| Christian Ethics: On the Road from Self-sufficiency to Self-determination Ethics as a closed and self-sufficient system Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines ‘ethics’ as the ‘discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation’. Another definition given by the same dictionary presents ethics as a set of moral principles. In other words, it is a systematized view of the nature of ethical norms as well as a codification of these norms. This as well as other definitions of ethics present it as a closed and self-sufficient system of views which can exist outside both religious and philosophical discourse. This view of ethics was formed in the Enlightenment. As Prof. Stanley Houerwas of Dewk University, North Carolina, a renowned specialist in ethics, remarked, ‘Autonomy (i.e. self-liberation) became the great watchword of the Enlightenment. The autonomy of the individual was but a correlate of the autonomy of ethics; that is, both the individual and the ethics that established the moral dignity of the individual were assumed to be free of any historical and religious determination’ However, the development of ethics including Christian ethics as an independent discipline, however paradoxical it may seem at first glance, became a logical consequence of the Enlightenment or rather a reaction to it. It is Emmanuel Kant who can be rightly called the father of ethics as shaped in the Enlightenment to pre-determine the development of this discipline to this day. He, unlike many other thinkers of the Enlightenment, claimed to be Christian. He saw his Christian duty in the need to defend the provisions of Christian faith in face of those who challenged it. His attempt to build an ethical system was dictated, among other things, by a desire to justify the Christian morality. True, to this end he had to ‘separate’ this same morality from the person of Christ. Christ, in Kant’s view, was no longer a source of morality but rather its most possible embodiment, whereas the source or ‘archetype’ of moral law, according to Kant, lies in human reason. Therefore, a human being, in analyzing the moral law built in his very nature and seeing that this moral law is embodied as much as it is possible in the person of Christ, should come to the conclusion that to be a Christian is something that does not at all contradicts reason but also enables him to develop as a person of high moral standards as reason demands. Actually, Kant’s logic reminds us of Tertullian’s famous maxim that the human soul is by nature Christian Just as Tertullian, Kant wanted to show the universality of the foundations of Christian faith and morality as invariants in any coordinate system in which they may be viewed, be it a system of Christian or atheistic views. |
| Metropolitan Onuphry: “The Key to the Doors of Paradise is Repentance” The metropolitan reminded the faithful that one should be ashamed of sin, not of one " s confession of this sin before a priest. Pravmir.com team 24 January 2022 Photo: news.church.ua Repentance is the basic virtue that opens the doors of paradise to a person said His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry of Kiev and All Ukraine in his sermon on January 23, 2022, reports news.church.ua . “The key to the doors of paradise is repentance. Repentance is the rebirth of human nature, its renewal. We cast out sin from ourselves through repentance. The sin is spiritual rot that infects human nature and gradually leads to its mortification,” said the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry reminded the faithful that the Lord gives repentance only in this earthly life, because there is no repentance in the afterlife. This gift, he said, is the Lord’s condescension to the weakness of human flesh. “A person can sin with the most unbelievable, the greatest, and the most serious sins, but repentance allows a person to cleanse these sins and make his clothes clean, bright and appropriate to enter the wedding feast that the Lord has prepared in the Kingdom of Heaven,” said the metropolitan. Inciting a person to sin, the human enemy first inclines one to shamelessness, and after one has committed a sin, induces false shame. However, the holy fathers teach us that one should be ashamed of sin, reminded Metropolitan Onuphry. “When you have sinned, take off your mask of shame and go with commendable shamelessness to confess your sins before a priest. It will be saving and beneficial for a person,” the metropolitan said. He stressed that we need to accustom ourselves to repentance, because we sin more often than we breathe. “Asking the Lord for forgiveness is very good. Thus a person develops a skill of repentance. A person has the skill to sin, but he must acquire the skill to create Christian virtues. When a person develops the skill of repentance, it is easy for him to fight against himself, against his passions,” explained Metropolitan Onuphry. |
| Tweet Нравится Symposium in Honor of Newly-Glorified St. Sebastian Dabovich Alhambra, CA, September 8, 2015 The festivities of the Nineteenth Diocesan Days gathering of the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and South America continued on Saturday following the Divine Liturgy in which the proclamation of glorification of St. Sebastian Dabovich was read with a symposium luncheon. The symposium was emceed by Fr. Josiah Trenham, pastor of St. Andrew Orthodox Church (Antiochian) in Riverside, CA and featured several instructive and interesting discussions concerning the life, canonization and icons of St. Sebastian from various special guests. From the words of the various speakers it is clear that St. Sebastian was a holy man, greatly loved by those who knew him and those who have come to know him after his repose. Fr. Josiah Trenham emceeing the St. Sebastian symposium The program began with Fr. Josiah’s greeting of all the hierarchs, especially including His Holiness Patriarch Irinej, His