Apatheia and Apathy

 I encountered a word last week that I was not familiar with.  Now this is not unusual as I am often challenged by the limits of my vocabulary.  This word is, apatheia.  It surprized me because it is very similar to a common word which most people are familiar with - apathy.  So my initial reaction was  - it must just be a variation on apathy.  However, the context in which it was used made it quite clear that it definitely had a very different meaning from apathy.  Let’s explore together how these two words that seem very similar are actually very different.

Apathy is generally understood to mean having a general interest in something or perhaps not caring.  The dictionary definition (Wikipedia) is, “a lack of feeling, emotion, interest, or concern about something.” Apatheia, as I noted, means something quite different.  It is defined in the same source as, “a state of mind in which one is not disturbed by the passions.”  This confirmed that the way in which it was used is correct.  They do mean different things but there is a connection between the two meanings.

The distinction between the two words is similar to the difference between uninterested and disinterested.  These two words are sometimes incorrectly used interchangeably but, again, they are very different.  Uninterested means simply, not interested in or concerned about something or someone. However, disinterested means, not influenced by considerations of personal advantage. 

So, if you are uninterested or have apathy, you are not concerned about the person or thing.  If you have apatheia or are disinterested, you are not influenced by your emotions or feelings about a person or thing but are involved or engaged in some way. 

Richard Rohr used this distinction in exploring a saying of Jesus which I find not that easy to get my head around – being poor in spirit:

We have to learn to be spiritually empty, or, as Jesus says in his first beatitude, “How blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3). If we are filled with ourselves, there is no room for another, and certainly not for God. We need contemplative prayer, in which we simply let go of our constantly changing ego needs, so Something Eternal can take over.  

This may sound simple, but it’s not easy! Because we’ve lost the art of detachment, we’ve become almost fully identified with our stream of consciousness and our feelings. Don’t misunderstand me; I’m not saying we should repress or deny our feelings. I’m challenging us to name them and observe them, but not to directly fight them, identify with them, or attach to them. Unless we learn to let go of our feelings, we don’t have our feelings; our feelings have us.  

This does not mean that we should not care.  We can and should care deeply about people and things – about the world that God has created and given to us to be stewards of.  But, in caring we should not be ruled or possessed by our feelings and emotions.  We can be very conscious of them but not be ruled by them. 

May you be blessed with apatheia on your journey.

I acknowledge that we are on the original homelands of the many Indigenous Nations who have lived since time  immemorial in Canada or as many First and other Indigenous Nations  note; Turtle Island.  All of the lands in Canada are the subject of up  to one hundred Treaties signed by the Crown in the right of Canada
with these Nations. I will only mention a few of the Nations: the  Cree, Ojibway, Blackfoot, Blood, Dakota, Mig M'ag, Huron, Inuit and  these lands are also home to the Metis people.