In Orthodox Christian circles, a disturbing and spiritually perilous trend has emerged: the casual dismissal of the teachings of the saints. This cavalier attitude not only disrespects our spiritual heritage but fundamentally misunderstands and undermines Orthodox tradition, bordering on spiritual rebellion.
Consider this all-too-common scenario:
An Orthodox Christian shares a teaching from a revered saint or elder, only to be met with flippant dismissal. The dissenter offers no substantive argument beyond, "Well, the saints are not infallible." When confronted with the authoritative nature of the consensus, they claim, "This is just one saint's opinion." Tellingly, they provide no evidence to support either their casual rejection or their assertion that the particular teaching falls outside the consensus.
Such dismissive attitudes towards the wisdom of our saints is not merely problematic; it's a dangerous departure from Orthodox faith and practice. Let's examine why.
Why The Words of our Saints Demand Attention
- Not Mere Opinion: The teachings of our saints aren't just pious thoughts or personal interpretations. They are the fruit of lives dedicated to pursuing holiness and understanding God's will.
- Recognized by the Church: When the Church recognizes someone as a saint or elder, it affirms the validity and importance of their spiritual insights. Dismissing these insights casually is to question the discernment of the Church itself.
- Rooted in Illumination and Theosis: The sayings of our saints stems from direct spiritual experience and divine illumination of the nous. Unlike mere academic knowledge, their teachings reflect profound insights gained through theosis - the direct experience of God. This experiential illumination grants saints an unparalleled authority in spiritual matters over those not illumined, and makes their words an invaluable guide for those on their path to theosis.
The Dangers of Dismissing the Teachings of the saints
When someone says, “I disagree with this saint,” without offering patristic support, they commit several grave errors:
- Misunderstanding Consensus: They ignore that while individual saints may occasionally err, the consensus of saints on core doctrinal issues is authoritative in Orthodox tradition.
- Burden of Proof: The onus is solely on the dissenter to demonstrate why a teaching of a saint is not within the consensus (see “The Orthodox Approach to Disagreement” below). They also must demonstrate why view should be preferred over the recognized, holy spiritual authority. Their failure to do so exposes their spiritual immaturity and presumption.
- Overestimating Personal Wisdom: Casual dismissal often stems from spiritual pride, placing individual judgment above the collective wisdom of the Church.
- Misrepresentation: Critics often present a caricature of Orthodox reverence for saints, missing the nuanced understanding of wisdom of the saints, and reveal their own ignorance.
- Selective Reading: Some cherry-pick isolated disagreements among saints while ignoring vast areas of consensus, presenting well-known facts as shocking revelations (see “The Rarity of Disagreement” below).
- Spiritual Implications: This approach leads to a selective faith, where one only accepts the teachings that align with their biases.
The Grave Error: Bordering on Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit
St. Basil the Great warns: “Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is to attribute His operations to the opposite spirit. He says that this is done by attributing any gifts of the Holy Spirit upon the Saints as being from the devil.” [2]
When a teaching represents the true consensus of the saints, it is a manifestation of God's will and revelation through the Church, guided by the Holy Spirit. To dismiss or disagree with this consensus without proper justification is to unknowingly oppose God's will and reject the work of the Holy Spirit.
The only valid way to disagree with a saint's teaching is to demonstrate, through substantial patristic evidence, that it does not represent the consensus of the saints. Without such evidence, disagreement becomes a rejection of the Church's living tradition and the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit.
The Rarity of Disagreement
Contrary to what modernists imply, disagreement among saints on core doctrinal issues is exceptionally rare.
All the writings of the Holy Fathers were composed by the inspiration or under the influence of the Holy Spirit. What miraculous consonance they all have! What incredible agreement!
— St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, The Field (On Reading the Holy Fathers)
If some pinpoint the number of discrepancies in New Testament manuscripts at more than 100,000, then the number of examples of fundamental differences between the saints in matters of dogma amounts to a few dozen at most. It's exactly the same with the holy fathers, among whom the number of basic differences in doctrinal issues is disproportionately smaller than the number of discrepancies in New Testament manuscripts.
