Cultivating Sound Reasoning: Insights from Fr. Daniel Sysoev

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit!

Blessed feast of Theophan the Recluse

“>St. Theophan the Recluse!

Photo: pravoslavnaya-biblioteka.ru St. Theophan lived in Russia in the nineteenth century and was a conductor of ancient Orthodox traditions and teachings, which he translated into Russian. He was also known as a great interpreter of Holy Scripture. St. Theophan went into reclusion to study God’s teachings, to live in them and learn in them. His works are an invaluable gift for us all. Priests usually advise those coming to the Church to read St. Theophan and St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov). St. Theophan had a special gift for revealing the mysteries of the faith in a very simple and profound way. In his writings, he answers any, even very difficult questions, for example, about aliens. St. Theophan wasn’t afraid of questions and could give them comprehensive answers, based on Holy Scripture.

Today, many people say that the dignity of a Christian is to not think and to be stupid. But this is the opposite of what the Lord Himself taught and what the Apostles said. Stupidity is a sign of an atheist, who is stupid by definition. He’s stupid because his logic doesn’t work, his thinking process doesn’t work, and he often just tries to shut his opponent up. A Christian must be wise, he must develop his mind. There are different ways to develop it. There’s the piggy bank method that’s very popular right now—we toss absolutely everything into our mind. We can read a book or watch a film, because everyone’s read the book or watched the film. But just gathering information doesn’t develop the mind. There was a great pagan philosopher Heraclitus, one of the founders of Ionian philosophy in ancient Greece. He said: “Much knowledge doesn’t teach the mind, and if it did, it would have taught Pythagoras.” He really despised Pythagoras because Pythagoras believed in the transmigration of souls, and Heraclitus didn’t consider him worthy of the title of man.

Just formally stuffing your head with information doesn’t increase your intelligence. To be intelligent, you also have to learn to use this information. There’s the concept of a “mental hernia” that, in the worst-case scenario, leads to insanity, and in the best-case scenario, to complete stupefaction. A man clogs his head with all kinds of garbage, and nothing good comes out of it. Even if there’s necessary information, it isn’t systematized, and it becomes impossible to retrieve it. And this is natural, because there’s no culture of reason. The mind has to be developed, and that requires a foundation of reason—certain walls and a roof of reason. Just as a house is uninhabitable without walls and a roof, so it is with reason.

How can we learn to develop our mind in a Christian way?

First of all, we need repentance. Paradoxical though it may seem, it’s namely repentance that is the primary condition for the proper functioning of the mind. What does repentance mean? A change of mind. We have to admit that our viewpoint isn’t the most important, objectively true one. There exists an absolutely objective truth—God’s point of view. This truth is as unshakable as a rock upon which we can build our reason. The cornerstone for our reason should be God and His word. We give up our reason in the name of God in order to build a coherent edifice of thought, of our intellect. Repentance forces a man to sort out the piles of debris in his head and look at everything from a different vantage point—from that of the source of eternal life. The first condition for the proper functioning of the mind is that, “No thought of mine can be correct if it contradicts the revelation of God.”

And no other person’s thought can be correct if it contradicts Divine revelation. This is also very important because many people say that we should respect the opinions of others. But a Christian asks, “Why? From the point of view of common sense, explain to me why I should respect the viewpoint of others. It’s not based on anything. The viewpoint of other people and the people themselves are completely different things. For example, an alcoholic friend comes to see me, and he tries to enter the church but he can’t because he thinks the door is next to where the actual door is. So what, I should respect his point of view? I won’t respect it! First, I’ll help him pull himself together, dumping a bucket of cold water on his head, then I’ll lead him into the church, sit him down, and when he comes to his senses, then we’ll talk. If we don’t respect the viewpoint of others, that doesn’t mean we don’t respect them. A lie isn’t worthy of respect; it doesn’t deserve it, and the man who respects it commits a very grave sin.

God says: Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! (Is. 5:20). It’s truly God’s curse.

The second condition for the proper functioning of the mind is: “Don’t trust the opinion of others if it contradicts that of God.” It doesn’t matter how many of these people there are, even if it’s the whole planet—the quantity of zeroes won’t change the quality. We arrive at the conclusion that we have a foundation—the absolute truth, not dependent upon anything. It’s the revelation of God, understood according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church according to the teaching of the saints who always and everywhere had the same view on all questions. Scripture and Tradition should be realized in the realities of our lives. Then we use the knowledge that we received in school, college, from acquaintances—we must test all of it against the standard of truth.

But knowledge in and of itself isn’t capable of building a house, as the Apostle Paul said: Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth (1 Cor. 8:1). Therefore, a prerequisite for the proper assimilation of knowledge is love for God and neighbor. Without it, our mind can’t be properly ordered. All knowledge should be hierarchical. It’s impossible to develop both the soul and the body at the same time, because there’s a single energy of our being, which is manifested in both spirituality and physicality. If we invest too much in the body, our soul will suffer. Therefore, we have to put everything in its proper place. There’s a place for the body, which works well when submitting to the mind. There’s a place for the soul, and there’s a place for the spirit. According to the Holy Fathers, the mind or spirit should be subject to God, our feelings and will should be subject to the soul, and our body should be subject to the will and senses.

This is the proper order, and we have to properly allocate both our strength and our knowledge. First, we develop spiritual knowledge, second, soul knowledge, and third, bodily knowledge. Spiritual knowledge presupposes a proper relationship with God, the search for a path to Him. Soul knowledge makes it possible to know what’s happening in my soul and in the soul of those around me. We must gather knowledge about the people around us so as not to offend them, to relate to them carefully, to avoid touching their pain points, to help them, to support them—this is a Christian’s direct duty flowing from the second commandment. The third thing we have to develop is bodily knowledge. We should develop science, culture, and art on the condition that they don’t interfere with the soul. This is the correct system for building knowledge.

May God save you!