Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Is orthodoxy for today?

While I'm working on a longer post, here's something to chew on from a book I'm currently reading:

"The most salient feature of orthodoxy is not its rigidity but its flexibility. Since orthodoxy is centered in life in the eternal Word, it is free to enter willingly into infinitely varied cultural settings on behalf of its all-embracing vision of the truth." (Oden, Thomas C. The Rebirth of Orthodoxy, p.38)

5 comments:

  1. I always thought it was about Jesus, his death and resurrection. I hate orthodoxy. Sorry, but it's true.

    Between Paul, Peter and Jesus, I would choose Jesus every time. What does he have to do with orthodoxy? Or even our understanding of the Bible? Nothing.

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  2. Sounds interesting. I am so drawn to Orthodoxy but my first real-life experience of it was with people who really ARE very rigid. (Or perhaps they are just using their "priorities" according to some book they've read.) They do seem to act out of love in a most radical way - good, kind, self-sacrificing. Yet they turned against people who I think they chose to mistake as "enemies of Orthodoxy" (though, good and extremely Christian people), and when I would not "choose" between them...they dropped me (and my children, who are very hurt by it, I might add). This IS rigidity...and an odd sort of protectionism. I will never understand it, and little do they know how much harm they did to the Orthodox Church in my eyes by their actions.

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  3. Да, Оден очень интересный мыслитель. Правда, его прогнозы о возврате ортодоксии в современную культуру кажутся мне немного наивными.

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  4. Да? Ты читал? Мне дочитать никак, хотя интересно.

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  5. Я читал другую книгу, но он, похоже повторяется.

    ReplyDelete

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