What is Style?

Style can be defined as a specific “kind” especially “with reference to form, appearance, or character.” For example, you can have different kinds of cars, but in the end, the cars have the same underlying reality even though their forms and appearances differ.

One can define a car’s style by pointing to the different types of forms or appearances cars may take. For example, 1970s muscle cars have a certain distinctive style, but their essence is the same as today’s modern cars. The difference is in style. There are many different styles of car, for example, sports cars have spoilers on the back of the car, yet they are still cars. Some cars have built in navigation and some don’t, yet they are still cars. The difference is one in style.

What is Ethos?

Ethos is “the character or disposition of a community, group, or person.”

If we have a tank (another vehicle that moves using an engine), then that has a different character than a car. It has a different purpose. Even though there may be similarities, it is no longer one of style, but one of character and purpose.

You may remember hearing the word “ethos” in high school or in college in public speaking or argumentative writing in the appeal to ethos, which is the third type of appeal in persuasion. The whole idea of the appeal to ethos can be summed up in making an argument based on an authority which the group recognizes, due to that authority’s character and disposition which represents their group’s ethos whatever that may be, and which ends up resulting in the listeners being persuaded.

Style and Ethos of the Orthodox Christian Church

Recently, there has arisen a debate over what is appropriate in an Orthodox Church and what is not, and it often ends up in a discussion about style. Yet in these conversations ethos is confused for style.

One can define a difference in style (for example in preaching and writing) by pointing to the different rhetorical and poetic devices one uses. These devices can even be named because they have been studied for millennia in the West. Rhetorical and poetic devices are universal things; different cultures and languages use the same stylistic devices. Some of these universal devices include analogies, synecdoche, allusions, metaphors, and imagery.

We see these differences in style in the Church Fathers. But with respect to the ethos, it is usually the same. When there is a difference in ethos in the Church Fathers, it can be sensed easily.

Icon of the Church Fathers, 11th Century

St. Sophia Cathedral, Kiev

Examples of Style in the Church Fathers

St. Athanasius

To begin giving examples of style, St. Athanasius is a fitting example from the Church Fathers. St. Athanasius uses analogies heavily in his writings. Analogies are not simple artistic comparisons, but they compare the relationships between groups objects in order to clarify understanding of more difficult knowledge such as spiritual knowledge.

For example, in Contra Gentes (part I to On the Incarnation), St. Athanasius uses 8 analogies to describe the nature and relationship of the Logos to the Universe. In On the Incarnation, he uses more than 14 analogies to explain how Christ saved us through His becoming human, dying on the cross, and rising from the dead.

Therefore, usage of analogy is a defining stylistic mark of St. Athanasius.

The Cappadocian Fathers

Another group of Fathers that has distinct stylistic features are the Cappadocian Fathers: St. Basil of Caesarea, St. Gregory the Theologian, and St. Gregory of Nyssa. They often analyze the language of the Scriptures, the tradition, and the Fathers in their writings to help them get to a clearer understanding of the nature of God, His work, and the nature of spiritual things. While there were precedents of this in the writings of earlier Church Fathers, for the Cappadocians it is characteristic.

In On the Holy Spirit, St. Basil spends a good chunk at the beginning of the book analyzing how different words signify many different types of relationship such as the words “of,” “from,” “through,” “and” and “with,” to come to an understanding of how the divinity of the Holy Spirit has been indicated in the Scriptures, the liturgy, and the writings of the early Church.

In his Homilies on the Hexaemeron and his Homilies on the Psalms, St. Basil examines different figurative structures to arrive at a deeper understanding of Scripture. For example, in his first homily on the creation, when it says in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” he points out that this is a synecdoche, meaning that every little thing in the universe’s creation is signified by reference to the whole of “heaven” and “earth.” In his homily on Psalm 1, when it says, “Blessed is the man…” he also understands this to be another type of synecdoche where both men and women are signified by mention of the blessed man so that the Psalm applies equally to men and women.

In On the Soul and the Resurrection, St. Macrina and St. Gregory of Nyssa pause to consider how the Bible communicates realities that are immaterial by using material metaphors. An example of this occurs in their analysis of the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man.

St. John Chrysostom

When it comes to discussions of style in the Church Fathers, St. John Chrysostom is the greatest among the Greek speaking Fathers. He used many rhetorical and poetic devices in his sermons, but his frequent allusions to Greek culture and philosophy to highlight something in the Christian life are often a distinguishing characteristic of St. John Chrysostom especially in his writings directed at educated people.

