Proairesis

June 3rd, 2006
Proairesis

In one of his homilies, the Patriarch John Chrysostom (d. 407) elaborated on the characteristics of a Christian “philosopher”. Key to his idea was the concept of proairesis.

A philosopher is a “lover of wisdom”. Early Church teaching made a correlation between Christ and the Wisdom passages in Proverbs 8. It is conceivable that when Chrysostom refers to a Christian philosopher, he means a lover of Christ as Wisdom embodied.

In any event he described such a person in this fashion: One who bridles his/her passions, refuses to judge by appearances, and waits for the final outcome before passing judgment on God. The Philosopher has three important characteristics:

· Knows his doctrine. In other words, he studies to know what he believes and subsequently, he lives it out in practical daily living before/with his God.

· Is disciplined. He stays focused on what he knows is the truth. His emotions are not his controlling authority. Neither do his circumstances dictate his reality. It is the Truth as revealed by and in Christ that is his foundation. Finally, he is patient.

· Wise circumstantial assessment. Chrysostom references Abraham and Joseph as great examples of Christian philosophers. Ultimately, as we look at their lives, they were shown to have faith in God and His promises over what their current circumstances show. This is summed up by saying they have healthy proairesis.

What on earth does proairesis mean? It is a fairly nuanced word that in its simplicity means “one’s disposition towards God coupled to one’s choices”. Disposition is created by an understanding of God’s character. Terms that have been used to describe disposition would be belief systems/lenses/outlook on life. One can discover their disposition towards God by looking at how they think and feel in regards to God during rough circumstances. The real disposition can “hide” during happy times.

Choice is a product of our will. How we make choices is influenced by our passions, our five senses, our intellect, and previous experiences. An important thing to keep in mind is that we can always make Biblical and healthy choices even if our disposition isn’t very positive.

The process of working towards a Biblical Proairesis is threefold:

· We must continue to grow in our relational knowledge of God as well as our intellectual knowledge. Studying all His attributes is important, not just knowing about the omnis (omnipotent, omnipresence, omniscience). Quick places to discover more of His attributes are systematic theologies, or books such as A.W. Tozer’s The Attributes of God (ironic title, eh?).

· We need to accept that God is incomprehensible. How He runs things in often uber-mysterious. Whether you believe that He directly causes all of our circumstance or is indirectly involved, you must still believe that He is TRUSTWORTHY. Also, He is Infinite. As a Being with no beginning or end and therefore outside of time, He can see the whole picture of life from beginning to end. Tied into that is our finiteness. Our vision is extremely short. · Understanding God’s purposes sheds light on our circumstances. God is passionate about the restoration of Mankind and Creation (1 Cor. 15:42-54; 2 Cor. 5:1-8; Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:22; Rev. 21:1)

o C.S. Lewis, in The Problem of Pain (p.31) says this: “And by (God’s) Love, in this context, most of us mean kindness – the desire to see others than the self happy; not happy in this way or in that, but just happy. What would really satisfy us would be a God who said of anything we happened to be doing, ‘What does it matter so long as they are contented?’ We want, in fact, not so much a Father in Heaven as a grandfather in heaven – a senile benevolence who, as they say, ‘liked to see young people enjoying themselves’, and whose plan for the universe was simply that it might be said at the end of each day, ‘a good time was had by all’.

God, who is out for our best (restoration and healing) knows that we need a physician, even though we think we are healthy. Therefore, He might perform surgery through a variety of ways. This surgery, which causes short term pain, leads to long term health and sustenance.

What does this look like? Suppose you have a job where you are quite frustrated and disappointed. You are at odds with how the boss runs things and you are faced with your own Proairesis: what is your disposition towards God (is He trustworthy and loving, or is He uncaring or malicious)? Now, how are you going to choose? Are you going to follow a Biblical or worldly choice? Are you going to be obedient to God’s word and walk in the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) or are you going to live as though you are an unbeliever (disobedience, complaining, gossip, creating dissension/strife, stirring up anger)?