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OCR
FAITH AS A PREREQUISITE... A suitable parallel of this principle of initiation can be found in the preamble of Theodoret’s tract On the Holy and Vivifying Trinity: “We present the teaching of divine doctrines as a reminder for the well versed, and as instruction for the uninitiated.”** The implications of this analogy are obvious. As the author continues, In consequence, if the meaning of these repugnant and disgusting orgies is unknown to all save those who are called hierophants, it is plain madness to aspire to the knowledge of the all-holy and divine mysteries before faith [i.e. before believing]. Perhaps you are neither persuaded by Pindar the lyricist who clearly forbids “to open the ancient word to all"? Plato gives the very same advice, for he says, “Take care, lest these [doctrines] ever fall into [the hands of] uneducated people, because, in my opinion, it is almost impossible for most of them not [to treat] them when heard as quite ridiculous, while for the well-bred souls there is nothing more admirable and more inspired. Yet often repeated, always heard, and over many years these [doctrines] are hardly purified like gold, at great effort”.*° As a result, there is a ranking of the Christian believers also, and their level of initiation gives them access to the relevant teaching. This is why the “reminder for the well versed” may contain expressions which might surprise the uninitiated. Nonetheless, these are entirely legitimate and acceptable for those nurtured in faith. Such formulae include terms like “we, the lovers of the Trinity” (Hueic oi tij¢ Tptadoc épaotat).*” It appears that the persuasive rhetoric used by Early Christian Fathers to convince their listeners of the truth of the Gospel was not very different from the style of non-Christian thinkers and orators. The longevity of the Greek rhetorical school in Antioch—including that of Libanius, who, reportedly, on his deathbed regretted that the famous Antiochene preacher, John Chrysostom (Theodoret’s example), could not take his place at the head of the Antiochene rhetoric school**—may have played an important role in the formation and sustenance of such phraseology. 34 Theodoret, De Trinitate, Prologus 1: tov Beiwv Soypatwv thv didacKkadiav mpoOrjoopev, Tois te eiddow eic dvapvnow Kai Toi dyvootov gic UdOnotv. Jean-Noél Guinot (ed.), Théodoret de Cyr: La Trinité et l’Incarnation, SC 574-575, Paris, Cerf, 2015, I, 234. Pindarus, Fragment 180 in H. Mahler (ed.), Pindari carmina cum fragmentis, Leipzig, Teubner, 1975. See Clement, Stromata I, 10, 49. 36 Plato, Letter 2, 314a in J. Burnet (ed.), Platonis Opera vol 5: Epistulae, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1907. Theodoret, Curatio I, 114-115. 37 "Theodoret, De Trinitate 1, SC 574, 240. 38 See Sozomenus, Hist. eccl. VIII, 2 (trans. Chester D. Hartranft): “There was, however, at Antioch on the Orontes, a certain presbyter named John [Chrysostom], a man of noble birth and of exemplary life, and possessed of such wonderful powers of eloquence and persuasion that he was declared by the sophist, Libanius the Syrian, to surpass all the orators of the age. When this sophist was on his deathbed, he was asked by his friends who should take his place. ‘It would have been John’, replied he, ‘had not the Christians taken him from us’. Many 35 + 89 + Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 89 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:15
