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Penitence: Engaging the Christian Life

9/30/2006

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September 30, 2006

by Dr. Roberta Ervine
Associate Professor of Armenian Studies

What follows is a presentation delivered by Prof. Roberta Ervine to the St. Nersess seminarians and faculty at their Orientation Retreat held on September 1-3, 2006 at the Ararat Center in Greenville, NY.

For us, the words penance or penitence have come to carry certain emotional weights: we associate those words with feelings of sadness, regret, or remorse. Too, the words penance/penitence are most often linked in our minds with punitive vocabulary like penalty or penitentiary. Penance has become a backward looking word: we look back on what we have done and feel sorry for it or anticipate that we will pay a penalty for it in some way. In short, penitence strikes our ears as an oppressive word. 

But the way we use the word penitence nowadays has very little to do with its original meanings. In fact, its ancient meanings and its present connotations are almost diametrically opposed. We could spend quite a long time investigating the various biblical words which English translates as penitence. The word for it in Greek is the one students of the Bible come to know best: metanoia.

Crescendo of Understanding
I would like to give you an illustration of metanoia's oldest meaning, and focus our thinking this evening on that meaning and its ramifications for our understanding of penitence, especially in the context of this new academic year, when we will be living and learning together as a seminary community. 

In its earliest application, metanoia was a type of verbal expression. It was a rhetorical technique employed to create statements like this:

My actions, as it turned out, were for the best. Unbeknownst to me, circumstances were already working in my favor. It is not too much to say that I was divinely inspired. 

Or like this: 

She is pleasant to look upon. Beautiful, indeed. Nay, radiant as the sun.

Metanoia, then, is a way of expressing deepening realization. It draws the listener forward into the nuances of an idea, or builds to a crescendo of understanding. She is pleasant to look upon, yes. But when you look more closely, pay closer attention to her features, you gradually come to see that she is in fact radiant as the sun. From the initial realization that my actions were for the best, I come to understand that there was more to the situation than I realized; in fact, I was divinely inspired. 

The component parts of the word metanoia are meta (=after) and noeo (=perceiving). To have afterthoughts or refinements to one's thought. To change one's thinking on the basis of what one gradually comes to perceive, and perhaps also to alter one's direction on the basis of that perception. 

A Word in Armenian
When Armenians came to express the ideas inherent in metanoia, they chose a pair of words to convey both the verbal and the behavioral aspects of repentance and penitence: apashkharut'yunand apashavut'yun. Normally, ashkharel is used for mourning, lamentation and similar things. However, according to the great linguist Hrachya Acharian, apashkharut'yun harks back to an ancient root meaning "speech." So the word apashkharut'yun would mean to move away from something said, to alter one's expressed ideas. By the same token, apashavut'yun is related to the word shavigh, or path--to alter one's direction. 

Broadening Vision
Metanoia"penitence"does not oppress us; it broadens our vision. It does not make us look backward, but presses forward. It inspires us not with regret, but with growing wonder at the true reality of what is before our very eyes, part of what we originally thought of as an average experience.

An impenitent person, then, is one who is not open to change, who feels that his or her ideas need no further refinement. The impenitent know that they are right, that they have seen what they need to see. At the beginning of Luke's Gospel, John the Baptist called people away from that conviction of their own rightness, from being stuck in their own ideas: "Repent (metanoiete)", he said, "for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." 


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He was not addressing an audience of gross sinners. Far from it; he was speaking to people many of whom were avidly awaiting God's kingdom, but who viewed it as something distant. Open your eyes, John said to them; observe what is already near you, and alter your convictions and your behavior accordingly. 

Getting a Fresh Angle on Things
Living your days with penitence, viewing them with metanoia, means having afterthoughts and second thoughts, stepping back and getting a fresh angle on things, thinking and thinking again, looking and looking again, and being changed in the process.

Change. In living with metanoia, we welcome change, and the possibility it implies, as two of our most helpful companions. Cardinal John Henry Newman is credited with a beautiful summing up of metanoia in the statement, "To grow is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often." 