For example, in On the Priesthood he alludes to the Siren’s Rock which appeared in Greek mythology to explain how vainglory in priests is extremely dangerous (On the Priesthood III.9, 77). The Siren’s Rock was the island of the Sirens who sung an enchanted song that lured sailors to their island and the Sirens then killed the sailors.

Due to the high literary quality of his writing by using these devices to communicate the Christian spiritual life to his listeners and readers, he was given the title Chrysostom meaning “golden mouth.”

If you want to be skilled at speaking and writing beautifully and clearly, then it is good to read the writings of St. John Chrysostom. I have personally benefited by imitating his style when I teach; it has caused my students to think clearly and to enjoy the experience of learning.

St. Augustine

Another Church Father whose writing style is of the highest quality is St. Augustine. He is the greatest of all the Latin speaking Fathers when it comes to style. A stylistic feature that distinguishes St. Augustine is his vibrant use of metaphors. Other Church Fathers used metaphors, but not like St. Augustine. This adds to the aesthetic value of his work. It also hooks and enlarges the imaginations of his readers.

In his book Against the Academics (published in English as Answer to Sceptics), which was written to refute the idea that we can never have any certain knowledge, he speaks in metaphors to his reader, Romanianus saying, “We pray that He permit your mind—which has long been gasping for breath—to emerge, at length, into the pure air of true liberty” (Against the Academics, 104)

Then when he is observing his students debating the nature of truth and whether we can have certainty about anything, he gives a great metaphor on thinking: “While I wish to invite both of you back to the arena of those intellectual exercises that impart refinement to the mind, I fear lest it become a labyrinth for both of you.” (Against the Academics III.7, 175)

He engages the imagination of the readers by appealing to beauty throughout to communicate his ideas. Instead of communicating the basic ideas of not understanding and having difficulty with intellectual topics, he describes these things in the language of drowning and walking through a maze.

St. Ephrem the Syrian

St. Ephrem the Syrian used poetry to express theology, and he primarily used metaphor and imagery (as will be seen later on in this article) to communicate the dogmatic and theological truth of the Christian faith.

But here we see something interesting. St. Ephrem’s structure of poetry is borrowed from the Syrian heretic father-son duo Bardaisan and Harmonius.

So now a question arises, why did St. Ephrem borrow the style of a heretic? The answer to that question is easy: it is because it was a borrowing of structural style to serve the Orthodox Christian tradition. He created original orthodox Christian content in that style and also combatted the heresies originally communicated through those stylistic structures. By so doing he made the dogmas of the early Church so clear in the minds of his listeners and readers that they became ingrained (Dr. Sebastian Brock, Introduction to Hymns on Paradise, pgs. 36-38)

The Orthodox Christian Ethos

Like I said above, there has arisen a debate over what is appropriate in an Orthodox Church and the discussion usually ends up being about style. Yet the reality is style and ethos are confused for one another.

As you can see from above, the styles that distinguished the different Church Fathers were structural being rhetorical and poetic devices, but their ethos is generally the same.

To get a feel for what their ethos is like, if we examine the works of the Church Fathers on sin, salvation, and prayer we find that they are in broad agreement. And when one is not in agreement, that person sticks out.

To begin with an examination of ethos, we can look at the doctrine of sin. In the Early Church sin was understood as a disease and disorder. This idea is present in all the early writings of the Church whether they wrote in Greek, Latin, or Syriac. As a result, salvation was viewed as healing. Further, this healing comes about because Christ has destroyed the power of Satan and death.

To illustrate this from a Greek speaking Father, St. Athanasius explains sin as a disease and disorder. He gives several analogies to make this clear in his books Contra Gentes and On the Incarnation, which are the classic works on the work of Christ and sin and salvation.

The most piercing analogy that he gives is the one where there is a stained portrait (which symbolizes humanity) and the original subject of the painting (who symbolizes Christ) comes back to sit down once again to be repainted on the same panel (to correct the corruption of humanity).

Another analogy he gives is that of the sun rising with its rays illuminating and purifying what it touches.

As an example of the same ethos from a Syriac speaking Father, St. Ephrem expresses the same idea in poetic form such as in this passage describing Paradise as the place where God is,

“More numerous and glorious
—-than the stars
in the sky that we behold
—-are the blossoms of that land,
and the fragrance which exhales from it
—-through divine Grace
is like a physician
—-sent to heal the ills
of a land that is under a curse;
—-by its healing breath it cures
the sickness that entered in
—-through the serpent” (Hymns on Paradise X.9, 157).

