The Meaning of a Story

...I certainly believe a story has to have meaning, but the meaning in a story can't be paraphrased and if it's there it's there, almost more as a physical than an intellectual fact.

-Flannery O'Connor

Reminding the Theologically Minded of the Obvious

"[R]evelation consists not so much in a disclosure of a sum of theoretical information about a God enclosed within his own transcendence, as it consists in God's act of descending to man and of raising man up to himself so that there might be achieved, in Christ, the deepest possible union and that this achievement might be the basis for extending between God and all the people who believe in him this same union."

-Dumitru Staniloae, The Experience of God

Freedom and Salvation

"In the West [the] mystery of freedom was distorted by the necessary but impetuous and exaggerated reaction of St Augustine to the voluntarism of Pelagius. Increasingly freedom and grace were contrasted by describing their respective roles in terms of causality. Can the free will of human beings be the cause of their salvation, as Pelagius claimed? Or is it the grace of God alone, as Augustine said? The latter's intuition - I am a wretch who has been saved gratuitously and so I sing Alleluia - is correct existentially, subjectively, but dangerous when stated objectively as part of a system. [...] The Greek Fathers (and some of the Latin Fathers), according to whom the creation of humanity entailed a real risk on God's part, laid the emphasis on salvation through love: 'God can do everything except force man to love him'. The gift of grace saves, but only in an encounter of love. Grace envelops the individual, the whole person, like an atmosphere ready to seep in through the smallest breach. But only faith in its sovereign freedom can cause the breach to be made. Then it becomes an active opening-up, the beginning of abandonment to the divine life. And for the good of humanity as a whole some are 'set apart', for it is not the isolated individual but humanity in communion, or rather, all human beings together, who truly constitute the image of God."

-Olivier Clément, The Roots of Christian Mysticism

Gregory of Nyssa and the Image and Likeness

"If humanity is called to life in order to share in the divine nature, it must have been suitably constituted for the purpose...It was essential that a certain kinship with the divine should have been mixed in human nature, so that this affinity should predispose it to seek what is related to it...That is why humanity was given life, intelligence, wisdom, and all the qualities worthy of the godhead, so that each one of the should cause it to desire what is akin to it. And since eternity is inherent in the godhead, it was absolutely imperative that our nature should not lack it but should have in itself th principle of immortality. By virtue of this inborn faculty it could always be drawn towards what is superior to it and retain the desire for eternity.
That is summed up in a single phrase in the account of the creation of the world: 'God created man in his own image.'"

"If the image could be essentially understood while the original remained incomprehensible, the image would not be an image at all. But our spiritual dimension, which is precisely that wherein we are the image of our Creator, is beyond our ability to explain...by this mystery within us we bear the imprint of the incomprehensible godhead."

-translation taken from The Roots of Christian Mysticism by Olivier Clément.

The Emperor Claudius on Immigration

Well, not really. I found this passage in I, Claudius by Robert Graves and my mind immediately went to some of the complaints I hear about all of the illegal immigrants coming here with their Spanish and Papism.

Augustus did all he could by legislation to encourage marriage among men of family. The Empire was very big and needed more officials and senior army officers than the nobility and gentry were able to supply, in spite of constant recruiting to their ranks from the populace. When there were complaints from men of family about the vulgarity of these newcomers, Augustus used to answer testily that he chose the least vulgar he could find. The remedy was in their own hands, he said: every man and woman of rank should marry young and breed as large a family as possible.

The importance of birth-rates is not very often addressed in history books, but it should be. One of the major reasons for the fall of Rome was the low birth rate. One of the reasons that American Independence was inevitable was the high birth rate in the colonies. Examples can be found from the fall of the Mycenaean civilization to the coming Islamic takeover of Europe. Democracy, Freedom of Religion, Peaceful Transfer of Power.... Say, "Goodbye to All That."

Behr on Scripture and Tradition

Father Stephen over at Glory to God for All Things pointed out this article, so I thought I would too as it's very good. Also interesting to note the different things that will jump out at two individuals when they read the same text. These are the quotes that popped out at me.

"It is not that the bishops, instituted by the apostles (who are not thought of as the first bishops, as they would be by Cyprian), automatically preserved the tradition of the apostles -- the Gospel which the apostles delivered -- but that they are bishops of the Church only to the extent that they do so, for the Church is founded upon the Gospel."

...

