[Magdalen] Greetings and question about the Photian Heresy

[brad daly]

Greetings old friends of the Magdalen list,

I hope this message finds you all well.

I popped in today because I was hoping one of the scholarly denizens of the
pub might be able to help elucidate the Photian Schism for me a little bit.

First, some background: I'm now in my sixth year of teaching at the Alabama
Waldorf School. Without going into a lot of background on Waldorf
education, I'll just say it's an alternative educational philosophy that
conceives of and runs a school differently than mainstream education. It
was founded by the Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner and based upon his
syncretic religion/philosophy of anthroposophy, though anthroposophy never
explicitly appears in the curriculum. (That is, we don't teach
Anthroposophy to the children the ways in which a Roman Catholic school,
for example, would teach Christianity.) If you want to read more, the
Wikipedia entry on Waldorf education is quite thorough and balanced.

I'm generally pretty skeptical of anthroposophy, but I do love the school
and the way it is run. I wish I'd been a Waldorf student when I was a kid.

In an effort to be a good sport and a genuine desire for of anthroposophy,
I've started attending a community anthroposophy class that the school is
offering for parents/teachers/etc who don't have formal Waldorf training.

Something that has come up is that Rudolf Steiner, founder of anthroposophy
and Waldorf education, sees something about the Eighth Ecumenical Council
(Constantinople, 869 CE) as a cataclysmic turning point in human history,
specifically the 11th Canon of the council. Here's the text of the 11th
Canon from the Fordham University website:

*CANON 11*

*Summary: The Old and New Testaments teach that man has but one rational
and intellectual soul.*

*Text. While the Old and New Testaments teach that man has one rational and
intellectual soul, and this is the teaching also of all the fathers and
doctors of the Church, some persons, nevertheless, blasphemously maintain
that he has two souls. This holy and general council, therefore,
anathematizes the authors and adherents of that false teaching. Anyone
presuming to act contrary to the decision of this great council, shall be
anathematized and cut off from the faith and society of Christians.*
>From what I can gather, Steiner believed that humans had both a "spirit"
and a "soul," and that the council's anathematization of this idea "severed
a tether to heaven," in the words of one of my colleagues, leading to the
so-called "Dark Ages," from which humanity only began to emerge in the
Renaissance.

Now, I was educated in the tradition that rejects the idea of the Dark
Ages, but I think the idea was very current in the historiography of
Steiner's era. I've not yet even brought up the idea that there were no
Dark Ages to the class because I wanted to do some more research on the
Photian Schism and the theological implications behind it.

I will say, from my readings, that the schism sounds more political than
theological, and that the doctrine of a soul-spirit dichotomy seems like a
very minor issue within the field of church history. The most recent book
on the schism itself appears to be Dvornak's from 1948.

The impression anthroposophists seem to have is that the dual soul doctrine
was popular and somehow metaphysically true prior to the schism, and that
the councils decision was a major turning point for humanity. I'm thinking
that only anthroposophists seem to understand the story this way, perhaps
because the only version of the story they've ever heard in Steiner's.

So, old friends, does anyone here have any wisdom you'd like to share on
the Photian Schism, the dual-soul doctrine, or Waldorf Education, either
from personal experience or from reading and studying?

--Brad

-- 
brad daly
http://www.bradbrad.com
http://www.flickr.com/bradbrad