By Theodore Riginiotis, theologian
Source: Άνθρωπος, "Μετάνθρωπος" & Θεάνθρωπος (& here)
Translation Κ.Ν.
The human desire to surpass one's natural capabilities has been an element of the human psyche, as well as the culture of all peoples, since ancient times. It has driven people to more significant achievements, which have helped individuals, families, communities, entire peoples - even humanity as a whole - to survive under adverse conditions, to win seemingly invincible battles, to sacrifice themselves for the other, to travel, to explore, to also make groundbreaking discoveries and inventions that have improved their lives.
This desire had fueled the myths of superhuman heroes, but it also shaped the actual, historical heroes of all times, from the brave warriors or martyrs, who became symbols of the indomitable spirit by sacrificing their lives, through to the ordinary people, who had held on to their ideals and supported their families under conditions of indescribable poverty, danger, uprooting or oppression. History did not record these by name, but they nevertheless constitute History.
But we can also see the opposite aspect: the arrogance, the insatiable desire for wealth or power that lead to blind violence and bloodshed, the Nietzschean “thirst for power”, the Freudian “death drive” – an aspect that all the wise teachers of all peoples have rejected as an aspect of transcendence of human potentials. In the Greek spiritual tradition, there is mention of “hubris” and “sin”. Whatever their name, these trends lead to destruction and to self-destruction.
In the ancient Greek traditions we encounter stories about "hubrists", who committed heinous crimes by upsetting the natural order of things (such as the murder of parents or children, incest, the murder of guests offerred hospitality, or the attempt to deceive the gods) - such as the cases of Tantalus, Sisyphus, and even Oedipus or Orestes (of these, Oedipus’ act was unintentional and Orestes’ was simply revenge, whereas Tantalus and Sisyphus were actually evil personalities).
However, even in the Orthodox Christian tradition we can read about the first-fashioned humans, who had attempted to "become like gods" by eating of the forbidden "fruit of knowledge of good and evil" (Genesis 3:5); also about the people immediately before the Deluge, whose "evils had multiplied upon the earth" and where "everyone persistently thought about evil things in their hearts all the time” (Gen. 6:5). Also mentioned are the people of Babel, who had decided to build a tower that would reach the heavens – an accomplishment that they believed would secure their eternal fame (Gen. 11:4). Then there were the Sodomites, who not only committed unrestrained immorality among themselves, but the entire male population of the city had sought to en masse attack the divine visitors to their city, declaring their lust to rape them (Gen. 19:3-5). We also read of the fall of King David, who had betrayed the trust of Uriah the Hittite by orchestrating his death in battle in order to possess his wife for himself (2 Kings 11 and 12), etc.
People in modern times - even today, in the so-called “postmodern era,” - often no longer acknowledge the concepts of hubris and sin; they do not admit their devastating consequences, but instead consider it their right to do “whatever they want.” Moreover, they do not acknowledge that the special abilities of each person (intellectual or practical) are God-given gifts, but instead consider them to be their own exclusive property. They have forgotten that the terms “talents” and “charismas,” originating from the New Testament (Matth.25:14-30, Rom.12:1 and 1Cor.12), all reveal that what we possess are indeed God’s gifts. When they do happen to remember this detail, it is vaguely attributed to some personified and deified “universe,” as the notion of referring to the God of our fathers is abhorrent to them.
So, because we tend to sink ourselves to the very depths of our passions - that is, in spiritual and physical addictions, without thinking of resisting the pleasure they arouse in us (whether it is carnal pleasure, or the pleasure of acquiring power, authority, wealth, or knowledge, but not wisdom), we are ultimately led to despair, violence, and annihilation.
Hence modern man’s nightmares: invasions by alien races, autonomy and domination by machines, the teratogeneses (the creation of monsters), the viruses that turn most of the human population into zombies, are all being expressed in a shocking manner, through literature, cinema and the modern media, ever since the 19th century, with works such as Mary Shelley's “Frankenstein”, Robert Louis Stevenson's “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” or the novels by H.G. Wells, up to the modern myths captured in dystopian science fiction movies, all of them shaping entire cultures and subcultures.
And yet, people are not backing down. In fact we are now being informed about "meta-humans" and "metahumanism". Modern man imagines himself genetically modified or enhanced with technological implants and assumes that in this way he will surpass his physical-biological capabilities and evolve into something superior. He will no longer be human, but “superhuman” (also “ubermensch”); but for this to happen, he must previously become a “meta-human”.
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In this corner of the world called Greece, but also in other places and peoples that have embraced the liberating message of Christianity throughout history (without transforming it into a paranoid thirst for power, as it unfortunately happened in the Western European Middle Ages), the wise and holy teachers, but also the wise and simple people who raised us, are very familiar with the insatiable thirst of people of every era who tried to transcend their limits and capabilities.
