This commentary from Dr Andrew Kania is a must read for anyone seriously seeking truth. It comes from that part of our religious and spiritual heritage that we in the West know little about — the intellectual, philosophical and theological development of faith that has been taking place in Eastern Christianity, often amidst great suffering, but largely through cultural barriers, outside of our purview. It has a connection that many might find interesting with the interview with Ted Mason that has been generating comment on the Catholica Forum this morning — this is "grounded, earthy spirituality" not "handed down on high from priests" but rung out of the soil, and the daily grind of simply life in "the real world" by lay people who endeavour to live with the Spirit. Learn something about one of the great philosopher heroes of the Eastern Christian Church: Hryhorij Skovoroda.

The ashes of defeat provide the fertile soil for greatness…

"'Twas after dread Pultowa's day,
When Fortune left the royal Swede –
Around a slaughtered army lay,
No more to combat and to bleed.
The Power and Glory of the war,
Faithless as their vain votaries, Men,
Had passed to the triumphant Czar,
And Moscow's walls were safe again."

With these words Lord Byron began his epic poem of the defeat at the Battle of Poltava in 1709 of the Ukrainian Cossack Hetman, Ivan Mazeppa, along with Mazeppa's ally, Charles XII of Sweden.

Hryhorij Skovoroda (1722-1794): A religious philosopher who was not a priest!

As so often is the case within the rich irony of history — the ashes of defeat provide the fertile soil for greatness. A little over a decade after Mazeppa's downfall at Poltava, the oblast (county) that had been the stage for the razing of the hope and ideal of an independent Ukraine, would become the birthplace of one of Eastern Europe's greatest philosophers. One analyst of Hryhorij Skovoroda's (1722-1794) thought, Ern, would claim that Skovoroda holds the place as the father of modern philosophy for the Slavs, and that he was the foundation stone upon which Dostoyevsky, Tolstoy and Solovyov would later build up their systems of religious philosophy. It has also been said that Skovoroda paved the way as an example of a religious philosopher who was not a priest — something completely foreign to the Orthodox norm of his Age.

For the Ukrainian nation, Skovoroda stands at the close of that high period known as Ukrainian Cossack Baroque, and at the dawn of the new epoch of Romanticism. As such, his life oversaw an era in which Church-Slavonic was to lose its import, and the Ukrainian vernacular in literature was to be a source of increased impetus for national identity and cultural awareness. For the Ukrainian people — and in particular, the ordinary peasant folk, Skovoroda was something to boast about, not only for his reputation as a philosopher, but because here was a man, universally recognized as having sought to live and act wisely; a Ukrainian Socrates. So revered would Skovoroda's memory become over time, that G. P. Danilevski would comment in the mid-nineteenth century, that: "It is a rare corner of the country that does not remember Skovoroda with emotion to the present day." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 122). Even as we begin the 21st Century, Ukrainians who have no training in philosophy, still speak of Skovoroda with pride.

Combating the influence of the Jesuits…

Recognised at an early age to be a brilliant mind, Hryhorij Skovoroda, entered the famed Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, an institution founded by Petro Mohyla as a means for the Orthodox East to educate scholars so as to combat the evangelical mission of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in Ukraine and Eastern Europe. Skovoroda was to leave the Academy a man tormented and vacillating between religious belief and atheism. This period of his life would culminate in 1759, in a profound crisis of faith that eventually led him to consecrating himself to God, not as a priest, but as a layman and a philosopher. It was from this point on, that Skovoroda was to become known as a teacher and a writer — a man who epitomized the ascetic life. A decade later, Skovoroda was to experience a mystical vision; so powerful was this event, that Skovoroda's greatest works were produced in the period after this vision. He would spend the rest of his life traveling and teaching others to strive to live in harmony with oneself, and with God. Unlike many modern philosophers Skovoroda, not only taught philosophy, but his life became an odyssey, a metaphysical journey, an experiment of one man's search for the Truth. To Skovoroda the entire point of education was for the soul to develop. Fundamental to Skovoroda's philosophy of teaching, was the premise that it was the educator's role to clear away the obstacles that stand between the student and their attainment of self-realization. According to Skovoroda, the student was not a blank-canvas on which the teacher could liberally paint; they were an individual created by God; an individual who bore the marque on their mind and spirit of the Holy Trinity — a seed needing to be nurtured, so that it could flower, and not a static inanimate thing to be imposed or trodden upon.

Skovoroda's philosophy draws on a number of sources. Not surprisingly, as a product of the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy is the heavy debt that he owes the Eastern Fathers of the Church. According to Kovalinskii, if one would seek the major influences on Skovoroda's philosophy, one should read philosophers and theologians such as: Clement of Alexandria, Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor, Plotinus, and Philo. Like many of the Eastern Fathers, for Skovoroda, philosophy was religion, and religion was philosophy. Above all — Skovoroda's greatest source of inspiration came from the Bible.

