A thread to discuss authors like Dostoevsky and Vodolazkin, and works like the Philokalia and The Way of a Pilgrim
Quotes welcome
>He whose will and desire in conversation is to establish his own opinion, even though what he says is true, should recognize that he is sick with the devil’s disease. And if he behaves like this only in conversation with his equals, then perhaps the rebuke of his superiors may heal him. But if he acts in this way even with those who are greater and wiser than he, then his malady is humanly incurable. -The Ladder of Divine Ascent
>Mercy and justice in one soul is like a man who worships God and the idols in one house. Mercy is opposed to justice. Justice is the equality of the even scale, for it gives to each as he deserves; and when it makes recompense, it does not incline to one side or show respect of persons. Mercy, on the other hand, is a sorrow and pity stirred up by goodness, and it compassionately inclines a man in the direction of all; it does not requite a man who is deserving of evil, and to him who is deserving of good it gives a double portion. If, therefore, it is evident that mercy belongs to the portion of righteousness, then justice belongs to the portion of wickedness. As grass and fire cannot coexist in one place, so justice and mercy cannot abide in one soul. As a grain of sand cannot counterbalance a great quantity of gold, so in comparison God’s use of justice cannot counterbalance His mercy. -The Ascetic Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian
>All thinking denotes multitude or dyad at any rate, because it is a relation in the middle of certain extremes, conjoining the one who thinks with what is being thought. And none of them by nature saves simplicity entirely, since the one who thinks is some subject, having necessarily as a constituent the power of thinking. And what is being thought is at any rate a subject or into a subject, having as a constituent the potentiality of being thought or having underlying the essence of that, of which itself is the power. There isn’t any being at all, that is in itself a simple essence or mind, so that to be also indivisibly one. But God, whether we may call him essence, He doesn’t have by his nature as a constituent the power of being thought, because He is not composite, or (if we call him) thinking, He doesn’t have by his nature an underlying essence receptive of thinking.
-Maximos the Confessor's Two Centuries on Theology
Austin Wright
HAHAHA NICE SPOOKS NERDS!
Justin Adams
...
William Thompson
As someone born and raised in an Orthodox place, I must say it's always strange seeing foreigners being interested in this branch of Christianity. I've never thought anyone would find it appealing, especially in the more western places.
Ethan Walker
>branch It's the kind Christ founded. There are not branches of that, there's just one.
Xavier Diaz
It's LARPing by people who don't like modernity.
Lucas Jackson
This is what I initially thought, since it does appear somewhat mystical at first sight. Don't be autistic, you know what I meant.
Sebastian Davis
orthodox are redpilled, mainline denominations are liberalising
Liam Collins
I don't like (certain aspects) of modernist because I'm Orthodox, I'm not Orthodox because I don't like modernity. Before converting, I was a Marxist.
I thought everyone stopped taking Catholics seriously after WW2.
Jackson Nguyen
>Don't be autistic, you know what I meant. Sorry, it's just every Catholic and Anglican I've talked to lately has meme'd "branch theory"
Brandon Brown
cheers for the music
James Martin
I thought Orthodoxy was dead.
Julian Morales
It is risen
Lincoln Butler
>jew york He's against the church's official teaching alright.
But Orthocucks allow divorcing and remarriage.
Justin Perry
>But Orthocucks allow divorcing and remarriage. Valid grounds for """"""annulment"""""" of marriage in the Catholic Church include, but are not limited to: *you married for social status but the person did not have the status you expected *you didn't know marriage was a "permanent relationship" *you married intending to have the option of divorce open *you did not know marriage was an "exclusive relationship" stmarys-waco.org/documents/Grounds for Marriage Annulment in the Catholic Church.pdf ewtn.com/expert/answers/marital_consent.htm
Note that this doesn't mean deception is required--it just means that if the husband's social status didn't fulfill the wife's expectations, she can dissolve the marriage. But if your wife gets pregnant by another guy, you're stuck with her.
In the Orthodox Church, you certainly can't dissolve a marriage over "social status". There are basically three things that are valid reasons for divorce
>adultery or good reason to suspect adultery (such as your wife frequently being absent from home without your permission) Christ overly made an exception for adultery in his prohibition of divorce
>abandonment or something else that causes massive hardship for families, children included
and finally >your spouse refuses to have sex Marriage is, according to Paul, precisely for people who can't go through life without sex, so that's a very serious issue
In my orthodox (90%+) country, whoever wishes to get a divorce goes to court and gets one, then they can remarry in church, no questions asked. I've heard that the church only allows this three times--a three strikes you're out rule, if you will. In practice there's no way to count the strikes, unless one goes to the same church and the same priest. In other words, divorce is in no practical way barred or even discouraged by the church, except perhaps rhetorically. The church is only adamant in not performing a religious marriage unless the couple is already married under civil law, a marriage certificate being always required. I don't even know if the three strikes rule is in any way codified or merely hearsay. Orthodoxy here is mostly a set of interrelated superstitions anyway, at least as practiced by those whom I've come into contact with throughout my life.
