{"id":4076,"date":"2016-06-12T10:00:06","date_gmt":"2016-06-12T14:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4076"},"modified":"2016-06-08T12:55:18","modified_gmt":"2016-06-08T16:55:18","slug":"gaining-a-deeper-understanding-of-our-faith-20160612","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=4076","title":{"rendered":"GAINING A DEEPER UNDERSTANDING OF OUR FAITH — 20160612"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"image379\"<\/a>In the last issue of this article I suggested that our Eastern spirituality interprets Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans as saying: \u201cbecause of death all sin\u201d instead of \u201cbecause of sin all die.\u201d Because of linguistic limitations of Latin, St. Jerome had to choose one or the other meaning of this phrase. He wrote it in Latin as \u201cbecause of sin all die.\u201d This has become the standard position of the Latin tradition. As a result, the Latin tradition, following Saint Augustine and Saint Anselm, tends to view the relationship between sin and death in a more juridical sense. That is, death is punishment. This led St. Anselm to say that the purpose of the Incarnation was to produce a suitable victim for a sacrifice which would appease the justice of God. Through his death Jesus pays the ransom for our offenses.<\/p>\n

Byzantine spirituality tends toward a more existential or psychological understanding of the relationship\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 between sin and death. If death is \u201cpunishment\u201d in the Latin tradition, it is \u201cconsequence\u201d in the Byzantine, and this distinction is important. Gregory of Nyssa can say that \u201cdeath is the final remedy.\u201d He comments in a most\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 nonwestern way on the \u201cgarments of skin\u201d with which God vested Adam and Eve. Gregory teaches, therefore, that with the \u201cgarments of skin\u201d God implanted in Adam and his descendants our physical nature (as opposed to human\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 nature), our physical needs, our appetites and instincts, as medicine so that we can make our way to Him. Therefore, our\u00a0\u00a0 incompleteness is the means presented to us to allow us to develop a deeper union with God and transform ourselves so that we are more like Him, as seen in the Person of Jesus.<\/p>\n

The East and West interpret salvation in a much different way. Instead of seeing our incompleteness as only being corrected through true obedience as the Western Church does, the Eastern Church sees the attainment of our completeness through knowledge of the meaning and purpose of life. The Eastern position is based on the biblical admonition and exhortation: \u201cYou will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, I am not trying to suggest that one approach is right and the other wrong. I am, however, saying that they are different and either can lead to salvation if we understand them and attempt to live by them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the last issue of this article I suggested that our Eastern spirituality interprets Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans as saying: \u201cbecause of death all sin\u201d instead of \u201cbecause of sin all die.\u201d Because of linguistic limitations of Latin, St. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[86,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4076","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gaining-a-deeper-understanding-of-our-faith","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4076"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4077,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4076\/revisions\/4077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}