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Author Interview Series:
Brad Jersak

I am happy to share with you the wisdom of Brad Jersak.

Brad is the Dean of Theology and Culture at St. Stephen’s University of New Brunswick, Canada and the author of over a half dozen books including Her Gates Will Never Be Shut: Hell, Hope, and the New Jerusalem.

Enjoy the “email interview” below. 

I’m sure you’ll enjoy his response to the question “Who or What is God?”

The Orthodox faith is deeply steeped in the "Prayer of the Heart" Tradition.

What can you tell us about Prayer and the Heart and how it shapes our own prayer, meditation, and everyday life?

I will do my best to summarize. First, “the prayer of the heart” refers to what we also call, “The Jesus Prayer,” which is “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.” At the outset, Western believers may be self-triggered into imagining this as worm-theology begging. I suspect that’s a projection.

Three quick facts: 
(1) “Sinner” is not our identity. We are sons and daughters who approach the throne of grace boldly. But we are sinners in the existential sense that I recognize my daily need for mercy. 

(2) Nor do I need to beg. Asking is simply opening our hands and hearts to the ever-flowing spring of divine goodness. Asking does not turn on the tap. It’s more about positioning myself to receive what’s already flowing, as we do with forgiveness.
(3) the mercy of God is not reduced to him withholding wrath. The many mercies of God describe God’s superabundant goodness and generosity toward the entire range of my life needs. 

Why is the Jesus Prayer called "Prayer of the Heart"?

Because we pray it from the depths of the heart. The desert fathers instructed us, “When you pray, take your mind down into your heart.” Such prayer is rooted more deeply than in the rational mind and by ‘heart,’ they mean more than our emotional being.

Rather, we retreat into the depths of the ‘nous’--that organ of the soul that orients itself toward the overtures of divine love. The nous can also be thought of as the eyes of the heart, the spirit or our innermost being. The nous was created for a direct, living connection or mystical union with the Nous or Logos of God.
 
Now, while I am also three decades into the very visual practices of the Spanish Mystics–visio divina and the Ignatian exercises–the goal of the prayer of the heart is actually imageless prayer. That is, beyond and beneath the words of the Jesus prayer we seek to establish stillness of heart and mind. An apophatic prayer where the distractions of the frenetic imagination are deliberately left behind and we see only the ‘uncreated Light’ (on this, see Symeon the New Theologian).
 
Full disclosure: many of the great mystics would say this was not their regular experience. But they also taught that the practice was itself fruitful.

What does the Orthodox faith have to offer people journeying on the contemplative path?

Certainly all of the above. The Jesus Prayer is a form of centering prayer with Jesus as our mantra. I’ve experienced its power to draw me out of panic attacks, smoldering rage, drivenness and distraction. Addicts find it to be a shield against cravings and compulsive temptations. That’s why it’s sometimes also called “the prayer for guarding the mind and heart.”

But I would add that for contemplatives who struggle with their imagination, the great Orthodox icons provide something tangible through which to relate to God. They function like windows into the invisible world of the cloud of witnesses and were canonized as a type of translation of Scripture. I believe beholding the face of Christ with the eyes of my heart has been very fruitful (so I am less enamored with imageless prayer). But for those who struggle to open the eyes of their heart, why not just use your physical eyes to meditate on the beautiful array of icons to see what they might say? Henri Nouwen’s Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons is a beautiful and effective primer.

Who or What is God?

I’m very much of the ancient Orthodox tradition on this, but how the early Church Fathers and Mothers said about it might surprise some readers. Of course, for them, God is Love in God’s nature or essence. Love plus nothing. God is NOT Love but also. God is not Love but also holy, righteous and just. There is no remainder. Rather, every attribute of God is a description of Love, facets of the one pure diamond.

So we would say God is holy love, righteous love, just love. Even ‘wrath’ can ever, only be a description of the Love that purges from his beloved that which is not Love’s kind (riffing off George MacDonald). I also believe that infinite Love cannot be a monad. There must be a plurality so that Love flows, is given and received. So the revelation of triune Love revealed as Father, Son and Spirit makes sense to me. As does God desire to unite Creator and creation, God and humanity into an indivisible Oneness–which is to say, Jesus the Christ. 
 
That’s saying an awful lot when we’re talking about the Infinite. 
 
In reality, whatever we say about God is as toddlers scribbling pictures with blunt crayons on newsprint. I believe God loves our little scrawls and receives them as acts of imperfect worship and sees within them our desire to know and be known by God. As best as my messy coloring can get, the Orthodox Church has taught me that God is Goodness itself and/or the ‘fountainhead of all goodness’ (Athanasius), the infinite spring of beauty, truth and justice. And for these to be real, they must also be instantiated in this world. And they were. Surprisingly, most clearly on a Cross. So I balance the apophatic mystery of not-knowing with the self-donation of God in the Christ incarnate.

What does your own prayer and meditation look like?

I combine praying biblical prayers (Psalm 23, Psalm 51, the Lord’s Prayer, the Beatitudes), liturgical prayers (the Jesus Prayer, the Trisagion Prayer, the Nicene Creed) and for my spontaneous prayers, I use my own form of Ignatian Prayer in face-to-face communion (conversation or silence). I call it ‘the Meeting Place’ and describe it here.

In all of this, I do a lot of listening … up to 80%. I believe that the Spirit continues to speak, counsel and guide, just as Jesus promised in John 16:12-16 and in this way, continues to teach us. Most of the inner healing work I’ve done has been in the context of my Meeting Place prayers and the fruit of that has convinced me beyond any doubt that prayer is more than a navel-gazing mind trick. On prayer, we meet with God’s transforming presence, the Uncreated Grace who is everywhere present, fills all things and indwells everyone. 

What does your current work look like?

Currently, I am the Dean of Theology & Culture at St. Stephen’s University in New Brunswick, Canada and on core faculty with the Institute for Religion, Peace and Justice.

I also do some writing, editing and layout for CWR Magazine and am working on two book projects. By May, I hope to release A More Christlike Word: Reading Scripture the Emmaus Way (Whittaker House).  

Where can people find you?

You can find more about Brads work at www.bradjersak.com, on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. 
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