In our seminary experience, each new day lived in penitence deepens what we have already experienced or done or learned, and unfolds it so that we can better view its true extent.Metanoia opens us to new aspects of ourselves and of the external world, and leads us to live in the light of that new vision. It is a continual movement forward, upward, into increased awareness of the eternity that is behind the outer shell of our activities. Deep within every life, our own or another's, no matter how bland or difficult or puzzling it may seem to a casual observer, there is something eternal happening.

May this be a penitential year for us all. May we act for the best, and discover that we have been divinely inspired; may we look at our pleasant neighbors until we see that they are truly radiant as the sun. At the end of such a year, we will see ourselves, and each other, differently. We will have become more perfect.


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The Dawn of Armenian Philosophy: Terian Inaugurates Fall Lecture Series

9/27/2006

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September 27, 2006

This autumn St. Nersess Seminary is offering a series of four lectures by renowned specialists on Philosophy in Armenia.The series was launched on Monday night by Prof. Abraham Terian, who captivated the audience of seminarians, clergy, faculty and friends with a lecture entitled, The Dawn of Armenian Philosophy.

"We must never take for granted the daily presence among us of a true intellectual giant," said the dean, Fr. Daniel Findikyan, when he introduced the evening's speaker. "Dr. Terian has a bewildering breadth of expertise, and we are all blessed to have him as our teacher," he said.

Invincible yet Enigmatic
Terian opened his talk with a few comments about the best-known Armenian philosopher, the mysterious figure known as David the Invincible (Anhaght), who probably wrote during the last decades of the 6th century.

"There remains a big question mark over the figure of David the Invincible," Terian said, as he listed several enigmatic features of this author's writings. "I will leave these questions to the subsequent speakers in our series, all of whom will touch on David in one way or another," he said.


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Scholars normally begin the history of Armenian philosophy with David the Invincible. "The dawn of Armenian philosophy is even earlier, with Armenia's Illuminator, St. Gregory," stated Terian. The professor devoted the remainder of his talk to a collection of 23 discourses attributed to St. Gregory known as the Hajakhabadoom Jark, literally translated, "Oft-repeated Discourses." Many of these discourses contain strong philosophical content.

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St. Gregory the Philosopher?
In its present form, theHajakhabadoom contains material borrowed from authors who lived as much as a century after St. Gregory. Terian explained that the collection may well contain seminal material that was passed down from the Illuminator to his successors. The last of St. Gregory's descendants to become catholicos was St. Sahag Bartev, who was the patron of the fifth-century holy translators. "The Hajakhabadoom clearly passed through the hands of the translators," Terian asserted.

The Hajakhabadoom is a collection of moral discourses. They share many features with pre-Christian Greek moral treatises.

The Virtuous Pagan
"Sometimes we have the impression that pagans were immoral and depraved," Terian observed, explaining that the earliest Christian authors took a very polemical stance toward paganism and Greek philosophy. "This is understandable since the earliest Christians had an axe to grind," Terian explained, adding, "There was actually an overwhelming sense of morality in these pagan Greek philosophers. Not everything pagan was immoral."

The author or authors of the Hajakhabadoom discourses were very familiar with Greek moral philosophy. "In fact," Terian said, "To understand these discourses one must not only be fluent in Classical Armenian, but must also have a good knowledge of Greek philosophy."

Terian next distributed a page containing the titles of the 23 Hajakhabadoom discourses translated into English. Skimming through titles such as "The Reason for Faith," "On the Constitution of Created Beings," and "Exposition on the Human Soul," the professor pointed out how such themes were standard questions taken up by the Greek Stoic philosophers. At the same time, he underlined specific ways in which these topics were resolved differently by the Armenian Christian philosopher-theologians responsible for the Hajakhabadoom as we have it.

Beyond Happiness
"The Pagan's highest aspiration is happiness, which he attains by cultivating the four Platonic virtues: wisdom, justice, courage and temperance. The Christian, by contrast, aspires to salvation, which is obtained by faith in the Savior, Jesus Christ," Terian explained.

"An unbroken chain connects Greek philosophy with Christianity, and in Armenia we find this chain in the Hajakhabadoom," Terian concluded.

St. Nersess Global Classroom

To hear Dr. Terian's lecture click here [79 min, 36MB].

