BP 67 - Theoria
While the practices of theoria (or contemplation) can take on a variety of nuanced forms in Christendom, they most often fall into one of two camps of contemplative practice:
Camp 1: The pursuit of vision (that is, a vision of God).
Camp 2: The pursuit of sanctification (that is, transformation in Christ).
In the east [the Eastern Orthodox Church, etc.] the practices of theoria (or contemplation) are fueled mostly by one’s desire to see God (that is, to experience an intimate vision of Him). The contemplative practices in this approach most often entail the traversing of a progressive path of Divine illumination, like that laid out in The Ladder of Divine Ascent, an ascetical treatise written in the 7th century by St. John Climacus, an Egyptian monk.
Here in the west, the practices of theoria focus more on the pursuits of biblical sanctification, wherein the one contemplating (or experiencing) God through worship and Scripture-immersion becomes more and more set apart (and made pure in heart-mind) by God.
Over the last several decades, it’s been my focused intention to draw from both approaches (that is, to do whatever I can to immerse myself in both the eastern and western contemplative traditions).
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My Overall Desire: I want to see God.
The Central Core of My Practice: In my contemplative practice, I pursue gaining a true, Beatific Vision of Jesus (and The Trinity). Toward such an end, here’s A Simple Prayer of Theoria that I pray: “Jesus… as I, in response to Y-you, turn toward Y-you, may that which veils my vision of Y-you be removed [see 2C 3:16] so that I, as much as I can in this current Earth-life, see and behold Y-you as Y-you are.”
My Overall Desire: I want to become more like God.
The Central Core of My Practice: In my contemplative practice, I ask God to transform me into His likeness. Toward such an end, here’s another Simple Prayer of Theoria that I pray: “Jesus… as I see and behold Y-you, may I become more and more like Y-you [see 2Co 3:17-18].”
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Again, in my practice, I don’t focus on just one approach to the exclusion of the other, for I deem both to be equally crucial, even synergistic, to my growth as one who’s been…
1/Fashioned in the likeness of God, and one who’s in the process of being mercifully recreated—continually and continuously, without end—in His likeness.
2/Created to live on (that is, to feed upon, find sustenance in, and be breathed to life by) Him—continually and continuously, without end.
And…
3/Designed to behold and experience Him intimately—again, continually and continuously, without end.
The Eastern Approach
My Overall Desire: I want to see God.
The Central Core of My Practice: In my contemplative practice, I pursue gaining a true, Beatific Vision of Jesus (and The Trinity). Toward such an end, here’s A Simple Prayer of Theoria that I pray: “Jesus… as I, in response to Y-you, turn toward Y-you, may that which veils my vision of Y-you be removed [see 2C 3:16] so that I, as much as I can in this current Earth-life, see and behold Y-you as Y-you are.”
The Western Approach
My Overall Desire: I want to become more like God.
The Central Core of My Practice: In my contemplative practice, I ask God to transform me into His likeness. Toward such an end, here’s another Simple Prayer of Theoria that I pray: “Jesus… as I see and behold Y-you, may I become more and more like Y-you [see 2Co 3:17-18].”
-
Again, in my practice, I don’t focus on just one approach to the exclusion of the other, for I deem both to be equally crucial, even synergistic, to my growth as one who’s been…
1/Fashioned in the likeness of God, and one who’s in the process of being mercifully recreated—continually and continuously, without end—in His likeness.
2/Created to live on (that is, to feed upon, find sustenance in, and be breathed to life by) Him—continually and continuously, without end.
And…
3/Designed to behold and experience Him intimately—again, continually and continuously, without end.
To me, Jesus, Who embodied both approaches, seemed to combine the two in the promises H-he illuminated in Mt 5:8 [expanded rendering], which reads as follows: “Blessed are The Pure in Heart-mind, for they shall not just see God but be and become The Eternal Beholders of God.” I think what Jesus said could also be stated conversely in a manner similar to what follows: “Blessed are Those Who Behold God, for they shall be mercifully remade/recast as The Pure of Heart-mind.”
