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Apophatic Anthropology

An English Translation


By André Scrima; Translated by Octavian Gabor
An English translation of André Scrima's 1952 work on Apophatic Anthropology. Pascalian in essence, the approach departs from the Augustinian roots of Western Christian theology and develops a Christian anthropology based on Eastern Orthodoxy. The endeavor of a human being to understand oneself does not lead, as in the case of Pascal, to identification with Jesus Christ’s suffering, but further, to an attempt of deification, theosis, in which the main concept is Incarnation. This attempt opens to man the possibility to conceive himself as interior to God. Man becomes therefore the physical and metaphysical bridge between creation and the uncreated, the only creature that bears the image of God.
Publisher: Gorgias Press LLC
Availability: In stock
SKU (ISBN): 978-1-4632-0565-2
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Publication Status: In Print
Publication Date: Jun 29,2016
Interior Color: Black
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Page Count: 259
Languages: English
ISBN: 978-1-4632-0565-2
$147.00
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The project of an Apophatic Anthropology (1952) was one of the most significant philosophical concerns of André Scrima. Pascalian in essence, the approach departs from the Augustinian roots of Western Christian theology and develops a Christian anthropology based on Eastern Orthodoxy. The endeavor of a human being to understand oneself does not lead, as in the case of Pascal, to identification with Jesus Christ’s suffering, but further, to an attempt of deification, theosis, in which the main concept is Incarnation. This attempt opens to man the possibility to conceive himself as interior to God. Man becomes therefore the physical and metaphysical bridge between creation and the uncreated, the only creature that bears the image of God. His mysterious inner being thus forms his unity that is transcendent to nature. Scrima’s perspective is nourished by the great sources of Eastern spirituality, from Gregory of Nyssa to Maximus the Confessor. Here, philosophy becomes a chapter of Christology. Scrima believed that, by conceiving the person of the Savior, all problems of human nature and human thought have already been asked. In having both divine and human nature, Christ is the paradigm for any human person. The two natures of Christ which, according to the Council of Chalcedon, are unmixed, unchanged, undivided, and inseparable, represent also the encounter between uncreated grace and human nature in the depths of a deified being.

An apophatic anthropology is deeply connected with the trials of the modern world. Scrima considers ontological theocentrism to be the only philosophical attitude that is capable to render the dynamic and fertile element of mystery to a human being. This perspective restores a man in the anagogical tension of profound knowledge and brings him back home. Scrima believes also that ignoring this mystery leads to the tragedy of “losing” the image of God in us, which ends in the separation of the paradoxical unity that is essential to any creature.

The project of an Apophatic Anthropology (1952) was one of the most significant philosophical concerns of André Scrima. Pascalian in essence, the approach departs from the Augustinian roots of Western Christian theology and develops a Christian anthropology based on Eastern Orthodoxy. The endeavor of a human being to understand oneself does not lead, as in the case of Pascal, to identification with Jesus Christ’s suffering, but further, to an attempt of deification, theosis, in which the main concept is Incarnation. This attempt opens to man the possibility to conceive himself as interior to God. Man becomes therefore the physical and metaphysical bridge between creation and the uncreated, the only creature that bears the image of God. His mysterious inner being thus forms his unity that is transcendent to nature. Scrima’s perspective is nourished by the great sources of Eastern spirituality, from Gregory of Nyssa to Maximus the Confessor. Here, philosophy becomes a chapter of Christology. Scrima believed that, by conceiving the person of the Savior, all problems of human nature and human thought have already been asked. In having both divine and human nature, Christ is the paradigm for any human person. The two natures of Christ which, according to the Council of Chalcedon, are unmixed, unchanged, undivided, and inseparable, represent also the encounter between uncreated grace and human nature in the depths of a deified being.

An apophatic anthropology is deeply connected with the trials of the modern world. Scrima considers ontological theocentrism to be the only philosophical attitude that is capable to render the dynamic and fertile element of mystery to a human being. This perspective restores a man in the anagogical tension of profound knowledge and brings him back home. Scrima believes also that ignoring this mystery leads to the tragedy of “losing” the image of God in us, which ends in the separation of the paradoxical unity that is essential to any creature.

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  • Table of Contents (page 5)
  • Preface (page 7)
  • Translator's Note (page 13)
  • The Apophatic Anthropology (page 15)
    • The Plan of the Project (page 15)
    • I. The Philosophical and Theological Significance of Anthropology (page 17)
      • 1. Immanent Revelations (page 17)
      • 2. Man's Image in the Conscience of Humanity (page 30)
      • 3. Theology and Anthropology (page 55)
    • II. Theological and Anthropological Apophaticism (page 64)
      • 1. The Significance of Apophatic Theology (page 64)
      • 2. Superessential Apophaticism (page 78)
      • 3. The Foundations of Anthropological Apophaticism (page 108)
      • 4. The Elements of a Synthesis (page 158)
    • III. Homo Absconditus (page 170)
      • 1. The Dimensions of Being (page 170)
      • 2. The Hypostatic Image (page 175)
  • Attempt to an Introduction to an Apophatic Orthodox Anthropology (page 177)
    • Note (page 177)
    • Forward (page 178)
    • I. Man Searching for Himself (page 183)
  • Texts from the Antim Monastery (page 191)
    • I. Prolegomena to an Ontology of the Monastic Stage (page 192)
    • II. Argument for a Meditation on the Vow of Virginity (page 218)
    • III. The Spiritual Father and His Disciple (page 224)
      • 1. The General Framework of the Problem (page 224)
      • 2. The Meaning and the Unfolding of the Spiritual Father-Disciple Relationship (page 224)
      • 3. What is a Spiritual Father to a Disciple? (page 225)
    • IV. Thoughts Before an Icon (page 229)
    • V. The Apocalypse of Job (page 237)
  • Translator's Notes (page 251)
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