It’s a bit tangential to the article but it’s what my interest in divine hiddenness is revolving around right now: One of the questions I’m wrestling with coming out of Protestantism is whether God has an individual will for a person’s life and if so, how to know what it is?
A charismatic once told me that I’d better “know that I know” what God’s will for my life is or I would cause a “spiritual miscarriage.” That messed me up for awhile…
It seems clear that the general will of God for all of us is theosis. Do the E. Fathers ever describe a specific individual will that we have to seek out from the mind of God? It’s so common in Protestant circles to hear people say, “God said/told me to do or say x, y, or z.” Most of the time I think, “Yeah I’m sure he did,” with an (hopefully) internal eye roll. But I’m still afraid I’m missing out on some kind of express communication I don’t have access to that will guide me to a path I’m not yet on.
Or maybe I just need to submit to spiritual practices that will bring me to that deeper knowing (beyond rational thought) of a child on her mother’s breast?
I just can’t shake the fear that I’m missing out and/or wasting my life/talents.
Appreciate ANY insight you might have. Thank you for always being so available and helpful to your students. It’s a breath of fresh air in an elitist world. See you at book club!
Your question is a good one, and it's one that a lot of folks struggle with. I'll offer a few thoughts. The first is that, yes, the Eastern fathers do believe in individual teleology.
This is rather unique relative to their pagan counterparts. The pagans thought of teleology -- the end or purpose of a thing -- in strictly generic terms -- the eye for seeing, the ear for hearing, and man for the rational, virtuous life. But in the case of the Eastern fathers, because they developed a more robust concept of the individual, thanks to the doctrines of Trinity and Christology, they also developed a concept of individual teleology: God's idea of what the person is made to become.
Now, what does this mean and how is one to discern it? In terms of what this means, on the one hand, there is a common chief end of man, which is theosis, as you rightly identified. You and I and every other human person is created to become a Saint. And so, one can rest assured that striving to pray, fast, live a sacramental life in communion with the Church, and so on is always in keeping with the will of God.
The more idiosyncratic teleology of a person is testified to by the lives of the Saints. Every Saint attains perfection, but not all look the same. Some become teachers, other prophets, others Apostles, others healers, other hermits, others mother of orphans, and so on. This is also testified to in Paul's talk of the body of Christ, which has all sorts of different members.
Now, within the Eastern fathers, you do not see this notion of individual teleology as one concerning the road one takes, so to speak. In other words, many of us in the West tend to think primarily in terms of life choices -- what career, who to marry, etc. The fathers see our teleology as more inner, having to do with our formation. Marriage can be a means to one's salvation, as can the single life, as can divorce. All of these are means or instruments of our salvation.
The game that the demons play is to speak about past missteps and roads not taken, as if these mean that the person is on the wrong road, irretrievably alienated from the will of God. But the suggestion is a demonic lie. Missteps are missteps, no doubt. But every road can lead to one's salvation.
Hence, the best approach to discerning the road we should take is to begin with the obvious and the common -- prayer, fasting, the sacramental life. And to these I would add those idiosyncratic responsibilities about which we have commands from God, be it our role as father or mother, son or daughter, employee or something else.
As for the idiosyncratic, we should look to those things that are near to us and most difficult. This is a rather bitter lesson, but it's an important one. We are refined and saved through trials and suffering. The worries about money that cause us to fret are the refining fire to help us trust God; the person who is especially irksome is the refining fire to help us to tame the tongue, to put to death passions of vengeance or gossip or bitterness and to learn to love and pray for our enemies.
Finally, beyond these things, there is the question of our idiosyncratic shape. I know the gifts I've been given, and I strive to steward those in a way that is pleasing to God. And yet, I have no obvious expectation of the result -- whether that will mean success or failure is immaterial to my efforts to steward them well. The danger, of course, is to commoditize everything, trying to turn every gift or talent into a business or a career. Such is our tendency in the U.S. especially. But on this I would say two things.
The first is that good stewardship of talents has more to do with the heart than the outcome. If I use my talents for the praise of men or for fame or for fortune, then I have failed to use these well. The best use is one from love.
