Economia in Orthodox Christian thought

Partial transcript

The Old Testament predates Christianity. None of its characters are regarded as Saints by any Christian denomination. All of the Old Testament is practically interpreted in the light of the Christian teachings by the Fathers of the Church, who of course include the Apostles and Evangelists. There is in Orthodox Christianity the idea of economia, a word that literally means housekeeping: monotheism started at a simpler stage in human development, at humanity’s infancy. Initially, in the dark ages of distant antiquity there were many gods; eventually Yahveh was selected by the people of Israel as their only god and He was at first regarded as terrifying, causing the utter destruction of peoples and cities. In the later parts of the Old Testament, God begins to be seen as merciful. Finally, in Christianity, God is perceived as charitable and compassionate and this charity is demonstrated through the death of Christ, an event which changed human history. Before Christianity, slavery was normal and the lame and the poor were often destitute. The Christian Church after Constantine the Great devoted itself to charity and the building of orphanages, infirmaries, monasteries and hospitals.

Economia is a general guiding principle in our engagement with the Church. What is a fairy tale or awe-inspiring myth to a child may be background knowledge and context for some event in Christ’s life in an educated adult. Some are entertained by stories of miracles and signs. Others perceive Christ’s wisdom in what must have seemed on the surface as a logically inexplicable miracle:

The Jews ask for a sign, the Greeks rather ask for wisdom
Cor 1, 1:22

For several centuries during the Middle Ages and after, the Orthodox lands came under the control of Islam and the Mongols. During the time of the Eastern Church’s captivity, the Western Church adopted a view of the miracles as not having a rational explanation, possibly because the Latin Church had translated Logos as the Word and the original meaning was not immediately apparent. The Western Church subsequently saw the rise of rationalism and science as a threat to the Christian faith which rested on the irrationality of the miracles. The Christian mindset shifted away from Christ being the embodiment of reason, while the rational began to be seen as an enemy of faith. The Inquisition used random passages from the Old Testament to oppose science, disregarding the fact that the Old Testament was a collection of stories that included many ancient myths and fables. It would inevitably be proven to contain few scientifically and historically verifiable truths. Statements made in one paragraph, sometimes contradict statements in another. If a Protestant or Catholic Christian has managed to read past the first page of the Gideon Bible, they would have immediately realised that the second page of the creation story in the Book of Genesis contradicts the first - in the second page it is said that

Genesis 2: 5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the Lord God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. 7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

After which the garden of Eden with its plants and animals is created. So on the second page, man is the first living being created, even before plants, contradicting the first creation story where plants and animals are created before man. It should be immediately apparent from these first two pages to anyone who has begun reading the Bible, that attacking science on the basis of the Old Testament is arbitrary and achieving nothing other than harming the Christian Church. The book God Himself wrote is all around us.

Ο πανταχού παρών και τα πάντα πληρών
Everywhere present and filling all things
Doxastic of the Praises of Pentecost Sunday

The human understanding of God, except for His essence, is due to Logos, due to inference, and all knowledge available for inference is available only to living organisms and is empirical. As God is Logos, there can be no room in Christianity for the unnatural, the occult, the superstitious and illogical except conditionally in the context of Economia. However, what may appear unexplainable to children and uneducated adults, had little appeal to many educated rational adults from the time of the early Fathers of the Church to our own time. The only thing that must remain ultimately unexplainable is God’s essence, the Trinity.

Lord, pure and undefiled, existing before all eternity, invisible, incomprehensible, unsearchable, unchanging, surpassed by none, not to be measured, long-suffering, the only immortal One, You abide in the unapproachable light.
Orthodox Vespers of the Pentecost