Yet Kovalinskii adds that Skovoroda believed that any lover of the Truth, even if they were unbaptized — were in some way servants of the Holy Trinity; as such he emphasized to his students the critical need for the pagan philosophers not to be rejected but subsumed within the Christian tradition. Bahalii would say of Skovoroda: "He was one of those naturally gifted persons with whom the genius of our nation endows us from time to time, a sensitive deep thinker who erected an unusually strict logical system, free from all contradictions.…" (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 23). Another scholar, Chyzhevskyi would later place Skovoroda in the same school of mysticism as Jacob Boehme and Johannes Tauler; a spiritual writer, with a catholic outlook on the human desire for the Divine.

The physical world should be seen as a symbol,
leading one to understand the Divine…

Among the chief principles of Skovoroda's philosophy were that he believed that the physical world should be seen as a symbol, leading one to understand the Divine, Who spoke through Creation. The very centre of Creation, was the human person. As such Skovoroda's philosophy at its entry-point foresees 'theosis—divinization' as its end-point.

The human being is worthy of attaining God — as the person is created by an act of love by God, not as some sporadic play-thing, but as a creature forged from a Divine template to be in a relationship with God.

As Skovoroda writes: "[O]f all ceremonies in whatever lands and times, of all knots, of all secret images in seals and signs, man is the center or end. Here everything ends. … Whatever it may be: a deed, action or word — everything is an empty nothingness if it has not become an event in man himself … The world, like a ceremony or a sign, exists not for itself but to signify, to point out something else to man. Thus, the world is connected with man in two ways and shares in his destiny … Everything that is designated there in the world must by necessity come to fulfillment in man himself. … This is why Paul, mentioning the sun, moon and stars ties all of them to the resurrection, that is, to man … If man achieves harmony with God and a new level of 'divinized' life, then the world has fulfilled its end and is raised to a higher existence also. Without man the existence of the world would be pointless … The point I wish to make is that God bears a human face in the person of Christ who is the ideal man, the end of man and the metaphysical foundation of man's existence." (Zakydalsky, 1965, pp. 32 – 33)

According to Skovoroda — there would be no world, without God, and as man is made in the image of God, the world has been made for man, who is special to God. Christ is perfect man, and it is in Christ that we see our potential and our goal in living and loving.

To Skovoroda, human knowledge goes beyond reason. Skovoroda classifies the yearning of the human heart for God — to be its highest good, to be an integral part of what he understands as 'knowing'. Knowledge thus is not only about reason and will — it is about Faith. To attain Faith one must search the depths of one-self to understand who one is created by God to be. Both God and the world can only be known as far as one has an understanding as to who they are as a person; for as Skovoroda writes: "He who is blind at home is blind also on visits." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 33).

Without understanding how we relate to God — how can it be possible for us to fathom how God relates to the universe? To find God — we must search for Him within, for each of us is, the centre of a cosmic universe, and by coming to understand ourselves we come to understand others. The human being is as such a microcosm, a world contained in themselves. In a passage of poetic beauty Skovoroda tells his reader: "We have measured the sea, land, air and heavens and have disturbed the belly of the earth to reach its metals, traced the planets, searched the mountains, rivers, cities on the moon, discovered countless worlds, built incomprehensible machines, filled abysses, blocked and redirected the flow of rivers. Daily we raise new questions and create wild inventions … Good heavens, what is there we don't know how or can't do! And yet, to our misfortune, something great seems to be lacking in all this: we only Know that something is lacking, but what it is we have no idea." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 88). Although appreciative of the physical sciences, Skovoroda seeks to impress upon his audience, that such knowledge is only useful if one has attained a self-knowledge, for what purpose can there be to 'knowing' if the knowledge that one has, cannot save one's own life. Self-knowledge is therefore life-giving. Skovoroda continues: "To see one's self is to fall in love with oneself. Thus faith is the supreme act of self-love. This holy egotism is not selfish, however, for the man we fall in love with is really God's image in us. In loving this image, we love God, we accept his idea of us, his intentions and purposes for us. The supreme act of self-love is also the supreme act of humility before God." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 94)

Man, not an 'ordinary' part of Creation…

Made in the image of God, humans are a created being, but they are not, as has been alluded too, an 'ordinary' part of Creation. Man has Divine attributes, man is a co-worker with God in the vineyard. Skovoroda writes:

"Man is the tool of God, a tool that freely submits himself to the action and love of God.… All creatures are coarse instruments and organs of the highest Being: only man is his noblest tool with the advantage of freedom, and consequently he is both valued and responsible for the use he makes of this right … Only man is given the dangerous privilege of determining for himself what he will love and seek in life; that is, what he will be. Man's decisions are real and weighty with consequences. On them depends the quality of his existence, the fulfilment of his nature or its frustration, his happiness or misery. By his decision to love and obey God, man veritably creates himself a second time, his first creation being God's decision, not his. He may create of himself an animal or a god." (Zakydalsky, 1965, pp. 56 – 57)

