Chryssavgis -- Tribute to Sherrard.doc

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John Chryssavgis. “Essay Review: A Tribute to Philip Sherrard(1922-1995).” Journal of Modern Greek Studies 14.2 (1996) 345-354.

Essay Review

A Tribute to Philip Sherrard (1922-1995)

John Chryssavgis

General biography and bibliography

Philip Sherrard--poet, translator, literary scholar, theologian, and interpreter of theOrthodox tradition--died in London on 30 May 1995, aged 72. A pioneer of ModernGreek studies in England, Sherrard was highly influential in making major Greekpoets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries known in the English-speaking world.A profound thinker and prolific writer, Sherrard was captivated by a lifelong missionto reinstate a sense of poetry in the aridity of life, and to restore a sense of sacredcosmology to the world. His own selected poems recently appeared in a volumeentitled In the Sign of the Rainbow (1994). Shortly before Easter 1995, he hadcompleted a new book that he entitled Christianity: Lineaments of a SacredTradition and that contained an intuitive, almost predictive chapter on "Death andDying." This book is currently under consideration for publication by Holy CrossPress, Brookline.

Born in Oxford and educated there as well as in Cambridge, Sherrard served asAssistant Director of the British School at Athens and lectured on the history of theOrthodox Church at the University of London. He spent most of his life as a writerand translator, bringing to both pursuits a breadth of literary and theologicalknowledge. Inspired by the values of modern Greece, Sherrard wrote on andtranslated (with Edmund Keeley) Cavafy, Sikelianos, Seferis, and Elytis, amongothers. See, for example, Six Poets of Modern Greece (1960). Yet he was alsoprofoundly imbued with the prayer and silence of Orthodox Christianity, interpretingthe cultural background of Greek poetry and life through the spiritual wealth of theOrthodox tradition, as in his early book The Marble Threshing Floor (1956). Hislove for Greece is well attested in his brief yet masterly introduction to the anthologyThe Pursuit of Greece (1964). In 1977 Greece became his adopted permanent placeof residence, but Orthodoxy had been his "home" since the early [End Page 345] 1950s, when he became acquainted with the Orthodox Church, into which he wasformally received in 1956.

I met him only once, on the Holy Mountain, but understood through our



correspondence what Greece meant for him, why the Holy Mountain was revered byhim, and how the entire world was seen by him as a burning bush of divine energy."Every Thing that Lives Is Holy" was the title of the last lecture he delivered inLondon (1994); he spoke then of the beauty "in every natural form of life and being,"

the beauty that "is itself the overture to paradise." This lecture was given at theTemenos Academy, in the very room in which Darwin first expounded his theory ofevolution. This must have amused Sherrard.

Everything that Sherrard did was undertaken with passion. He wrote fervently aboutthe sacred power of sexual love in Christianity and Eros (1976); he endeavoredfearlessly to discern the philosophical, political, and social reasons for the divisionbetween Roman Catholicism and Orthodoxy in The Greek East and the Latin West (1959), and also in Church, Papacy, and Schism (1978); in an effort to address theecological crisis, he forcefully castigated our exploitation of natural resources in The Rape of Man and Nature (1987), The Sacred in Life and Art (1990), and Human

Image, World Image (1992). He condemned any attitude that detracts from or blursthe sacramental dimension of the world.

The conviction displayed in his writings and even their occasionally categorical tonewere supported by the consistency of his own committed life. His compassion,gentleness, generosity, humor, and humility were firmly rooted in the spiritualtradition of silence and prayer that he so loved and to which he devoted the greaterpart of his life. He wrote about Athos: The Mountain of Silence (1960), and from themid-1970s until the very end of his life was the translator (in collaboration with,among others, Bishop Kallistos Ware) of the four volumes of the Philokalia, theanthology of Greek Patristic writings between the fourth and fifteenth centuries on

prayer and the spiritual life.

While Sherrard has been criticized--misunderstood for his seemingly negativeattitude toward the West, for his sharp comments against the introduction of roads onMt. Athos, as well as for his radical questioning of much contemporary theology(which earned him the unfair label of "pantheist")--what is often ignored is hisconsuming love for the natural world in light of the spiritual dimension of life.Humanity and the natural world are out of balance, according to Sherrard; a greaterawareness is needed of our place in the scheme of things. He was convinced thatOrthodoxy is not simply a matter of doctrine and liturgy, but a spiritual experience oflife and the world as sacrament, leading to a peace above all knowledge.

