Hot answers tagged eastern-orthodox
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.
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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 ...
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
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 ...
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.
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
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
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 ...
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
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
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
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 ...
3
The only passage I am aware of is 1 Peter 3:18-20a:
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark ...
3
I've searched some answer by myself, and here's what I've found.
According to the linked document, both Paradise and hell are Christ's eternal presence, perceived as bliss by truly faithfull and as burning flames by the others. After death a soul leaves body and goes to Christ, where it experiences bliss (Paradise) or torment (hell). These states grow to ...
3
Frankly, the more you know the history of the Orthodox Church, the more you would be inclined to say that they would never have executed witches. In fact great portions of the Eastern Orthodox Churches history, is when they have been the ones being executed, whether by pagans or heretics. In fact if someone told me that the Orthodox had executed witches, I ...
3
OK I'm finally getting around to answering this question. Unfortunately I'm limited on time so this is a summary of the Orthodox position. First of all, Orthodoxy's entire anthropology differs from Western Christianity (no original guilt/concupiscence). As such, their soteriology doesn't begin in the same place as Western Christianity and thus concludes ...
3
At least in Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church saint Adalbert is not venerated. I had a friend that was a member of PAKP from a mixed (catholic-orthodox) family. His mother wanted to name him "Wojciech", but the parish priest disagreed. So he had the name "Wojciech" written in secular documents but was baptised with name "George" and thus he was known for ...
3
In short:
Dressing nicely in front of God is a good thing.
Priests do not actually dress in an "elaborate" way, but they do dress in a formal way.
Some people see pictures of the pope during very special ceremonies, and assume that all priests dress this way, which is simply not true. The pope is required to dress in a way that fits his status as pope. He ...
2
I'm not Orthodox and I don't know much on Orthodox theology, but I'll try to answer from what I have found.
AFAIK Orthodox Church shares the ex opere operato doctrine though the understanding is not the same (here near the bottom). This means that the answer is "God". The action of the priest is necessary, but not so much, it's less important than in ...
2
Early Rabbinic sources have a very ‘hard line’ against all kinds of images, or pictorial representations on coins, or whatever other form. Not only for using them in gross idolatry, through aids in worship, but in various seemingly legitimate activities. This is why even the possession of a coin, for example, with Caesars image on it, could constitute ...
2
My answer to this would be yes. In a Southern Baptist Church (considers themselves to be very evangelical) in Watkinsville, GA several months ago, a visiting “evangelist” trying to form another Southern Baptist Church in the NE made a statement that only about 3% of the people of the NE and particularly in NY were Evangelicals. After a few minutes the ...
2
The Catholic understanding is that the lack of reconciliation is due to a lack of love when Catholic and Orthodox share in full all doctrines that would make full communion appropriate.
The Orthodox position is that there is much more than the clause in the Creed and Catholics are saying, in effect, "Let us restore communion despite our unresolved ...
1
The term you're looking for is apocatastasis. I would argue that it has not officially been condemned as a heresy, although the primary teacher of apocatastasis was condemned as a heretic at the 5th ecumenical council (Origen). See my response to your other question about universalism for more information.
1
Evangelicals most assuredly do not consider Roman Catholics to be pagans. We realize they worship the same God - we mostly differ over views of church governance (i.e. we don't think the Pope has any primacy) not theology.
One of the most interesting cases in point is Francis Beckwith, one-time president of the National Association of Evangelicals, who, in ...
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