tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38889537.post4755311580912321461..comments2024-03-07T00:43:49.073-08:00Comments on a..sinner: “Throne and altar” comeback in RussiaSophocleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07923381271179811989noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38889537.post-22729206719403263842008-07-11T00:13:00.000-07:002008-07-11T00:13:00.000-07:00Father bless,Thank you so much for visiting here, ...Father bless,<BR/><BR/>Thank you so much for visiting here, Father and thank you for your kind words regarding this blog I keep.<BR/><BR/>Forgive me for my late response to your comment. I had surgery on Sunday and recovery has been very painful(and time consuming--task I could breexe through take me a lot longer now and of course, many things I normally do have fallen by the way side in preference to letting my body heal.<BR/><BR/>And it is an honor to have this post linked up on your blog and feel free anytime you run across anything of value here to use at your leisure however you see fit.<BR/><BR/>This blog is maintained for several reasons. First and foremost because I enjoy doing so. Second, I want to create a sizable reference source of the lives of the Saints and the Holy Feasts of our Church which I am accomplishing one day at a time, one profile and icon at a time. This also goes goes for the news. By posting this news I hope to create, store and have readily available an archive of news information which can be accesses by visiting this blog's sidebar and clicking, for example, on "Orthodox News-Russia", which as I write, has 353 pieces of news items. I also attempt, for the reader's satisfaction, to "follow" stories. If I post a story and know that I have already posted on the same story, after providing the "SOURCE" link I also provide a link: "READ THE PREVIOUS POST RELATED TO THIS STORY:" and some stories have many tracebacks in this fashion.<BR/><BR/>A quick note on the stories themselves that are posted. VERY rarely do I provide commentary anymore mostly because of the sheer volume of stories I post. I don't have the time. <BR/><BR/>As well, let the reader know I often don't even like the stories I post for whatever reason; whether it be the opinion of the story's author I disagree with, the story's blatant errors, the story only providing a gloss of the history which needs much more development but does not get it and many other reasons I don't like an article.<BR/><BR/>I post them any way. One reason is to provide the reader with a better understanding of the culture from which within the Orthodox Faith is now held came from. <BR/><BR/>I always cite "SOURCE:" at the bottom(unless I forget) to let the reader know I did not write the story. This allows the reader to track the story to its source and author to dispute or comment on the story.<BR/><BR/>And a quick comment on your take on this post '“Throne and altar” comeback in Russia'. <BR/><BR/> There is a certain worldview inherent in the Orthodox Catholic Faith which does not always make sense to us who have been raised in a democratic society which by its pluralistic nature levels all "truths" down to a field where none is higher, better, or more true than any other truth and when one makes the claims of the Orthodox Church their own, by this very association, this person is stepping out of the millieu of our democratic system into something completely other, because the Church has a very definate self understanding or consciousness which She knows sets her apart from other "truths" because She derives Her being from the Truth Himself. The world will never understand this and Holy Scripture tells us as much.<BR/><BR/>Without getting much deeper along this line of reasoning's emanation, I think we should be a little more fair to Russia. I believe what we are witnessing in Russia is a nation behaving as an Orthodox Nation. Please allow me to clarify a bit, though, because obviously, not all is well there.<BR/><BR/>She grasps to her ancient past, from the very soil she sprang from, to once again discover who she is. As she does this,(I am giving the nation a personality for the sake of illustration), she knows that Protestantism should not exist, that it is a vibration from the Faith she received in her baptism. <BR/><BR/>But the form of governmnent in the world which is seemingly acsending, the pluralistic democracies in which no truth can be better than any other, view a nation like Russia, just as a people who all believe that there are many or no paths to the Divine(pick your own flavor) tend to look askance at an individual who believes in something so narrow as:<BR/>"there is only one Way to the Divine". <BR/><BR/>Russia goe back to the time befor schism in her understandings and formulations of confronting this modern world. Her concept of what "person" is, what a society constituted by such "persons" is and how it ought to be as it, the society strives to emulate The Eastern Romans("Byzantines") in their striving to make their society mirror the Holy Trinity in its sublime an ineffable be-ing. "Imitate me as I imitate Christ".<BR/><BR/>Of course, the Eastern Romans fell far short of this as did Russia pre Revolutioin and she will stumble post Revolution as well. <BR/><BR/>We people of the New World, simply cannot fathom in all its ramifications a society that looks to the Faith as does Russia. I t makes us all very uncomfortable.<BR/><BR/>As for the Unitates, that's a big topic in itself. I happen to believe the creation of this religious movement was purposeful and malevolent. But perhaps Russia's actions on the world stage may influence some to enter this fold.<BR/><BR/>Sorry for the length of this response and I hope it made some sense.Sophocleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07923381271179811989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-38889537.post-50639848547892249722008-07-10T05:20:00.000-07:002008-07-10T05:20:00.000-07:00First, thank you for your blog. I have found a gr...First, thank you for your blog. I have found a great deal of food for thought in things you have posted here A similar question about the attraction to authoritarianism of at least some Orthodox Christians has been raised on my own blog as well. I confess w/o shame, I find this tendency worrisome. More than that, I find that-at least potentially--the willingness of some to cozy up to bully boys and the rich and powerful at the expense of the poor and weak may very well undermine the confidence of many in the Church. To be direct, this kind of behavior is what encourages Orthodox Christians to become uniates.<BR/><BR/>Again, thanks for the post--I'll cross post in on my own blog if I may.Fr. Gregory Jensenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02674042923019379740noreply@blogger.com