Sherrard practiced this alternative world-view. He lived in a sparsely [End Page346] populated spot in Katounia, Evia, where most of his books were written andwhere he built a small chapel using traditional methods of construction.

This essay review focuses on two significant areas of Sherrard's interest: theologyand ecology. Sherrard was neither a professional theologian nor a professionalenvironmentalist. His involvement in theological and ecological issues derived not so



much from professional study as from a deep love of God and the world. Vividhuman being that he was, he could not fail to respect all of creation and to revere itsCreator.

Spirituality and Orthodoxy

One of the principles that Sherrard strongly defended was the intimate relationship--almost identity--between theology and life. For Sherrard, a doctrinal attitude isinevitably reflected in practice. Spirituality is dogma lived out; the Church's ethosapplies its thought to life. He would have strongly agreed with Vladimir Lossky that"spirituality and dogma, mysticism and theology, are inseparably linked in the life ofthe church" (1957:14).

This conviction is nowhere more clearly expressed among Sherrard's writings than inThe Greek East and the Latin West (1959), a study of the Christian tradition,

examining the "rise" and "fall" of Christendom, the "formation" and "de-formation"of the single, unified Greco-Roman Christian world. However, the book is neithermerely a manual of ecclesiastic history nor simply a history of Christian thoughtthrough the centuries. In fact, it is intimately linked with the author's profoundinterest outlined above, inasmuch as it represents his "first serious attempt toconfront and to find some explanation for the spiritual dereliction . . . of the modernWestern world. Since then of course the consequences of this dereliction havebecome far more apparent and in a certain sense far more devastating andtotalitarian" (1959:v).

This book, then, is a study of the world-views and theologies prevalent in the Greek

East and the Latin West--the development of a common culture, the divergence overtime, and the resulting differences in mentality. Chapter One presents a stimulatingexposition of Christianity in relation to classical culture and philosophy. Seeespecially the emphasis on polis and on the role of religio (1959:12, 14). ChapterTwo examines church-state relations in a new light, proceeding to discuss themethod of theologizing in the patristic tradition in order "to explain the tension andconflict between the spiritual and temporal spheres of authority during the Byzantineperiod" (1959:47). The "other side" to this story, the change in the relationshipbetween "sacerdotium [End Page 347] and regnum," is considered in Chapter Four,where the author describes the results of the Latin West's loss of an emperor and thepope's assumption of a secular role. In the East, by contrast, when the emperor no

longer provided temporal and social support, the patriarch's role assumed not secularbut ecumenical dimensions.

Chapter Three, which deals with the so-called schism between East and West, neithergreatly emphasizes any "radical division in the nature of the Church" (1959:48) norminimizes the theological and spiritual breach that occurred in Christendom.Relating how truth is expressed in doctrine, Sherrard defines in the Christian way therole of the philosophical intellect. The emphasis here is on the nature of theology and



particularly on the understanding of God as Trinity in the East and West: on thefilioque as well as on the distinction between God's essence and energies.

The emerging divorce between East and West--"the dissolving order"--is summed up

in Chapter Five as an attachment either to Aristotle (particularly in the Latin West,with the rise of scholasticism) or to Plato (particularly in the Greek East, with therestoration of its classical heritage). The "platonic reaction in the Greek East" iscrystallized in Gemistos Plethon (c. 1355-1452), who not only wrote "On theDifferences between Aristotle and Plato" but also manifested the implications ofthese differences. Sherrard reminds us that a concern for the global environmentalcrisis goes at least as far back as Plethon:

The Christian conception of a personal God who

creates the world ex nihilo by a free act of His will,

and who, further, does what He likes when and how

He likes, seemed to Plethon to imply an

arbitrariness and, so to speak, irresponsibility in

God . . . Plethon therefore opposed to the Christian

tradition another tradition . . . (1959:135)

Hence there is, in the full Christian perspective, no

contradiction between the statement that God

creates the world ex nihilo by a free act of His will,

and that the creation of the world is a necessary

consequence of His perfection. Both statements

are valid. (1959:136)

But what Plethon sought to put in the place of

Christianity . . . contributed to what he was most

concerned to prevent: the spiritual disintegration of

the Western world. (1959:138)

The results of this "disintegration" are expounded in the final two chapters of the

book. Chapter Six looks at the emerging secular--even materialist--mentality of themedieval West and of European civilization. Chapter Seven examines "the non-Christian sequel" in modern Greece, which "turned more towards ancient Hellenismthan . . . Byzantium" (1959:177): [End Page 348]

Korais, a devoted reader of Gibbon, saw civilization

in terms of a "classicism" which had been born in



the Hellenistic and Roman period, was submerged

in the "dark" Christian Middle Ages, whether Latin

or Byzantine, had been reborn in Italy with the

Renaissance, and whose present bearers were theenlightened and liberal spirits of the eighteenth

century. (1959:180)

In this regard, the "appendix" of the book is an illuminating study of church-staterelations in modern Greece. The author is convinced that "Christianity is the spiritualtradition of the West" but also that "the modern West resembles . . . the pre-ChristianHellenistic and Roman world" (1959:196).

