The Cycle of Christianization

The Cover of the Poem"Jerusalem" by William Blake

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon Englands mountains green:

And was the holy Lamb of God,

On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,

Shine forth upon our clouded hills?

And was Jerusalem builded here,

Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold:

Bring me my arrows of desire:

Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!

Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand:

Till we have built Jerusalem,

In Englands green & pleasant Land.

By Bp. Joseph (Ancient Church of the West) 

Introduction

Understanding the cultural reality of Christianity that allows it to redeem the Universe through the Gospel is an important factor within the Orthodox Tradition. This mechanism allowed Scotland and Ireland to become holy lands, the process whereby Ethiopian springs of water all mark places where Christ played in childhood, the prophecies whereby Russia became the “3rd Rome” and “Holy Rus”, and the way that America conceives of itself as a “City on the Hill.” Christianization works its way out into the world, one step at a time, one Eucharist at a time, transforming all of the Creation by contact with the Uncreated. In this process, Christ’s singular incarnation spreads out into the world and gives light and life to all, forming what we now call the “Cosmic Christ.” 

A Circular Paradigm for an Unchanging Orthodoxy

Based on the history that biblical criticism makes clear, there are several facets of Redemptive History that can now be understood, without contradiction or bias towards any single group, language or culture - 

1. The Process of Formation is Clearly Universal and Decontextualizing, Manifesting the Prophetic Voice by Pointing Out, Instead of In. The Gospel’s one, definitive, Difference between Prophetic Voices Before or After is that This Voice Claims to BE the Voice, the Locus of Divine Providence and Redemption, the Economy of the Kingdom to Come, within All Other Prophecy, Thus, It is the Prophetic Inspiration within the Prophetic Voice, and is to be Found Wherever There is True Prophecy (Repentance, Separation, Self-Loss, and Vision of God) - It is the True Manifestation and Incarnation of Prophecy in One Point, the Internalization of the Message of External Salvation 

2. This Process is Spurred by Tragedy and Creates a Violent Cultural Reaction, which Will Do Anything Necessary to Keep Its Authority from Being Challenged or Losing Its Center of Gravity 

3. Once the Cultural War Has Been Won by the lesser Incumbent, a New Phase Begins in which the Old Forms are Attached to New Forms, and become Undistinguishable to Those Within the Culture - This is the Rebirth of Culture that is NEVER an Actual Rebirth of an Identical Culture, but is Inspired and Given Authority by the Forms within the Old Culture (Byzantine Empire - Christian New Israel, Russian Orthodoxy - Byzantine Empire, the Renaissance - Greek Revival, the Reformation - Old Testament and Early Church) 

Culture is a conciliar process or mutually shared, agreed upon definition, and always happens post-fact, as a retelling of the foundational myths 

There are elements of Christian Myth that are continuously beyond culture, such as the Transcendent God, the Incarnation, and the Holy Spirit, all of which are potentially undermining to the authority of culture 

1. Gospel of Incarnation - God Became Man to Suffer with the Poor, Despised, and Rejected: He Conquered Through Death and Made Death a Pathway to Life: His Resurrection Begins a New Ontology, a New Universe of a Redeemed Adam, and a New Age of a Ever Coming Kingdom: He Calls All Men to Believe, Repent, and Enter His Death by the Power of the Holy Spirit and Baptism: From this Body of Believer’s, Christ Forms His Church, and This Church is Manifested in the Celebration of the Lord’s Supper, in which Christ’s Life is Entered Into by the Body of Believers, Becoming the True Body and Blood of Christ 

2. Fall of Jerusalem - The Rejection of Jacobean Apostolic Authority by the Power of the Spirit of Christ - St. Paul 

3. New Israel - Appropriation and Martyrdom at the Hands of Human Authority - Missionary Apostles 

4. New Priesthood - Reorientation of Human Systems to Divine Power - Constantine - One Group Takes it Upon Themselves to Persecute Another Group 

5. New Jerusalem - Association of Old Word with New Cultural Forms - Justinian - Powers are United Permanently Into One Cultural System 

6. New Temple - Orthodoxy’s View of the Hagia Sophia, Rome’s View of St. Peter’s Basilica - Consolidation of Rituals and Rights According to the Practice of the Imperial System 

