(LIVE BLOG) INTRODUCTION TO "THE MYSTAGOGIC LITURGY"
By now it has become clear what shape this seminar by Father Ezra of St. Elijah Orthodox Church in Oklahoma City is going to take. As he has up to now uploaded sessions 1-7 this gives me to understand that the physical part of the seminar has already taken place, but perhaps not all of it. Reminding you that the (draft) curriculum is available on Amazon.com
New update: How the West Became a Philosophical Wasteland (link)
Aug. 2024 Orthodox Christianity 101: "The Mystagogic Liturgy" seminar. Hit top right symbol for the entire listing.
Father Ezra's argument about the semiotics of flat, meaningless texts is entirely valid, but the source of this problem is not Aristotle. As explained in the previous commentary, Aristotle's theory of hylomorphic substance (link) rejects Plato's separate, invisible dimension in a divided world view, but does entail a distinction of matter (material), form (material), essence (immaterial) and substance (material + immaterial = soul).
The culprit must be sought in nominalism, a notion prevalent in the West among intellectual elites, who believe words have no meaning or essence and are simply arbitrary conventions; the spoken word is no more than sound waves. This is the origin of the flat, empty, nihilistic phenomenon of 'labels'.
In reality, noting could be further from the truth. In an article about the history of language we read that "the 'software' of language exists in human beings to serve the 'software' of the mind. Therefore, every struggle for our languages is ultimately a struggle for our thinking, and each national language is eminently worthy and not just a mere tool" (link).
This explains why these ideological advances are usually very, very subtle, subliminal political ploys to manipulate the culture into some politically correct thinking. In nominalism the idea is, to instill linguistic nihilism into the culture, so that some destructive ideas can be inserted into the vacuum, rather like cuckoo eggs.
It must be pointed out that Plato's and Aristotle's language was of course Greek. Greek differs from Germanic and Latin languages in the sense that
"the phoneme of a word and the meaning of that word are mostly identical. The signifier and the signified are two important terms in the use of language. The signifier is the object, the word, the image or action. The signified is the concept behind the object that is being represented"(link).
Another caveat for those going into this article on the Greek language, note that it takes Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure in the second half of the 19th century, to destroy the entire concept by laying the foundation for postmodern 'close reading', which is another destructive political ideology.
But going back to reality, so Plato and Aristotle did not have the problem of empty language and meaningless words because of the special nature of their language. It is a subject for another day. What concerns us here is nominalism, which is a total departure from Greek philosophy.
The entire thing is a Western invention of the post Great Schism era, apparently stemming from Ockham's conceptualism as a midway house between realism and nihilism. During the Liberal Enlightenment John Stuart Mills and Thomas Hobbes took it all the way to nothingness.
The entire thing is a Western invention of the post Great Schism era, apparently stemming from Ockham's conceptualism as a midway house between realism and nihilism. During the Liberal Enlightenment John Stuart Mills and Thomas Hobbes took it all the way to nothingness.
When words have no 'essence' what you get are laughable misconceptions like a running nose, to give you but one ridiculous example. Just imagine what happens today at postmodern academies and universities.
~o~
Aug. 11, 2024
HOW MODERN CULTURE IS ROOTED IN ANCIENT HISTORY
Father Ezra of St. Elijah Orthodox Church in Oklahoma City has started a new weekly course that we finally hope to be able to curate for our readers from session one. Father Ezra has been doing these courses for years. We do not always agree for the full hundred percent with Father Ezra (especially when it comes to Plato and Aristotle, more about which later), but he nevertheless manages to teach a lot about Orthodoxy with his unique application of didactical tools, concepts that are otherwise very hard to make comprehensible. The new course, "The Mystagogic Liturgy" is the continuation of earlier courses: "John, the Mystagogic Gospel" and "The Apocalypse". Perhaps you'll be able to catch up, as this new course is being rolled out. Playlist of The Mystagogic Liturgy, the draft curriculum on Amazon.com. More playlists at the bottom. It is impossible to know at this stage what form present blog will take. It could become a live blog, or perhaps a simple link list will suffice.
Aug. 8, 2024 Orthodox Christianity 101: The Mystagogic Liturgy, Session 1.