Spirituality and ecology

A second principle strongly advanced by Sherrard was the profound relationshipbetween our way of thinking or theologizing and our attitude toward the world. Hewas convinced that the ways in which we behold our God in heaven and behavetoward each other on earth reflect what we believe about our environment. Asalready observed, this principle was not a recent or fashionable interest for Sherrard,although voiced in the last decade of his life; rather, it derived from his urgent needto speak out time and again, ever more "loudly," and on various levels.

The Rape of Man and Nature (1987), his first publication on strictly ecologicalmatters, is an inquiry into the origins and consequences of modern science. Itssequel, The Sacred in Life and Art (1990), explores the beauty and sacredness of the

world in Orthodox cosmology. The third book in this trilogy is Human Image, World Image: The Death and Resurrection of Sacred Cosmology (1992), whichdeconstructs contemporary cosmological assumptions and reconstructs traditionalcosmology.

There are three areas upon which I would like to focus in reviewing Human Image,World Image. The first is the environmental crisis that stands at the center of ourcurrent theological, ideological, social, and political concerns. I might add that thefirst of these concerns, the theological one, is usually the last to appear on the scene,doing so only after much pressure from the others. Hence, it is particularlyencouraging to see an Orthodox scholar coming to grips with such issues. Sherrard

was not a theologian, at least not in the narrow sense. This, however, is hardly adisadvantage, because he was thereby in a better position to extend the boundaries oftraditional Orthodox doctrine. The result is not heresy; it is a valid presentation ofOrthodox thought from a new perspective.

Few would doubt that today, for the first time in human history, we [End Page 349] face an ecological crisis that threatens to affect our planet's total biosphere. However,at the same time as this crisis escalates, there is also a growing ecological awareness.



People such as Sherrard call for a renewal of the earth, for a respect for creation, andfor a reversal of our attitudes concerning the environment.

It is of course not a new idea to suggest that the origin of the current ecological crisis

is the "mechanistic," "atomistic" world-view that subordinates the naturalenvironment to the demands of production and consumption. This world-viewderives from the Enlightenment, as has been made abundantly clear by religiouswriters such as Sean McDonagh, Daisetz Tei Suzuki, and Charles Birch, ecologistssuch as Wendell Berry (see his The Unsettling of America [1977]), and processtheologians such as Sallie McFague (see her The Body of God [1993]). These writersbelieve that it is crucial for science and technology to be inspired by a balancedreligious vision. Jürgen Moltmann (1985:13) observes that "the center is therecognition of the presence of God in the world and of the presence of the world inGod."

Accordingly, Sherrard examines the cosmologies of the pre-Renaissance world (ch.1) and of modern technology (chs. 2-4). His description of the fatal consequences ofthe world-view prevalent in the Renaissance and post-Renaissance periods isdepressing indeed. The very words contained in Sherrard's chapter titles--"fetish,""iconoclasm," "apotheosis," "bogey," "predicament"--reveal his negative feelings. Iam reminded of his anguish in The Rape of Man and Nature (1987), in which hedescribes the extent of the resulting dehumanization of humanity and thedesacralization of the natural world. Sherrard argues here, as elsewhere, that ourecological problems derive in large part from the Aristotelian philosophy espousedby Western Christian thought, since according to this philosophy the divinesubstance cannot interrelate with or interpenetrate the material universe. This

ideology paved the way for our modern scientific predicament. Sherrard's wordsappear harsh, but surely we need to speak harshly about the causes of theenvironmental crisis that threatens to obliterate many of the world's organisms,including ourselves. I am not so sure that the blame should be placed exclusively onWestern Christianity; no single cultural force or historical era is solely responsiblefor the "greenhouse effect" or the depletion of the ozone layer. Accordingly, it isgratifying to note how Sherrard advances in this work from lamentation over thehorrendous consequences of Western philosophy, theology, and science, to a crucialsynthesis between physics and metaphysics.

