I haven't found any contact information for him. I can only speculate.KR Wordgazer wrote:Hmm. Some questions.
Can't the same be asked of any language suggesting union with God? I have never seen anything in the usage of such language that suggests that this means loss of individuality but rather its ultimately fulfillment. Jesus talks about people being with God as He and the Father are one, so I'm not sure why this is problematic.KR Wordgazer wrote:Do we get to keep our individual identities, or do we simply get "absorbed" into Christ?This and many similar biblical utterances have led early Fathers to the formation of a proper definition of Salvation as the state of complete identicalness with the Saviour Himself without involving either His Divine Essence or any creatural mediation.
He differentiates between the Orthodox Christ and churches which call themselves orthodox. He includes "all Churches and denominations" in his criticism as you quote above. I assumed that would include parts of his own church. His issue as I take it is whether people take these passages seriously or not. Clearly he finds the medieval Christianity (and its contemporary form which followed) that emerged from the early communities of the first few centuries of Christianity to be inconsistent with or in opposition to what he feels is the intent of such passages. It doesn't mean there can't congregations or individuals who would be exempt (or else he would have to include himself with everyone else). He does obviously feel that certain Eastern Orthodox Fathers got it right and he doesn't hesitate to say so or to list them. There is room to wonder whether his views of what Roman Catholic and Protestant churches believe is clouded by the more vocal and visible strands of these groups, but I am not interested in the sectarian angle.KR Wordgazer wrote:Odd. I am not Orthodox, and yet I believe this.For the born Saviour has been the Saviour of the world long before His Birth, indeed, before the creation of the universe. He has saved the world before all ages, certainly before creating.
The Protestant churches I have belonged to always taught "the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world." Why does he insist we don't?The issue at stake, therefore, is whether medieval and modern Christians have ever believed in Christ as Saviour of the world. Were the angelic Good Tidings to the shepherds of Bethlehem true or false? . . .
This is what many modern Christians do not want to know. This is what all Churches and denominations find ridiculous, meaningless, even threatening to their very existence.
I don't see where he speaks on behalf of the (Greek) Orthodox Church here or for any church's claim to the one true church. I may have missed it. It is possible to suggest one's church is the one that gets the message right (and is hence "true") without claiming it is the exclusive means or gateway to salvation, but this speculation goes too far beyond what is given in the text. Again, I don't see it as central to his thesis (or at least the part that interests me).KR Wordgazer wrote:If the Orthodox truly believe this, then why do they insist they are the only true Church?Since they were called to share in the inalienable gift of “being” by a Creator, who, has irrevocably assumed their very human being into His Divine Self, they cannot but end up becoming everlastingly “complete in Him. . .
His Salvation is not subject to awareness of It in order to be granted. Nothing can cancel His Eternal Will to save all humans, one way or another, as He always wanted(1Tim.2:4).The mere fact that He assumed humanity in order to be eternally united with all human beings, transcends the bleak impact of sin on our inalienably good nature, which is already deified in Him…
This is just his point as I understand it. Many folks would say "If you aren't going out to save people what is the point?" But the Gospel simply means good news and the commission is to share that news. Being an ambassador and building a Church to share this news doesn't have to equate with setting up an institution to save people (which first involves convincing them they are damned). The news that you are welcome, accepted and loved beyond measure isn't trivial nor is it easy to accept. The Church and its ambassadors would have plenty to do just living as if these things were true and sharing that acceptance and love with others.KR Wordgazer wrote:What of Jesus' commission to go "preach the gospel to every creature?" What about Paul's words about being "ambassadors for Christ"? Did He really give Christians nothing to do? Why did He say "upon this rock I shall build my church" if He didn't even want a Church?The question they would never ask is; whether someone who has not yet saved anyone and who means to save only a few at the end of time and that only with their collaboration could ever be construed as Saviour of the world.
I don't see that myself, but that's just me. It is sounds like the concept of irresistible grace. The idea that God, through Christ, is drawing all things to Him imperceptibly and inevitably is not new or controversial. If the teaching that all souls are restless until they rest in God is accurate, then the language used here has nothing to do with negating free will. I take his language to reveal the once common idea that despite our sense of separation from God some part of us remembers and is seeking wholeness, whether we seek it consciously or unconsciously and whether we seek it through organized religion or not.KR Wordgazer wrote:He seems to be saying that Christ saves people against their will.