When we read 2Co 3:17-18 [see expanded rendering below], it seems that the Apostle Paul embodied (or, at least, desired to embody) both as well. I believe he “saw and experienced” God as being both The Divine Author and Completer (that is, The Enlivening Beginner and Efficacious Finisher) of both approaches:
The author to the Hebrews seems to reiterate Paul's thoughts in a way that feels almost like he’s taking the Words right out of Paul's mouth:
While the word theoria is not used directly in The Scriptures, the concept of it is written extensively throughout both The Old and New Testaments. The most concise descriptions of it can be found in Mt 5:8, 2Co 3:17-18, and He 12:1-4, which I’ve provided above. Additional descriptions can be found in many other passages, including Ps 46:10, Ps 62:1-2, Ps 63:1-8, Is 55:1-3a, Is 58:11, Mt 11:28-30, Jn 4:10, Jn 7:37-39, and 2Pe 1:3-4 [expanded rendering], which read as follows:
Theoria allows the one desiring to see God to not just experience God more fully but to be more like Him. And… as The Spirit unveils more and more of The Trinity’s Oneness, Love, and Limitless Relatability, that very same Spirit brings forth more and more of God’s love-fruit in and through the life and personhood of The Believer [The Beholder, The Worshipping One]. Conversely, theoria allows such a one, who longs to be and become More Like God, to see/behold Him—or Them [see Note below] (that is, The Three Persons of The Trinity)—more clearly and, in seeing Them, begin to incarnate, through Spirit-infusing processes, more of Their Divine Life, Personhood, and Character.
In both the eastern and western approaches, while the original motivation (or desire) is different, the results are the same: 1/A Divine BEHOLDING OF God; and 2/A Divine TRANSFORMING BY God.
The Scriptures read in Pr 29:18 (KJV), “Where there’s no vision, the people perish: but he [or she] that keepeth the law, happy is he.” The word translated vision in the above is the word chazown (Strong’s #2377 [Hebrew]), which means “a sight (mental), i.e. a dream, revelation, or oracle.” With respect to the revelatory aspects of vision, chazown actually has, I think, a lot more to do with experiencing a vision or revelation of God and His Ways than it does with anything else. Solomon was not just writing about some abstract, unreachable nebulae “out there somewhere.” No. He was writing about something Close, something Personal: The unveiling of A Person (One Who’s Wholly Other than us) and, quite possibly, the unveiling of a dream of what could be through Divine union with That Person. As this verse teaches (and rather harshly at that), without such a vision, aimlessness and exposure abound [see Note below].
To experience such an encounter with God, one must, as a necessity (and as the last part of the above verse in Proverbs urges), “keep the law,” or, as I like to closely read that phrase, “hedge himself [or herself] about with the wisdom, lovingkindness, and generativeness of God Almighty.” Such God Life qualities (that is, wisdom, lovingkindness, and generativeness) can be found only in God’s Living, Organizing, and Relational Word [Logos, Rhema, and Graphe] and in its skillful assimilation into one’s normal, everyday life. To be steeped in God’s Word is to be so utterly stained by it (and by The Generator and Expressor of it!) that every aspect of one’s life is progressively enveloped in and by the very Thoughts, Feelings, and Perspectives of God. When one begins to think, feel, see, and hear the way God does, he’ll want what God wants. This is the direct (and beneficent) effect of Divine union with God. And, organically, it’s what creates ever deepening experiences of intimate beholding of (and intentional engagement with) Him, and life-changing transformation in and by Him.
Theoria allows us to (in and through Christ) be and become More of Whom We Are Already. In a way, it allows us to be and become More Human, More Selfless, Less Like the Old [dead/undead] Self (that is, that which USED to be us but is so no longer—PRAISE GOD!!), and More Like the True Self: An Awakened/Resurrected/Recreated Image-bearer of The Lord God Almighty. John the Baptist captured it beautifully when he said, “H-he (that is, Jesus [in me]) must increase; I must decrease” [see Jn 3:30]. Paul expressed similar thoughts in Ga 2:20, Ph 1:21, and Co 3:4, which read as follows:
Throughout the history of Christendom, those who pursued theoria (that is, those who desired to see God and to share in [to participate in and to partake of] His Divine Nature), were called Contemplatives. To be A Contemplative was to be one who (though quite active in work, family life, creation, recreation, and relational ministry)…
1/Rested heartfully and mindfully in God.
2/Waited actively in hope for God to reveal more and more of His Unlimited Life, Personhood, and Character to them.
3/Put on (that is, participated in and partook of) The Heart-mind of Christ.
And…
4/Exhibited, through progressive, Divine intimacy with God, the never-ending, ever-increasing love-fruit of Christlikeness.
For such as these, the oils (that is, the fuels) of prayer were the chief means by which The Contemplatives (that is, The Worshipping Ones) could experience—BEATIFICALLY—a never-ending, ever-increasing vision and experience of God. Prayer provided a way for one to offer himself [or herself] to God and to create an atmosphere wherein God was invited to give away (to the one seeking Him) that which He most wanted to give: Himself. Like the practices of those seventeen hundred years ago, our practices today are not so much about our pursuing God but, rather, about our welcoming Him (heartfully and mindfully) into every nook and cranny of our lives. Rather than just finding God, we discover ourselves progressively more FOUND BY and REFOUNDED IN Him.
