Re: Two Previews Are Now AvailablegmcdavidDecember 12 2007, 18:17:42 UTC
OK. I am sold. Literally--I just placed my order.
I was familiar with a lot of the history in the excerpts, and found the discussion readable and interesting. So I guess I also qualify as a "church geek".
What seemed so 19th century to me was the combination of the thoroughly negative tone and the scholarly detail. I don't see much of that in the (mostly Anglican) theological discussions I look at these days. Of course, some of that tone may be an artifact of the English translation.
re: The Pope and the Council
anonymous
December 12 2007, 16:19:40 UTC
Have you looked into the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church? I had friends who were various denominations of the Orthodox Church (mostly Russian, Greek and Serbian Orthodox) but I didn't know much about their history. Then I read "Facing East" by Frederica Mathewes-Green who, with her husband, converted to Orthodoxy from the Episcopal Church. In the book, she states that originally, the Christian Church (at that time, the one and ONLY Church) had five patriarchates in the five cities of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Constantinople. Then, as you state, Rome broke off as the Catholic Church while the other four remained as the Orthodox Church. The book is fascinating reading and gives a nice, folksy introduction to Orthodoxy.
Re: The Pope and the Counciljeff_duntemannDecember 12 2007, 20:01:57 UTC
Yes, I have that book and have read it thoroughly. Most of what I know about Orthodox history comes from John Meyendorff's books and Bajis' Common Ground. A good popular history of the Orthodox Church would be useful, so if you have one do pass along the title.
Facing East is an odd thing; the author clearly delights in weird fasting rules and so on. I find the Orthodox theology much more palatable than their sometimes berserk sacramentalism. As best I can tell, sex falls right under their fasting/abstinence rules, as though making love to your wife were on a par with eating a ham sandwich. The Western Church gave up confusions like that centuries ago
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I was familiar with a lot of the history in the excerpts, and found the discussion readable and interesting. So I guess I also qualify as a "church geek".
What seemed so 19th century to me was the combination of the thoroughly negative tone and the scholarly detail. I don't see much of that in the (mostly Anglican) theological discussions I look at these days. Of course, some of that tone may be an artifact of the English translation.
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Jim Dodd
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Facing East is an odd thing; the author clearly delights in weird fasting rules and so on. I find the Orthodox theology much more palatable than their sometimes berserk sacramentalism. As best I can tell, sex falls right under their fasting/abstinence rules, as though making love to your wife were on a par with eating a ham sandwich. The Western Church gave up confusions like that centuries ago ( ... )
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