Kyriacos Markides

...." The eastern part of Christianity, because of historical reasons (triumph of Islam and communist

takeover), remained cut off from the cultural and historical forces that shaped the modern age.

This isolation from western cultural and intellectual developments (such as the Enlightenment) has

served as a double-edged sword. On one hand it helped preserve the Three-fold Way. On the other

hand, Eastern Christianity has shown serious deficits and gaps in its ability to deal creatively with the

intellectual challenges of a world that is rapidly becoming global and culturally diverse. Therefore,

the temptation is strong to nurture an insular fundamentalism, a tendency not only to be indifferent to

an understanding of other religions, but to monopolize God, as it were, by demonizing other religions

as nothing but heresies. Another difficulty is the tendency of some theologians to nurture hostility

towards the West as if they are still living during the time of the Fourth Crusade, when Constantinople

was ransacked by the holy warriors of the West, paving the way for the Ottoman takeover of Byzantium.

Such xenophobic attitudes are painfully pronounced among several segments of the ecclesiastical

establishment of the Christian East. I have time and again been amazed by the extremely reactionary

political, religious and cultural utterances of some members of the higher clergy, including Athonite

monks. With an inability to understand the modern world and its pluralistic texture and a concomitant

wholesale rejection of its cultural values (equality of women, diversity as good rather than demonic),

they make it difficult for westerners to discover for themselves the hidden spiritual and healing

treasures found in the monastic tradition that I have presented in this paper. Westerners with a thirst

for spiritual healing and experience will simply look elsewhere: in the ashrams of India, in Zen

meditation monasteries, in native American sweat lodges. These traditions are outside of the cultural

baggage that has plagued the troubled histories of the Abrahamic religions........"

....."There are many enlightened ones: theologians, monks, patriarchs, and bishops who,

being inspired by the mystical teachings of the holy elders, are struggling against such narrowness of

vision and quietly working for an open dialogue, understanding and cooperation among the religions.

May their efforts bear fruit for the good of Orthodoxy and the World. For I do believe that the mystical

pathways of Eastern Christianity can contribute immensely not only to the healing of individual souls,

but to the healing of our troubled world, stranded as it is in the quick sands of materialism. We have

come to this point by falsely assuming that ultimate reality is the reality of our sensate, observable

universe, an ultimately nihilistic outlook on life. The saints and holy elders of Eastern Christianity

might help us find our way out from our present predicament".

Extracted from

The Healing Spirituality of Eastern Orthodoxy:

A Personal Journey of Discovery †

Kyriacos C. Markides

Department of Sociology, University of Maine Orono, Maine 04469, USA; Markides@maine.edu;

Academic Editor: John A. Jillions

Received: 4 April 2017; Accepted: 2 June 2017; Published: 8 June 2017

Abstract:" It is generally assumed by western scholars and spiritual seekers that mystical,

experiential religion and spirituality are primarily a hallmark of the far East, as exemplified by

Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and tribal religions like native American shamanism. In this overview,

based on thirty years of field research as a sociologist, I have tried to show that such mystical

practices and spiritual approaches exist in Eastern Christianity among groups of lay people, as well

as in ancient monasteries like those found on Mt. Athos in northern Greece. It is argued that

these thousand-year-old practices in the Christian East may contribute to what some thinkers have

called the “eye of contemplation”, namely the cultivation of the intuitive, spiritual side of human

beings that has been repressed over the centuries because of the dominance of rationalism and

scientific materialism..."

 

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We don't have to agree with professor's Markides ideas about the situation of  Eastern Orthodox Churches and the way

things should be or not for the evolution of societies specially  in the western world .

Nevertheless his books serve a great purpose , that is ,the exposure of the power of Christianity not in Geopolitical terms but in Theological plains.

Christmas are near but the bleeding of holly land is continuing remarkably.

I wonder what kind of future is 

coming towards our children .

I believe that we have the need for Piece and Human Brotherhood not as an abstract idea but as the only way of

Survivor. 

Theological and Philosophical

debates have no significance when someone has no way to protect himself or herself and family ,from bullets and bombs.

One thing is for certain.

I will try to read as many books of professor Markides, as I can .