A Different Christianity
Today’s topic is “A Different Christianity”. This is a rather strange title. What could it possibly mean? It actually came form the title of this book – “A Different Christianity”. Written by a man named Robin Amis. And a significant part of what I will cover today comes from this book.
The reason I wanted to cover this subject is that we, in this class, have been ranging over a number of different religious ideas. We have discussed Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, as well as a number of variants of Christianity, including some of the Eastern versions of Christianity as well as the more heretical versions such as Gnosticism.
But if we only cover the so-called mainstream versions of Christianity we miss one undercurrent that has been around a long time that has always interested me. It does not have a formal name and is not a denomination. In a way covering this is in response to a request from the class. Several months ago when John asked the class for ideas on future lessons Jim Green suggest that he would like to hear something about a mysterious phrase that occurs in the New Testament several times. That phrase is “The Way”. What was Paul talking about when he refers to “the way”, or “our way”. In one place it is called “the Royal Law”.
Robin Amis had the same question – what is the Way? The author gives it a name – he calls it esoteric Christianity. He uses the Greek word esoteric in the sense of it’s contrast to it’s opposite exoteric. Exoteric Christianity is the outer and visible Christianity – the various denominations, the formal churches, the building, the traditions. Esoteric, by contrast is the inner teaching of Christianity, which in his view has almost been lost over the centuries. Inner, in the sense he is trying to convey, refers to the inner work an individual has to do to become a Christian. This inner work is the Way, and it needs to be rediscovered, at least in his view.
So – in order to give you an idea of what he is talking about let’s briefly review the findings of this book and it’s author Robin Amis. Amis is really kind of a strange duck. He is the head of a research institute called the Praxis Institute. You can tell he likes Greek words. Praxis , you may recall is the Greek work for practice. We have talked before about orthodoxy vs. orthopraxy – the right belief vs. the right practice. Stated plainly Amis believes that both are very necessary and further that the exoteric church has forgotten that.
Stated another way Amis describes all of the Christian denominations, eastern and western, as exoteric, focused on external worship, whereas he interprets the message of Jesus as in esoteric teaching, having to do with an internal transformation of of individuals into “new creatures”.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
And that transformation requires constant and correct practice, not just an intellectual assent to a belief. And just to clarify, Amis is not talking about the old arguments of faith vs. good works. He is talking about faith and inner work by the individual. And the question he is addressing is “what is that inner work?”
Now most of us, when we have a question like that, think about it occasionally. Amis has devoted 40 years of his life to researching this, through his Praxis Institute. It is a small institute, located in London I believe. After deciding that he had pretty much figured it out he published this book in 1995 as the culmination of his research.
Now – I am going to summarize for you briefly today what he concluded about the practices required to become a Christian, but first let me comment on the book itself – I do not recommend this book! It is pretty close to unreadable. This guy cannot maintain a coherent thought for more than three paragraphs before wandering all over the map. The first time I tried to read it several years ago I tossed it into a pile of other books I did not like in the corner. But the subject interested me so much I kept picking it up and after several months of painful reading I finally finished it. After highlighting the coherent parts and re-reading it I think I have now captured the main points and that is all I am going to cover today. And I found that part to be pretty interesting – which is why I wanted to cover it for the class.
Amis is one of those people who was always fascinated by the Gospel message but was never willing to accept easy answers about what it meant. He talks about being particularly struck by the sermon on the mount, which he considers the most profound religious message ever written. So he asked hard questions of people and was not satisfied with the answers he was getting.
For example – (Matthew 5:8)
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
And Amis’ question was – How do I get pure in heart? And why isn’t my church teaching me how to do that?
And (Matthew 5:3)
Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
How do I become poor in spirit? Nobody is teaching me how to do that.
And he was particularly struck by the parables – of which there were over 65 in the Gospels.
In Mark 4:11 when Jesus was explaining to the disciples why he spoke only in parables to the people.
11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:
12 That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.
Now we may interpret that in a number of ways, but to Amis it was clear – the teaching of the mystery of the kingdom of heaven was to be taught in an oral transmission – from teacher to student – and only that way. Everyone else only got parables – which were great teaching stories but not intended to be easy to understand until they were explained by a qualified teacher.
And to ask such questions in a totally different way – he asks; “Where are today’s saints?’ The early church had many people of great spiritual power – people who could and did readily give up everything for their beliefs. Including walking directly into situations of martyrdom. These were people whose state of being was totally transformed into new creatures. Where are they today? Certainly, in his words, not in the administrators who run our churches.
