Κατηγορία

In English

Stable and sure (Saint Gregory the Theologian)

Κατηγορίες: In English

Coercion isn’t conducive to stability, as can easily be seen if you try to hold back streams of water or restrict plants by force. But what we accept of our own free will is more stable and sure. The former belongs to the violator, whereas the second belongs to us. One is a characteristic of God’s goodness, the other is a sign of tyrranical power. (Saint Gregory the Theologian)

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Orthodoxy and the Modern World (3) (John Zizioulas, Metropolitan of Pergamon)

Κατηγορίες: In English

II THE CHARACTERISTICS AND PREDICAMENTS OF THE MODERN WORLD 1. The basic principles of the Enlightenment in various spheres of culture. True to its historical beginnings, which we have already mentioned, the Enlightenment was motivated along the following lines: a) The absolute supremacy of human reason. Anything that did not conform to human logic was suspected of being prejudice and superstition. Miracles, belief in the supernatural, the supramundane, were all subject to questioning. Those who wished to believe in some religion, such as Christians for example, had to find a way of reconciling their faith with human reason, to find logical explanations regarding the existence of God, the soul and so on. So Christian theology embarked on an enormous effort to convince people ...

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A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles (Metropolitan of Pisidia Sotirios)

Κατηγορίες: In English

Righteous Symeon, while holding the Infant Christ, concluded his praise to God with a prophecy:  “my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles” (Luke 2:30-32). Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Symeon prophesied, as Isaiah once did (see Isaiah 49:6), that Jesus Christ is the light and Savior of the whole world.  It is this light that will shine on all the pagan nations, freeing them from the darkness of ignorance of the true God. What is most notable, is how the Elder Symeon speaks these prophetic words without the exclusivity and fanaticism of his Jewish contemporaries. Their view of the Messiah is a narrow one, ...

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