And this goes to the second point. I think we tend to fret about the particulars of our life, thinking this to be our chief end. But I believe the reality is the inverse. The more one cultivates love and learns to embrace and be refined by suffering, the clearer such a one will be about how to conduct himself in the idiosyncratic affairs of life.
This is very much the pattern of prayer, for example, that the Church teaches. We learn to pray by saying the prayers of the Saints. Much like the way a child learns to draw by tracing the drawings of a skilled artist, so we learn to pray by tracing the prayers of the Saints. And as we are formed spiritual, we find ourselves better able to pray. So in the same way, by focusing on the clear path to deification and virtue, we become refined in ways that make it easier for us to discern the way we should go in the particulars.
Thank you, that helps a lot! I am a singer-songwriter and I used to live in Nashville doing the whole music industry thing. Unraveling the commodification of my gifts has been quite a journey (even though they never actually made me much money, lol).
I've come to love the phrase, "Hyper Local." Some time ago I began to realize I was believing a Screwtape-esque lie: "Get her to focus on 'changing the world,' and she will never impact a single person." As I've been "tracing the prayers of the Saints" I've had my eyes opened to my immediate community. We had a beloved member of our Parish pass away about a month ago and I've decided to collect all of our community's favorite characteristics and memories of him to write a song and surprise his son and widow. It's so much more meaningful than trying to get the next big cowrite on music row. I'm also working on a lullaby for my brand new baby Goddaughter!
Mostly, I'm just so thankful to be slowly finding freedom from the "Christian influencer who builds an online brand and scales to make a Kingdom impact" kind of mentality. Lord, have mercy on us all.
Hello. I’m a new subscriber. My name is fr Jeremiah. I’m a monk at Iviron monastery on Mt Athos. Have you visited here. If you would like to come I can help you with the arrangements. I liked your article. I was wondering is it a case of Divine hiddenness or Human blindness?
Hello, Father! What a delight to see an Athonite stumbling upon my work. You phrase it well. Yes, I think the experience that many describe as hiddenness is in fact a case of spiritual blindness, a people lying broken East of Eden, the soul no longer able to see its Maker.
Loving the whole series, thank you!
It’s a bit tangential to the article but it’s what my interest in divine hiddenness is revolving around right now: One of the questions I’m wrestling with coming out of Protestantism is whether God has an individual will for a person’s life and if so, how to know what it is?
A charismatic once told me that I’d better “know that I know” what God’s will for my life is or I would cause a “spiritual miscarriage.” That messed me up for awhile…
It seems clear that the general will of God for all of us is theosis. Do the E. Fathers ever describe a specific individual will that we have to seek out from the mind of God? It’s so common in Protestant circles to hear people say, “God said/told me to do or say x, y, or z.” Most of the time I think, “Yeah I’m sure he did,” with an (hopefully) internal eye roll. But I’m still afraid I’m missing out on some kind of express communication I don’t have access to that will guide me to a path I’m not yet on.
Or maybe I just need to submit to spiritual practices that will bring me to that deeper knowing (beyond rational thought) of a child on her mother’s breast?
I just can’t shake the fear that I’m missing out and/or wasting my life/talents.
Appreciate ANY insight you might have. Thank you for always being so available and helpful to your students. It’s a breath of fresh air in an elitist world. See you at book club!
Hi Nicole,
Your question is a good one, and it's one that a lot of folks struggle with. I'll offer a few thoughts. The first is that, yes, the Eastern fathers do believe in individual teleology.
This is rather unique relative to their pagan counterparts. The pagans thought of teleology -- the end or purpose of a thing -- in strictly generic terms -- the eye for seeing, the ear for hearing, and man for the rational, virtuous life. But in the case of the Eastern fathers, because they developed a more robust concept of the individual, thanks to the doctrines of Trinity and Christology, they also developed a concept of individual teleology: God's idea of what the person is made to become.
You can read a little more about this doctrine in my commentary on Mark 1:16-20: https://theologicalletters.com/p/fishers-of-men-providence-and-purpose
Now, what does this mean and how is one to discern it? In terms of what this means, on the one hand, there is a common chief end of man, which is theosis, as you rightly identified. You and I and every other human person is created to become a Saint. And so, one can rest assured that striving to pray, fast, live a sacramental life in communion with the Church, and so on is always in keeping with the will of God.