But Amis clearly believes there was a “way” to become such a new creature, one who could say as Paul did in Galatians 2:20
“nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”
So Amis worked this for years, and finally in 1995 wrote a book summarizing what he found. Before summarizing his conclusions, let’s talk briefly about what he researched. His sources were the New Testament books themselves, followed by in depth study of the writings of the early church. Amis points out that many of the 1st , 2nd, and 3rd century Christian leaders that we have referred to before, people like Ireneus, Clement of Alexandria, Origen etc, wrote a great deal of material, of which we have some. But his view is that modern Christians do not read it, only a few scholars. And the scholars read it for it’s historical content, not for spiritual guidance. But they wrote quite a bit, according to Amis about early Christian practice. He then traces these practices down through the centuries. His findings were that there were several momentous changes in Christian practice. The first was what tended to happen when the church was wedded to the Roman Empire and became a state church. Most of these practices were downplayed in the state church and this actually led many of the devout Christians to begin to separate from the exoteric version of the church and form the monastic movement. So one of the places where the spiritual tradition was preserved was among the Desert Fathers (and Mothers) of Egypt. He points out, as Luke Timothy Johnson did that the monastic movement was not initiated by the church but was a reaction against what the church had started to become. The chain continues in the monastic movements of the Catholic Church, particularly the Benedectine order but was only fully preserved in the eastern orthodox monastic tradition after the great split in 1054. And the last place where the tradition is best preserved is on the Greek peninsula of Mount Athos, the holy mountain of the Orthodox monks.
I should say at this point though that Amis laments that these teachings had to be preserved by monks. Amis believed that these practices were for all believers, not just monks. The original disciples were not monks, nor was Paul.
So, lets cut to the chase. What did Amis conclude was the praxis or practice of the way?
He concluded that the teachings of the Christian Way was a coordinated set of two types of practices aimed at a total transformation of people toward purity of heart and poverty of spirit. These two practices were distinctly different. One he called the method of prayer, the other the psychological method.
Let’s talk about the method of prayer first. Amis discovered that the predominant method practice in the early church was what he called noetic prayer. Back to his use of Greek again. Noetic refers to roughly speaking the authentic heart of the person, the seat of the intellect, the eye of the soul, the part of you that is really you. And this type of prayer is aimed at purification of the heart from the grace of God.
As he traced this type of prayer through the Christian tradition he discovered some common themes:
Gradually, an implicit architecture of prayer developed among the Desert Fathers and Mothers and blossomed later in medieval monasteries and convents. It was called Lectio Divina.
Lectio divina, translated as sacred reading, was likely brought to the Western Christian Church from the desert fathers of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine in the early fifth century. It was recommended for both lay persons and monastics in the early Christian centuries. Lectio divina is closely associated with the Benedictine spirituality, and is highly recommended today by the Benedictines and Cistercians. Many later forms of Christian prayer are based on lectio.
Lectio divina, as it is traditionally taught, has four parts or elements:
Lectio – slowly read the passage for understanding, savoring each word.
Meditatio – meditate on the passage, applying it to your situation.
Oratio = pray to God to understand the passage.
Contemplatio – listen in contemplative silence
So Lectio Divina was a common method of neotic prayer. The last part of Lectio Divina, Contemplatio was the ultimate aim, and the most difficult. Here Amis points to a known Christian spiritual classic and recommends it as a guideline for Christian prayer because of it’s simplicity. It is the Cloud of Unknowing – a fourteenth century instruction book on prayer by an anonymous author. Although the language is medieval it has been translated into modern English and most importantly has led to the development of a modern version of Christian contemplative prayer that has slowly spread around in Christian Churches. That is the method of Centering Prayer.
Amis presents the method of prayer as a daily practice for lay people, perhaps 30-45 minutes per day.
The second practice – the psychological method, was taught in the early church as not an isolated practice but an all day method of work while leading a normal active life.
The psychological method as currently still taught by the Orthodox monks of Mt Athos consists of two concepts – Diakrisis (discrimination) and Nepsis (watchfulness). It is extremely hard to understand as described in the Orthodox methodology but Amis believes is captured in a modern formulation in the teachings of Gurdjieff. I will talk a little about the Gurdjieff teaching in a moment.
So Amis conclusion is that Watchfulness and Discrimination in the mind and Prayer in the heart is the two edged sword that made up the Christian Way. And one of his conclusions is that a more modern formulation of noetic prayer, mainly Centering Prayer, along with a more modern formulation of the psychological method, mainly the Gurdjieff work, might make for a renewal of the Christian Way for the modern Western Christian.