One of the central themes the blog “Atlas Stumbled” attempts to convey is the spiritual phenomenon of “sobornost,” which, according to many, has greatly diminished in Russian society today. But it still lives on in Russia, unlike the situation in the Western model which I describe as the “Economy of Death.” (See posts 18 and 19)
We propose that a society founded on the principle “love thy neighbor as thyself” should foster “sobornost” in its “social fabric.”
(a). What exactly do I mean by “sobornost?”
To understand the fundamentally spiritual phenomenon of “sobornost,” it is necessary to first understand what I call the “gravity of flesh.” This arises from what the church fathers call the “passions of the flesh.” The human organism is presented as a trinity of soul, body and spirit, as taught by the Russian Saint Theophan the Recluse in his great work The path to salvation: A manual of spiritual transformation. The “energies” that vivefy the presence of trinitarian persons can be broadly grouped in my metaphorical construct into two categories – spiritual love (which I call “the blue”) and energies of the flesh (which I call “the black.”) “The black” acts as a kind of “force of gravity” – this is a force that acts “automatically” between persons, hence the term “gravity of flesh.”
The fundamental dynamic in any society is that the “gravity of flesh” in interpersonal interactions in society naturally affects you. This is experienced as a kind of “tension.” According to my metaphorical construct, the “two worlds”—”male” and “female”—are defined by the “fundamental tension” created between female and male carnal passions, as a projection of the “gravity of flesh.” Again, according to my metaphorical construct, female passions are associated with “pulling” into themselves the “gravity of flesh,” that is, into their sense of self as a person in a body, while male carnal passions typically manifest as a projection of the “gravity of flesh.”
The fundamental principle at work in the Orthodox Christian spiritual work to “assemble as the Mystical Body of Christ” in the divine liturgy is what the church fathers called “the struggle of the spirit with the flesh.” “The blue” has the power to transform “the black” and, in so doing, provides a mechanism for individuals to become free from the “gravity of flesh” and achieve “unity in Christ.”
The power of “the blue” to transform “the black” and the tendency of the “gravity of flesh” to “weigh us down” is nicely described by Saint Gregory Palamas in Triads in defense of Holy Hesychasm, C. The Hesychast method of prayer and the transformation of the body:
“As for that which takes place in the body, but comes from the soul full of spiritual joy, it is a spiritual reality, although it operates in the body. When the pleasure which comes from the body enters the mind, it imparts to the latter a bodily aspect, without the body itself being in any way improved by this intercourse with the superior reality, but rather imparting to the mind an inferior quality, and this is why the whole man is called ‘flesh,’ as it was said of those who were overcome by divine wrath: ‘My Spirit shall not dwell in them, because they are flesh’ (Genesis 6:3). On the contrary, the spiritual joy which comes from the mind into the body is in no way corrupted by intercourse with the body, but transforms the body and makes it spiritual, because it then rejects all the evil desires of the body; it no longer drags the soul down, but is elevated with it. Thus the whole man becomes spirit, as it is written: ‘He that is born of the Spirit is spirit’ (John 3:5-8). All this, indeed, becomes clear from experience.”
Saint Theophan also teaches that a person who is “gathered within” has achieved a state of coherent unity where spirit, soul and body are harmonious – this requires freedom from ego and passions of the flesh. The act of “gathering within” on the level of the individual is one aspect of the self-reinforcing, collective work to “gather in Christ.”
According to my experience, males and females who have achieved this state are, of course, different, but they are much less different than what is normally experienced in everyday life in the “two worlds.” I postulate from my own personal opinion that the more extreme difference in the latter case arises because females in Russia tend to project themselves in “the blue” while their passions of the flesh (“the black”) operate almost entirely within their own minds to affect how they hold themselves so as to draw “the gravity of flesh”. Males in Russia accept this model and accordingly tend to project themselves in “the black” (sometimes having little or no sense of their own “blue,” which is just as beautiful as that of the females).
In the purest sense, the term “sobornost” is normally used to refer to “unity in Christ.” The apostle Paul writes that, “in Christ there is neither male nor female” (Galatians 3:28). Obviously, the existence of male and female has ultimate meaning and purpose. People are either male or female. So, at some level, there is, of course, still “male and female” “in Christ.” But what Paul means is that the “two worlds” of male and female defined by the “gravity of flesh” is defined by the “passions of the flesh” which no longer exist “in Christ.” To assemble “in Christ” is to become FREE from the “gravity of flesh,” to where the “two worlds” no longer exist, and there is only ONE world, unified in the Mystical Body of Christ.
By the term “sobornost,” I mean the existence in Russian society of a so-called “blessed middle”—a “spiritual space between” the “two worlds,” defined by the “gravity of flesh.” This, as I see it, is similar to “love in Christ”—it unites the “two worlds” at the societal level and has become a structural element of the “social fabric” after 1,000 years of Orthodox Christianity. The Communists didn’t destroy it—they utilized it. And to some extent, it persists even in post-communist generations, even among non-believers, because Russian “national identity” is inextricably linked to Orthodox Christianity.
Individual male and female triune persons (spirit-soul-body), remain in only one of the “two worlds” in everyday life. And even though they may be individually unaware of this, and despite their male and female egos, carnal passions of individuals are “neutralized” at the collective level of society by the “fundamental tension” between the “two worlds.” What remains—the source of spirit from which ALL Russians draw—(the spiritual component being the same for men and women) is what I call “sobornost.”
In the “blessed middle,” which exists in Russian society, but not in most Western societies, at the level of spirit, the people are indeed truly unified. This is only possible to the extent that there indeed exists a collective “love of the people.” Speaking as an Orthodox foreigner who came “home” to Russia to flee the spiritual desert that is the West, I experience this quite regularly. It is breathtaking, awe inspiring and absolutely real. The people themselves mostly don’t realize it, but this is a priceless spiritual treasure – something that Russian society is, regrettably, in danger of squandering.
