Tag Archives: Eastern Church
The Death of Death
Jesus’ Resurrection The Death of Death Sunday, April 21, 2019 Easter The seeds of Easter are already found in Christmas. If God can become flesh, incarnating in the material world, then resurrection is a natural conclusion. Nothing divine can die. Easter isn’t celebrating a one-time miracle as if it only happened in the body of… Continue Reading The Death of Death
Eastern Christianity: Weekly Summary
Eastern Christianity Summary: Sunday, September 9-Friday, September 14, 2018 The Cappadocian Fathers developed an intellectual rationale for Christianity’s central goal: humanity’s healing and loving union with God. (Sunday) Matter and Spirit must be found to be inseparable in Christ before we have the courage and insight to acknowledge and honor the same in ourselves and… Continue Reading Eastern Christianity: Weekly Summary
Participation in the Incarnation
Eastern Christianity Participation in the Incarnation Friday, September 14, 2018 Rise up in splendor! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines upon you. —Isaiah 60:1 George Maloney (1924–2005), a Catholic priest in the Russian Byzantine Rite with a doctorate in Eastern Christian spirituality, and I used to be on the same speaking… Continue Reading Participation in the Incarnation
Universal Restoration
Eastern Christianity Universal Restoration Thursday, September 13, 2018 The shape of creation must somehow mirror and reveal the shape of the Creator. We must have a God at least as big as the universe, or else our view of God becomes irrelevant, constricted, and more harmful than helpful. The Christian image of a torturous hell… Continue Reading Universal Restoration
Theosis
Eastern Christianity Theosis Wednesday, September 12, 2018 The Orthodox teaching of divinization, or theosis, according to Pope John Paul II, is perhaps the greatest gift of the Eastern Church to the West, but one that has largely been ignored or even denied. [1] The Eastern fathers of the Church believed that we could experience real and transformative… Continue Reading Theosis
Trinity
Eastern Christianity Trinity Tuesday, September 11, 2018 Just as some Eastern fathers saw Christ’s human/divine nature as one dynamic unity, they also saw the Trinity as an Infinite Dynamic Flow. The Western Church tended to have a more static view of both Christ and the Trinity—more a mathematical conundrum than an invitation to new consciousness.… Continue Reading Trinity
Christ is Everyman and Everywoman
Eastern Christianity Christ is Everyman and Everywoman Monday, September 10, 2018 Many passages in the New Testament give a cosmic meaning to Jesus as the Eternal Christ (Colossians 1, Ephesians 1, John 1), but the Eastern fathers of the Church were the first (and last) to make this into a full theology until Bonaventure and… Continue Reading Christ is Everyman and Everywoman
The Patristic Period
Eastern Christianity The Patristic Period Sunday, September 9, 2018 As I shared last week, the desert fathers and mothers focused more on the how than the what. Their spirituality was very practical: virtue and prayer-based. Now we turn to its parallel, the Patristic Period, which emphasized the what—the rational, philosophical, and theological foundations for the young Christian religion. This… Continue Reading The Patristic Period
Dying to Self
Participation: Week 1 Dying to Self Wednesday, April 6, 2016 In truth, we must change our very self-image rather than just be told some new things to see or do. To be a Christian is to objectively know that we share the same identity that Jesus enjoyed as both human and divine, which is what… Continue Reading Dying to Self