By Metropolitan
Hierotheos of Nafpaktos
1. The Human Body
according to Ancient Greek Philosophy
From ancient
times, the mystery of man engaged philosophers
who, as expected, studied man in relation to the
He who Is, God. The questions of what man is,
what the body is and what motivates the body are
questions of utmost significance and importance.
According to
one interpretation, in Greek the word body sōma
derives from the word sēma meaning, “sign”.
Among many other meanings, the latter word, sēma
means a pointer showing a grave. Therefore, in
this sense, the word sōma refers to ancient
Greek philosophy, which viewed the body as a
sēma -‐‑ the grave of the soul.
Indeed, in
ancient Greek tradition, there was a prevalent
view of a naturally immortal soul and a
naturally mortal body. This mean’s that several
ancient philosophers believed that man’s soul is
unborn and previously belonged to the impersonal
world of ideas, but when it moved from this
prosperous world, God punished it and enclosed
it within the body, which has constituted the
prison, the grave of the soul ever since. Thus,
according to this view, the salvation of the
soul consists in its release from this prison
and its return to the unborn world of ideas,
from whence it fell, so that it would return to
the prosperity of the ideal world.
In the myth
of the cave, Plato demonstrates that the entire
perceptible world is a bondage house, a prison,
in which human souls perceive the shadows of the
archetypes as reality per se. Thus, the souls
have to escape the bondage house and return to
the light. This is Platonic Eros. Plato himself
describes the drama of the Fall of naturally
eternal souls to bodies1.
The middle
Platonic and the Neo-Platonic philosophers, as
well as other ancient systems, were influenced
to varying degrees by these theories and for
this reason denigrate the body. There were also
other systems that overrated the beauty of the
body, disregarding the value of the soul.
Many views
and theories have been articulated about the
world, in relation with God and man, by various
philosophical and religious systems. His
Eminence the Metropolitan of Pergamon John
summarizes the basic teachings of ancient
philosophers and of some Christians that were
influenced by philosophy and sorts them to five
views.
The first set
of teachings is the theories of Gnosticism,
according to which the world we live in is
permeated with evil, and therefore, it is not
possible for God to be its creator. Between God
the Father and the world there is a hierarchy of
“ages”, of which the last is the creator of the
world. The second view contains the ideas of the
Neo-Platonist, Plautinus, according to which
God had the world within him and at some point
brought it out to the surface. The ideas exist
in God and, based on them, he creates the world
from pre-existing matter. But the world created
by God is not perfect, because matter and space
oppose what God wished to create. The perfect
world is the world of ideas.
A third view
is the ideas of Philo, a Jew, who tried to
combine his biblical faith with Plato. According
to him, God created matter, implying that matter
did not preexist. But the ideas are the thoughts
of God. This view influenced Neo-Platonism,
which believed that the world is an emanation
from the One God, i.e. it is an extension of the
thoughts of the One.
Fourth, are
the theories of Origen, who was influenced by
Platonic views: According to the teaching of
Origen, there are two Creations: one is the
eternal Creation, which includes the creation of
souls, the other is Creation in time, when this
eternally present world takes material form.
Origen considers this creation as a fall2.
It is clear
that Plato’s views influenced, to varying
degrees, the Gnostics, the Neo-Platonists,
Jewish and Christian theologians and those
theories that diverged from Orthodox teaching on
the creation of the world and of man.
The doctrine
of reincarnation is conjoined to the creation of
the world. According to doctrine of
reincarnation, souls belonged to the eternal and
unborn world of ideas, but afterwards, either
through sin or through emanation from this world
they were enclosed in the body for punishment
and prison. Hence, if man is unable to purify
himself and be liberated from the body, he must
come back anew in other successive bodies, even
animal bodies, until his soul is completely rid
of sin and returns to the eternal world of
ideas. Such a view denigrates the body, by not
considering man as a single psychosomatic unity.
