Thanksgiving, Salvation, and Eternal Joy WHO is Fr. Alexander? by Fr. Alexis Vinogradov Summer/Fall 2014
I recently sat opposite a group of young cinematographers from Russia. They were at best teenagers or younger when Fr. Alexander Schmemann died in 1983, and like most of their generation they never met him in person. They know of him through stories about him and his own writings and recorded radio broadcasts. This little group of Schmemann fans was interviewing me, along with others in America who knew Fr. Alexander, for a documentary on his life and work. Especially poignant is the fact that besides not having met Fr. Alexander, this is a generation that in its youth was effectively surrounded by an atheistic culture, most of them coming to faith later in life. What can explain the exponential popularity, not only of Fr. Schmemann’s works, but also of the man himself, among people who never knew the man? What is it about him as a person that has drawn such a following; especially in a nation that has obliterated its religious past? The specific phenomenon of his growing influence in Russia can certainly be explained by a long spiritual famine that is now a century old, from the insurgency of communism into Holy Mother Russia, and the establishment of the militantly atheistic Soviet State. Yet, there is another, possibly more important explanation, but one which is not as evident and touches upon the religious reality in the West as well. This is to say, as Fr. Schmemann himself would caution, that the greatest danger to faith lies not so much in that which is obviously and blatantly against religion, but rather, and more often, from religion itself! In other terms, one must look into the nature of the religion practiced and taught even as it survived in the grueling conditions of Soviet oppression, and the martyrdom of thousands of faithful.
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In his now famous lines, Fr. Alexander stated his “two NOs and one YES”: NO to Religion, NO to Secularism, and YES to the Kingdom of God! While atheism falls under the rubric of Secularism (the world for itself without God), Religion is a much trickier problem because generally it is
regarded as a benign and even socially good thing in whatever form. To better understand Fr. Schmemann’s caution concerning Religion – and this is extremely important for us in the West as well – it is important to begin to understand the man behind the message. It is very telling that when Fr. Alexander himself was often asked to write or speak about other theologians or churchly personalities, he would regularly focus precisely on aspects of their character as the living context of their theology. A great example, easily found now on Google, is his article titled Three Metropolitans, in which he describes Metropolitans Leonty, Vladimir, and Evlogy. All three could not have been more different from each other in time, space, and personality, and yet they each incarnated the Orthodox Christian spirit by the mode of their life. For Fr. Alexander, the “truth” of one’s theology must be manifested by the way in which that theology is lived. Here is a snippet on each one of the Metropolitans from that article: Evlogy: “He held no administrative authority over us but nonetheless each one of us felt that we belonged to him, that we were needed and even indispensable participants in his life and service in their most important expressions.” Vladimir: “How disturbed he was with any kind of insincerity, from an affected spiritual style, from precisely that pseudo-spirituality that frequently flourishes where there is no real spirituality.” Leonty: “He never insisted on anything, he never imposed anything. If he was invited somewhere, he would go. If he was not invited, he didn’t go nor did he ever look for invitations. If he went somewhere he would always bring a present: some small packet, a book or simply, a check. Money flowed through his hands and didn’t stick to them. We can now recall, with shame for our Church, that he would help out poorly paid priests, widows and other clerics, from his own pocket.”
