Hot answers tagged eastern-orthodox
15
This kinda falls into general reference territory. There are two major groups of "Orthodox" churches.
The Eastern Orthodox Church is one large group of churches that share a common theology. It separated from the Catholic Church (or vice versa, depending on your POV) in 1054 AD.
Thus many Orthodox Churches adopt a national title (e.g. Albanian
...
15
Evangelicalism is not in itself a "confession". It is more of a general grouping of similar confessions. As such, it is a bit hard to pin down on a specific point of doctrine like your question calls for.
That being said, we could paint with a broad brush and describe some of general leanings. Every one of these will be wrong for at least some Evangelicals.
...
12
As to the differences from a Catholic man's perspective:
The metaphysical dispute over the Filioque, wherein is asked "whence comes The Holy Spirit"? A Catholic person says, when reciting the Nicene Creed, that The Holy Spirit "proceeds from The Father and The Son". Unofficially, this wording brings to mind the theory of procession put forth by St. ...
10
Yes and no. In historical Christianity, the term for universal salvation is apocatastasis. Apocatastasis refers to the restoration of all things to their original state, which includes the notion of universal reconciliation (even going so far as to insist that Satan himself will eventually be reconciled to God). The word appears in Acts 3:21.
"Repent ...
8
Different communities adopted Arabc at various times. The earliest community to start using Arabic were the Greek Orthodox of Palestine, who started translating the liturgy and theological books into Arabic in the 8th century. For a more general history of Arab Christianity, I'd consult The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque by Sidney Griffith. For evidence ...
8
Officially all the Eastern Orthodox Churches share "one Lord, one faith, one baptism," and this is manifested by intercommunion among, say, the sees of Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Rome (before the Schism, she received the highest honor among the sees at councils), Constantinople, Georgia, Kiev, Moscow, Athens, Washington DC, Paris, London, Tokyo, ...
7
The basic between the two is over the Christological definition accepted at the Council of Chalcedon in 451, where Christ was recognized as being worshiped both 'in' two natures that exist 'inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably'. The Copts and other miaphysites believed that this definition was ambiguous and could be understood in a Nestorian ...
6
Tim Challies (a well known reformed pastor in Toronto) gives an in depth opinion on Mere Christianity on his blog.
http://www.challies.com/writings/mere-christianity-0
From the reformed view, Lewis does make the common errors with regard to free will and God's sovereignty, especially with regard to the Garden of Eden.
He also errs in some ways that ...
6
This site has a good overview of the history from a Catholic viewpoint.
Here is a high level overview based on that site and the article on Wikipedia (which currently stands in question of its neutrality).
After the collapse of the Western Roman Empire, the church headquartered at Constantinople began to have ongoing squabbles with Rome due in some part ...
6
The Coptics have a non-Chalcedonian christology, and are technically Nestorian heretics. From Wikipedia:
The Chalcedonians' understanding is that Christ is in two natures,
full humanity and full divinity. Just as humans are of their mothers
and fathers and not in their mothers and fathers, so too is the nature
of Christ according to Oriental ...
6
Big question! Here is my source:
The culture - The East is familiar to Greek, Russian and Arabic
languages/cultures, and the West is more familiar to Americans and
English languages/cultures
The Clergy Vestments
The Liturgy/Mass - The
East primarily uses the Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom, and the West
primarily uses the Liturgy of ...
6
As an Eastern Orthodox, I've never heard this line of reasoning.
Instead, what is usually discussed is the difference between primacy and supremacy. In the Orthodox view, among all the bishops, there were five who were regarded as preeminent based on the importance of their sees. These were:
Rome
Constantinople
Alexandria
Antioch
Jerusalem
The ...
6
I believe you are looking for the theology called "Universalism".
I'm not sure that it has been explicitly declared a heresy, but the Catholic, Orthodox many Protestant churches have made formal declarations that are in disagreement with it, so they presumably do consider it a heresy. Look at the 'disagreements' section of the article.
6
I can tell you of the Russian Orthodox Church.
There is a Synodal Commission which examines the issue and has the authority to glorify the person as a saint.
There are locally venerated saints, which are venerated in a eparchy, and commonly venerated saints, which are inserted to the calendar common to all the church.
The eparchial veneration is ...
6
Most early Eastern theologians didn't believe in witches (technically, neither did Western theologians, as is evidenced by Canon Episopi), but most common folk did. Without getting into the confounded history of witch-burning, it is generally held that theologians prior to the 10th century did not believe in witches. The 9th century Canon Episopi that I ...
