An Eastern Orthodox Pacifism?

A guest-post by Daniel Greeson

The Iraqi conflict was the first time that war became a reality to me. I can still faintly remember watching the Persian Gulf conflict on the television when I was just a kindergartner. It involved faint outlines of tanks, generals, and explosions in the night. To me it was almost like any other show that I would have watched as a child. War was not real, it was television.

I did not honestly began pondering a Christian response to war until about two years or so ago. I was vaguely aware that the tradition I had grown up in (Stone-Campbell) had some strong streaks of pacifism (David Lipscomb being the brightest example) but I personally had not seriously considered how I as a follower of Christ would understand war.

Like other guest bloggers I was primarily challenged to consider this issue by Stanley Hauerwas and John Howard Yoder (and also Shane Claiborne and Lee Camp (some-one representing the Stone/Campbell tradition!)). I read deeply and widely in the Hauerwas/Yoder corpus, and came to pretty much agree with most of the theology presented. I joined the Ekklesia Project and even attended a summer gathering (‘06) and spent some time with the Englewood Christian Church in Indianapolis, Indiana.  Another companion in this decision was the song-writing of Derek Webb. Pacifism came to me primarily as a simple understanding of the example and teaching of Christ. It was never completely refined nor developed thoroughly into a system, but was rather a simple desire to love my enemies and to turn the other cheek.

What adds the twist to this rather boring and mundane telling of someone’s turning to pacifism is that about a year after encountering and embracing pacifism I became an Orthodox Christian. To join a Church that venerated Constantine as a Saint was rather troubling for me in the beginning. Despite how closely Hauerwas and Yoder tie “Constintinian” Christianity to the Church’s inability to maintain a pacifist stance I took the plunge (literally) and became an Orthodox Christian.

What I found in Orthodoxy was not only others who shared similar convictions as mine (e.g. Orthodox Peace Fellowship), but a tradition that would be able to equip me with the sacramental life that I had found missing in the Anabaptist and Stone-Campbell movement. One of the things that I had found sadly missing in a lot of the pacifist literature was the absence of a strong sacramental life. I found that the liturgical life of Orthodoxy equipped me with what I call the imaginative backdrop to actually strive for peace. For example, one of the central prayers that Orthodox incorporate into the liturgical life during Lent is a prayer attributed to St. Ephrem.

“O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, idle curiosity/meddling, lust for power and idle talk.  But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity/integrity, humility, patience and love.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brothers and sisters. For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.”

On top of this was the example of the Saints. The first Saint that I read about and learned from was the recently reposed St. Silouan the Athonite. His teachings on prayer and weeping for the entire world had a major impact on me.

“The Lord taught me to love my enemies. Without the grace of God we cannot love our enemies. Only the Holy Spirit teaches love, and then even devils arouse our pity be-cause they have fallen from good, and lost humility in God. I beseech you, put this to the test. When a man affronts you or brings dishonor on your head, or takes what is yours, or persecutes the Church, pray to the Lord, saying: “O Lord, we are all Thy crea-tures. Have pity on Thy servants and turn their hearts to repentance,” and you will be aware of grace in your soul. To begin with, constrain your heart to love enemies, and the Lord, seeing your good will, will help you in all things, and experience itself will shoe you the way. But the man who thinks with malice of his enemies has not God’s love within him, and does not know God.If you will pray for your enemies, peace will come to you; but when you can love your enemies – know that a great measure of the grace of God dwells in you, though I do not say perfect grace as yet, but sufficient for salvation. Whereas if you revile your enemies, it means there is an evil spirit living in you and bringing evil thoughts into your heart, for, in the words of the Lord, out of the heart pro-ceed evil thoughts – or good thoughts.”- St. Silouan the Athonite

Not only the sacramental life of the Orthodox Church contributed to my spiritual growth (and hence my pacifism), but the ascetical tradition of Orthodoxy as well. Learning the benefits of fasting, vigils, spiritual fatherhood, and the great blessing of monastic literature has made me come to agree with Archimandrite Sophrony completely when he says- “There are three things I cannot take in: non-dogmatic faith, non-ecclesiological Christianity and non-ascetical Christianity. These three – the church, dogma, and asceticism – constitute one single life for me.” Pacifism is only possible for me when I am engaged and challenged by the Church. I need the church basically for the same reason that I have heard Hauerwas has said he does, “because I’m a violent son-of-a-bitch!”

So it is within the Orthodox Church that I have been striving to fulfill St. Seraphim of Sarov’s well known and beloved quote, “Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved.”