Eminence Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, and His Grace Bishop Maxim in whose cathedral these illuminating events were held. Each speaker likewise began with greetings for the gathered hierarchs, which are here omitted. In introducing the symposium Fr. Josiah offered a beautiful “summary” of what it means to be a saint: Brothers and sisters this is a very delightful day and a day of tremendous significance for us Orthodox Christians to celebrate the day of glorification of St. Sebastian of San Francisco. The glorification of a saint is an honor and ennobling of human nature. It is the unveiling of the true calling of every one of us in this room and of every human being. It is the accomplishment of God’s will for the human race and it is the culmination of all of the saving acts of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the reason for the Incarnation, it is the reason for the Transfiguration, it is the reason for the Passion and Crucifixion of our Savior. It’s the fruit of the Resurrection. It is the continuance of our Savior’s ennobling of human nature through the glorious Ascension forty days after His Resurrection and it is the direct result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Church on the day of Pentecost. St. Sebastian therefore holds for all of us tremendous significance and his elevation into Heaven is not just a magnificent delight for God Who wills this for us all but also for us. Holiness is possible. |
| The Holy Fathers of Orthodox Spirituality Different Patristic books on the spiritual life are suitable for Orthodox Christians in different conditions of life: that which is suitable especially for solitaries is not directly applicable to monks living the common life; that which applies to monks in general will not be directly relevant for laymen; and in every condition, the spiritual food which is suitable for those with some experience may be entirely indigestible for beginners. Source: Saint Mary of Egypt Orthodox Church II. HOW TO READ THE HOLY FATHERS THE PRESENT PATROLOGY will present the Fathers of Orthodox spirituality; therefore, its scope and aims are rather different from the ordinary seminary course in Patrology. Our aim in these pages will be twofold: (1) To present the Orthodox theological foundation of spiritual life —the nature and goal of spiritual struggle, the Patristic view of human nature, the character of the activity of Divine grace and human effort, etc.; and (2) to give, the practical teaching on living this Orthodox spiritual life, with a characterization of the spiritual states, both good and bad, which one may encounter or pass through in the spiritual struggle. Thus, strictly dogmatic questions concerning the nature of God, the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation of the Son of God, the Procession of the Holy Spirit, and the like, will be touched on only as these are involved in questions of spiritual life; and many Holy Fathers whose writings deal principally with these dogmatic questions and which touch on questions of spiritual life only secondarily, as it were, will not be discussed at all. In a word, this will be primarily a study of the Fathers of the Philokalia, that collection of Orthodox spiritual writings which was made at the dawn of the contemporary age, just before the outbreak of the fierce Revolution in France whose final effects we are witnessing in our own days of atheist rule and anarchy. In the present century there has been a noticeable increase of interest in the Philokalia and its Holy Fathers. In particular, the more recent Fathers such as St. Simeon the New Theologian, St. Gregory the Sinaite, and St. Gregory Palamas, have begun to be studied and a few of their writings translated and printed in English and other Western languages. One might even say that in some seminary and academic circles they have “come into fashion,” in sharp contrast to the 19th century, when they were not “in fashion” at all even in most Orthodox theological academies (as opposed to the best monasteries, which always preserved their memories as holy and lived by their writings). |
| Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church meets with President of Ireland H.E. Mary McAleese Moscow, September 9, 2010 On 8 September 2010, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia met with the President of the Republic of Ireland, Her Excellency Mary McAleese. The meeting took place at the Patriarch’s working residence on Chisty side street. The Russian Orthodox Church was represented by hegumen Philipp (Ryabykh), deputy chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations (DECR); Rev. Sergiy Zvonarev, DECR secretary for far abroad countries; and a staff member of the same secretariat Miguel Palasio. Taking part in the meeting was H.E. Mikhail Ye. Timoshkin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Ireland. Ireland was represented by the President’s husband Mr. Martin McAleese, H.E. Philip McDonagh, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ireland to Russia; Mr.Adrian O’Neill, Secretary-General to the President; Mr. Michael Forbes, Director for Russia at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin. The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church greeted the high guests and their suite. His Holiness noted that spiritual and cultural traditions of Russia and Ireland had much in common. “Common sources of an ascetic tradition of the ancient Celtic Church and our ascetic tradition are especially important for me. The ancient monastic tradition of North Africa has given us our common roots. Because of our common ascetic tradition, the Orthodox venerate St. Patrick, the enlightener of Ireland. “Along with spiritual tradition we have acquired the system of values, which exists at present and is closely connected with moral orientation of human persons. However, I see the unfortunate dangerous tendencies in the development of human civilization. This danger is in neglecting the moral nature of a human person. Modern philosophy underscores the meaning of human freedom and law. It is supposed that a free man, who abides the law, is a good man. This is a deep misapprehension. Being free, one can abide the law and be an awful man. The neglecting by modern society of the notion of personal and social morality exposes the development of human civilization to a great danger.” |
