In the last issue of this article, I began sharing thoughts of Gregory Palamas. It is fitting that I continue sharing his thoughts since on this second weekend of the Great Fast we commemorate the Church declaring his teachings to … Continue reading
Category Archives: Learning Our Faith from the Church Fathers
Perhaps one the greatest individual theologians of the Christian East, Gregory Palamas, never presented a systematic doctrine of divinization. His contribution to the topic, however, has been enormous. Regardless of the controversial debates he engaged in with his theological opponents … Continue reading
When studying the origins of Theosis, many more patristic texts could be added from the Cappadocian fathers and others. The Cappadocians, as you will recall, heavily influenced not only the theology of the Eastern Church but also the ritual of … Continue reading
You will recall from the last issue of this article that it was stated that the perfect God-man, Jesus, was the only qualified person to sum up in his own life the corruptibility and distortion of the image and bring … Continue reading
The Eastern Church’s anthropology accepts punishment, death and mortality, not as God’s retribution or revenge for sin as much as pedagogy. The human being’s finitude would make repentance well up within her, the possibility of free love to God, the … Continue reading
As I shared in the last issue of this article, there is a great difference between the East and West with regards to the “Fall” of mankind that is recorded in Genesis. Indeed, according to one Eastern Christian author, the … Continue reading
In the fourth century, Gregory of Nyssa was asked a difficult question about children who die young. The ascetic who asked this question was wondering what could really be achieved by his spiritual labors, when he knew for sure that he … Continue reading
To gain a proper perspective on the Eastern view of salvation, we have to be aware of its distinctive ideas about humanity and its implications. For the most part, the Eastern view of humanity looks forward to the renewing of … Continue reading
In a discussion of the idea of Theosis in the Bible, based largely on Maximos the Confessor, Jaroslav Pelikan (a noted author on the Eastern Church), points out that the idea goes beyond individual passages of Scripture. He writes: The … Continue reading
It is critical, I believe, to once again reiterate Athanasius’ understanding that the redeemed person may become a son/daughter of God only by participation, which implies that far from being mechanical or automatic, the sonship of the redeemed is contingent … Continue reading