Little children, keep yourselves from idols
1 John 5:21
There is a direct connection between ideas and conceptual idolatry. In order to be better aware of the dangers of ideology, one must understand this relationship. In an age when ideology has shaped the social construct and led to history’s worst atrocities, safeguarding against the tantalizing power of narratives distilled from ideology is truly the only viable way forward, lest we are doomed to repeat the pattern of tyranny and violence that connotes the Modern Age.
The previous article ended with St. John’s admonition to keep ourselves from idols (1 Jn. 5:21). Presuming that St. John is writing only about physical idols would be a misreading. The Greek word for idol is eídōlon (εἴδωλον), which means an image both physical or mental. Eídōlon is derived from eîdos (εἶδος) meaning form, this is the same word that Plato uses when discussing his Forms or Ideas. In itself an idea or image is harmless, the problem arises when we connect knowledge of forms with an alleged adequate understanding of these forms. In Hellenic philosophy, being is the content of thought, so when one thinks about a being or being qua being, it fills one’s thought; in a sense, one apprehends the being by use of the senses and reason and, therefore, one possesses knowledge and understanding of that being. The fruition of this problem is when one begins to think and talk about God. This is at the heart of the Eunomean hersey and, later, the debate between St. Gregory of Palamas and Barlaam. What exactly are the Divine Names and attributes, when one “understands” a Name of God, does this mean that God is apprehended by human thought? As Orthodox one would say emphatically, No! The Church had to defend this position for centuries, that the Holy Trinity in His superessentiality is beyond Being and, therefore, beyond thought. God can only be experienced (not thought or apprehended) in His Divine Energy.
When it comes to ideas, images, and concepts one can easily fall prey to idolatry. Ideology is an oversimplified reduction of knowledge and understanding, and this knowledge can be of the the world or of God. It takes one’s limited idea of something and extrapolates it to universality, meaning it becomes the lens by which one interprets the world. An adherent to ideology is dogmatic and unwavering in their faith to it, and, since ideologies often lack substantial justification for their tenets, they don’t truly correspond to reality. Furthermore, ideology, to use theological language, is heresy. This is why there exists a connection between ideology and idolatry.
As a survivor and ardent critic of the Soviet system, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn astutely observed that ideology underlies all systemic evil. From his Gulag Archipelago:
Ideology–that is what gives evildoing its long-sought justification and gives the evildoer the necessary steadfastness and determination. That is the social theory which helps to make his acts seem good instead of bad in his own and others’ eyes…That was how the agents of the Inquisition fortified their wills: by invoking Christianity; the conquerors of foreign lands, by extolling the grandeur of their Motherland; the colonizers, by civilization; the Nazis, by race; and the Jacobins, by equality, brotherhood, and the happiness of future generations. Thanks to ideology, the twentieth century was fated to experience evildoing on a scale calculated in the millions.
Epistemologically, ideology has no justification, it is not grounded in reality, however, ideology itself is used to justify all kinds of atrocities. He tells us that, “To do evil a human being must first of all believe that what he’s doing is good, or else that it’s a well-considered act in conformity with natural law.”
Not only does ideology provide justification for evil, it also is inextricably bound to power. Former national security advisor, diplomat, and political scientist Zbigniew Brzezinski, would comment on the connection between political ideology, such as sovietism, and power. One also sees this connection in Dostoevsky’s novels, especially with the characters who adhere to novel ideologies, such as Ivan Karamazov and Nikolai Stavrogin. The former goes mad because of his nihilism and self-induced guilt for his father’s murder, and the latter is central to murder and suicide. Although these are radical examples of ideologies that are lived to the extreme, they still provide models for what happens when one does embrace dogmatically an ideology.
There are three points that I would like to make.
First, as Christians we must learn to recognize ideology and call it out for what it is. Today the public discourse is driven by ideology. The discussion around race and gender are within the ideological frame of critical theory, and the ideological underpinning of critical theory is Marxism–the difference though it is not about the means of production and class warfare, it has been expanded to a plethora of identity groups and the oppression of most of these groups at the hands of a few. I suggest that we need to think seriously about the ideology, if there be one, at the foundation of democracy, Anglo-Americanism, and capitalism. Can these turn ideological? Are conceptual idols lurking in dark corners of these systems? Are they in plain view? This is not just about the ideas that we don’t like, so we label them ideologies, dismiss them and go about our day. Ideology in all its forms is inherently idolatrous.