5
According to Gibbons:
the public religion of the Catholics was uniformly simple and spiritual; and the first notice of the use of pictures is in the censure of the council of Illiberis, three hundred years after the Christian aera. Under the successors of Constantine, in the peace and luxury of the triumphant church, the more prudent bishops condescended ...
5
The Greek adjective orthodox (ὀρθόδοξος) is dated to the late third/early fourth centuries, and the derived Latin word (orthodoxus or ortodoxus) was also first used at about that time. There is an earlier verb ὀρθοδοξεῖν, meaning "to have correct beliefs", used by Aristotle in the Nicomachean Ethics. As far as I know, Aristotle's coining is original, not ...
5
Hesychasm, one of the monastic traditions this question is about, is still practiced on the Greek peninsula, Mount Athos. For over a thousand years, monks have practiced the discipline of continual prayer and worship, which goes back at least as far as the 4th century Desert Fathers. And of course, the concept of praying continually goes back at least to ...
5
I linked to this article in another question, but it's certainly relevant here:
Luther Had His Chance
Some Lutherans did make contact with Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople. They gave him a copy of the Augsburg Confession and requested his reaction. The Patriarch politely thanked them and, later, gave a detailed reply, indicating where the various ...
5
The Ante-Nicene Fathers (ANF) volumes are all freely available online, along with many other Patristics. I got over 300 hits with a search for "golden calf." and found several notable quotes. Keep in mind that the Fathers often allegorized/spiritualized scripture while discussing living for/in Christ. You can also study the passage and select works that ...
5
Catholics (i.e., Western or Latin -- I belong to this group) believe that original sin entails actually inheriting the burden of Adam's Sin, which is mortal sin keeping us from entering heaven without a method of acquiring sanctifying grace, such as baptism. Original sin also threw all of nature into discord, and is the source of man's concupiscence. The ...
5
As you are probably aware, there is not a high degree of unity in Eastern Orthodoxy in English-speaking nations, especially in North America (cf. Phyletism, autocephaly, controversy concerning autocephaly and the OCA, controversy over the broad appointment of metropolitans). However, there is somewhat general consensus on on the orders. But it should be ...
4
The same could be said of G.K. Chesterton and probably a whole host of smart writers wholly ignorant of large swaths of Christianity. One difference, pointed out here is that Lewis doesn't see a need for a Church and without a Church it is hard to have a priesthood and without a priesthood it is hard to have a sacrifice - so I'd imagine that's contrary to ...
4
My simple answer: the Holy Spirit promised to guide the Church into all truth. The Orthodox believe that He has fulfilled His promise. Now for my lengthier response:
There is somewhat of an implied dichotomy in Western thought that must be called out right off the bat: the distinction between Scripture and Tradition. In Eastern thought, there is no ...
4
Lamentations.
And here is why. While the 12 Gospels contains much more theological material, at the end of Lamentations there usually is (at least in my experience) the moment where you enter the church 'under the bier', as though you are entering the grave following Christ, which you only come out of after the procession early on Sunday morning.
So, ...
4
The oldest icon I can imagine would be the one written by St Luke of Our Lady holding the infant Jesus regardless of whether you give any merit to the tradition that it was indeed done by him who was undoubtably the most well aquatinted man in the early Church with the Blessed Virgin Mary, excepting maybe St John the Evangelist, it is certainly an old ...
4
By the 1796 Janenism, which disdained devotion to the Sacred Heart, was very roundly condemned by Pope Pius VI in Auctorem Fidei one paragraph stated:
The doctrine which rejects devotion to the most Sacred Heart of Jesus among the devotions which it notes as new, erroneous, or at least, dangerous; if the understanding of this devotion is of such a ...
4
Orthodox Tradition is made by saints, living temples of Holy Spirit. Many times, they let us testimonies for spiritual benefit of posteriority.
In 'Life of saint Basil the New' book, written by his disciple Gregory, is described what happened with the soul of Theodora after death, a widow who took care of the saint in her life. Her soul was judged passing ...
4
First things first, there are no 'denominations' within Orthodoxy. The Orthodox believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church (as professed by the Nicene Creed), and they believe that the Orthodox Church is it. Therefore it would be inappropriate to speak of a doctrinal position of the Russian Orthodox that is not also true of other Orthodox. While ...
3
I suppose the answer depends entirely on how you define success. To be an authentic Hesychast monk, you would really need to move to Mt. Athos.
But there's no reason you couldn't successfully integrate some Hesychast methods into your current life. In particular, contemplation, meditation and recital of the Jesus Prayer seems entirely within the reach ...
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