They know this very well, because that is precisely what they themselves have been doing throughout the ages – except that they transcended without turning into something other than humans. That is why in their daily lives and communication they had elevated the term “human” to a sublime value – by embodying expressions such as “be human”, “have humanity”, knowing that otherwise you become “inhuman”, “bestial” - you become a “beast”, an animal, something non-human, and your actions become “bestiality”, animal barbarities.
So, my brother, my sister, my child, there is no need to evolve into something “meta-human” in order to transcend from what you feel is holding you back; you only need to ensure that you remain human, and you will discover that is more than enough.
Perhaps it is necessary to explain how those holy and wise teachers of our Orthodox Christian culture perceive the human creature, so that what we are saying can be fully understood.
Saint Justin Popovich († 1979) writes: “Mankind!... All creations fall silent before this most extraordinary miracle of all worlds. As if God had gathered all the miracles from all His worlds and summarized them in one, in man.”
Also: “It is gospel truth - the all-true gospel – not mine, but of God’s saints – that man is a great mystery, a holy mystery of God. So great and so holy that God Himself condescended to become an incarnate human in order to present us with the full depth of the human mystery. The truth of the gospel, the all-truth, is that God became man, in order to make man a god by Grace.” (Saint Justin Popovich, Man and God-Man).
While traveling through Christian antiquity, it is worth stopping at an anthropological crescendo by Saint Gregory the Theologian:
The Creator Logos creates man as a creation out of two elements – that is, of visible nature and invisible. And although taking his body out of matter that already existed, He inserted breath out of Himself (which the Holy Bible knows this as “noetic soul” and “image of God”). So He placed him on earth as another world (different to the rest of the universe), small, and within the small, large; another angel, a combined worshiper, a supervisor of visual Creation and a mystic of the noetic (that is, with knowledge of the noetic, of holiness, of angels etc.), king of the earth, but with his own King above him – terrestrial and heavenly; temporary and immortal, visible and noetic, between grandeur and humility, himself of spirit and flesh... a creature that is perfected here and transferred elsewhere, and – the finality of the mystery – he is deified by turning towards God.”
(Logos 45, ON HOLY EASTER, PG 36, 632 – An English rendition).
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Do you want to know what kind of human the saints of our tradition had exalted with so many hymns of praise? If you search, will discover that apart from the evil, the violence, the despair or indignity that you very probably see around you, there is also greatness, beauty, love, heroism, and holiness. The tendency to go beyond the potentials that we usually think we possess is in fact a built-in characteristic of our species, namely, the human race.
To attain the ability to go beyond your potentials, you do not need to become an imaginary Superman or Black Widow, Thor or Captain America; you can strive to become like Basil the Great, Philothea the Athenian, Cosmas the Aetolian, or local historical heroes and patriots such as Manto Mavroyenous, Makryannis, Galatia Soureli, Callirroe Parren, Carathéodory or Papanikolaou… All of these personages had changed the world in the era and society in which they lived and acted, by precisely enforcing the advantage of being human.
Would you like to meet some contemporary “superhumans”? You can search the Internet with the term “Orthodox Mission to the Third World”. But we don’t have to go that far; you may just look back at your own parents and their parents’ parents – even throughout your family line - and you will surely come across some of them who had given (or are still giving) their best - quite possibly under terribly adverse circumstances - not only for themselves, but also for their family and very possibly for a wider circle of acquaintances, or for their city, or for society as a whole.
If you are still searching for the perfect, I would suggest studying the lives of the saints – both the ancient and the present-day ones. There you will discover how a human can become, not a “metahuman”, but a “godhuman”, by being connected – through struggles and sacrifices of course – with the Godman Jesus Christ Himself.
Study closely the love, self-denial, humility, devotion, but also the ascetic life and prayer and self-control of the saints, not just their miracles. Only then will you be able to discern that the entire discussion about “metashumans” and “metahumanism” has sprung from within a world that thirsts precisely for the supreme Good, that is, for Christ and holiness. It is a world that thirsts, but does not know where to seek the “living water” to quench its thirst; a world that hesitates to turn to the slandered Christ and His slandered Church. It hesitates to seek the precious diamond among common stones, so it instead seeks and accumulates ordinary stones, extolling them as diamonds. Unfortunately, regardless of how many stones are collected, they will never constitute the treasure that the heart truly desires. Whereas on the other hand, a humble and poor ascetic (even an everyday, homeless person) who lives prayerfully in the name of the Lord Jesus, are most probably the truly rich - both here and in eternity.