2. Orthodox Christianity concerning the Body
Christian
teaching on the body, and on man in general
differs from all metaphysical theories. However,
we are not going to proceed to a full analysis
of this point, because the objective of this
review is not theological and is not addressed
towards experts; rather it is informative and of
course pastoral.
The creation
of man is discussed in the first books of the
Bible. It writes: “Then God said, “Let Us make
man in Our image, in Our likeness, and let them
rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of
the air, over the livestock, over all the earth,
and over all the creatures that move along the
ground. So God created man in His own image, in
the image of God he created him; male and female
he created them. God blessed them and said to
them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill
the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of
the sea and the birds of the air and over every
living creature that moves on the ground.” (Gen.
1:26-28).
Some basic
truths are manifested in this passage. First, it
can be seen that God who created man is a Person
(three Persons), not an ideal nor impersonal. He
is not an assemblage of impersonal ideas.
Then it
declares that man is created according to the
image and likeness of God. If this passage is
linked with another passage, which mentions that
God formed the body from the dust of the ground
and then breathed into him and thus, the soul
was created, it is clear that man was directly
created by God in a positive way. This means
that the soul did not previously live in an
eternal and unborn world of ideas, but was
created by God at that moment. It also means
that the body is not the prison of the soul, but
was formed by God at that moment, and man was
formed in this way in a unity of soul and body.
That is to say, the body did not exist before
the soul, and the soul did not exist before the
body. Man is not simply a soul or simply a body.
The soul is the soul of a human person and the
body is the body of a human person, i.e. man is
always both, because he consists of both soul
and body.
Furthermore,
this passage shows the truth that man was
created by God to be king, the ruler of all
creation.
Therefore, the body is not the prison of the
soul, but was created together with the soul in
a positive way by God. Both soul and body must
have a common course towards God.
However, in
studying the human body from a Christian point
of view we can look at five phases.
The first phase refers to how the body
functioned before man’s fall. Right after man’s
creation, the body had the grace and energy of
God. That is, the soul was in communion with God
and this brightened, gave glory, to the body as
well, and through the body this brilliance was
extended to the whole of nature. Nicholas
Cabasilas says that the soul is a looking glass
or mirror. Since the soul received the energies
of the light of God, it radiated this through
the body to the whole of creation. This is why
Adam and Eve felt no shame even though they were
naked. This is an indication that the body is
not to blame for what followed.
The second phase is what took place after man’s
Fall. As soon as man lost his communion with
God, the mirror was shattered, and as a result
great darkness fell upon all creation. Then Adam
and Eve saw that they were naked and felt
ashamed, so they tried to cover their nakedness.
The body became untamed, because of sin, and all
bodily passions appeared, and this means that
death entered into man. The body suffered a
great catastrophe, diseases appeared, and it
became weak and needed more food and clothing to
be protected from changes in the weather. The
body that we know today is not the body received
at creation. It is not the same body as that
which was created by God; rather it is the body
that accepted the consequences and the results
of sin, that is, death.
The third phase of the body starts with Christ’s
Incarnation. The Word of God assumed the human
body, indeed, a mortal body, in order to bring
it back to its former glory and raise it beyond
where it was in the person of Adam. The
Transfiguration of Christ, when His face shone
like the sun and his tunic turned as white as
light, shows the glorification of the human
body. So, our God is not simply an idea, He is
not just a person, but the Theanthropos, both
God and man, the God-man. The human body
acquired great glory in the Person of the Word.
We also have the opportunity to live within the
Body of Christ. We are reborn through the holy
Mysteries (Sacraments) of the Church, the holy
Baptism, the holy Chrismation (Unction), and we
give glory to the body through Holy Communion.
With asceticism, that is, with fasting,
abstinence, etc., we do not hate and underrate
the body, rather we try, with God’s help, to
restore it to that original condition of Adam
and Eve and to raise it up even further. As the
holy Fathers say, with ascesis we become killers
of the passions not killers of the body, that
is, we mortify the passions.