Although this course is probably going in an entirely different direction, we can't let session 1 pass without comment, as the material discussed here is deeply rooted in history and explains some cultural differences between East and West.
-- For those willing to skip Father Ezra's introduction and get back later to his introduction, you can jump straight to the 24:10 mark in the video where he starts to explain where the concept of the hermineutics is coming from --
The Cosmic Story
When discussing the content of The Cosmic Story (link) -- part one of a 3-part series on Eternal Hellenism -- I was explaining to a friend in the West the elevated status of composers of music and writers of lyrics and poetry in Greece. They are practically treated as demigods. Father Ezra explains where this is coming from.
Like God, composers create ex nihilo, which would explain their high status. But I do not think there is anyone alive today who thinks that music and poetry comes from the gods and the composer or poet is a mere interpreter, a word still in use in Greek today for singers and performing artists, ερμηνευτής ((h)ermeneutes).
The hermineutes
Even today Greek singers of simple folk songs enjoy a much higher status than their brothers in the West, who are mere pop stars, whom nobody over thirty should take seriously if they got any sense. Most of the time they are cheerleading the culture into the abyss, let alone edifying us with messages from the gods.
But the beauty of this shows us how the roots of a culture may reach deep into history.
Question: who in this video is the demi-god and who is the hermeneutes?
Feb. 12, 2017 Aetos 68: Yannis Kotsiras - Ερωτικό (Με μια πιρόγα) (Erotiko (Me mia Piroga)). Thanos Mikroutsikos (Wiki) at key board. Lyrics of yet another Cosmic Story.
Like Maria Callas before him, Kotsiras is the ultimate hermeneutes of his time who adds a strong dramatic element to any work he performs, which is a fairly unique gift in and of itself. A well timed, single gesture can add much drama to a performance. Watch this Master Class in hermeneutics. Lyrics (we stay in the cosmic realm).
The effect of the hermeneutrics becomes clear where non-Greeks are commenting on Kotsiras' videos on YouTube. Comments frequently read something in the spirit of "he speaks to my soul" and "this deeply touched my heart, but what does it mean?"
The viewers experienced some strong emotion they could not explain as they have no idea what the song is about. The hermeneutes has been successful in his job, if perhaps not interpreting a message from the gods (but who's to say?).
Blaming Aristotle
There is no escaping the arguments I am having with Father Ezra on Plato and Aristotle. We will deal with these now. His Eminency evidently loves Plato on account of his acceptance of the invisible realm.
But in practice Plato's dualism has done more harm to the West than he could ever imagine, because instead of integrating the visible and the invisible he has divided the universe forever in to two opposing forces that are constantly at war with each other.
We have come to know this mechanism as Hegel's, and later as Marx's dialectic. Jonathan Pageau recently brought it up in relation to the abominations at the Paris Olympics (link).
It may seem counter intuitive, but to Plato's dualism was added Aristotle's senses based philosophy at the time of the demise of Byzantium (Eastern Rome) and the Western Renaissance. It produced this dualistic rationalism that is tearing the West apart as we speak.
The united world of Aristotle
In the East the situation was entirely different. It had largely embraced the single, united universe philosophy of Aristotle, in to which was integrated the dimension of the invisible. The result is an integrated world view that pairs the sacred to a senses based reality.
Apart of that it is untrue that Aristotle rejected the invisible realm entirely. His limited theory of hylomorphic substance (link), means simply that there is no separate realm in which universals exist (in opposition to Platonic dualism). And the theory requires a distinction of matter (material), form (material), essence (immaterial) and substance (material + immaterial = soul).
As a result the West descended into a rationalistic, scientistic intellectual hell in which words have no meaning or essence, a source of never ending lingual manipulation and conceptual fallacy (read up on nominalism).
Orthodox Christianity 101 playlists
Playlist of John, the Mystagogic Gospel, curriculum on Amazon.com.
- Playlist The Apocalypse, curriculum on Amazon.com.
- Playlist Naked in a Gaveyard, curriculum on Amazon.com (Let's Talk Church).
- More playlists on various courses.
- Father Ezra may answer questions at the email address: ezra@stelijahokc.com.
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