Thank you for an interesting article. I'm just wondering, how free Stage 3 could be? Do people in this stage still believe there are heretics?
As for my experience, I started believing in something during Soviet times. I hated ideas of openly worshipping evil or performing human sacrifice but apart from that I thought any spiritual path is right. As my mother started going to the Orthodox Church so did I. But gradually I found myself spiritually "drowned" by fears, rules and regulation, killing, as it appeared to me, my heart and mind, starting juging people based on their "fitting" into the structure. It scared me. For me, this was the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’. Maybe I really started on Stage 2 but tried to go back to Stage 1 I don't know. It didn't work very well.
Now I feel bad when I hear "heretic" in church. I don't want to call anybody "infidel". One reason for this is that I like to admire good deeds or work of art made by people of any believes. I can't do this if I think they are very wrong in their understanding on the Universe. Many people say "I did my choice and the destiny of other people is not interesting to me". I can't think like that because once you connected in any way to a person I feel he or she is my "neighbour" now and I do care for her or his destiny. Basically I still need to belive firmly that any journey may bring a person to God. Are there any people on Stage 3 who believe like that or its not Christianity at all?
There were rather a lot of questions in your reply. Forgive me for not tackling all of them.
Yes, people in stage 3 do believe that there are heretics. But they use the word cautiously and they have no wish to burn them at the stake.
For me heresy is a way of thinking that leads people away from the way to God, leaving them wandering in the desert to die for lack of water. And unfortunately heretics exist, and the Church says: don’t follow them.
I hesitate with your ‘needing to believe firmly that any journey brings a person to God'. Yes, we both agree on the vital importance of setting out on the spiritual journey. But I do suspect that some people rather want to travel first class the whole way whereas there are places where you have to get out and walk over rough ground.
This rough ground includes facing some rather nasty things inside ourselves: anger, fear of emptiness, repressed sexuality and the like. The Christian believes he can face them in Christ and with Christ and - this is important - in Christ's good time. It is this that gives the freedom of stage 3.
Let me say one thing for which some people will want to burn me at the stake: our first priority is to be Christian. Being Orthodox is second to this. If the form in which Orthodoxy presents itself in a person’s particular situation blocks their way forward, then it is better to go part of the way with another confession than to quit the Christian faith.
Thank you very much for your reply. Sorry for bombarding you with questions. I don't mind that there are no WAYS OF THINKING which (temporary) leads people away from God but it seems to me that people do change their way of thinking, and when and how they turn to God is between them and God, we can't know that, every journey is unique so we can speculate about heresy but we can't call anybody a heretic. Sorry, I really ment that "any journey MIGHT bring a person to God".
I am not a theologian to know what is the "official" point of view on that but I can give you examples what I heard Orthodox christians (maybe just amateur believers) calling heresy: differences between the Orthodox and the Catholic "Credo", believes in the salvation of all souls, preexistence of souls, or in single nature of Christ (sorry, I'm not very good with English terminology here). The things that makes different versions of Christianity heresy to each others.
Yes, I recognize most of them. If I am not mistaken, only one of the four (single nature of Christ) has been officially branded as heresy. And yes, it can block progress. Yes, the other three are ‘not quite right’ (though serious theologians do not fight over the filioque). They are, though, part of the standard repertory of heterodox errors regularly spouted out by a certain type of Orthodox zealot who believes that outside Orthodoxy you are damned. Personally I find this type of zealotry juvenile and stupid, in particular in countries like England and Wales, where very clearly people have remained faithful to God, and God has blessed them in this faithfulness, outside the Orthodox Church.
As for my experience, I started believing in something during Soviet times. I hated ideas of openly worshipping evil or performing human sacrifice but apart from that I thought any spiritual path is right. As my mother started going to the Orthodox Church so did I. But gradually I found myself spiritually "drowned" by fears, rules and regulation, killing, as it appeared to me, my heart and mind, starting juging people based on their "fitting" into the structure. It scared me. For me, this was the ‘Dark Night of the Soul’. Maybe I really started on Stage 2 but tried to go back to Stage 1 I don't know. It didn't work very well.
Now I feel bad when I hear "heretic" in church. I don't want to call anybody "infidel". One reason for this is that I like to admire good deeds or work of art made by people of any believes. I can't do this if I think they are very wrong in their understanding on the Universe. Many people say "I did my choice and the destiny of other people is not interesting to me". I can't think like that because once you connected in any way to a person I feel he or she is my "neighbour" now and I do care for her or his destiny. Basically I still need to belive firmly that any journey may bring a person to God. Are there any people on Stage 3 who believe like that or its not Christianity at all?
I hope I make sense.
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Yes, people in stage 3 do believe that there are heretics. But they use the word cautiously and they have no wish to burn them at the stake.
For me heresy is a way of thinking that leads people away from the way to God, leaving them wandering in the desert to die for lack of water. And unfortunately heretics exist, and the Church says: don’t follow them.
I hesitate with your ‘needing to believe firmly that any journey brings a person to God'. Yes, we both agree on the vital importance of setting out on the spiritual journey. But I do suspect that some people rather want to travel first class the whole way whereas there are places where you have to get out and walk over rough ground.
This rough ground includes facing some rather nasty things inside ourselves: anger, fear of emptiness, repressed sexuality and the like. The Christian believes he can face them in Christ and with Christ and - this is important - in Christ's good time. It is this that gives the freedom of stage 3.
Let me say one thing for which some people will want to burn me at the stake: our first priority is to be Christian. Being Orthodox is second to this. If the form in which Orthodoxy presents itself in a person’s particular situation blocks their way forward, then it is better to go part of the way with another confession than to quit the Christian faith.
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Yes, the other three are ‘not quite right’ (though serious theologians do not fight over the filioque). They are, though, part of the standard repertory of heterodox errors regularly spouted out by a certain type of Orthodox zealot who believes that outside Orthodoxy you are damned.
Personally I find this type of zealotry juvenile and stupid, in particular in countries like England and Wales, where very clearly people have remained faithful to God, and God has blessed them in this faithfulness, outside the Orthodox Church.
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I even see evil in this zealotry. Thank you for your reply.
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