I am not sure I follow you here. His charge of anthropocentrism comes from the notion that Christ was sent in response to human behavior, like, "Oops,the humans screwed up, better go save them." It isn't about whether salvation is imposed on people. Does the parable of the shepherd who will leave the ninety nine sheep to find the one that is lost tell us that God is going to come and save us whether we want him to or not? Or does it show the depth of God's concern for everyone, even those who stray or outright run away?KR Wordgazer wrote:Believing that you must cooperate is not the same thing as saying you are "helping" Him save you. Coming out of a controlling cult in my earlier Christian years, I inevitably bristle at any version of God which permits no human agency. It is not "androcentric" to insist that God respects the humanity of humans.
People sometimes write in a certain way because of how they are trained or their expected audience. Jesus infuriated educated Jews by telling them they were interpreting their own laws and sacred texts wrong, so much so in some cases that they tried to grab him and kill him. I am used to such a style. It almost sounds like he is writing to other Orthodox Christians -- we had it right and look what we've done with it. Again, I have no way of knowing what he intended or his frame of mind while writing. I don't approve of the "my way or the highway approach", and I can sympathize with your sensitivity to even the slightest hint of such an imposition.KR Wordgazer wrote:I'm sorry, but what I'm seeing is someone taking the "Savior before the foundation of the world" scriptures and using them as proof-texts, to trump every balancing passage that says our faith has something to do with it. It's not an either-or thing. It IS a "collaboration." God gives us the dignity of having personhood of our own. We are not simply to be "absorbed" into HIm. He wants an "I-thou" relationship with humanity, not an "I overwhelm and absorb thee till there's nothing left but Me" thing.
Maybe I'm reading it wrong. But I find this writer way too quick to blame every form of Christianity but his own, for not believing just as he does-- and to insist that if we don't interpret the "Savior of the world" passages the way he does, we don't really believe them. I've had that done to me too many times, to be agreeable with it just because it's a different set of Scriptures that it's being done with. . .
This isn't saying I don't think some form of universalism is a possibility. I don't know But I do know that God does not simply overwhelm His creatures with His power.
The rhetorical style aside, an analogy from Shin Buddhism may be useful here. In Pure Land Buddhism, Amida (aka Amitabha) Buddha is the face of Ultimate Reality which is experienced by humans as boundless wisdom and compassion. His origin is rooted in the notions of karma held by the cultures in which his story arose, a figure from countless ages past who became the Bodhisattva Dharmakara who worked to purify defilements and accumulate merit -- enough to cover everyone everywhere. This bit is important because it was basically saying "Whatever you have been taught by your religion or culture about existential guilt and punishment that debt is going to be covered -- you are free." Dharmakara vowed he would put off complete enlightenment in becoming a Buddha until he was able to save all sentient beings.
In some forms of Pure Land, the relationship is seen as cooperative between Amida and the practioner. In Shin, the idea was refined. The practioner's "self power" and Amida's "Other power" were not separate. On one level, yes, there is a cooperative relationship. Yet on another level, self power is just a form of Other power. This realization comes with the experience of Amida not as a powerful alien entity "out there" but the voice calling out from within. Hence even the ability to chant "Namu Amida Butsu" comes from Amida -- wisdom calling to wisdom, compassion calling to compassion. That within us that recognizes our true nature is the same as Amida (i.e. Ultimate Reality). In this view Amida couldn't have become a Buddha unless everyone was already saved. Therefore finding the reality of Amida in one's heart was proof that one was already "grasped, never to be abandoned." In none of this are Shin Buddhists taught they are just automatons or that Amida is forcing anything on them.
If we go back to Christianity many of the parallels become clear. Coming out of a system involving the law and sacrifices, Jesus becomes the Christ by entering the world as a human who then operates within the prevailing religion and cultural beliefs by becoming the perfect sacrifice capable of covering all people for all time. One can also look at the lives of the apostles and the saints, especially those contemplatives who talk about their mystical union with God. Verses from the New Testament also parallel the development recognized by Shin Buddhism, such as the claim that "It is not I who live, but Christ who lives in me", that "the Spirit helps us in our weakness" in prayer and "intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express", and the description of God as that "in whom we live and move and have our being." Not to mention the conviction "that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God."
The idea that we exist and act because of the power of God is neither uncommon nor is it a refutation of will or an imposition of power. That would assume a "thing A" (God) which wants to dominate "thing B" (human), but I don't see that dynamic being implied here in any way nor would it be consistent with the theology implied if I am understanding it right (of which there is little guarantee).