The more idiosyncratic teleology of a person is testified to by the lives of the Saints. Every Saint attains perfection, but not all look the same. Some become teachers, other prophets, others Apostles, others healers, other hermits, others mother of orphans, and so on. This is also testified to in Paul's talk of the body of Christ, which has all sorts of different members.
Now, within the Eastern fathers, you do not see this notion of individual teleology as one concerning the road one takes, so to speak. In other words, many of us in the West tend to think primarily in terms of life choices -- what career, who to marry, etc. The fathers see our teleology as more inner, having to do with our formation. Marriage can be a means to one's salvation, as can the single life, as can divorce. All of these are means or instruments of our salvation.
The game that the demons play is to speak about past missteps and roads not taken, as if these mean that the person is on the wrong road, irretrievably alienated from the will of God. But the suggestion is a demonic lie. Missteps are missteps, no doubt. But every road can lead to one's salvation.
Hence, the best approach to discerning the road we should take is to begin with the obvious and the common -- prayer, fasting, the sacramental life. And to these I would add those idiosyncratic responsibilities about which we have commands from God, be it our role as father or mother, son or daughter, employee or something else.
As for the idiosyncratic, we should look to those things that are near to us and most difficult. This is a rather bitter lesson, but it's an important one. We are refined and saved through trials and suffering. The worries about money that cause us to fret are the refining fire to help us trust God; the person who is especially irksome is the refining fire to help us to tame the tongue, to put to death passions of vengeance or gossip or bitterness and to learn to love and pray for our enemies.
Finally, beyond these things, there is the question of our idiosyncratic shape. I know the gifts I've been given, and I strive to steward those in a way that is pleasing to God. And yet, I have no obvious expectation of the result -- whether that will mean success or failure is immaterial to my efforts to steward them well. The danger, of course, is to commoditize everything, trying to turn every gift or talent into a business or a career. Such is our tendency in the U.S. especially. But on this I would say two things.
The first is that good stewardship of talents has more to do with the heart than the outcome. If I use my talents for the praise of men or for fame or for fortune, then I have failed to use these well. The best use is one from love.
And this goes to the second point. I think we tend to fret about the particulars of our life, thinking this to be our chief end. But I believe the reality is the inverse. The more one cultivates love and learns to embrace and be refined by suffering, the clearer such a one will be about how to conduct himself in the idiosyncratic affairs of life.
This is very much the pattern of prayer, for example, that the Church teaches. We learn to pray by saying the prayers of the Saints. Much like the way a child learns to draw by tracing the drawings of a skilled artist, so we learn to pray by tracing the prayers of the Saints. And as we are formed spiritual, we find ourselves better able to pray. So in the same way, by focusing on the clear path to deification and virtue, we become refined in ways that make it easier for us to discern the way we should go in the particulars.
I hope that helps!
Thank you, that helps a lot! I am a singer-songwriter and I used to live in Nashville doing the whole music industry thing. Unraveling the commodification of my gifts has been quite a journey (even though they never actually made me much money, lol).
I've come to love the phrase, "Hyper Local." Some time ago I began to realize I was believing a Screwtape-esque lie: "Get her to focus on 'changing the world,' and she will never impact a single person." As I've been "tracing the prayers of the Saints" I've had my eyes opened to my immediate community. We had a beloved member of our Parish pass away about a month ago and I've decided to collect all of our community's favorite characteristics and memories of him to write a song and surprise his son and widow. It's so much more meaningful than trying to get the next big cowrite on music row. I'm also working on a lullaby for my brand new baby Goddaughter!
Mostly, I'm just so thankful to be slowly finding freedom from the "Christian influencer who builds an online brand and scales to make a Kingdom impact" kind of mentality. Lord, have mercy on us all.
Hello. I’m a new subscriber. My name is fr Jeremiah. I’m a monk at Iviron monastery on Mt Athos. Have you visited here. If you would like to come I can help you with the arrangements. I liked your article. I was wondering is it a case of Divine hiddenness or Human blindness?
Hello, Father! What a delight to see an Athonite stumbling upon my work. You phrase it well. Yes, I think the experience that many describe as hiddenness is in fact a case of spiritual blindness, a people lying broken East of Eden, the soul no longer able to see its Maker.