(b). Why is there no “sobornost” in the West?
The reasons WHY no spiritual phenomenon similar to Russian “sobornost” exists in (most places in) the West are worthy of note:
At one level, this arises from the fundamental difference between Protestant and Orthodox Christianity. Orthodox understand clearly that it is not possible to be “in Christ” without “loving thy neighbor as thyself.” “Sobornost” is, ultimately, a manifestation of this tendency that yet remains after 1000 years of Orthodox Christian society. Protestants, however, believe that their relationship with Christ is entirely personal and has nothing to do with their neighbors. Thus, Protestant societies tend to be “individualist” in character. “Sobornost” is effectively the antithesis of “individualism.”
At another level, the western economic order has long since devolved into a “cult of individualism” in which consumers are invited to celebrate their ego, instead of fighting to be free from it. While this is a very effective method of increasing sales, it actively works against the attainment of unity (harmonious presence of spirit, soul and body) within oneself, and even more so against trinitarian (“love thy neighbor as thyself”) communion with others, which is ultimately the source of “sobornost.” Life within the “cult of individualism” effectively accepts, on the societal level, the atheist-materialist model of identity expressed by George Bernard Shaw, in his famous quote: “Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” It is fair to say that this model has been de facto accepted in the USA, even amongst most self-described “Christians.” No one can ever be “spiritually wounded” because no one has a “real” identity other than that which they “create.” The “person I am today” is the product of many factors, the most significant of which are material, not spiritual in nature.
At yet another level, which is more overtly sinister, Western “mechanical capitalism” actively “commodifies” human persons as “impersonal modules” within a consumer-technical construct. Consumers still have spirits, of course, but these become individualized in a manner that mirrors the “cult of individualism” itself. This “commodification” thus effectively “excises” “spirit” from the “structure” of society, from the “social fabric,” rendering consumers effectively binary body-minds rather than triune persons living in communion with each other. The “collective unity” is not a “spiritual unity” at all but simply the commercial “unity” of “commodified” “impersonal modules” within a “spiritless” economic machine that generates material well being for consumers living within a spiritual wasteland. Americans themselves are even, by now, aware of this, formalizing this phenomenon as an absence of “social capital” – something which has plainly declined dramatically since the onset of the “Reagan Economic miracle,” as documented in the book Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam (76).
(c). Preserving “sobornost” in Russian society.
It is a recurring theme of this blog that “sobornost” will disappear from the Russian social fabric if “the system” does not change course from its current path to what I call the “Economy of Death” – Western-style “mechanical-capitalist” consumer culture. I have presented the challenge (which could reasonably be called “demand”) that “the system” must actively de-Westernize and otherwise reform itself so that Russia may get back to the trajectory of its own Orthodox Christian history.
The aim expressed here is to turn away from the Western “Economy of Death” towards a Christian “Economy of Life” founded on principles expressed by the Russian theologian Sergei Bulgakov in 1912 in Philosophy of Economy. Post 19 presents the concept of the “Economy of Life,” which views society as an evolving organism. “Economy” is the means whereby life, which was initiated by the Creator who gave trinitarian humans “free will,” is defended and developed. Its central aim is NOT the maximization of return on capital for “owners” at the top of the “pyramid of capital” but rather the provision of a spiritually satisfying life for workers who ultimately drive the evolution of the social organism. It’s driving principle is that spiritual satisfaction comes from “sobornost,” NOT from “consumption.”
In order to help “the system” get on with the critical business of de-Westernization, Post 19 proposes establishment of a fundamentally new economic force – a
“Union of Workers within the Economic Body of Russia” that owns the means of production and provides its members with spiritually satisfying housing, Orthodox schools and “houses of culture.” The growth of the Union, preferably in currently under-developed parts of the interior of this expansive country, is proposed to be made possible by loans from an “Oligarch Reconciliation Fund” corresponding to the net present value of the difference between real value and what was actually paid for soviet state-owned properties in the Western “Economy of Death” fire sale in 1992-1993. This would give “birth” to a new model of “ownership,” with no stockholders and no “pyramid of wealth.” It would harmonize the past and future trajectory of Russian history as well as the spiritual and material interests of the Russian “social organism” as it evolves.
(d). What shall we do with abandoned shopping malls?
I believe that a great moment in history is rapidly approaching in which the Western “Economy of Death” will implode, collapse on itself, very likely exacerbated by the West’s own hubristic efforts to destroy the Russian economy. For better or for worse, it is entirely possible that the Russian economy will, also, fall at least to some degree in this process.
But just as the coming collapse in the West will give self-proclaimed Christians there an opportunity to “take the hyphen out of Christian-satanist,” as described in post 18, so will it also give Russians an opportunity to move away from the “Economy of Death” towards an “Economy of Life.” “Melting” of the existing economic order is, in any case, a necessary step in the process of a new economic order emerging. One simple principle to keep in mind as we contemplate this process is that buildings (houses, apartments, institutions, and everything else) do not spontaneously fall down simply because somebody owes somebody else money for them.
I recently saw a propaganda piece on CNN that gloated over the demise of the Russian economy as evidenced by the virtual abandonment of a huge Western-style shopping mall in Moscow. But quite apart from being a bad omen, I present this as a clear sign that de-Westernization is already beginning, that “the ice is melting” and “spring is coming.” Let this be a rallying cry for the “Union of Workers within the Economic Body of Russia:” “Sisters and brothers, what shall we do with abandoned shopping malls?”
76. Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, (2000) Robert D. Putnam, 544 pages, ISBN 978-0-7432-0304-3, Simon & Schuster USA
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