— The Principle of Consensus Patrum and Modern Attacks Against It [1]
This rarity of disagreement has important implications for how we approach the wisdom of the saints
- If a saint's teaching doesn't contradict any commandment, dogma, canon, or another teaching of a saint, there's no basis for dismissing it.
- Any claim of contradiction must be substantiated with clear evidence from Orthodox tradition.
- When interpreting a saint's writing, we must consider the broader context of Orthodox tradition and the writings of other saints.
The Orthodox Approach to Disagreement
When approaching the teachings of our saints, we must:
- Exercise profound humility, recognizing our limited understanding compared to their spiritual maturity.
- Ground any disagreement in the broader consensus of the Fathers and Church teaching.
- Engage seriously with the full breadth of their teaching, not cherry-pick or dismiss individual statements.
- Approach apparent contradictions through the lens of Orthodox tradition, not personal speculation.
This approach isn't zealotry, but faithfulness to Orthodox tradition, which has always valued the collective wisdom of the saints over individual interpretation.
Throughout the history of Ecumenical Councils, the Fathers consistently appealed to the consensus of their predecessors to determine orthodoxy, rather than relying on individual opinions or contemporary preferences. This approach was maintained especially when addressing potential errors in individual saints' teachings. Those who point out errors in the saints, without appealing to the wisdom of the saints, put themselves outside the tradition of the church in this regard.
The Experiential Basis of the wisdom of the Saints
In Orthodox tradition, true theological knowledge stems from direct spiritual experience. Fr. John Romanides emphasizes:
A genuine theologian, however, is doubly illumined. Although his reason also needs to be enlightened by instruction in the faith, it is mainly his nous, or spiritual heart, which must be illumined.
— Fr. Romanides, Patristic Theology
This illumination is not a matter of superior intellect or education, but of direct experience of divine realities. Those who haven't attained illumination lack the experiential basis to dismiss the wisdom of the saints.
Whoever speaks about God, he is to do so on the basis of the inner experiences he has accumulated, the supporting testimony of the Holy Spirit in his heart, and the documented experiences in Church Tradition of those who have attained to theosis.
— Fr. Romanides, Patristic Theology
Given this understanding of spiritual knowledge and experience, how then should we approach potential disagreements with the teachings from our saints? The answer lies in the collective wisdom of the Church:
The only possible way we can disagree with the saints, is through the documented consensus of the saints, which will of course mirror our own inner experiences if we are making spiritual progress.
Consequences of Casual Dismissal: Spiritual and Theological
To discredit anything the saints teach by merely citing their lack of infallibility, without substantial evidence of widespread disagreement among saints, is not just misguided—it's spiritually perilous. This approach:
- Reveals arrogance, overestimating one's own wisdom and blinding oneself to spiritual limitations.
- Cuts one off from Orthodox tradition, leaving them adrift in their limited understanding.
- Disregards the Church's authority in recognizing saints, a dangerous act of spiritual rebellion.
- Stunts spiritual growth by avoiding challenging teachings necessary for development.
- Misleads others, potentially leading less experienced faithful astray.
This isn't a minor misstep, but a dangerous departure from the way of salvation. It's a rejection of the Church's living tradition and a denial of the Holy Spirit's ongoing work through the saints.
To treat their wisdom lightly is to risk straying from the path of Orthodox truth and tradition.
— The Principle of Consensus Patrum and Modern Attacks Against It [1]
The Danger of Unchecked Skepticism Towards Saints
While we acknowledge that saints, being human, can potentially err in their teachings, we must be extremely cautious about how we approach and discuss such instances. Unchecked skepticism towards the wisdom of our saints can lead us down a perilous path.
Fr. Seraphim Rose, in “The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church,” addresses this issue eloquently with a witness from the Spanish Cardinal Juan de Torquemada:
Gregory of Nyssa, without doubt most great among Teachers, handed down in clearest fashion the teaching of purgatorial fire ... But what you say in answer to this, that being human he could err, seems to us very strange; for Peter and Paul also, and the other Apostles, and the four Evangelists were likewise human, not to mention that Athanasius the Great, Basil, Ambrose, Hilary and others great in the Church were likewise human and consequently could err! Do you not think that this reply of yours oversteps proper bounds?