7. New Law - Hardening of Associations into an Orthodoxy of Canons and Compliance with the Divine-Human Imperial Economy, Forgetting the “Perfect Law of Liberty” and the Basis of God’s Law as Love 

8. New Pharisees - Forgetting of Constructive Process and Applying Law and Custom of Place without Historical Context as a Divinely Inspired Whole 

9. Second Fall - Self-Appreciation, Self-Destruction, Entropy, and Conquest by Stronger Powers 

10. Continued Diaspora - Baseline, Traditional, Non-evangelical, Negative Existence, Pride of Ranking of Church, Pride of Race, Pride of Ecclesial Position, Disunity with Doctrinally Identical Churches Based on Political Aspirations 

Just as Spiritual Life Spirals Up or Down in the Practice of the Individual Christian, So, Too, Cultures Cycle Through Stages of Christian Development 

A Cultural Cycle

Culture exhausts itself as a vehicle for Christendom, just as it did for Judaism. The historical fabric of the formation and evolution is forgotten, and it is taken as a whole, as an icon, instead of as a narrative, as an unfolding and continuing process. An icon, to an icon painter, is different than to an icon venerator. The icon painter knows the process of discernment and personal choice that went into the construction of a false image, which, ultimately, represents the presence of a much greater narrative, and which will, hopefully, point toward the truth as a symbol. The icon venerator starts with a perfect image that he must accept at face value, and must approach as the “thing-in-itself”, which ultimately excludes him from both the story and the process of an unfolding narrative - the Gospel history behind the image, lived out in his context. Those who “Hear the Word of God and keep it” are different than those who “See the Word of God and kiss it”. Even scarier than an icon venerator is an icon copier, who approaches other people’s icons, not with the intent to paint his own and contextualize the images in the bigger story, but with the intent to preserve and carry the icon itself, bending the process around upon itself, creating an icon which is a thing in itself, which is not only taken to represent, but TO BE that thing. 

This iconic view is ultimately how the Church ceases to be alive, ceases to be something that people BE (because that’s what the icons do), and becomes something that people DO (interact with icons). It is respect, veneration, mistaken for participation, for communion, that ultimately alienates and causes the Church to be another facet (albeit major) or culture, rather than a dynamic, challenging, overthrowing, transformational engine for the questioning of culture, and its ultimate downfall. Once it has lost its ability to be iconoclastic, to challenge and overthrow the culture’s authority, simply because IT is the culture’s authority, it can no longer do what Christ or the Apostles did, which was to change the world and convert it into a place fitting for the return of the King. This is why the stewards of the throne in all myths are always evil… they always usurp the throne itself as their symbol of authority, and thus rule as the King himself! This is why, even though there are many areas of doctrinal conflation, Protestantism has been so successful at continuing the work of the Early Church and transforming the world - because what is sought is life-to-life communion with the Word, rather than an icon to cense and decorate with flowers. This is also why Eucharistic Renewal within the Apostolic Churches has been so dynamic, even bringing in Protestants who, otherwise, would see nothing of value in the Tradition from their perspective of rich, lived experience. The Eucharistic theology of the Church as the Body of Christ, of the local assembly, and of confession and holiness to the Lord are powerfully represented in the core of the Ancient Church’s teachings, and show the beauty and truth that did, indeed, change men’s lives practically for the better and transform the world into a shadow of the Coming Age. 

The problem with this cycle for Christianity is that there is only one, unique, specific, and non-reproducible occurrence of the Messianic Promise, therefore, any cycle must be a return to the Gospel, and not a modification or change of that Gospel. This makes “Progress” impossible until the Return of Christ. We can see the cycle played out, over and over in cultures and contexts, in which the hardening and loss of information creates the context for another, newer religious expression, but not with an understanding of the Incarnation of God as Man, which is unique to the Gospel Message. With this understanding, there can only be repentance and return to the Gospel. It completely deprives men of authority, the ability to change, compensate, or compromise upon it, and as such, it provides a timeless prophetic voice that raises above cultures and becomes a witness against man’s basic human condition. Only when this position is understood and kept, can there be any transformation of culture, and only when we see this message as the call to fellowship with Christ through the Eucharistic Celebration of the Baptized People of God, who have been “called out” of the world, can the Church raise above the necessities of culture and truly challenge the world to repentance through its own example of purity, truthfulness, and consistent repentance.