Second, ideology doesn’t develop for no reason. It is the result of a cultural vacuum, so to speak, and then something comes along to provide the answers to the exigent and the perennial questions of life. There is now a meaning crisis, and because this is the reality we live as a culture, we are now facing down ideologies that are providing shiny new answers to age-old questions. Thinkers such as Jordan Peterson, Jonathan Pageau, Jon Vervaeke, Douglas Murray, and the Weinsteins are all speaking to the non-academic layperson about this crisis of meaning. Out of all of these people only Pageau is an Orthodox Christian, and large parts of his audience are not religious at all.
Again, we turn to Solzhenitsyn, this time to his famous lectures that have been published as Warning to the West. In New York City in 1975, Solzhenitsyn stands before the AFL-CIO and speaks presciently:
We are witnessing the emergence of a crises of unknown nature, one completely new, and entirely non-political. We are approaching a major turning point in world history, in the history of civilization…I could compare it only with the turning from the Middle Ages to the modern era, a shift in our civilization. It is a juncture at which settled concepts suddenly become hazy, lose their precise contours, at which our familiar and commonly used words lose their meaning, become empty shells, and methods which have been reliable for many centuries no longer work. It’s the sort of turning point where the hierarchy of values which we have venerated, and which we use to determine what is important to us and what causes our hearts to beat is starting to rock and may collapse.
He then refers to two crises, one being political, the other spiritual. This spiritual crisis is part and parcel with the meaning crisis. This spiritual-meaning crisis is due to the fact that our Anglo-American culture is unraveling–slowly over generations. Since politics is downstream of culture, if culture is devoid of meaning and absent an unifying principle (to use a secular term), politics reflects this. There is a great need for rebuilding a coherent, meaningful, deeply spiritual culture. Only then will we heal the polarization, in-fighting and general apathy that continues to define our political landscape. Ideology arises in times such as these because extremism seems like the only viable option to affect necessary change.
We as the Orthodox Church have the answers, which leads us to the third point: creating an authentic Christian culture. This culture should not be a religious cul-de-sac, and although it should run counter to the prevailing ideology of the day, it ought to be formational on the dominant culture. It will also act as a bulwark against ideology. Contrariwise, a culture that encourages division by dint of political agenda, will inevitably lead to destruction. In addition to our culture being divisive, it is also vapid, solipsistic, and nihilistic. Paramount is the need to focus on cultivating meaning through classical education (the trivium), storytelling, traditional art, liturgy, hands-on work, craftsmanship, and edifying leisure. This will create a culture of virtue, gratitude, integrity, hard work, beauty, and worship.
Writing in the early twentieth century in response to destructive and nefarious Bolshevism, Ivan Ilyin addresses the importance of building an authentic Christian culture. From the Foundations of Christian Culture:
For a Christian is not called to flee the world or mankind, to reject or curse them. He is called to bring the light of Christ’s teaching into earthly life and to creatively reveal the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the fabric of this life. And this means that we must create a Christian culture on this earth.
And said in another way:
The Christian Church has always striven to find a royal path between two extremes–a kind of royal path of life that brings Christ back into the world by rooting our existence in Christ and by creatively filling the fabric of human life with His life.
The problem becomes apparent when one expects to find a model for cultivating this Christian culture that Ilyin speaks of. The problem is simply that there is no model, no form. It’s not clear because of every culture is different.
Well, the fact is that there are no direct, or almost no direct, indications concerning the form of this Christian culture. Neither will we find any specific requirements or rules or any ideal program that could answer those forces that are pulling people away from Christianity—science, art, the economy, and politics.
Modern people have a disdain for ambiguity, we like formulae that are easy to follow, models easy to emulate. Regardless, the Church must be actively pursuing this cultivation of Christian culture. It is one of the answers to the meaning crisis that inevitably leads to the misguided hope and insistence that ideology can fill that role. St Nikolai Velimirovich, in his book The Universe as Symbols and Signs, says, ” Whoever reads the natural [world] without knowing the spiritual content and significance of what he has read, reads death, sees death, appropriates death.” Most ideologies are grounded in materialism, which is a refusal to see the spiritual reality or content of the world. And that ultimately leads to death.
We should heed both Solzhenitsyn’s prophetic warning and Ilyin’s remedy so the Church can suffer the potential dark night on the horizon. I offer encouragement for everyone serious about weathering the storm; remember Christ is upon the chaotic waters, He has suffered and conquered the world, and He comes with His outstretched hand. The Church will survive. The Church will triumph. She always has and always will because the Kingdom is not of this world, yet we have been called to be a light in this dark world, and we should fill the world with the light and life of Christ. And be the city set on a hill.
Brothers and sisters, keep yourself from ideology
Kyrie eleison
