Choosing between them means that piety or knowledge is sufficient, but we say that every Christian, especially the educated Christian, needs both together because this is what the Holy Book says. The thing that we must not forget is that the essence of piety is faith, and faith has content and Apostle Paul showed this by considering that the content of faith is Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. This means that faith is not an emotion and a personal feeling that you love God and work for him. Feeling accompanies faith but isn’t faith itself.
Faith carries divine talk and this is inspiration. The Scripture said: “I believed; therefore I spoke”. We cannot disable the mind and tongue and claim piety. Therefore, the movement that claims in our days that we only need a pious priest even if he only knew few things is worthless. What does he understand from his prayers in this case? How could he live the words of his prayers?
I am surprised from the absence of insistence on the knowledge of the priest after living a period of ignorance for a minimum of a thousand years. I am surprised from being satisfied by only good behavior. Look at this story: Once, the people of Beirut presented to St. John Chrysostom a man and said that they want him as a priest. The Saint asked them: What are his gifts? They answered: He is pious. He answered: This is something that must exist in all people; a lay man and a clergyman are both invited to have the same piety, but a person must be responsible for teaching.
If a stranger came to ask about our dogma and what does it contain, it is normal to expect to hear our priest. Every nation has teachers, and for us the priest is the first teacher. This stranger expects to hear from the priest that is supposed to know the dogma well and to know how to defend it and to have his main concern to attract people to him. And if we supposed that he invited strangers to our liturgy because it is beautiful, and someone asked about the meaning of a certain phrase and he couldn’t answer, how could this stranger respect us?
I know that there are difficult questions that go beyond the normal teaching that this priest received. This needs specialization. In this case, he can ask a fellow priest or a theology professor. However, not knowing the essentials is completely unacceptable.
However, if knowledge is limited only for the bishop, how could you have him in every occasion? The knowledgeable person should be found in his place so that it wouldn’t be proved that we are a people that only love chanting and that we are a Church that has no renewal or thought and that this Church is just a museum; this is a common accusation for western people that say that the Orthodox Church is the Church of beauty but has no thought because they rarely find someone that can answer a question.
It is obvious that what I meant is that purity of behavior is the most important thing for any of us especially for people with responsibilities, but the Gospel is what is given to people, and consequently piety and knowledge are coherent and accompany each other so that God is glorified through the person that carries both of them.
Translated by Mark Najjar
Original Text: “تقوى أو عِلْم عند الكاهن” –Raiati 50- 11.12.2011