The ever-present warfare between science and religion has often proved damaging toboth, but Sherrard's critique of two influential Western mystics and visionaries,Teilhard de Chardin (whom he sees as [End Page 350] distorting Christian doctrine)and Oskar Milosz (whom he sees as resurrecting Christian cosmology) lays thefoundation for his own vision of a sacred cosmology grounded in traditionalChristian theological principles and reconciling the invisible with the visible, theCreator with creation.

A second important area considered by Sherrard in this book is the traditional



Christian doctrine of creation ex nihilo. No one dares approach such dogmas in theOrthodox Church--"the hands of no uninitiate can touch them"; "all mortal flesh issilent." Yet Sherrard is bold enough to approach, to touch, and to question. Theresult, in my opinion, places him firmly in the tradition of the Church Fathers.

Pagan creation myths assume the eternal existence of both matter and a divine being.They are described as fundamentally dualistic. Christianity, by contrast, has from theearliest times expounded a doctrine of creation out of nothing, thereby safeguardingthe independence of God and insuring the dependence of the world on its Creator.The inherent danger, however, is to press the independence of God to the point ofseparation from the world, not simply of distinction from it. Dualism was rejectedearly in the Church's history, and the problems with "deism" (belief in a God whocreated the universe and then abandoned it) are all too evident for anyone to feelthreatened. We prefer instead to speak of "theism" (belief in the personality andsovereignty of one righteous and eternal deity who has revealed himself

supernaturally to humanity) and yet are afraid to move any further, lest we becriticized of "pantheism" (belief that the universe, conceived as a whole, is God).Others, in order to draw some line of demarcation between God and the world, speakof "panentheism" (belief that the universe is not identical with God [pantheism], norseparate from God [deism], but in God [theism], who in his divine nature transcendsit); however, advocates of panentheism are not always entirely clear about what theymean.

The interpretation of the doctrine of creation ex nihilo troubled Sherrard for decades.Challenging naïve interpretations, he is afraid neither to pursue the implications ofthis traditional doctrine nor to address all the available alternatives. He cannot bear to

limit the limitless God; here he treads on the traditional ground of apophatictheology. However, it is not possible for Orthodox theology to speak in a vacuum,ignoring tradition. First of all, there must be a "demythologization" of the elementsin our theological thought that have contributed to this crisis. Nor can Orthodoxtheologians any longer provide mottoes or recipes in the guise of solutions; theymust first unpack all loaded concepts (be they ex nihilo, "essence," or "energies"),carefully considering their impact. Indeed, the full potential of the Orthodoxdistinction [End Page 351] between divine essence and divine energies has not yetbeen explored in relation to creation as much as it ought to be.

Of course if we are trying to unite the Christian vision with modern science--Sherrard's recurrent theme--then we will do well to remember that, seen by thephysicist, the human body is 99.99% void and its tiny material portion is emptyspace--the whole being made out of nothing. Who said that we cannot formulate akind of "quantum" creation theology in the place of (or as part of) our theology ofcreation ex nihilo? This means, of course, that we must be prepared to re-presenttraditional Christian doctrines, not necessarily to revise or reject them.

The third area of Human Image, World Image upon which I would like to focus is



Mariology. What a joy to see Sherrard treating the Theotokos in a manner that does justice to Orthodox iconographic, liturgical, and monastic spirituality! Gone is thealoofness attributed to the Virgin Mother by Roman Catholic theology owing to itsemphasis on virginity alone. Orthodox doctrine stresses the Theotokos's double

aspect as virgin and mother--as virgin she heals the brokenness of the world, asmother she fulfills the barrenness of creation. No wonder that she is so esteemed bythe celibate and married alike. Sherrard creatively advances the Virgin Mary's role asthe parallel and even the premise of the cosmic event of Christ. He is not the first todo so. The Old Testament abounds in symbolism of eternal wisdom (Sophia).Orthodoxy's liturgical and mystical writers have developed the tradition of theeternal motherhood of Mary, while its iconography endorses this mystery in images.

In Sherrard's writings the environmental crisis is the ground not only for a soundreflection on the problem at hand but also for consideration of the real underlyingissues of life and theology. Sherrard's fundamental argument is that this crisis is

rooted in our one-sided view of ourselves and our world; in fact, he claims that it isthe immediate result of our distorted "human image" and "world image."

For those who take seriously themselves, the world, and the salvation of both inChrist, Human Image, World Image is compulsory--indeed, compelling--reading. Butthe reader must be forewarned: this is the kind of book that requires a radicalresponse: one must either "warm" to it or be repelled. Those who are "lukewarm, andneither cold nor hot" (Rev. 3:16) will find the book indigestible. This in itself may bea sign of the truths it speaks.

