Made for Communion
An Anthropology of Freedom
The opening lines of FLOW (#1, emphasis added) are clear about what it means to be human:
The Orthodox Church understands the human person as having been created in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26). To be made in God’s image is to be made for free and conscious communion and union with God in Jesus Christ, inasmuch as we are formed in, through, and for him (Colossians 1:16).
This life of communion is built on
…prayer and action…derived from loving and reverent gratitude for life and for all the gifts that God imparts to us through his Son and in his Spirit. Our service to God is fundamentally doxological in nature and essentially Eucharistic in character.
Quoting St. Basil the Great, FLOW explains that the doxological nature of human life means we only become ourselves when we “look up and see God, worshipping him and acknowledging him as [our] source and origin.” And since God is a community of Three Divine Persons, a life of communion includes not only the Holy Trinity but our neighbor and the creation. Thus, human life is necessarily Eucharistic in character.
The Church’s doxological anthropology of communion doesn’t preclude but rather presupposes and fosters a healthy sense of individualism. Yes, we are made for God and each other but we can realize this through our free ascent; because communion not is compelled it precludes any coercion. For example, speaking of the charismatic nature of the Church the Basis says that it is the unique vocation of the Church that “God’s original design for the world and man is fulfilled by the power of the Holy Spirit.” (Basis I.1). The Church only fulfills this “redemptive mission” through a “process of historical kenosis [self-emptying]” undertaken “for the salvation of the people of this world… [and] the salvation and restoration of the world itself” (Basis I.2).
None of this is to suggest that the Church—much less any of her members—is perfect. Though “Christ is the perfect God-Man” in her human dimension “the Church … has to struggle with sin.” And while this human dimension is " united with the Godhead” it falls far short of “expressing Him and matching Him in everything” (Basis 1.2).
Nevertheless,
Gifts of manifold grace are given to everyone individually but for the common ministry of the people of God (also for the service of the world). And this represents the common service of the Church performed on the basis of not one but many various gifts (Basis 1.2).
And so both the Basis and FLOW are in agreement that
The Church…calls her faithful children to participation in the life of society, which should be based on the principles of Christian morality [summarized in] the High Priestly Prayer. … It is inadmissible to shun the surrounding world in a Manichean way. Christian participation in it should be based on the awareness that the world, socium and state are objects of God’s love, for they are to be transformed and purified on the principles of God-commanded love (Basis I.3).
As I said a moment ago, the Church’s anthropology doesn’t preclude a healthy individualism. Yes, it precludes the radical or ontological individualism that Bellah et. al., brought to our attention more than 30 years ago.1 A life cut off from others is not only less than God intends, it is (in the Orthodox understanding at least) the very definition of sin.2
While there are no pure types in human affairs, individualism in the American sense, or what is sometimes called “rugged individualism” is at least potentially compatible with the anthropological vision sketched out here.
Robert Bellah, et. al., Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (University of California Press, 1985), p. 276.
See, for example, John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes (Fordham University Press, 1979), pp. 138-150.