Dunemeister
Well-Known Member
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]In this series, we (Shiranui117 and Dunemeister) will try to lay out for general discussion what we understand to be the Eastern Orthodox understanding on various areas of Christian doctrine. We would like to say first of all that this is not an evangelical undertaking. We are not out to convert anyone. But as we are both former Christians of various persuasions (Dunemeister mostly evangelical; Shiranui117 mostly Roman Catholic) who have found a home in Orthodoxy, it is readily apparent to us that there are some radical differences between what we learned in Western Christianity and what the Church has believed always, everywhere, and by all. Immersed as our culture is in Western Christianity, we are generally unaware that our particular belief systems are quite novel, recent and frankly unbiblical. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Thus, in this series, we hope to show what the Church taught, confessed and believed early in its history. We would like to show how the Churchs doctrine was sharpened and clarified by internal debates and external pressures. We will see ultimately that every time the Church found it necessary to formulate doctrine in creedal form, she was responding to innovations that made salvation less accessible, or even inaccessible. Salvation itself was at stake in the debates surrounding the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ, the reverence of saints and icons, the hesychasm controversy, and so on. At each stage, we hope to show how the Church did not innovate. Rather, she resisted innovation, insisting on the faithful passing on (traditioning) of the apostolic deposit (1 Timothy 6:20; 1 Timothy 2:2). What took us, the authors of these posts, by surprise, is the content and beauty of that deposit. Whether anyone else follows us into the Orthodox Church, we hope that you will likewise be struck by this.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]We will make a series of threads starting with the title ODD <n>:, where ODD stands for "Orthodox Doctrine for Dummies" (perhaps strangely apt), followed by a subtitle. For example, the next post will be entitled ODD 1: Salvation as the imitation of Christ. The first sentence will generally say something like "Welcome to the nth installment of Orthodox Doctrine for Dummies. Hopefully that will make it easy enough to find these threads. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]We will post them all here in the Christianity DIR. We certainly welcome questions from anyone interested. We don't intend to turn these into debates, but we will try to defend our positions if challenged respectfully. We are not patristic scholars and we may well get certain things wrong. Please understand that we are learners of Orthodoxy (Dunemeister is a catechumen, and Shiranuii117 is an enquirer who will hopefully being catechesis soon), and we reserve the right to be mistaken, and in some matters we will certainly stand to be corrected. In those cases where we come to realize our error, we will own up to it. In all events, where we might disagree with anyone else, we endeavour to do so peaceably.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Peace in Christ[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Shiranuii117[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Dunemeister[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Thus, in this series, we hope to show what the Church taught, confessed and believed early in its history. We would like to show how the Churchs doctrine was sharpened and clarified by internal debates and external pressures. We will see ultimately that every time the Church found it necessary to formulate doctrine in creedal form, she was responding to innovations that made salvation less accessible, or even inaccessible. Salvation itself was at stake in the debates surrounding the Trinity, the dual nature of Christ, the reverence of saints and icons, the hesychasm controversy, and so on. At each stage, we hope to show how the Church did not innovate. Rather, she resisted innovation, insisting on the faithful passing on (traditioning) of the apostolic deposit (1 Timothy 6:20; 1 Timothy 2:2). What took us, the authors of these posts, by surprise, is the content and beauty of that deposit. Whether anyone else follows us into the Orthodox Church, we hope that you will likewise be struck by this.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]We will make a series of threads starting with the title ODD <n>:, where ODD stands for "Orthodox Doctrine for Dummies" (perhaps strangely apt), followed by a subtitle. For example, the next post will be entitled ODD 1: Salvation as the imitation of Christ. The first sentence will generally say something like "Welcome to the nth installment of Orthodox Doctrine for Dummies. Hopefully that will make it easy enough to find these threads. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]We will post them all here in the Christianity DIR. We certainly welcome questions from anyone interested. We don't intend to turn these into debates, but we will try to defend our positions if challenged respectfully. We are not patristic scholars and we may well get certain things wrong. Please understand that we are learners of Orthodoxy (Dunemeister is a catechumen, and Shiranuii117 is an enquirer who will hopefully being catechesis soon), and we reserve the right to be mistaken, and in some matters we will certainly stand to be corrected. In those cases where we come to realize our error, we will own up to it. In all events, where we might disagree with anyone else, we endeavour to do so peaceably.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Peace in Christ[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Shiranuii117[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Dunemeister[/FONT]