A final farewell

Not only is "every thing that lives holy" but, as Sherrard wrote in one of his poems:[End Page 352]

I know I entirely miss the point of this death-work,

unless I see in it, too, the hand of Him

who is all-loving, all-merciful;

unless I discern--invisible, inaudible--

the angels of resurrection

already staging in your otherwise derelict flesh:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

Sherrard died at St. Thomas's Hospital, London. His wife and daughter were withhim. He passed away gently and peacefully in total contrast to his fiery convictionsand passionate love of life but in total accordance with his kind character andcompassionate heart. For two days, his body lay in the Russian Orthodox Cathedralduring the feast of the Ascension. His remains were returned to Katounia in Evia,



where a crowd of people--local priests, neighbors, villagers, and friends--werewaiting by the sea with candles and lanterns. The funeral procession led to the smallchapel on his own home grounds, garlanded as if for a festival. After an all-nightvigil, the funeral liturgy was celebrated--the first ever held in that chapel--and then

burial took place beside the chapel. Philip Sherrard's body was, in the words of hiswife, "consigned to the hands of God, to the living breathing earth in an embrace ofcypress trees next to a running stream."

Sherrard will be missed by many people and in many ways, visible and invisible,known and unknown. He will for long be a vital source for and reminder of themystery of human life, the mystagogy of man and woman, and the sacredness of theentire world. His was a life worth living.

Hellenic College/Holy CrossGreek Orthodox School of Theology

References Cited and General Bibliography

Berry, Wendell

1977 The Unsettling of America: Culture and

Agriculture. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.

Lossky, Vladimir

1957 The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church.London: James Clark. (Translation of Essai sur la

théologie mystique de l'Eglise d'orient . Paris,

1944.)

McFague, Sallie

1993 The Body of God: An Ecological Theology .

Minneapolis, Minnesota: Fortress Press.

Moltmann, Jürgen

1985 God in Creation: A New Theology of Creation

and the Spirit of God. Translated by Margaret Kohl.

San Francisco: Harper and Row.



Sherrard, Philip

1956 The Marble Threshing Floor: Studies in

Modern Greek Poetry . London: Vallentine, Mitchell.

1959 The Greek East and the Latin West: A Study

in the Christian Tradition. London and New York:

Oxford University Press. (Reprinted in Athens by

Denise Harvey Co., 1992.)

1960 Athos, the Mountain of Silence. London and

New York: Oxford University Press. (Reprinted as

Athos, the Holy Mountain in Woodstock, New York

by Overlook Press, 1982.)

1963 Constantinople: Iconography of a Sacred City .

London and New York: Oxford University Press.

1964 The Pursuit of Greece: An Anthology . London:

J. Murray.

1976 Christianity and Eros: Essays on the Theme of

Sexual Love. London: S.P.C.K.

1978 Church, Papacy, and Schism: A Theological

Enquiry . London: S.P.C.K.

1979 The Wound of Greece: Studies in Neo-

Hellenism. New York: St. Martin's Press.

1987 The Rape of Man and Nature: An Enquiry into

the Origins and Consequences of Modern Science.

Ipswich, U.K.: Golgonooza Press.

1990 The Sacred in Life and Art . Ipswich, U.K.:

Golgonooza Press.

1992 Human Image, World Image: The Death and



Resurrection of Sacred Cosmology . Ipswich, U.K.:

Golgonooza Press.

1994 In the Sign of the Rainbow: Selected Poems,

1940-1989. London: Anvil Press Poetry.

n.d. Christianity: Lineaments of a Sacred Tradition.

(forthcoming).

Sherrard, Philip, translator

1961 Pandelis Prevelakis, Nikos Kazantzakis and

His Odyssey . New York: Simon and Schuster.

1974 History of the Hellenic World. Athens: Ekdotiki

Athinon.

Sherrard, Philip and Edmund Keeley, translators

1960 Six Poets of Modern Greece. New York: Knopf.

1975 C. P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Princeton, New

Jersey: Princeton University Press.

1979 Angelos Sikelianos, Selected Poems.

Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.

1981 Odysseus Elytis, Selected Poems. New York:

Penguin.

1995 George Seferis, Collected Poems, revised

edition. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University

Press.

Sherrard, Philip, G. E. H. Palmer, and Kallistos Ware, translators

1979-95 The Philokalia: The Complete Text,

Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Moun-tain

and St. Makarios of Corinth. 4 volumes. London and



Boston: Faber and Faber.

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