As an example of the same ethos from a Latin speaking Father, St. Augustine called sin “inordinate desire” meaning things are out of order. In one neat passage from his book On Christian Instruction (more widely known by its Latin title De Doctrina Christiana) he explains what sin is and what salvation is, in line with the other Church Fathers:

“Likewise, the Wisdom of God, in healing humanity, has employed Himself to cure it, since He is both the physician and the medicine. Therefore, because man fell through pride He has applied humility to cure him. We were deceived by the wisdom of the serpent, but we are freed by the foolishness of God. Furthermore, just as that which was called wisdom was really foolishness in the case of those who despised God, so that which is called foolishness is wisdom for those who vanquish the devil. We abused our immortality, and, as a result, died; Christ used His mortality well, and so we live. The disorder began in the corrupted soul of a woman; salvation came from the untainted body of a woman. There is another example of the use of opposites in the fact that our vices are cured by the example of His virtues. But, it was as if He were applying like bandages to our limbs and wounds when, as a man born of a woman, He saved men deceived by a woman; as a mortal He rescued mortals; by His death He freed the dead” (De Doctrina Christiana I.12, 37).

But more than any of this is that the Fathers both teach and model how prayer ultimately is a lifting up of the heart to be in and with God. This is why so many of their writings are so reflective because in many cases, their writings are prayers. St. Ephrem’s Hymns on Paradise along with his other collections of hymns are really prayers, not only poetry. St. Basil’s Homilies on the Psalms are really reflective prayers, not only sermons on prayers because he sees Christ everywhere and this is a modeling of how to lift up our hearts to be in and with Christ. St. Augustine’s Confessions is ultimately a prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God by reflecting on God’s work in his own life; it is not only an autobiography. What the Fathers model is how to integrate our entire selves: knowledge, memories, emotions, the Bible, and dogma in lifting up our hearts to God. It is a sort of ascension to God.

But in St. Augustine, we can sense that while many of the things he says are in line with the other Church Fathers, he begins to say things that are off. For example, he clearly sees sin as a sort of disorder as evidenced from the passage above, but he also begins to describe sin and salvation in legal terms. This is not quite how the earliest Fathers saw sin and salvation as seen above. So, we can easily sense when something is off.

As you can see from the examples of dogma and prayer, Orthodox Christianity has a distinct character. Salvation is understood as a healing and not as a release from a criminal sentence. Prayer is understood to be a lifting of the heart to be in God and not just petitions. Therefore, many different types of activities can become prayer even such as reflecting or writing a book. These things are not a matter of style, but they are the ethos of Orthodox Christianity. The many different styles seen above communicate the same ethos.

But some are content to gravitate toward modern Christian dogmas, forms of prayer, and ways of living. Then, when they are faced with how this can be, they ask “What in this is against Orthodoxy?” But we do not get Orthodoxy by negation. Orthodox Christianity has defining characteristics as seen above. They think it is only a difference of style, when it really is a difference in ethos.

We should not confuse ethos for style any more than we should confuse tanks for cars.

It could be the case that they do not really know what the Orthodox Christian ethos is, and superficially, they think both modern Christianity and Orthodox Christianity are the same thing. They most definitely are not.

The Orthodox Christian Ethos is For All Christians

What is interesting in all this is that many educated Protestants and even entire congregations have discovered the depth and maturity of the spirituality and wisdom of the early Church. They have adjusted themselves to reflect on these things and to inform their spiritual practices from the Fathers.

There is a name for this; it is called the Paleo-orthodox movement.

The Ancient Commentary on Scripture series is published by the foremost proponents of Paleo-orthodoxy. It is edited by Christopher Hall.

Further, there have been four books written by Christopher Hall titled Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers (1998), Learning Theology with the Church Fathers (2002), Worshiping with the Church Fathers (2009), and Living Wisely with the Church Fathers (2017). The goal of these books is to clearly introduce the ethos of the early Church for the spiritual benefit of modern Christians.

There is a sad irony in all this which is that many Orthodox Christians have not recognized the value of what they have and have moved toward the lower forms of Protestantism, and the educated Protestants have naturally moved toward what the Orthodox Christians already have.

It requires initiation and spiritual education to access it.

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