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PresterJohn
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Name: Joshua
Country: United States
State: Mississippi
Birthday: 2/4/1982
Gender: Male
Interests: Writing, Drawing, Theology, Philosophy, Obscure Science, Literary Criticism, Ancient and Medieval History, Mythology, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Mythopoeic Literature, The Lives & Works of The Inklings
Expertise: Writing, Mythopoeic Literature, Literary Criticism
Occupation: Website Design
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Member Since:
1/30/2004
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| Contra certain converts, the Eastern Orthodox tradition does seem to have a place for the Latin concept of "created grace."
'There is nothing strange,' Palamas writes, 'in using the word "grace" both for the created and the uncreated and in speaking of a created grace distinct from the created.' In what sense can one use the same word 'grace' about fundamentally different realities? We have seen that Palamas was aware of the many meanings of the word; he defines the matter thus: 'All that flows from the Spirit towards those who have been baptized in the Spirit according to the Gospel of grace, and who have been rendered completely spiritual, comes from the Source; it all comes from it, and also remains in it.'
A Study of Gregory Palamas by John Meyendorff, pg. 164
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| I took a practice GRE test over the weekend. The results were slightly disappointing. They will not remain so. | | |
| Blessed Virgin unconsumed, I long to enter the overshadowing fire, the flame which burns more brightly than the seraphim. Be with me, I pray, as you were with the Church at Pentecost, that by your prayers and intercessions I may be made a holocaust on the altar of Him who burns with love for us.
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| We may truly say that when we accept tradition we accept, through faith, our Lord, who abides in the midst of the faithful; for the Church is His Body, which cannot be separated from Him. That is hwy loyalty to tradition means not only concord with the past, but, in a certain sense, freedom from the past, as from some outward formal criterion. Tradition is not only a protective, conservative principle; it is, primarily, the principle of growth and regeneration. Tradition is not a principle striving to restore the past, using the past, using the past as a criterion for the present. Such a conception of tradition is rejected by history itself and by the consciousness of the church.. Tradition is authority to teach, potestas magisterii, authority to bear witness to the truth.
- Georges Florovsky - Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View
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| I have determined that so called "Radical Catholic Traditionalists" aren't really Catholic. How? They aren't traditional enough. You see, the problem with the "Catholic" church headed by "Pope" Benedict is that it keeps changing. So after Vatican II, you had a bunch of people recognize that the "church" was no longer the Church. It seems a bit unlikely, but I did some research...
You see, the same thing happened after Vatican I. A group of "old Catholics" recognized that the post-Vatican 1 "church" wasn't really the Catholic Church anymore and the "pope" isn't really the Pope. And with each council and most "popes", there were more and more people recognizing how the church wasn't really the church? Why? Because it doesn't keep the tradition.
But I have finally found the One True Church. It is a bit hard to find any actual members, but I'm sure they must exist, because the logic is inescapable. If what determines the validity of a pope and church is keeping to the tradition, then the True Church must be one which never changed.
But because all popes change things, and changing things is heresy, and heretics can't be popes, therefore the see of Peter has been vacant since Peter's death.
Wouldn't that make this church something like the Orthodox, then? Not at all. In fact, they are worse than "Catholics." The Orthodox are heretical on two fundamental points. First, they refuse to acknowledge the legitimate authority of the popes. Second, they say that there is still a real Pope.
The truth, of course, is that there is no pope on Peter's see, but if there was, he would have absolute authority. Denying either of these is damnable heresy.
But the "Catholics" are only heretical in believing that there is still a real Pope.
(For those who don't get it, this is a reductio ad absurdum of the various uber-traditionalist Catholic groups who deny that the current pope is actually pope. It has parallels with some groups in both Protestantism and Orthodoxy as well, though)
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