Life and Death
“Why was the entire dispensation of history and work of Christ necessary? Could not God simply have saved humankind by fiat?...The solution God has provided is to heal our nature from the inside out. By joining His divine, eternal life to human flesh, Jesus Christ has overcome the power of death; hence mortality will be abandoned in the grave when the universal resurrection dawns. If this explanation is not sufficient for the inquirer, ‘Say something like this to reasonable p
Theosis/Union with God (2)
“God created this entire visible world so that, through man, He might become all in all. This is the human person’s specific mission: to be the link between God and the world, a link between all things, by uniting his spirit with God.” (Fr. Dumitru Staniloe) “It is the meaning of human existence that must be dealt with and not the regulation of human behavior and the legalistic prohibition of human actions, especially when these are dogmatized as ‘the norm.’…The creation of m
Enchantment/Disenchantment
“Strictly speaking, the modern world has not been disenchanted. Rather, it is now enchanted with money and the “invisible hand” of the...
Dangerous Pride
“…pride is stupidity. Why? Because how can we be proud when everything we have is not ours? How can I be proud of my appearance if God...
Good and Evil
“An evil person is not someone who is nothing but evil, someone with no redeeming features or virtues whatsoever. An evil person is not a...
Salvation
“…Chrysostom understands original sin not in terms of inherited or personal guilt but in terms of an inherited mortality that causes...
Bible/Scripture (Inspiration/Syngery)
“The Fathers understood the Bible to be unlike other texts in that there are always two authors working in synergy to produce each verse:...
Heresy
“Heresy comes from a Greek word that means “picking and choosing.” A heretic is someone who picks and chooses which parts of a religion...
Eternal Life
“…although humans could feasibly have united the various natural divisions in the created order, they could not of their own accord...
Essence (of God)
“God is beyond our human conceptions and we cannot describe Him thoroughly with human language. But the Church Fathers go even further:...