In all His dealings with humankind, God is The Perfect Gentleman. While He longs to openly give Himself away to each one of us, He does so only upon our invitation. With each unveiling of Himself, God waits for additional consent from us before revealing more. Contemplation (or the enrapturing enjoyment of God and His God Life) is not something that can be created through direct, concentrated effort. It’s rather an experience of God brought on by non-striving, where all that’s required from us is that we open ourselves up to God and receive (get caught up by) Him on His terms, and as He intends. God’s giving Himself away to us is always initiated by Him [see Re 3:20a], but He waits for us to invite Him to do so [see Re 3:20b]. Each of us finds God (that is, we welcome Him in), because He first found us (that is, He first came knocking at the door to our heart-mind [The Eden of Our Soul]). In contemplation (that is, theoria), we discover our true founding in and connectedness to God; more than that, we discover that, even though we once felt far from God, He was there with us all along [see Mt 28:20; Jn 14:16-17; 1Co 6:19; and (again) Re 3:20]. It’s like being stuck in a pitch-black room, only to have someone light a small candle enabling us to see a little of what’s been there the whole time. This is what The Ancients and Contemplatives of Old were desiring to see and experience. My prayer is that you, too, will be inflamed with similar desires.
Grace, peace, and mercy to you, friends; and Godspeed in your own “journeys in theoria and heart-mind renewal”…
When we read 2Co 3:17-18 [see expanded rendering below], it seems that the Apostle Paul embodied (or, at least, desired to embody) both as well. I believe he “saw and experienced” God as being both The Divine Author and Completer (that is, The Enlivening Beginner and Efficacious Finisher) of both approaches:
Now, The Lord is The Spirit, and where The Spirit of The Lord is, there’s freedom [eleutheria: freedom, liberty, especially: a state of freedom from slavery]. And we all, who, with unveiled faces, contemplate [behold and revel in (that is, experience iconoclastic/brazen joy/happiness in)] the glory of The Lord (that is, the weightiness of Jesus), are being transformed into H-his Divine Image with never-ending, ever-increasing glory (that is, from one degree of glory to another), which comes from The Lord, Who’s The Life-giving Spirit.
The author to the Hebrews seems to reiterate Paul's thoughts in a way that feels almost like he’s taking the Words right out of Paul's mouth:
Therefore, since we’re surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (by those who, in faith, went on before us, and who are now watching us excitedly and expectantly), let us throw off everything that hinders us [and that hinders everyone around us as well as everything we touch], and the sin that so easily entangles us [and that entangles everyone around us as well as everything we touch], and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, The Author, Pioneer, Perfecter, and Finisher of Our Life and Faith, Who, for the joy set before H-him, endured The Cross, scorning its shame, and sat down AT—and AS—The Right Hand of God Our Father. Consider (that is, contemplate) H-him Who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you won’t grow weary and lose heart. For in your own struggle against sin, you’ve not yet resisted (that is, as Jesus resisted) to the point of shedding your own blood.—He 12:1-4 [expanded rendering]
While the word theoria is not used directly in The Scriptures, the concept of it is written extensively throughout both The Old and New Testaments. The most concise descriptions of it can be found in Mt 5:8, 2Co 3:17-18, and He 12:1-4, which I’ve provided above. Additional descriptions can be found in many other passages, including Ps 46:10, Ps 62:1-2, Ps 63:1-8, Is 55:1-3a, Is 58:11, Mt 11:28-30, Jn 4:10, Jn 7:37-39, and 2Pe 1:3-4 [expanded rendering], which read as follows:
YHVH speaking: “Be still [mended] and Know I AM [YHVH] Elohiym [The Supreme Master of Forces]. I’ll be exalted among the nations; I’ll be exalted throughout the Earth.”
—Ps 46:10 [expanded rendering]
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from Him. He alone is My Rock and My Salvation, My Very Fortress; I will NOT be shaken.
—Ps 62:1-2
O God, You’re my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there’s no water. I’ve seen You in The Sanctuary and beheld Your power and Your glory. Because Your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You. I’ll praise You as long as I live; and in Your Name, I’ll lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise You. On my bed, I remember You; I think of You through the watches of the night. Because You’re My Help, I’ll sing in the shadow of Your Wings. My soul clings to you; Your Right Hand (that is, Jesus) upholds me.
