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  1. James the Persian

    Why was the DiVinci Code so bad?

    For Roman Catholics. That council is well post-Schism and has no relevance to anyone in the east. It also excluded no books at all but rather defended the existing canon against Protestant moves to reduce it. As for the stuff that wasn't included in the canon, much of it still exists. Some of...
  2. James the Persian

    Why was the DiVinci Code so bad?

    The who is obvious - Dan Brown. The what is more difficult because, firstly, he's deliberately vague and secondly he's changed his tune since so many people started protesting his so-called scholarship. Early on he was publicly saying things like all of the history was true, 99% of it was true...
  3. James the Persian

    Why was the DiVinci Code so bad?

    Nowhere in the Lord of the Rings is the claim made that it is based on fact - the Da Vinci Code makes precisely those claims about its central claims. In other words it might be fiction but it is touted as historical fiction when it's anything but. James
  4. James the Persian

    Why was the DiVinci Code so bad?

    You mean those non-existent imaginary writings? For the umpteenth time, the Council of Nicea did not even consider the issue of the canon of Scripture far less settle it (the first council to try and do that wasn't until much later) and didn't ban or suppress any texts whatsoever. Where on...
  5. James the Persian

    Images of Jesus and the Second Commanment

    Yes, is the short answer. It's all to do with the Incarnation making God visible to man (as the Son) and therefore we being able to depict Him (and I'd note that your iconoclast opinions were not shared by first century Jews either - see the decorations in the synagogue of Duros Europa - and...
  6. James the Persian

    Question about the Bible

    Who says that those who didn't hear the Gospel are damned? That is not the ancient teaching of the Church (look at the tradition of the harrowing of hell, for instance). Only sola scriptura Protestants could possibly have such a weird view of salvation, with all who lived prior to a book...
  7. James the Persian

    KFC asks Pope to bless new fish sandwich

    Fish is lenten? Well, not for us and I'm surprised to hear that it is for RCs too, though I know plenty of them who don't fast at all but just 'give something up'. I have heard from Greek friends that over there MacDonalds does a MacLent menu due to the huge demand for it - goodness knows...
  8. James the Persian

    Why was the DiVinci Code so bad?

    From an Orthodox point of view, it was a collection of a startling number of heresies portrayed as fact. I couldn't care less who watches or believes that dross, but no Orthodox Christian in good standing should have been involved in it - hence my comments about Tom Hanks. Given the blatant...
  9. James the Persian

    Tom Hanks, Mormon ??

    Not his membership in the Church but his reception of the sacraments. The Da Vinci Code is rank heresy incompatible with Orthodox faith and as such Orthodox Christians have no place even reading it, let alone popularising it in the mass media. As such, were I his priest (thankfully I'm not, nor...
  10. James the Persian

    Mary Magdalen

    She isn't. She's been rather ignored by western churches ever since she was confused with the unnamed sinful woman (an error on the part of Pope St. Gregory the Great that luckily never made it eastwards) but she is one of the most important saints in our tradition, is known to have been a great...
  11. James the Persian

    Tom Hanks, Mormon ??

    He hasn't just been seen attending - that would be way too little to be considered Orthodox. He has been accepted into the Church by Chrismation - he is Orthodox. That's why I said, back in the day, that he should have been refused the chalice by his priest for his role in the Da Vinci Code. James
  12. James the Persian

    why does the bible contain contradictions ?

    It's not that anyone changed the original revelation. It's that four different people wrote four different books documenting it. They're all original. And that's where your problem lies and why these discussions between Muslims and Christians are so fruitless. Your attitude to Scripture is that...
  13. James the Persian

    Tom Hanks, Mormon ??

    He may have been once. I really don't know much about his past, but I do know that he isn't Mormon now. He's Orthodox. On the other hand, after his participation in that awful film of the Da Vinci Code, I could cheerfully start a thread called, 'Tom Hanks. Orthodox?' and the scary thing is...
  14. James the Persian

    Organized religion = evil.

    My point entirely. It's the people who use the dogma to alienate and dehumanise others that are the problem, not the dogma itself. Dogma is morally neutral. The Church does not sanction violence or teach that it is right, however, and I am extremely surprised by the lack of understanding, in one...
  15. James the Persian

    Spiritually Bankrupt?

    You mean are there any gerontes/startsi? (That's Greek/Russian word - Romanian uses the Russian one). Yes, there are. Everyone is encouraged to have a spiritual father/mother, though obviously not everyone does. The sorts of people you might (though your rather gnostic views would certainly not...
  16. James the Persian

    Spiritually Bankrupt?

    Again, I suggest that you research hesychasm, theosis, and I'll throw in the uncreated light, St. Gregory Palamas and St. Seraphim of Sarov. Far from being suppressed, Christianity, at least in the east, encouraged such mysticism to the point of the possibility of participation in the uncreated...
  17. James the Persian

    Foreign Music

    Here's an example of Romanian folk music (a famous song by the famous Maria Tanase), just in case anyone's interested. She wasn't one of the singers I referred to as sounding like a strangled cat and I quite like some of her stuff, though I prefer Sofia Vicoveanca. Unfortunately as she's still...
  18. James the Persian

    What is wrong with religion?

    I'd dispute this. You can't get much more conservative than Orthodoxy (my average Sunday liturgy is 1500 years old, for instance) and we don't view Christ in the way you suggest at all (the Penal Substitutionary Atonement model of soteriology doesn't even make sense in an eastern context) and...
  19. James the Persian

    Foreign Music

    Well, in my household there's always plenty of 'foreign' music - mostly in Romanian (which is strictly speaking foreign to me even though I'm now pretty fluent) and everything ranging from Byzantine chant to folk music to pop. I can't claim to like it all (some female Romanian folk singers sound...
  20. James the Persian

    Scientists Confirm The Signs Of God

    I thought maybe he'd been reading the Duncton books as natural history rather than fiction. James
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