Second Naivete
In a comment to an earlier post, my friend Eric enlightened me on "second naivete", a concept that I can relate to in my life but had not realized there was a term. I also found a nice explanation on this by Ravi Zacharias.
To quote, "In this stage of second naiveté, the Bible can be engaged with awareness and imagination, and a greater sense of devotion, because we have come once again to see the God to whom it points". Further, at this stage "we rediscover the one at the center, and it isn't ourselves".
Sunday, November 2nd marked the beginning of a new Liturgical cycle in the Indian Orthodox Church, and the Gospel reading from St. Matthew 16:13-23 tells the story of Christ asking His disciples, "Who do you say I am?".
I remember listening to this story as a child and hardly spending any brain-cycles reflecting on the meaning ... I quickly understood that Jesus is God, God is good and St Peter got the right answer. Check.
But, growing older and entering the "stage of critical awareness", I recall feeling troubled by this passage especially when it was used to defend teachings of the primacy of St Peter. Sadly, every Indian Orthodox Church I've attended in my lifetime also never made it a priority to explain the Church teachings in a manner my teenage mind could accept.
Therefore, despite the incredible wisdom of the early Church fathers to select this passage to begin the Liturgical calendar, inevitably my teenage and young adult life was lived with a platonic and intellectual response to the question, "Who do you say I Am?".
I believed Christ was God, and God was good, but did I know God? I was religious but lost and although in a state of contentment and ease with the modern world, was unable to explain to my wife or children why I was a Christian (let alone an Orthodox Christian).
The phase of second naivete begins with something C.S. Lewis eloquently stated - "I want God, not my idea of God". In my case, an event rekindled the urge to discover and seek the Truth again and re-evaluate the response to this question that every disciple of Christ should be prepared to answer, "Who do you say I Am?".
To quote Ravi Zacharias, "In this stage of second naiveté, the Bible can be engaged with awareness and imagination, and a greater sense of devotion, because we have come once again to see the God to whom it points. God's Word tells the story that brings us to the Storyteller.".
But, this also brings a state of vulnerability and we must be cautious especially at this state to make sure we learn the fullness of the Word. Misunderstandings or pre-judgments on the teachings of the Church results in a separation of Christ and Church, resulting in the "naive" being at risk to walk down wrong paths.
St Paul admonishes the early Church of this in Galatians 1:5-9 using words only a Saint can say and not sound like a hypocrite, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all."
The Church is absolutely crucial at this stage, and sadly this is where the Indian Orthodox Church in particular continues to drop the ball. But, as we read in John 6:60, the fact that the teachings of Christ (Son of the Living God) are difficult makes it all the more important to understand "the Storyteller" and listen using the perspective of the Faith to transform ourselves into one worthy to be called an image of God.
To quote, "In this stage of second naiveté, the Bible can be engaged with awareness and imagination, and a greater sense of devotion, because we have come once again to see the God to whom it points". Further, at this stage "we rediscover the one at the center, and it isn't ourselves".
Sunday, November 2nd marked the beginning of a new Liturgical cycle in the Indian Orthodox Church, and the Gospel reading from St. Matthew 16:13-23 tells the story of Christ asking His disciples, "Who do you say I am?".
I remember listening to this story as a child and hardly spending any brain-cycles reflecting on the meaning ... I quickly understood that Jesus is God, God is good and St Peter got the right answer. Check.
But, growing older and entering the "stage of critical awareness", I recall feeling troubled by this passage especially when it was used to defend teachings of the primacy of St Peter. Sadly, every Indian Orthodox Church I've attended in my lifetime also never made it a priority to explain the Church teachings in a manner my teenage mind could accept.
Therefore, despite the incredible wisdom of the early Church fathers to select this passage to begin the Liturgical calendar, inevitably my teenage and young adult life was lived with a platonic and intellectual response to the question, "Who do you say I Am?".
I believed Christ was God, and God was good, but did I know God? I was religious but lost and although in a state of contentment and ease with the modern world, was unable to explain to my wife or children why I was a Christian (let alone an Orthodox Christian).
The phase of second naivete begins with something C.S. Lewis eloquently stated - "I want God, not my idea of God". In my case, an event rekindled the urge to discover and seek the Truth again and re-evaluate the response to this question that every disciple of Christ should be prepared to answer, "Who do you say I Am?".
To quote Ravi Zacharias, "In this stage of second naiveté, the Bible can be engaged with awareness and imagination, and a greater sense of devotion, because we have come once again to see the God to whom it points. God's Word tells the story that brings us to the Storyteller.".
But, this also brings a state of vulnerability and we must be cautious especially at this state to make sure we learn the fullness of the Word. Misunderstandings or pre-judgments on the teachings of the Church results in a separation of Christ and Church, resulting in the "naive" being at risk to walk down wrong paths.
St Paul admonishes the early Church of this in Galatians 1:5-9 using words only a Saint can say and not sound like a hypocrite, "I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all."
The Church is absolutely crucial at this stage, and sadly this is where the Indian Orthodox Church in particular continues to drop the ball. But, as we read in John 6:60, the fact that the teachings of Christ (Son of the Living God) are difficult makes it all the more important to understand "the Storyteller" and listen using the perspective of the Faith to transform ourselves into one worthy to be called an image of God.
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