The fourth phase of the body begins with the
soul’s exit from it. Despite the separation of
the soul, man’s unity remains intact, the
person, the hypostasis, remains. If someone
manages with God’s Grace to balance the
relationship between soul and body, then his/her
body becomes a holy relic. In the Orthodox
Church we have several holy relics, namely
bodies, which remain incorruptible, give off
fragrance, and make miracles. This mean’s that
these bodies, without undergoing any chemical
process, without being in certain, suitable,
climate conditions, are maintained
incorruptible, an indication that God’s Grace is
within them. Such incorruptible whole relics can
be found in Corfu (St. Spyridon), Cephallonia
(St. Gerasimos), Zakynthos (St. Dionysios) and
in many of our Church’s Monasteries. Their
incorruptibility is shown by the fact that the
cells in the saint’s body, remain incorruptible,
the saint’s body has not decayed and
disintegrated.
The fifth phase of the body will start with the
Second Coming of Christ, when the bodies of all
human beings will be resurrected. Ancient Greek
philosophy did not believe in the resurrection
of the body, because, as we saw before, it
taught the distinction between a naturally
immortal soul and a naturally mortal body.
Therefore, according to this philosophy, man’s
salvation is the exodus of the immortal soul
from the mortal body, which will disappear
afterwards. However, Christianity does not
accept this. Christianity’s basic teaching is
that bodies will be resurrected through the
energy of God, the souls will enter their bodies
and man will live eternally having both body and
soul in a single unity. Of course, the bodies
will be different from our present ones, i.e.
they will not have corruption, mortality, or
diseases, they will have a better form than the
body that they had in Paradise after the
Creation. St. Paul writes in his First Epistle
to the Corinthians: “So will it be with the
resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown
is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is
sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory; it is
sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is
sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual
body”. (1 Cor. 15:42-‐‑45).
Therefore, in
the Christian tradition, the body becomes a
temple of the Holy Spirit, as St. Paul teaches:
“Do you not know that your body is a temple of
the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have
received from God? You are not your own “(1 Cor.
6:19)
The main
philosophical and religious views on the
creation of the world, the interpretation of
evil existing within the world and, of course,
the human body, were presented in the previous
chapter. However, the teaching of the Orthodox
Church, as expressed by the Apostles and the
Fathers of the Church, is very different.
Orthodox
Theology talks about the difference and
distinction between what is created and what is
uncreated. God is uncreated and the whole of
nature, including man, is created.
God is not
simply the Creator but also the Maker of the
world. This is said because the word “create”
mean’s to construct and beautify something from
pre-existing matter. But the whole of creation
was made from non-existing matter. God did not
make the heavens and the earth out of
pre-existing matter, but “He spoke and they
were born, He commanded and they were created”
(Psalm 148 LXX). The evil that exists in the
world does not originate from its own nature and
its creation. It originates from its separation
from God through the Fall of man.
As we saw
above, the Orthodox Church does not believe in
the distinction between a naturally eternal soul
and a naturally mortal body. In other words, it
does not believe that the soul used to belong to
the unborn and eternal world of ideas and that
the body is the prison of the soul. Instead, it
believes that God created the soul and the body
simultaneously and thus the whole of man was
formed. The soul did not exist before the body,
nor did the body exist before the soul.
Therefore, man’s body was created in a positive
way by God and was joined with the soul. The
soul is not located in a specific part of the
body but is throughout the entire body as
energy.
From this
perspective, the Orthodox Church rejects the
theory of reincarnation, because man constitutes
a unity of soul and body. There is a
psychosomatic unity in man from the creation of
Adam and Eve and from each man’s birth. Man
constitutes a person, a hypostasis, which means
that the body does not vanish and that it is not
the garment of the soul, which the soul has to
throw away in order to assume something else.
After man’s death, that is, the exodus of the
soul from the body, the hypostasis, and the
person is maintained, yet at the future
resurrection of bodies, each soul will return to
its own body. This is a true scandal for ancient
(pagan) philosophy.
Source-From the book "The Human Body" Ascesis and Exercise
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