Thoughts,
which should be confined in our intellect, take the wrong way and
descent into our heart, and take the place that belongs exclusively
to God. All of us have this "confusion" as long as we
remain uncured.
This
is actually the reason why we (most of us) cannot make a proper, a
"pure", a heartfelt prayer. There are "things"
that should have never had any place in our heart! Various thoughts
came down from the brain into our heart, and these logismoí are
connected to various desires, and became impassioned. Normally, all
of them logismoí should have just stayed in our intellect, in our
brain. Unfortunately, because of our carelessness, they came down and
contaminated our heart..., and I repeat: be them bad or good ones!
So,
anybody having good or bad logismoí in his heart, from a Patristic
point of view, this person is a psychopath... I repeat: from a
Patristic perspective; do not get confused with the psychiatric
terminology.
"Be
them ethical, even extremely ethical, or unethical or anything
else...
they
are foreign body, so to say, inside our heart"
(excerpt from the book by Fr. Ioannis Romanides Patristic
Theology, Parakatathiki
Editions, Thessaloniki, 2004, p. 23 of the Greek publication).
Conclusion:
According to the Holy Fathers of our Orthodox Church, a psychopath is
considered anyone who has not cleansed his soul from the sinful
passions and has not reached the state of illumination yet (always by
the Grace of the Holy Spirit).
For
a psychiatrist, though, a psychopath is something else; it is the
person who suffers from psychosis, a schizophrenic. For Orthodoxy, on
the contrary, those of us who have not purified our soul from its
sinful passions (have not started at least the process of kátharsis
through repentance) and have not reached illumination yet, are, in
fact, simply not "normal".
f. Savvas Agioreitis
To be continued...
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