The next lecture in the series will take place at the Seminary on Monday, October 16 at 7:30PM. Professor Seta Dadoyan will speak on "Good and Evil and Beyond: Eznik and Armenian Intellectual Culture." 

All lectures are free of charge and open to the public. 

For further information contact the Seminary at info@stnersess.edu or by telephone: (914) 636-2003.


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A New School Year Begins at St. Nersess

9/25/2006

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September 25, 2006

The 2006-2007 academic year at St. Nersess Armenian Seminary began on Labor Day weekend with an orientation retreat at the Ararat Center in Greenville, New York. Joining the returning students were two new seminarians, Justin Ajamian and Gregory Andonian.

Justin Ajamian, of Waldwick, New Jersey, has been studying Classical and Modern Armenian at St. Nersess for the past several years while he was doing his undergraduate studies at Ramapo College in New Jersey. There he majored in history. Justin comes from a family that includes two St. Nersess alumni and a current student: his paternal uncle Vartan Ajamian was graduated in 1988, and his paternal aunt, Shake Derderian, was graduates in 1989. Meanwhile, his cousin, Maria Derderian is a current seminarian. Justin and his two brothers, Paul and Andrew, are all alumni of the St. Nersess summer youth conferences. Justin, who spent a semester at Yerevan State University, has first felt the call to serve the Armenian Church as a priest when he was 14 years old.


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Gregory Andonian's first year at St. Nersess comes on the heels of a one-year accounting internship at Ernst and Young. Greg has an MBA in accounting but over the last few years, he realized that God was calling him to account not for dollars but for souls.

It would not be an overstatement to say that Greg was responsible for revitalizing the youth of his home parish, St. Gregory of Narek (Cleveland, OH). He has served on the ACYOA Central Council for three years, and currently serves as its Chair.


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Full Slate of Course Offerings
Once again, this Fall St. Nersess offers more courses in Armenian Studies than any educational institution in the western hemisphere.

Back from his semester as a Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at Hebrew University is Professor Abraham Terian, Professor of Armenian Patristics and Academic Dean. 


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Also returning this semester is Prof. Edward G. Mathews, Jr., Recurring Visiting Professor of Eastern Christian Languages and Literature. Dr. Mathews is teaching courses Syriac, which are attracting many non-Armenian students. St. Nersess is the only institution in the metropolitan New York area to offer graduate courses in Syriac, the language Jesus spoke; and the language of a grand Christian culture neighboring Armenia.

Mathews is also teaching Classics of Armenian Spirituality. The course examines how the Armenian Church understands the most basic issues of Christian life, based on readings from the great saints and teachers of our church.


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Fr. Daniel Findikyan is teaching his Introduction to Armenian Liturgy. The two-part course begins by exploring what liturgy is, where it comes from, its place and significance in the life of the Armenian Church and its connection to theology. The second half of the course presents a broad survey of the Armenian liturgical tradition: its historical evolution, distinctive features, the Divine Liturgy, sacraments, liturgical cycles, liturgical books and the liturgical year.

Assisted by Fr. Sahak Kaishian, Fr. Findikyan is also teaching Liturgical Praxis courses on the Sacraments, Holy Week and Occasional Services of the Liturgical Year. These "how-to" courses teach the students the order, rituals, music, and propriety of the services.

Complementing each of the latter three practical courses, Maestro Khoren Meikhanedjian, former instructor at the Seminary of Holy Etchmiadzin, Armenia, teaches the sacred music of each service.

Professor Roberta Ervine is offering the first in her four-course cycle on the History of the Armenian Church, as well as courses and tutorials in Modern and Classical Armenian, assisted by Fr. Sahak Kaishian.


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Off-Campus Study
As if that were not all, our students are also full-time students at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, where they are enrolled in courses of theology, sacred Scripture, church history, patristics and others. 

Our two women seminarians, Maria Derderian and Megan Jendian, are also taking a course in religious education at nearby Fordham University. Entitled, Community, Family and Religious Education,the course discusses the relationship of religion, family, and education as it explores the responsibility of church and society in fostering religious development in families.

Maria and Megan are preparing to serve the Eastern Diocese in youth and education ministries. 


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Preparing leaders for service in the
Armenian Church since 1961
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