—Ps 63:1-8
Come, all you who are thirsty, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk—without money and without cost. Why spend money on what’s not bread, and your labor on what doesn’t satisfy?
Listen, listen to M-me (that is, to Jesus), and eat what’s good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to M-me; hear M-me, that your soul may live.
—Is 55:1-3a
The LORD will guide you always; He’ll satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and strengthen your frame. You’ll be and become like A Well-watered Garden, like A Spring Whose Waters Never Fail.
—Is 58:11
Jesus speaking: “Are you tired [in a state of unrest (orphanism, alienation, widowhood, etc.)]? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to M-me. Get away with M-me, and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with M-me, and work with M-me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of Grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting upon you. Keep company with M-me, and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly [humorously and wholeheartedly].”
—Mt 11:28-30
Jesus answered her (that is, the Samaritan woman at the well), “If you knew The Gift of God and Who it is that asks you for a drink, you would’ve asked H-him and H-he would’ve given you Living Water.”
—Jn 4:10
On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who’s thirsty come to M-me and drink. Whoever believes in M-me, as The Scriptures have said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this H-he meant The Spirit, Whom those who believed in H-him (that is, Jesus) were to later receive. Up to that time, The Spirit had not yet been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.
—Jn 7:37-39
God’s Divine Power has gifted us with everything we need to have and live rightly The God Life—The Jesus Life, The Shalom Life, The Revel Life—H-he (that is, Jesus) gave us. This life was given us through our knowledge and understanding of H-him who called us by H-his own glory, goodness, and gladness. In all this, H-he gave us H-his very great and precious promises, so that—having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil and inordinate desires [cravings, true desires taken to the wrong Place/Person/Source]—we can partake of, participate in, and enjoy fully [koinonos: companion, partaker, partner; from koinos: a sharer, i.e. “associate” -- companion, X fellowship, partaker, partner] The Trinity’s Divine Nature and Generative Personhood [phusis: nature; from phuo: growth (by germination or expansion), i.e. (by implication) natural production (lineal descent); by extension, a genus or sort; figuratively, native disposition, constitution or usage -- (man-)kind, nature(-al).], and do so presently, [always “presently;” even in the future, it will be a very present partaking of and participation in], directly, and fully.
—2Pe 1:3-4 [expanded rendering]
Theoria allows the one desiring to see God to not just experience God more fully but to be more like Him. And… as The Spirit unveils more and more of The Trinity’s Oneness, Love, and Limitless Relatability, that very same Spirit brings forth more and more of God’s love-fruit in and through the life and personhood of The Believer [The Beholder, The Worshipping One]. Conversely, theoria allows such a one, who longs to be and become More Like God, to see/behold Him—or Them [see Note below] (that is, The Three Persons of The Trinity)—more clearly and, in seeing Them, begin to incarnate, through Spirit-infusing processes, more of Their Divine Life, Personhood, and Character.
Note: The Trinity is One and is comprised of Three Distinct Persons. God, the Trinity, is, technically and mysteriously, A THEY. Throughout this compilation, I refer to God as He, Him, His, They, Them, Their, etc. This may be a difficult concept to grasp semantically. This is to emphasize that the Trinity is Three Persons in and as One and not some newfangled kind of pantheism. I hope this helps.
In both the eastern and western approaches, while the original motivation (or desire) is different, the results are the same: 1/A Divine BEHOLDING OF God; and 2/A Divine TRANSFORMING BY God.
The Scriptures read in Pr 29:18 (KJV), “Where there’s no vision, the people perish: but he [or she] that keepeth the law, happy is he.” The word translated vision in the above is the word chazown (Strong’s #2377 [Hebrew]), which means “a sight (mental), i.e. a dream, revelation, or oracle.” With respect to the revelatory aspects of vision, chazown actually has, I think, a lot more to do with experiencing a vision or revelation of God and His Ways than it does with anything else. Solomon was not just writing about some abstract, unreachable nebulae “out there somewhere.” No. He was writing about something Close, something Personal: The unveiling of A Person (One Who’s Wholly Other than us) and, quite possibly, the unveiling of a dream of what could be through Divine union with That Person. As this verse teaches (and rather harshly at that), without such a vision, aimlessness and exposure abound [see Note below].
Note: My phrase, “aimlessness and exposure abound,” is, I believe, a more faithful rendering of the phrase translated in the KJV as “the people perish.”
