This morning I was reflecting on the decided coolness that some Christians around here seem to display towards Orthodoxy. While this is no doubt partly because we are really pretty unknown, I suspect that there is also more going on. On the one hand, there are Evangelicals I know who I suspect regard us as some sort of weird sect, or else as a more exotic version of Catholicism which, for some of them, is probably hardly any better. But there are also, on the other hand, more liberal Protestants, Anglicans and Catholics, who show more interest in the Church, being fascinated by the icons, music, Liturgy and so on, until, well, until we give offence. The discovery that we do not accept “intercommunion,” or believe that all religious expressions are of equal validity, or buy into an agenda of “inclusivity,” seems to lead – understandably enough if one is committed to such things – to a coolness even if this is not expressed as an outright rejection.
Anyway, I as I was washing the bath this morning I found myself thinking that Orthodox Christianity does indeed go “against the grain” of many contemporary cultural assumptions. However, no sooner had I voiced that phrase than I caught myself. While it is an expression that I have used before, I had never really considered where it came from until now. And, as a bookbinder who had only yesterday emailed a prospective client explaining the importance of grain direction, I really ought to know. And, as I reflected on this, I realised that it is actually a misconception to say that Orthodox Christianity goes “against the grain” or that it can ever be a good thing to go “against the grain.”
This is an expression that originates in the grain direction of paper. If you take a sheet of paper and bend it to fold it, you will notice that it folds more easily in one direction than the other (usually in the length with a sheet of A4 paper). When one is binding a book, it is very important that the paper is folded and glued “with the grain” and that the board for the covers and all other paper used should likewise run in the same direction. If this does not happen one gets friction between the different elements of the book, one may get warping and, quite simply, the finished product does not open and read as easily. (Regrettably publishers of many commercially bound books ignore this in the name of economy, but if you wonder why some books are not as supple to open as others, this could be why).
Anyway, reflecting on this, I realised that the Christian vision, while it may go “against the grain” of certain contemporary cultural assumptions – and, indeed, of the dominant assumptions of any era – does not go “against the grain” of our human nature, and of our deepest human identity. For we are created “with the grain,” in harmony with the grain direction of the universe, for we are created in the image and likeness of God. While that image has been distorted and marred due to sin, it is still our deepest identity and salvation in a Christian perspective is not only to recognise that image, but also to recover the likeness that has been lost by sin.
In this context, the life of the Church is there to form us – and re-form us – in the right direction, not simply in order to adapt us to a standard outside of ourselves, but because this is the direction of our own deepest nature. It is to ensure that we are in harmony with those to whom we are attached in a greater whole, to re-orientate us to the true reality in the universe. In this context, to try and go “against the grain,” to use the bookbinding analogy, is asking for trouble, not simply because it is being rebellious, but because it is inattentive to our own deepest identity.
June 25, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Thank you for this. I am slowly gaining an understanding of how Christ’s coming brought deification to all the world and how Orthodoxy is offering this to us, which is the greatest need of us all. Thank you for this lovely articulation and example of it through bookbinding.
June 25, 2011 at 9:02 pm
You’re welcome, Elizabeth, and thanks for your comment. There is of course so much more that I don’t properly know how to say – on the importance of materiality, of the relationship between matter and spirit, and of how society often militates against this. And, of course, so much to learn!
June 26, 2011 at 3:40 am
This is really wonderful, Macrina! And I particularly enjoy these recent blogs which spring from your own pondering.
I have some further extensions of what you’ve written. When you plant a tree or shrub it’s best to know which part of the tree faced north in the “nursery” and to plant it in the same direction, so it’s growing “with the grain” you could say. The other thing is the power, throughout the universe of gravitational pull. The poles of the earth, over time, get pulled slightly – so that they change over time, aligning “with the grain” of our solar system etc. so to speak. And the quanta in the universe, when they leap, they all leap at the same moment (even though one cannot predict the direction of that “leap”) – which suggests a “grain” in time, you could say, which is somehow inherent to the universe, along with the gravitational or magnetic pulls.
I think it’s amazing how one can see – even within the physical universe and plant life – how this “grain” is so powerful. The quanta have no choice. The plants have no choice. But we are given choices. And as you say, it is in our deepest nature to conform ourselves to God’s image. On every level of our being.
Thank you so much for this!
June 26, 2011 at 11:45 am
Thanks, TheraP. I’m afraid that getting ponderings out of my mind and onto my blog is not something that I’m particularly good at. Otherwise there would be more of them.
I appreciate the examples you give from nature. While writing the post I was also reminded of our facing East in prayer. While for Christians that has a particular Christological and eschatalogical content, it is also in harmony with the movement of the universe itself.
June 27, 2011 at 6:52 am
C.S. Lewis expressed a similar thought, I think in his book Perelandra, when he described eldils as standing at an angle, because they were not oriented in relation to earthly geometry, but to celestial. In the same way, Christians are to some extent countercultural.
And in Brother Roger’s paper Pilgrims of the Absolute he quotes Leon Blow as saying
June 27, 2011 at 3:15 pm
Thanks for those quotes. I suppose that it’s a matter of how one phrases things, or the interpretation that one gives to expressions. There is certainly a disorientation and an imbalance that has entered into the world through sin. But I would be wary of seeing an absolute discontinuity between heavenly and earthly geometry. For the Image of God in us has been distorted and soiled due to the fall but not been obliterated, and the task of the Christian – the proper task of the human person -, in recovering the likeness to God, is to serve as priest of the cosmos in bringing it back to God.
Of course this makes me want to go and look up what the Fathers say on this but I don’t have time now! But there is something from Fr Andrew Louth on St Maximos the Confessor here for those who are intreested.
June 27, 2011 at 2:46 pm
[…] Orthodoxy and going against grain. […]
July 2, 2011 at 5:44 pm
Interesting to see the many ways God is working
July 13, 2011 at 10:56 am
Thanks for this, Macrina. Against the grain of protestants, apparently, are our ‘habits’ and recited prayers, seeming to them as evidence of shallow religious experiences. I, on the other hand, love reciting prayers off by heart whenever I have a quiet moment – wherever I may be. I also love going to church out of habit, and read scriptures out of habit. Maybe I am wrong about my deductions about protestants…
July 14, 2011 at 12:27 pm
Hi Magdalena,
I think that there are Protestants and Protestants – thankfully! – but I have also come across some of the attitudes you mention. Quite apart from anything else, they seem to be rather naive! I realise increasingly, and perhaps especially when habits get disrupted, how important they are. There is also a helpful quote from Fr Florovsky on our need for prayers, precisely in order to teach us to pray – will try and look it up when I’m home.