Orthodox Book Series: “The Orthodox Way” by Kallistos Ware (Part 6: God as Spirit)

In this post, I will discuss the next chapter of Kallistos Ware’s book, The Orthodox Way. Chapter 5 is entitled, “God as Spirit,” and (as the title suggests) discusses the Holy Spirit, as well as some of the components of the spiritual life. As Ware says at the beginning of the chapter, “The whole aim of the Christian life is to be a Spirit-bearer, to live in the Spirit of God, to breathe the Spirit of God” (90).

Now, when it comes to the Holy Spirit, most people—most Christians actually—have a hard time speaking about Him. Indeed, most don’t even grasp that the Holy Spirit is a person, and usually refer to Him as “it.” The Holy Spirit is mysterious and hard to grasp. Incidentally, U2’s song Mysterious Ways is actually about the Holy Spirit—although Bono portrays the Holy Spirit as a woman, akin to the portrayal of Lady Wisdom throughout the Bible.

In any case, the mysteriousness of the Holy Spirit is emphasized throughout the Bible. Jesus tells Nicodemus that the Spirit is like the wind—you cannot see it, but you can feel it, and it blows where it wants. For this reason, as Ware states, “We cannot weigh and measure the Spirit, or keep it in a box under lock and key” (90). [I cannot help but point out: Do you notice how easy it is to slip into the habit of calling the Holy Spirit an “it”? Even an Orthodox bishop occasionally does it!]. The Spirit is, indeed, mysterious, as is our relationship to Him. We are aware of His presence, but it isn’t easy to picture Him. Even the creedal description of the Holy Spirit “proceeding from the Father” is rife with ambiguity. It, as Ware states, points “to a mystery not yet plainly disclosed” (91).

The Spirit and the Son/The Pentecostal Gift
As Ware discusses earlier in the book, the Son and the Spirit are often spoken of as the “two hands of the Father,” for both are the means by which God is at work in the world. We see these “two hands” at work, along with the Father, throughout the life of Christ and the life of the Church.

1. Incarnation: Where the Holy Spirit descends upon the Mary and she conceives the Logos/Son.
2. Baptism: Where the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ in the form of a dove.
3. Transfiguration: Where the Holy Spirit descends upon Christ in the form of a cloud of light.
4. Pentecost: Where the risen Christ sends the Holy Spirit, in the form of tongues of fire, to His Church.
5. The Christian Life: The purpose of the sending of the Spirit is to bear witness to Christ.

Concerning this “Pentecostal gift,” as Ware puts it, there are three things that stand out. First, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift to all God’s people, not just a select few. Having grown up in the Assemblies of God church, it was implied that one could be a Christian, but unless one spoke in tongues, then one didn’t really have the Holy Spirit—speaking in tongue was the gift of the Holy Spirit. That is the official teaching of the Assemblies of God church. Fortunately for me, my parents, even though they were members, told me they didn’t agree with that, and that the Bible clearly teaches that all believers have the Spirit. There were many gifts of the Spirit, of which speaking in tongues was merely one.

Second, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift of unity that brings mutual comprehension and the ability to speak with one voice, transforming individuals into persons. This one, though, is a tough one, for the sad fact is that “unity” most certainly is not a chief characteristic in churches today. Indeed, I have to say “churches” and not “the Church,” precisely because, for all practical purposes, there isn’t much unity. I feel a sense of that kind of unity with some Christians, for sure. But at the same time, there is a whole lot of disunity and divisiveness. There is no greater threat to Christianity than the disunity among Christians, for where there is disunity, there is no Spirit, and where there is no Spirit, there is no salvation or healing. It is as simple as that.

Third, the gift of the Holy Spirit is a gift of diversity—although the Holy Spirit makes us one in Christ, at the same time He makes us different, so that we could all use our different gifts and perspectives in vast and creative ways to foster further unity in Christ. As Ware puts it, “Life in the Spirit possesses an inexhaustible variety; it is wrong-doing, not sanctity, that is boring and repetitive” (95). That being said, the challenge for both individual Christians and the Church as a whole is to find that balance between diversity and unity. The Apostle Paul uses the analogy of different body parts yet one body. On can also use the analogy of different instruments in an orchestra playing in the same symphony. Somehow, we are to find our own individual expression, yet express it in a way that compliments and adds to the overall “symphony of the Spirit.”

Spiritual Fathers and Fools for Christ
Ware ends his chapter with a brief discussion of something familiar in the Orthodox tradition, but rather unknown within Evangelicalism—that of the “Spirit-bearing” figures of a spiritual father (“starets” in Russian/ “geron” in Greek) and a fool in Christ (“iurodivyi” in Russian/ “salos” in Greek).

In the Orthodox tradition, a spiritual father is someone who is blessed with the Spiritual gift of “fatherhood in the Spirit” to guide others on the Spiritual Way. Ware describes the spiritual father in the following way: “The starets is the man of inward peace, at whose side thousands can find salvation. The Holy Spirit has given him, as the fruit of his prayer and self-denial, the gift of discernment or discrimination, enabling him to read the secrets of men’s hearts; and so he answers, not only the questions that others put to him, but also the questions—often much more fundamental—which they have not even thought of asking” (98). In that sense, the spiritual father is more of a prophetic figure, and not necessarily an institutional/ecclesiastical official. Ultimately, a true spiritual father is one who “leads his children to the point of spiritual maturity where they can decide for themselves” (97).

The other “Spirit-bearing figure” in the Orthodox tradition is that of the fool in Christ. As Ware puts it, the fool in Christ carries the act of repentance to its farthest extent, to where he “stands the pyramid on its head,” in an attempt to be a living witness that the Kingdom of God is not of this world. He embraces absolute poverty in order to identify himself with the humiliated Christ. Because he is able to renounce everything, he not only becomes truly free, but he is able to speak with a certain boldness that others lack. You simply cannot threaten him or intimidate him in an attempt to silence him, for he had renounced everything already, and therefore is able to act as the conscience of society.

Become What You Are
Regardless of one’s Spiritual gift, regardless of whether or not one becomes a spiritual father or a fool in Christ, if one is a Christian, one has been given the gift of the Spirit, and therefore, as stated in the Homilies of St. Macarius, “each is king and prophet of the heavenly mysteries.” So, regardless of where one is on the Spiritual journey, the indwelling Spirit is never fully withdrawn from the Christian. Still, as Ware states, “unless we cooperate with God’s grace—unless, through the exercise of our free will, we struggle to perform the commandments—it is likely that the Spirit’s presence within us will remain hidden and unconscious” (100).

In order to grow into unity in Christ, we must choose to participate in the life of the Spirit so we can become the people we truly are. To that end, we can see evidence of this “becoming like Christ” in the fruit of the Spirit being demonstrated in the life of a believer: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, etc. (Galatians 5:22). If this fruit is “ripening,” so to speak, in a Christian’s life, that is evidence that the Spirit is at work, transforming that person to become more like Christ and to become more unified with the Church. Hence, the fruit of the Spirit brings about unity. At the same time, the various gifts of the Spirit (as Paul mentions in I Corinthians 12) speak out the diversity in the Church. Finding that balance, so that one can develop one’s Spiritual gifts in conjunction with growing in the fruit of the Spirit, and thus contribute to the greater unity and creativity of the Church—that is the challenge to the Spiritual life.

Spiritual gifts, the fruit of the Spirit, unity, diversity, discernment, and creativity–all these are characteristics of those who walk the Spiritual Way.