To experience such an encounter with God, one must, as a necessity (and as the last part of the above verse in Proverbs urges), “keep the law,” or, as I like to closely read that phrase, “hedge himself [or herself] about with the wisdom, lovingkindness, and generativeness of God Almighty.” Such God Life qualities (that is, wisdom, lovingkindness, and generativeness) can be found only in God’s Living, Organizing, and Relational Word [Logos, Rhema, and Graphe] and in its skillful assimilation into one’s normal, everyday life. To be steeped in God’s Word is to be so utterly stained by it (and by The Generator and Expressor of it!) that every aspect of one’s life is progressively enveloped in and by the very Thoughts, Feelings, and Perspectives of God. When one begins to think, feel, see, and hear the way God does, he’ll want what God wants. This is the direct (and beneficent) effect of Divine union with God. And, organically, it’s what creates ever deepening experiences of intimate beholding of (and intentional engagement with) Him, and life-changing transformation in and by Him.
Theoria allows us to (in and through Christ) be and become More of Whom We Are Already. In a way, it allows us to be and become More Human, More Selfless, Less Like the Old [dead/undead] Self (that is, that which USED to be us but is so no longer—PRAISE GOD!!), and More Like the True Self: An Awakened/Resurrected/Recreated Image-bearer of The Lord God Almighty. John the Baptist captured it beautifully when he said, “H-he (that is, Jesus [in me]) must increase; I must decrease” [see Jn 3:30]. Paul expressed similar thoughts in Ga 2:20, Ph 1:21, and Co 3:4, which read as follows:
The fallen nature was crucified with Y-you, Jesus. It was annihilated forever and for all times, spaces, and places. Accordingly, it’s no longer I (the fallen I, because he [or she] was nailed to the cross and died with Y-you) who lives but Y-you who lives and expresses Y-yourself for, in, with, through, and (mysteriously unveiled) AS me… AS me!!
—Ga 2:20 [expanded, personalized rendering]
To live (is) Christ, and to die (is) gain.
—Ph 1:21a
When Christ, Who’s Your Life, is revealed to the whole world, you’ll share in [partake of, participate in] all H-his glory.
—Co 3:4
Throughout the history of Christendom, those who pursued theoria (that is, those who desired to see God and to share in [to participate in and to partake of] His Divine Nature), were called Contemplatives. To be A Contemplative was to be one who (though quite active in work, family life, creation, recreation, and relational ministry)…
1/Rested heartfully and mindfully in God.
2/Waited actively in hope for God to reveal more and more of His Unlimited Life, Personhood, and Character to them.
3/Put on (that is, participated in and partook of) The Heart-mind of Christ.
And…
4/Exhibited, through progressive, Divine intimacy with God, the never-ending, ever-increasing love-fruit of Christlikeness.
For such as these, the oils (that is, the fuels) of prayer were the chief means by which The Contemplatives (that is, The Worshipping Ones) could experience—BEATIFICALLY—a never-ending, ever-increasing vision and experience of God. Prayer provided a way for one to offer himself [or herself] to God and to create an atmosphere wherein God was invited to give away (to the one seeking Him) that which He most wanted to give: Himself. Like the practices of those seventeen hundred years ago, our practices today are not so much about our pursuing God but, rather, about our welcoming Him (heartfully and mindfully) into every nook and cranny of our lives. Rather than just finding God, we discover ourselves progressively more FOUND BY and REFOUNDED IN Him.
In all His dealings with humankind, God is The Perfect Gentleman. While He longs to openly give Himself away to each one of us, He does so only upon our invitation. With each unveiling of Himself, God waits for additional consent from us before revealing more. Contemplation (or the enrapturing enjoyment of God and His God Life) is not something that can be created through direct, concentrated effort. It’s rather an experience of God brought on by non-striving, where all that’s required from us is that we open ourselves up to God and receive (get caught up by) Him on His terms, and as He intends. God’s giving Himself away to us is always initiated by Him [see Re 3:20a], but He waits for us to invite Him to do so [see Re 3:20b]. Each of us finds God (that is, we welcome Him in), because He first found us (that is, He first came knocking at the door to our heart-mind [The Eden of Our Soul]). In contemplation (that is, theoria), we discover our true founding in and connectedness to God; more than that, we discover that, even though we once felt far from God, He was there with us all along [see Mt 28:20; Jn 14:16-17; 1Co 6:19; and (again) Re 3:20]. It’s like being stuck in a pitch-black room, only to have someone light a small candle enabling us to see a little of what’s been there the whole time. This is what The Ancients and Contemplatives of Old were desiring to see and experience. My prayer is that you, too, will be inflamed with similar desires.
Grace, peace, and mercy to you, friends; and Godspeed in your own “journeys in theoria and heart-mind renewal”…
Dave
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