"If tradition is essentially the right interpretation of Scripture, then it cannot change -- and this means, it can neither grow nor develop. A tradition with a potential for growth ultimately undermines the Gospel itself -- it leaves open the possibility for further revelation, and therefore the Gospel would no longer be sure and certain. If our faith is one and the same as that of the apostles, then, as Irenaeus claimed, it is equally immune from improvement by articulate or speculative thinkers as well as from diminution by inarticulate believers...."

"From an Orthodox perspective, there simply is, therefore, no such thing as dogmatic development. What there is, of course, is ever new, more detailed and comprehensive explanations elaborated in defense of one and the same faith -- responding, each time, to a particular context, a particular controversy etc. But it is one and the same faith that has been believed from the beginning -- the continuity of the correct interpretation of Scripture. And for this reason, the Councils, as Fr. John Meyendorff pointed out [2], never formally endorsed any aspect of theology as dogma which is not a direct (and correct) interpretation of the history of God described in Scripture: only those aspects were defined as dogma which pertain directly to the Gospel. So, for instance, the only aspect pertaining to the Virgin Mary that was ever recognized as dogma is that she is Theotokos -- "Mother of God" -- for she gave birth to our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ -- it is something which pertains to the Incarnation, rather than to Mary herself. Whilst individual theologians have speculated about other aspects concerning the Virgin herself, and her glorification, items not directly pertaining to the Gospel of Christ's work of salvation, such as the Assumption and the Immaculate conception, have never been held to have the status of dogma in the Orthodox Church."

You can find the whole article here. Let me know what pops out at you.

Wright Sets Scholars Straight about the Bible

"Jesus literally staked His life on His belief that when Israel's God returned to Zion, it would be neither with a flash of lightning nor like Ezekiel's whirling wheels coming back through the desert; it would look like a young prophet riding on a donkey over the Mount of Olives in tears."

-N.T. Wright

You can find the whole article here.

Wilder on "Passionate Love"

"This assumption that she need look for no more devotion now that her beauty had passed proceeded from the fact that she had never realized any love save love as passion. Such love, though it expends itself in generosity and thoughtfulness, though it give birth to visions and to great poetry, remains among the sharpest expressions of self-interest. Not until it has passed through a long servitude, through its own self-hatred, through mockery, through great doubts, can it take its place among the loyalties. Many who have spent a lifetime in it can tell us less of love than the child who lost a dog yesterday."

-Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Divine Glamor of Friendship

"Like all solitary persons he had invested friendship with a divine glamor:he had imagined that the people he passed on the street, laughing together and embracing when they parted, the people who dined together with so many smiles,- you will scarcely believe me, but he imagined that they were extracting from all that congeniality great store of satisfaction."

-Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

The Marquesa on a Bender

"Then as the sun rose she would shut herself up in her room with some flagons and drift through the next few weeks without the burden of consciousness."

-Thornton Wilder, The Bridge of San Luis Rey

Acknowledging Ignorance

"How am I ignorant? I am as most of us are - I do not see the world clearly for what it is. I do not see other people clearly for what they are. I do not see myself clearly for what I am. And most importantly, I do not see God for Who He Is."

-Fr. Stephen at Glory to God for All Things.

The whole post is short and simple. But contains a lesson that I need to be reminded of quite often. I'm sure I'll be reading that post again and again in the coming months.

Quote from Frederica

"Christianity is not an institution, not a brokerage for spiritual transactions, but a treasury of wisdom; it’s the 'art and science' of gradually, increasingly being able to bear the light of Christ—the thing that we are made for, and yearn for."

Read the whole article here.

Respect for the Eucharist

The following is part of a reply (not mine) to an interesting story at Energies of the Trinity:

Regular communion is laudable, but while this was the practice of the early Church it was a practice that was part and parcel with a lot of other things. Simply picking out regular communion without paying attention to the strict piety and morality - the canons and commandments - that went along with it is simply Protestantism.

Paschal Homily of St. John Chrysostom

If anyone is devout and a lover of God, let him enjoy this beautiful and radiant festival.
If anyone is a wise servant, let him enter into the joy of his Lord with rejoicing.
If anyone has wearied himself in fasting, let him now receive his recompense.
If anyone has labored from the first hour, let him today receive his just reward.
If anyone has come at the third hour, with thanksgiving let him keep the feast.
If anyone has arrived at the sixth hour, let him have no misgivings; for he shall suffer no loss.
If anyone has delayed until the ninth hour, let him draw near without hesitation.
If anyone has arrived even at the eleventh hour, let him not fear on account of his delay. For the Master is gracious and receives the last, even as the first; he gives rest to him that comes at the eleventh hour, just as to him who has labored from the first. He has mercy upon the last and cares for the first; to the one he gives, and to the other he is gracious. He both honors the work and praises the intention.