— [3]
Fr. Seraphim's point is crucial: if we dismiss the saints simply because saints are human and can err, we risk undermining the very foundations of our faith. This argument, taken to its logical conclusion, would discredit not only the Church Fathers but even the Apostles themselves, and thus the entirety of Scripture.
Many who casually dismiss the saints teachings are clearly overstepping proper boundaries. Their reasoning, if applied consistently, would suggest that the Apostles Paul, Matthew, Luke, and John, being human, were not infallible. This approach unknowingly threatens the credibility of Scripture itself.
So how should we approach potential errors in the teachings of our saints? Fr. Seraphim Rose provides another quote from Juan de Torquemada:
We also acknowledge that it is possible for a man to err in so far as he is human and does anything by his own powers; but in so far as he is guided by the Divine Spirit and tested by the touchstone of the Church in those things which relate to the common faith of dogmatic teaching, then what is written by him, we affirm, is absolutely true.
— [3]
This balanced approach recognizes human fallibility while affirming the Holy Spirit's guidance in matters of faith. The key lies in testing teachings against the common faith and dogmas of the Church. Any argument against the words of the saints must present a dogmatic consensus in reply, not merely personal opinion or modern sensibilities.
St. Mark of Ephesus offers further insight:
We should not hold the judgment of a man, even though this man might have been orthodox and had a high reputation, as the same kind of authority as the canonical Scriptures, to the extent of considering it inadmissible for us, out of the reverence we owe such men, to disapprove and reject something in their writing if we should happen to discover that they taught other than the truth which, with God's help, has been attained by others or by ourselves.
— [3]
This statement underscores an important point: while we deeply revere the saints, their writings are not on par with Scripture in terms of authority. However, this doesn't give us license to casually dismiss their teachings. The writings of the saints are not inadmissible to us, even if they occasionally fall into error. The only way they become inadmissible is if we prove, without question and through the lens of Church tradition, that they contradict established dogma.
In essence, engaging with wisdom and teachings of the saints teachings requires a delicate balance of reverence and discernment. We must approach them with humility, recognizing the saints' spiritual maturity and illumination. At the same time, we must be grounded in the broader context of Orthodox tradition, always seeking to understand rather than to refute.
This approach safeguards us against both uncritical acceptance and casual dismissal of our saints. It keeps us firmly rooted in Orthodox tradition while allowing for the careful examination of teachings in light of the Church's collective wisdom. By maintaining this balance, we can benefit fully from the profound spiritual insights of the saints while avoiding the pitfalls of both blind acceptance and unwarranted skepticism.
Conclusion: A Call for Reverence and Proper Engagement
Those who casually dismiss anything the saints teaching and say must seriously reflect on their approach. Are they truly seeking understanding, or merely justifying their own preconceptions? The saints have earned our respect and careful consideration through their devotion and spiritual struggle.
We must approach the saints with humility and reverence. This will never allow for dismissing anything a saint says unless we can provide substantial evidence from Scripture, other saints, or Ecumenical Councils that contradicts it. Even then, we must do so with great caution and humility, always seeking to understand rather than to refute.
By engaging seriously and humbly with the wisdom of our saints, we open ourselves to profound spiritual growth and a deeper understanding of our faith. The wisdom of the saints offers us a path to draw closer to God – let us walk it with gratitude and reverence, lest we find ourselves standing not just against the saints, but against God Himself.
[1] Priest George Maximov, “The Principle of Consensus Patrum and Modern Attacks Against It,” Orthodox Christianity, https://orthochristian.com/106134.html
[2] John Sanidopoulos, “What is the Blasphemy Against the Holy Spirit According to the Church Fathers?”, Mystagogy Resource Center, https://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2009/07/what-is-blasphemy-against-holy-spirit.html
[3] Fr Seraphim Rose, “The Place of Blessed Augustine in the Orthodox Church”