Your Gospel is to Small…Bradley Nassif

Paul writes – Bradley Nassif, an Eastern Orthodox theologian has recently written an interesting essay, The Poverty of Love. In it he responds to the question, “is our gospel to small?” His conversation partner is “desert spirituality” – the desert “Father’s & Mother’s”

“…If these desert dwellers were alive today, I believe they would tell us that our gospel is too small because our wills are too big. The core battleground, they argued, is the human heart. They would counsel us to declare war on the inner adversaries that hide secretly in our hearts, and to be watchful of their stealth attacks. We're wisest, they taught, when we concentrate our energies on the source of all our problems, the inner person; its selfish orientation, dark impulses, sexual preoccupations, greed, lust, anger, unforgiveness, hatred, and other "works of the flesh" (Gal. 5:19&21). Every believer still has a powerful attraction to sin. So the monks took decisive action in their reliance on God, engaging in the hard work of holiness, something they called ascesis or spiritual training…”

Again I’m struck by the importance of the inward dimension of the Christian life. Those of you who listened to the recent interview with Abbot Christopher Jamison will recall the stress he placed on that dimension and its ongoing importance for the outward / missional dimension of the Jesus following life. I’d want to describe this heart-work in terms of the counter-cultural work of the desert in the heart. It is the important but much neglected work of orthopathy (typically neglected in favour of “orthodoxy” and more recently “orthopraxy”. I first heard the term used by Brian McLaren. Alan Hirsch writes about it here. Henri Nouwen was describing it in his little book, The Way of the Heart). Parker Palmer might want to describe it as “the inward journey of the cross”. Thomas Merton might want to describe the journey and the work of the heart in terms of “the recovery of the True Self”. Others might want to talk about it in terms of an integral part of our becoming more fully human, more fully alive!

Additionally I’ve been listening to some great 10-14min podcasts by Nassif. They include an introductory series on “Desert Spirituality for Ordinary Folk” – a series on desert monasticism. He also has some other excellent podcasts including a two-part interview with Scot McKnight on the Atonement. You can find all of his podcast’s here – scroll through them and have a listen to those that interest you. They’re also downloadable as Mp3’s.