“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And there is a second like it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.” (Matthew 22:40)
In society we are accustomed to separating male and female. But “in” the “Mystical Body of Christ,” whether you believe in it or not, there is no such thing as male and female – they are all one. The Apostle Paul makes this very clear in Galatians 3:28: “The distinction between male and female has passed away; you are all one in Christ Jesus.” And by participating in the liturgy as a worship service, we experience the union of male and female in Christ. We can also experience this in everyday life by working with our neighbors (doing “the work of the people”). (30)
In the hope of influencing a change in your ongoing status as an “unbeliever,” I am attempting here to EXPLAIN the nature of this spiritual work by which we gradually “rise” together, bypassing the division of the “worlds” of “male” and “female” to “unity in Christ.” In light of the fact that so many Russians of your generation share your unbelief, I will attempt to explain my case in quasi-“scientific” terms that are quite unlike (though not inconsistent with) the history usually presented by the official “apparatus” of the Russian Orthodox Church.
What prompted me to write this letter is something important that I now realize, having returned to Russia to live in retirement:
In Russia there still remains a sense of “collectivity” by which people feel that they belong to something common. Perhaps this is only a residual image that is already rapidly disappearing in your generation, but at the moment it has a very important practical meaning: The “fundamental tension” between the separate worlds of male and female, which exists in every society, is “relaxed” and “resolved” in Russian society within the framework of collective unity. This “fundamental tension” still exists, as everywhere. Individual male and female egos are not necessarily consciously aware of this, but both males and females draw from “the nourishing source” of the collective, unified “love of the Russian people” which is analogous to the collective love that we experience in “trinitarian communion” in the “sacrament of the assembly” of the Mystical Body of Christ.
This is a fundamentally spiritual phenomenon that has its origins in the Orthodox principle of “sobornost,” which became the fundamental principle of Russian society during the Holy Russia era. Practically speaking, this has the meaning of “spiritual community of jointly-living people” or “spiritual harmony through unity in love.” It is literally the antithesis of individualism – emphasizing the need for cooperation between people at the expense of individualism. The communists overthrew the church, but they certainly did not dispense with “sobornost.” And as a result, it continues to exist in contemporary Russian society, even amongst your generation. You could say in a sense that cultural and even genetic memory still preserves in the Russian people the experience of unity in Christ.
You may not notice it yourself, or you may simply take it for granted, assuming that other societies have a similar character. But I assure you, there is nothing like it in the United States. American society has long been a “cult of individualism,” a society of consumption that has gotten out of control. The symbol of American society is expressed in the advertising “Be an individual, buy Nike!” Their political-economic order is an embodiment of what I call “mechanical capitalism.” It’s “mechanical” character derives from it’s “efficiency” in “automatically” maximizing the “return” on “investment” primarily by promoting ever-expanding consumption. And it leads to a “mechanical” way of life, mass-produced, automated, cookie-cutter franchised, that minimizes human interactions within a conceptual framework of “time is money.” The social context of “every person for themself” that it promotes is the antithesis of “sobornost.”
The American system is demonstratively “Satanic,” referring not to the overt, formal worship of Satan but rather to the worship and elevation of the ego of individual consumers. It commodifies” human persons within a consumer-technical construct. It deliberately promotes egoism as a vehicle for increased sales even as it systematically “de-humanizes” society. It thrives on consumers living in an endless cycle of desire and consumption defined by the physical senses and attachments to the material world. It pursues no other goal than the expansion of national income, of which “the 1%ers” (who determine the results of “elections”) take the lion’s share, with complete disregard for whether this achieves a peaceful, stable, “quality” life for people. (31)
Russia has enormous potential to provide a peaceful, stable, “quality” life for its people, to develop its vast territory, not just its largest cities. But the main question that needs to be answered is whether it will find a “middle way” for the life of the world, or will it itself slide into the “Satanic” emptiness of “mechanical capitalism” or into something even worse?
The answer to this question turns on whether or not your generation is willing and able to maintain and pass on the Russian spiritual tradition of “sobornost.”
This end can be accomplished without your becoming an active participant in the Orthodox Church. But probably it does require that you understand the “Orthodox christian” model of the human organism and accept the fact that you do, indeed, possess a “spirit” that is capable of transmitting and receiving “spiritual love.” And it requires a conscious effort to care about other people and not simply accept “every person for themself” consumerism as a way of life.
At the end of the day, “sobornost” is a kind of “super-organismic” “love of the Russian people.” (32) While the drama of the Ego is still being played out, as always, in the lives of people living in the “separate worlds” of “male” and “female,” through “sobornost,” there exists a collective love in which everyone exists and from which everyone draws support. Through “sobornost,” the Russian “super-organism” continues to be an organism that exhibits spirit. In contrast, the American “super-organism” is no longer an organism at all but really just a kind of spiritless economic machine that generates material well being for individuals living within a spiritual wasteland.
Here I try to explain a few basic principles of the Orthodox Christian spiritual work, which is ultimately the origin of “sobornost” in Russia.
Notes:
(30) “The Work of the People” is how we translate the meaning of the word “liturgy.” Liturgy (Greek λειτουργία or λῃτουργία, from λαός / Laos, “people” and the root ἔργο / “work.”
(31) Contrary to popular belief in Russia, the “Satanic” nature of “mechanical capitalism” is not rooted in LGBT propaganda, but in its deliberate destruction of humanity in the automatic pursuit of maximum profit. Such a system would be just as “satanic” with or without LGBT propaganda.
(32) A superorganism is a generalized organism made up of many other organisms that work together and cannot survive individually.
Leave a Comment