| Gender Mainstreaming—A Cultural Revolution Gabriele Kuby There is a Cultural Revolution happening behind the back of public awareness, which is about to change the innermost core of our social structure in society. It’s about dissolving the identity of man and woman step by step; sexual standards and social forms based on marriage, family, motherand fatherhood. This Cultural Revolution is called Gender Mainstreaming. Mainstreaming means to take a concept and create a “mainstream” in society, through active political action: creating the new “gender-person”. Before a reinterpretation, gender was a grammatical term to describe the genus of a word as masculine, feminine or neutrum, whereas sex meant the female or male identity of man and woman. The gender perspective is to abolish this identity. It is an in itself closed system of belief which asserts that the differentiation into two sexes is only a construct of society. Biological differences would be with no significance for the identity of a human being and his or her sexual orientation, so that the social sex could be different from the biological sex. To choose one’s own sex and sexual orientation would belong to the realm of personal liberty of every human being. There would not only be two sexes, but at least six: man and woman, and each in a heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual version. It’s all about creating a human being “emancipated” from nature. This contortion of truth, in disregard of nature, has philosophical backgrounds on relativism which negates the perceptibility of objective truth (more on relativism [German]). Marx’s and Engel’s utopia about a classless society which aims at equality of all men, too, has its roots in this ideology. Engels wrote: “The first class difference that arouse in history coincided with the development of the antagonism between man and woman in a monogamist marriage and the first class oppression with the suppression of women by men”. Simone de Beauvoir was not satisfied with fighting for equality between man and women, but sought to negate the very being of man and woman in their biological sex. She formulated the famous phrase, “One is not born a woman, but turned into one.” It is special to our times to deny the existential, social and cultural relevance of the biological identity of our sex through social engineering and to randomly annihilate the identity of man and woman which has historically grown throughout thousands of years, through a cultural top-down revolution. |
| Many people today are made to pass by a dry-erase board at work, hanging prominently where everyone is bound to see it many times a day, tracking their job performance month-to-month and keeping all employees in a constant game of mutual comparison. Unfortunately, this method of employee motivation works, works very well. And it cost the business nothing! It works well because it plays on powerful motivating factors in the human psyche – social acceptance and personal efficacy. For too many, the work place dry-erase board is a microcosm of life—a life animated in large part by a strong sense of individualism and autonomy; an “every man for himself,” thing. Often when a Christian crosses over from this conditioning into the religious-spiritual environment little seems to change; it’s still a private affair: “just me, my Bible, and Jesus!” What is interesting is that many people who claim to endorse the independent/autonomous lifestyle also begrudge the concomitant isolation it inevitably brings. For most people, regardless of the outward enthusiasm for independence, there lies a deep desire for intimate community. For the Orthodox Christian, this desire is understood to be the natural orientation of the human soul. Being created in the image and likeness of God, humans, like God, are communal by nature (God is Trinity). It is the radical individualism experienced from all corners in daily life that are the expected manifestations of human nature when removed from its communion with God. The sacrament of baptism is the path Christ provides for return to this union. This is not to say that baptism is a communal event and nothing more. Like repentance, baptism engages the whole person in the most private manner possible. I like how Kierkegaard describes the way in which God confronts each individual person by requiring them to enter His kingdom through the parabolic “narrow gate”. He relates it to the image of the battle of Thermopylae, where the 300 Spartans held off the Persian armies by forcing them through a narrow pass; in a like manner God holds back the crowds and takes in each person one-on-one. |
