Detachment is not the Way
You will hear conventional Christians, Catholics and Orthodox in particular, talk about asceticism and detachment from worldly things.
And up to a point, they have a point.
Thou shalt have no other Gods before me and so on.
Lay not up treasures on earth, where rust doth corrupt and so on.
Fasting.
Repentance with sackcloth and ashes.
But what if you go beyond that point? What if you try complete asceticism and total detachment so you can better focus on God? Or at least feel that your failure to do so makes you less? Many Christians do feel that way
Then you are making a big mistake.
At best, the ascetic path is a local optimum trap. You make some spiritual gains but cannot progress further.
At best. The path itself I think is evil. Almost Buddhist.
I’ll be frank, if taken seriously this sounds evil to me. Almost buddhist.
As if you know better than God what your purpose should be and the value of his creation.
Even in conventional Christian terms, it is mistaken. The Fall happened and cannot be reverse engineered. The only way out is through. If God has made you a creature, and became a creature himself, you cannot transcend your creaturehood by denying it. You can only transcend by perfecting it.
If our knowledge of God’s creaturehood were wrong, which I do not for a moment believe, but thinking we knew it were the only way to most fully embrace our own creaturehood, it would be necessary to think we knew it.
Do not detach from this world on anything other than a temporary or tactical basis, as an expedient or necessary evil. In general you should try not to be attached to worldly things less but to be attached to God more.
As I have come closer to God, I have desired all things more greatly.
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E.C.
August 9, 2022
I agree with your point, but would like to add that among the doctrinal debris that our Orthodox brothers have is the idea of ‘theosis’ – a transcendent state of becoming like God. They may take what we see as the wrong path to get there, and they may see that goal differently than we do, but their end goal is the same as ours.
Bookslinger
August 9, 2022
Patrick: what are you referring to as asceticism and detachment?
Patrick Henry
August 9, 2022
EC, yes, and the phrase doctrinal debris is beautiful
Books, an echo of the Gnostic idea that the material world is a trap
Bookslinger
August 9, 2022
I agree that there is a proper synthesis to the apparent dichotomy between material and spiritual. It’s all one, not an either/or.
I wasn’t aware that there is a present problem of ascetics/gnostics within wider Christianity. “Ascetics/gnostics” makes me think of monks and nuns; and their numbers are dwindling fast.
E.C.
August 9, 2022
@ Patrick,
‘Doctrinal debris’ is not a phrase I can take credit for; I believe it was Terryl and Fiona Givens’, first coined in their joint series, specifically ‘The Christ Who Heals’.
@ Books,
I think that the ascetic/gnostic paradigms have moved from Christianity to Silicon Valley. There’s the transhumanists who think that we’ll all upload ourselves to the Matrix and shuck our bodies, thus becoming clean, and the biohackers who, well, they’re basically ascetics who want to live forever because they’re afraid of actually looking soul-deep, or ascetics who want a transcendental experience without religion.
Bookslinger
August 10, 2022
EC: I see how the transhumanists, biohackers, the so-called spiritual-but-not-religious, and maybe even psychedelic-users could be described as such. They “sort of” believe in spiritual things, but not in an actual God/Father/Creator.
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The “physical world bad / spiritual world good” in the Christian setting goes all tbe way back to the 2nd or 3rd century, doesn’t it?
And I really like Patrick’s “And up to a point, they have a point” because it is a fallen and demon-dominated physical world. The default is evil and chaos – whereas we must intentionally strive to seek and implement godliness and order.
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Patrick: You read more widely than I do. Where are you seeing this asceticism/gnosticism among professing Christians ? The off-gridders/homesteaders ?
Patrick Henry
August 10, 2022
I’m friends with some of these guys.