scholarly journals On the 250th Anniversary of A Plain Account of Christian Perfection: A Historical Review of Wesleyan Theological Hybridity and its Implications for Contemporary Discourses on Christian Humanism

2018 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dion Angus Forster
Keyword(s):  
Historical Review ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
John Wesley ◽  
Valuable Contribution ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
250Th Anniversary ◽  
Christian Humanism ◽  
Ordo Salutis ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Christian Perfection

In recent decades, there has been a resurgence of interest in discourses of secular and Christian humanism. This interest engages the question of what it means to be truly human, and what the implications of true humanity are for individuals and society. The genesis of theological and secular humanisms stems from the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis—God in Christ becomes human so that human persons may become more truly like the God whose image and likeness they bear. John Wesley was deeply influenced by Eastern Orthodox theologians. Without grasping this hermeneutic position, one cannot understand either the content or intent of John Wesley’s theology adequately. This paper expounds this aspect of Wesley’s theology by means of a historical theological exploration of the influences of Eastern Orthodoxy in Wesleyan soteriology. It is argued that when Wesley’s theology is understood as a hybrid of Eastern and Western theological influences and approaches, Christian perfection in the ordo salutis (order of salvation) supersedes the traditional Protestant emphasis on justification. In particular, this approach holds promise for making a unique and valuable contribution to contemporary discourses around Christian humanism.

New understanding and old myths. On I. Esaulov’s Russian Classics: New Understanding [Russkaya klassika: novoe ponimanie]

2020 ◽  
pp. 178-191
Author(s):  
E. V. Abdullaev
Keyword(s):  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Russian Literature ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
Russian Culture ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
Methodological Principles

The article examines methodological principles of studying the Russian literary canon in the cultural context of Eastern Orthodoxy, as demonstrated in I. Esaulov’s book. While acknowledging the importance of the book’s method, the article reviews and criticizes the concepts used by the scholar (the Eastern archetype, the Christmas archetype, the categories of Law and Grace, etc.). In particular, the author challenges the statement that a writer populates his works with archetypes prevailing in his culture (so Eastern Orthodox ones in the case of Russian culture), often against his own religious principles. Also subjected to critical analysis is the thesis about the Easter archetype being more specific to Russian literature, with the Christmas archetype being more typical of Western literature. On the whole, the paper argues that the transhistorical approach declared by the scholar as opposed to the rigorously historical method (M. Gasparov and others) may often lead to strained hypotheses and mythologizing; all in all, it may result in an ahistorical perception of both Eastern Orthodoxy and the literary canon.

The Cold War, the Unity of the Church and Eastern Orthodoxy, 1948-1966

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jurjen A. Zeilstra
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
Third Way ◽  
The World ◽  
World Council ◽  
East And West ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Church ◽  
East West

Chapter 7 traces Visser ’t Hooft’s activity as a (controversial) bridge builder during the period of the Cold War, on the unity of the church, and Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite the Cold War, which prevented Eastern Orthodox churches from joining the World Council, Visser ’t Hooft held firmly to the direction set by the World Council as a third way between East and West, utilising insights he laid out in earlier publications. At the same time the World Council had to deal with the question of churches recognising other churches as true. In this chapter we see how Visser ’t Hooft inspired people to apply ecumenicity across the East-West divide. The chapter also looks at criticism of Visser ’t Hooft’s approach.

scholarly journals Eastern Orthodox Agreement and Disagreement with Kenneth Collins and Jerry Walls

Perichoresis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 39-54
Author(s):  
Gary Hartenburg
Keyword(s):  
Good Reason ◽  
Roman Catholic ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
Literal Interpretation ◽  
Catholic Faith

AbstractIn their book, Roman but Not Catholic, Kenneth Collins and Jerry Walls make the case that certain beliefs central to the Roman Catholic faith are unreasonable. This article evaluates, from the point of view of Eastern Orthodoxy, some of the arguments Collins and Walls make. In particular, it argues first that Collins and Walls are correct to criticize John Henry Newman’s theory of the development of doctrine as a reason to accept otherwise insufficiently supported Catholic doctrines. Secondly, it offers some points of clarification concerning the matter of sacred tradition and attempts to show the areas of agreement and disagreement between Eastern Orthodoxy and the position that Collins and Walls articulate. Thirdly, it argues that Collins and Walls rely on what is, from an Eastern Orthodox point of view, a questionable view about the interpretation of scripture by assuming without good reason that the clear meaning of scripture is equivalent to the literal interpretation.

A Secularism of the Royal Doors: Toward an Eastern Orthodox Christian Theology of Secularism

2019 ◽  
pp. 108-130
Author(s):  
Brandon Gallaher
Keyword(s):  
Christian Theology ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
The West ◽  
Bearing Witness ◽  
Orthodox Christian ◽  
In Christ ◽  
Orthodox Theology ◽  
The Trinity

The opposites, sacred and secular, are in an ‘original’ or ‘polemical unity’ in Christ and do not have their reality except in Him in a polemical attitude toward one another bearing witness in this way to their common reality and unity in the God-Man. History’s movement consists of divergence and convergence from and toward Him. One cannot, therefore, understand secularism and the secular and secularization apart from the fact that the secular is what is continuously being accepted and becoming accepted by God in Christ. Influenced by the work of Bonhoeffer, Bulgakov, and Richard Kearney and invoking Orthodox liturgy and iconography, Gallaher points to a church that images Christ and the Trinity by manifesting itself in kenosis. He argues for a move from an Orthodox anti-secularism that simply denounces and shakes its fist at the West to a positive Orthodox theology of secularism that tries to see how Orthodoxy might witness boldly to Christ in the modern pluralistic and secular West.

scholarly journals Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches in Dialogue: Reception, Disagreement and Convergence

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-270
Author(s):  
Ciprian Iulian Toroczkai
Keyword(s):  
Special Reference ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
History Of

Abstract This paper presents details pertaining to the dialogue between Eastern Orthodox Churches and Oriental Orthodox Churches. A brief history of the official bilateral meetings between the representatives of these two Christian traditions is sketched in the first part of the paper. The texts which converge by way of doctrine are highlighted. In the second part I present some of the difficulties which still prevent Eucharistic intercommunion between Eastern Orthodoxy and Oriental Orthodoxy, in spite of the doctrinal agreement which has been reached. Finally, some possible solutions are drafted in the last part of the paper, with special reference to Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae’s proposal of broadening the dogmatic expression from Chalcedon.

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