| On the Baptism of Children Born to “Surrogate Mothers” admin 03 January 2014 The following document was adopted at a meeting of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church on December 25-26, 2013 (journal No. 158). +++ At the present time, the reproductive biomedical technology that has received the name “surrogate motherhood” has become increasingly widespread. While several countries permit this practice by law, it continues to provoke heated debate in society. The “ The Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox Church ,” adopted by the Jubilee Bishops Council in 2000, assessed this phenomenon. However, a whole series of questions regarding the pastoral relationship towards the consequences of “surrogate motherhood” continues to raise discussion. The present document of the Russian Orthodox Church gives ecclesial-practical guidance concerning the Baptism of children born with the help of a “surrogate mother.” The Church regards marriage as a primordial establishment of God, rooted in God-created human nature. In the Christian understanding, marriage is a spiritual and physical union of man and woman allowing them to realize the fullness of their human nature. The Church sanctifies marriage, likening it to the spiritual union of Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5:22-33). The fruit of conjugal love are children, whose “birth and upbringing belong, according to the Orthodox teaching, to one of the most important goals of marriage” (BSC X.4). The birth of a child is not only the natural consequence of marital relations, but also the great event of the coming into the world of a new human person, bearing the image and likeness of God the Creator. By giving birth to children, a husband and wife take upon themselves a grave responsibility, inasmuch as they are called to exercise the utmost care simultaneously for their physical and spiritual health: from the period of gestation and the first days of life until the coming of age. A special role in the birth and upbringing of children belongs to the mother, who is closely bound to her child by ties of body, soul, and spirit. The Church sees a great example of motherhood in the Most Holy Theotokos, whose image reveals the supreme worthiness of woman and the uniqueness of her maternal vocation. |
| It is important to clarify the Church’s teaching on asceticism because many voices in the environmental movement encourage a kind of ascetical lifestyle in the name of “ethical consumption.” Orthodox writers on the environment are not immune to the temptation of putting the ascetical tradition of the Church in the service of another agenda. For example, the conclusion of the Inter-Orthodox Conference on Environmental Protection, held in Crete in 1991, states: “Humanity needs a simpler way of life, a renewed asceticism, for the sake of creation.” Many Orthodox writers call on asceticism—fasting in particular—to reduce consumption. Deacon Dr. John Chryssavgis, the theological advisor to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on environmental issues, has noted that, “In his now classic article entitled ‘The Roots of our Ecological Crisis,’ Lynn White already suspected—although he did not elaborate on—the truth behind asceticism.” Furthermore, Orthodox theologian Elizabeth Theokritoff has pointed out the beneficial effects of Orthodox fasting discipline (which includes abstaining from sexual relations) on population control. Given the temptation to which many have succumbed, a few words on the proper role of asceticism are in order. Asceticism comes from the Greek asksis , which simply means “exercise.” Asceticism, therefore, is simply spiritual exercise undertaken for the health of the soul. Here, we must be careful to set aside popular caricatures of asceticism as either a kind of masochistic, self-flagellated misery or a kind of Gnostic attitude which exalts lofty spiritual things over crass material things. (This latter view is often associated with those environmentalists who have constructed a religion of nature worship.) With regard to this caricature of asceticism, Romanian Orthodox theologian Fr. Dumitru Stniloae noted: Fr. Dumitru Stniloae According to the current use of the word, asceticism has a negative connotation. It means a negative holding back, a negative restraint, or a negative effort. This is because the sinful tendencies of our nature, the habitual things that lead to its death, have come to be considered as the positive side of life. Ascetical striving, though negative in appearance, confronts the negative element in human nature with the intent to eliminate it by permanent opposition. |
| Do Infants Go to Hell If They Die Before Baptism? The Doctrine of Original Sin Re-examined The doctrine of Original Sin has been circulating for about 1600 years but it is not supported scripturally or theologically by the tradition of the Early Christian Church. It is a theological development mistakenly introduced by St. Augustine. (1) Question: What happens to children if they die before baptism? Are un-baptized babies condemned? Once, a lady came to my office to talk to me about the sadness she was experiencing for many years; she had had five miscarriages and was mourning the loss of her children. Her biggest difficulty with the issue, she explained, was that her children were condemned to hell because they were never baptized. I asked her how she had come to that conclusion and she answered that she was taught early in her life that all people who die and have never been baptized go to hell, even infants, because of “original sin”. The two questions I would like to raise here today are (1) “Where has this idea come from?” and (2) “Is this the teaching of the Ancient Christian Church?” Historically speaking, this idea was propagated through the centuries by the Roman Catholic Church. They received this teaching from the great saint and doctor of the Western Church St. Augustine, who had based his anthropology on the concept of “traducianism”. According to the philosophical concept known as “traducianism” human souls, like human bodies, are derived from the seed of the father, hence the father may transmit to his children even his own sins. This idea is clearly found in Tertulian and also in Ambrosiaster’s (2) commentary on Romans, which appeared during the papacy of Damasus (366-384). Augustine was influenced in his theory of human nature by both Ambrose and Ambrosiaster. It was Ambrosiaster’s commentary, however, that played a decisive role in Augustine’s theory of “original sin.” It was here that Augustine found not only the traducianist concept but also the idea of sinning in massa, in other words, that the whole human race has sinned through Adam and is condemned through his sin. |
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