The choice is freely offered to the individual — to live as God, or to live as a beast. In Skovoroda's words: "Open your eyes of faith and you shall see in yourself also God's power, God's right hand, God's law, God's speech, God's word, his kingdom, and the secret invisible authority of God, and by knowing the Son, you will come to know the Father." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 76). The individual chooses God, not as an intellectual speculation, but in the same fashion that one chooses a lover — to commit and to conform one's will to the beloved. In the former case, if one intellectualizes God, without a sense of love, or in a further case, if one loves without seeking to know, then what we have is a tension between schism and superstition. Love must always be present, in order for our religion to be truly Godly. Skovoroda writes:

"It is one thing to believe that God exists, and another thing to believe in God, to love and depend on Him and to live according to God.… Thus the true Christian is not one who believes that there is a God but one who follows Him, loves Him, and has founded his home of happiness on God's love." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 85)

Faith is about re-birth…

Faith to Skovoroda is transformative — it is about re-birth. As an infant one is baptized and confirmed on the behest of parents, but as an adult, one is born again, by choosing God and thus choosing life to its maximum. When we formally choose God, on a daily basis, we continually recreate ourselves anew. We see the world differently, because we see ourselves differently. God becomes new, our Faith becomes fresh and invigorating — because we ourselves are not static, but are dynamic in our spiritual life. As the darkness closes on even the most thunderous of evenings — so the dawn also opens to a cloudless sky.

We are not only morally renewed, but according to Skovoroda we are ontologically re-born:

"The act of faith transforms our life in two ways. First, by revealing to us the ethical wisdom that is necessary for a godly life it initiates the truly ethical life. Because we fall in love with God for the first time here, we accept and carry out his will not grudgingly but willingly. If we fear to transgress his laws, it is not because we tremble before his punishment, but because we love God." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 97)

This re-birth is available to all men and women — for one only requires the mind to love, and the heart to know. God does not require of us to be a religious genius — He only desires that we love with all our capacity — whatever that is, according to each individual.

Once one is re-born, then only a few things are required by Skovoroda to achieve the final goal of living, which is happiness: "Trust him and make his holy will your will. If you accept it then it becomes yours … In this moment everything shall happen according to your, yes, your wise will. And this is to be contented with everything." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 107). If one is conformed to the Will of God, then no matter what the world may throw at the individual — the individual, who is in love with God, who loves God because he knows himself, the individual who sees the world truly, because he sees himself honestly — such an individual, even in darkest despair, will understand that God is with them, that God cares, that God loves. Such a person can afford to be happy, even if they be penniless; for death does not separate, but binds, and suffering does nothing, but makes the soul long for the Comforter.

A universal philosophy…

The philosophy of Hryhorij Skovoroda, is a teaching that asks the individual to rouse from out of their slumber; to reclaim a life, that may in fact be slipping from out of their grasp. It is a philosophy that asks for resolution; it is a philosophy that demands metanoia; it is a philosophy that speaks to the common man, the peasant, knee deep in black soil on the steppes — the young girl washing her clothes in some Carpathian stream; the coal miner, darkly charred in a subterranean tunnel in the Don Basin. It is a philosophy that speaks equally as well, to some stockbroker on Wall Street, miserable at a huge loss; or a broken-hearted woman, walking in the rain on London's Oxford Street; or a struggling student after class on a train in Sydney's western suburbs. It is a universal philosophy — as it is based on two universal realities: God and Man.

From out of the 18th Century Skovoroda teaches that religion, theology and mysticism are not the tools of salvation for the ordained few; but are the keys to living a full, rich, life. In what could be Skovoroda's best epitaph, the young boy who grew up in a oblast built on the countless bones of his dead countrymen, in a country enslaved by a cruel Tsar, writes in words that offer new life:

"Our Father who art in heaven! Send us a Socrates soon who will teach us first to know ourselves. Then, having discovered ourselves, we shall be able to develop our natural wisdom.…Thy will be done in all my paths and endeavors for I think that wisdom should not be limited to the priests who gorge and surfeit themselves on it, but should be spread among all the people and should penetrate into their hearts." (Zakydalsky, 1965, p. 123)

Following from Skovoroda — we too rise from out of the ashes of our fallen selves, to strive to soar to the heavens, carried by the better angels of our nature, unto the bosom of God.

Further Reading: Taras Zakydalsky, 1965, The Theory of Man in the Philosophy of Skovoroda available as an online book at www.ditext.com/zakydalsky/skovoroda.html

Image Credits:
The main graphic has been adapted from an image found at: www.quizart.com. Clicking on the image of Hryhorij Skovoroda in the body of the text will take you to the original source.

©2009 Dr Andrew Thomas Kania

[Index of Commentaries by Dr Andrew Kania]