Enter all of you, therefore, into the joy of our Lord, and, whether first or last, receive your reward. O rich and poor, dance for joy with one another! O you ascetics and you negligent, celebrate the day! You that have fasted and you that have disregarded the fast, rejoice today!
The table is rich-laden; feast royally, all of you!
The calf is fatted; let no one go forth hungry!
Let all partake of the feast of faith.
Let all receive the riches of goodness.
Let no one lament his poverty, for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn his transgressions, for pardon has dawned from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Saviour's death has set us free.
He that was taken by death has annihilated it!
He descended into hades and took hades captive!
He embittered it when it tasted his flesh! And anticipating this Isaiah exclaimed, "Hades was embittered when it encountered thee in the lower regions."
It was embittered, for it was abolished!
It was embittered, for it was mocked!
It was embittered, for it was purged!
It was embittered, for it was despoiled!
It was embittered, for it was bound in chains!
It took a body and, face to face, met God!
It took earth and encountered heaven!
It took what it saw but crumbled before what it had not seen!
"O death, where is thy sting? O hades, where is thy victory?"
Christ is risen, and you are overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in a tomb!
For Christ, being raised from the dead, has become the First-fruits of them that slept.
To him be glory and might unto ages of ages. Amen.

= = = = = = =

This homily is read in each Orthodox parish every Pascha. How could anybody improve upon it? What could I add to it with further comments?

Lewis's Vision of Hell

"...'[A] damned soul is nearly nothing: it is shrunk, shut up in itself. Good beats upon the damned incessantly as sound waves beat on the ears of the deaf, but they cannot receive it. Their fists are clenched, their teeth are clenched, their eyes fast shut. First they will not, in the end they cannot, open their hands for gifts, or their mouth for food, or their eyes to see.'"

C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

From Second Terrace

"I am afraid of the Cross,
Because I am afraid of death,
But not its approximation,
Which I have embraced.
I was born to die,
And have habituated myself to its fear."

Read the whole poem here.

The Mystery of the Trinity

"The kenosis of the Son reveals the mystery of God who is Love. This gift of life is an extension of a mysterious exchange at the heart of the Deity. In God himself the One does not exclude the Other, it includes it. The Unity of God is complete, so rich, that it is not solitude enclosed in itself, but rather the fullness of communion. And thereby the source of all communion.

...

In God the Holy Spirit is almost anonymous (since God is entirely Spirit, entirely Holy). He is almost confused with the unmoving movement of love in the divine nature, with the divine 'common nature', as St Basil says. He is revealed as rich, 'variegated' with all the divine names, and so almost indistinguishable from the divine energies that he imparts to us, in our inmost depths. It is as if he were effacing himself.

...

The Spirit is the hidden God, the inward God, deeper than our greatest depth. He gives life to all things and we breathe him without being aware of it. He is the breath of God in the breathing of the world, of humanity.

...

But this hidden God is not lost in immanence; he is entirely movement towards Christ, and , through Christ, towards the Father, in the same way as the energies that he imparts flow from the Father through the Son."

Olivier Clément, The Origins of Christian Mysticism

Dreams

"He who believes in dreams is completely inexperienced. But he who distrusts all dreams is a wise man. Only believe dreams that warn you of torments and judgments. But if despair afflicts you, then such dreams are also from demons."

St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent

Plantinga on Dawkins

I love Alvin Plantinga. (Gosh, I'm so full of love lately!) A great philosopher who is also funny and eminently readable (well, as readable as contemporary philosophy gets). Here's a link to his review of one of Richard Dawkins's books.

Here's an excerpt: "[O]ne can't rationally accept both naturalism and evolution; naturalism, therefore, is in conflict with a premier doctrine of contemporary science. People like Dawkins hold that there is a conflict between science and religion because they think there is a conflict between evolution and theism; the truth of the matter, however, is that the conflict is between science and naturalism, not between science and belief in God."

Of course you have to read the whole article to see how he comes to this conclusion.

Here is a link to other Plantinga articles.

Judgment of Judgment

"Christ's death on the cross is a judgment of judgment."

-St. Maximus the Confessor