St. Athanasius of Paros and Apostolos Makrakis: Similarities and differences

1. Entity type Lemma
2. Original titleἍγιος Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Πάριος καί Ἀπόστολος Μακράκης: Ὁμοιότητες καί διαφορές
3. Language term Greek, Modern (1453-)
4. lemma author Koutalis, Vangelis
5. lemma category Conflict - Key thinkers - Orthodox theological tradition and practice > Patristic studies - Orthodox critique of science - Ecumenism and dialogue > Westernism and anti-westernism
6. Publication date 26-02-2017
7. lemma work Brang, Leon [Author]. St. Athanasius of Paros and Apostolos Makrakis: Similarities and differences
8. lemma manifestations Ἁγιος Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Πάριος : Πρακτικά Ἐπιστημονικοῦ Συνεδρίου (Πάρος 29 Σεπτεμβρίου -4 Οκτωβρίου 1998) - Paros: Holy Metropolis of Paronaxia – Holy Shrine of Panagia Ekatontapiliani of Paros, 2000.
9. Keywords St. Athanasius of Paros - Makrakis, Apostolos - Enlightenment - Western culture - Hesychasm - Greek philosophy - Christocracy
10. Citations
    1. <p>Brang, L. [Μπρανγκ, Λ.] (2000). Ἅγιος Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Πάριος καί Ἀπόστολος Μακράκης: Ὁμοιότητες καί διαφορές. In <em>Ἁγιος Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Πάριος: Πρακτικά Ἐπιστημονικοῦ Συνεδρίου (Πάρος 29 Σεπτεμβρίου -4 Οκτωβρίου 1998)</em> (pp. 363-374). Paros: Holy Metropolis of Paronaxia – Holy Shrine of Panagia Ekatontapiliani of Paros.</p>
11. Lemma body

    1. In this article the author examines the background assumptions motivating the rejective stance towards the Western culture of St. Athanasius of Paros and Apostolos Makrakis respectively. Both Athanasius and Makrakis developed a thoroughgoing criticism of the ideal of the autonomous, devoid of any transcendental reference, human being as it was projected by the Enlightenment. They both also considered the French Revolution as the distant murderous outcome of the distorted Christianity that prevailed in the West, due to the satanic arrogance against God that Papism represented.

       The similarity of their verdict notwithstanding, their respective points of departure were radically different. Athanasius was an ardent defender of the Hesychast tradition. For him, the greater cause for alarm was the attempts to transfer unaltered and under the cloak of science, the anti-Christian spirit driving modern Europe in the Orthodox communities of the East. He distinguished between the world-wisdom, as cultivated by the Enlightenment-oriented milieus and the wisdom from above (ἄνωθεν σοφία), which serves the highest purpose of achieving the salvation of the human soul. The wisdom from above, the knowledge of God, is empirical, it grows through the Orthodox ascetic procedures, whereas the world-wisdom, when it is led astray from the devotion to God and, contrary to what was the case with the Patristic tradition, is promoted not as an auxiliary way of knowing but as an alternative, seeking to displace the wisdom from above, is spiritually detrimental. By contrast, Makrakis’ criticism against every aspect of the Western culture, i.e. the Papism, the Protestantism, the Universities and the Academies, the French Revolution and the political diplomacy of the West, is fuelled by his own version of “ideologization” of faith. Combining nationalist feelings with an urge to revive philosophical Hellenism and excessively self-confident about his own philosophical authority, Makrakis countered Western worldview with a metaphysics constructed by himself, a “Christocracy” that it was not rooted in the Patristic tradition. If Athanasius’ anti-Western stance was motivated by his ecclesiasticity, Makrakis’ rejection was motivated by a personally peculiar religiousness.