Justin Ward
>whoever wishes to get a divorce goes to court and gets one, then they can remarry in church, no questions asked You're talking out of your ass. You can't remarry unless you get a divorce from the Church, or else the records would show bigamy
Ethan Powell
Considering the nature of orthodoxy as a nation based religion, it wouldn't be so odd that there was such a practice. If he provided the country, it could easily be checked.
Adam Lopez
Dude, I'm Orthodox top, and the only thing "nation-based" about the faith is jurisdiction. It's not "nation-based" in the sense of the Church of Denmark or the Church of England.
Hudson Diaz
too*
Jaxon Green
Which records? Do you think there is something like a centralized database of marriages that the church has access to? As I said, there is no need to "get a divorce" in church (I don't think such a thing is even possible, even if one wanted to). The priest will merely ask the happy couple if they were ever married before and will perform the service based on their good faith, which means they could lie. I'm not saying this happens very often, I presume doesn't. Either way, the church doesn't seem to care a lot is what I'm saying.
Kayden Kelly
> Do you think there is something like a centralized database of marriages that the church has access to? Yes, because there is. There is also a database for things like baptisms.
>As I said, there is no need to "get a divorce" in church (I don't think such a thing is even possible, even if one wanted to) Yes there is. You have to get a civil divorce first, then you have to wait one year, then you have to submit a form requesting divorce, and filling out the appropriate reasons, then your priest has to look into it, and if he gives the go ahead, the form goes to your bishop for approval or not, taking his recommendation and canon law into consideration.
>. The priest will merely ask the happy couple if they were ever married before and will perform the service based on their good faith No, marriage approval requires a certain period of counselling with the priest, and you have to fill out forms going over your prior marriages (if you had any), and why they broke down, among other things like where you were baptized, who your godparents were, and so on, and these forms are submitted to the higher ups, who check them with records, and then send them back. They've had systems like this in place for at least hundreds of years, to prevent bigamy.
Dylan Ortiz
Thanks, bro.
Angel Gomez
Laurus needs to become memecore here.
Ryan Lee
Now you're talking nonsense. I remember the first thing we were taught in Religion class (which back then was mandatory from grades 1 through 8) was that our church is the national and "autocephalous" church of the country (the latter meaning sovereign or independent, although we were told later on not to use either of those two other terms, for reasons that are beyond me). The church is very nationalistic and conservative and the nationalist (and even moderate) right tend to be quite religious.
And what do you mean by "orthodox top"?
Cameron Roberts
>Laurus is becoming a Veeky Forums meme >Seraphim Rose's "Nihilism" is becoming a Veeky Forums meme
Isaac Russell
Being autocephalous doesn't give civil marriages and divorces have ecclesiastical validity (since they both are enacted as applying to the couple through the entire Church, not just within your nation's borders), nor does it mean you can have whatever rules you like. It just means you don't answer to any bishop outside your borders, but you still have to follow the deposit of faith.
I corrected *too, it was typo
Kayden Kelly
>marriages and divorces have ecclesiastical validity
Where did I say that? Of course they don't. I'm just saying the church here is very much a national church in the "Church of England" sense and is open and proud about it, which you seem to be very sure is not the case.
Connor Parker
I typed a huge post in reply to yours then my phone died, which I am taking as a sign from God that I shouldn't be wasting so much time trying to set right people who are entrenched in their convictions despite having no first hand experience. Believe what you will. Just know that none of the things you described apply where I live. Perhaps you are depicting how things should be? If so, I bow before your knowledge in such matters, however your theory is far from my practice. Do you live in an orthodox country? If not, I fear you may be having a very idealized picture of orthodoxy, friend.
Joshua Young
The CoE sense means a department of the state completely subordinated to government administration.
Where exactly do you live? I can check on what you said quite simply.
Jeremiah Cox
mummy cummy
Ethan Rogers
>Where exactly do you live? If it's the guy I think it is, I think he's from Romania.
You also have to attach other documents (see bottom)
Samuel Lee
god, she is perfect
Hunter Richardson
Good read.
Asher Russell
The Orthodox and Catholic Churches will merge together within this century.
I don't know what they're waiting for. Perhaps South America to go full atheist? The replacement rate for Western Catholics to fall below that of critically endangered species? It's only a matter of time.
Asher Jenkins
You seem to think Christianity is endangered. It isn't.
But you're right. The Churches will reunite. Pope Francis has set it in motion already. Look to the Third Council of Nicaea in 2025. The Holy Spirit is at work.
