Thursday's Theological Thoughts

Source: oca.org

Recently, the Church commemorated the 30th anniversary (1996 - 2016) of the repose of Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, internationally acclaimed theologian and patriotic scholar. I had the great privilege of studying under - and worshiping with - Fr. John for three years at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (1978-1981). This short, but brilliant passage is a wonderful distillation of Fr. John's understanding of the role of  theology in the Church throughout the centuries and, of course, for today. 

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When Orthodoxy speaks of a “return to the sources,” it does not mean a return to the dead past, but only continuity and consistency with the apostolic faith. Consistency does not imply repetition, but living understanding—or gnosis—of the faith “once delivered to the saints,” which must be rediscovered, reformulated, and witnessed anew in the midst of historical change. Furthermore, the theology of the New Testament implies not only preservation of a faith revealed once for all, but it also affirms that human history has a meaning and a goal. Christians will be judged not only for their faithfulness to the past, but for the manner in which they have worked for and prepared “the last things” (ta eschata).

Jesus Christ is not only the alpha, but the omega (Rev. 1:8; 21:6; 22:13). His presence, through the Holy Spirit, in His Body, the Church, judges the past, the present, and the future, of the East and of the West.

–Fr. John Meyendorff, The Orthodox Church (SVS Press, 1981)

Apostles Fast Meditation - Holy Apostles Bartholomew and Barnabas

Source: orthodoxchristiansupply.com

 Christian freedom is not merely a “freedom from” the world; it is also a positive experience and a positive dignity. It is not only a power to choose, but also the very likeness of God in man, unattainable except by communion with God. Once this communion is given, the world cannot take it back. In this sense Christian freedom is the joy and the dignity of slaves, of the persecuted, of the deprived, and of the humiliated, in other words of all those who are victims of this world, of its power, and of the determinism from which Christ freed man when He died on the Cross, and its meaning is best understood by those who are themselves suffering from the powerful.

—Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, Living Tradition

In the Life of the Church

Source: uncutmountainsupply.com

 

Dear Parish Faithful & Friends in Christ, Looking back to our immediate past, on the first Sunday of Great Lent, in the context of the Sunday of Orthodoxy, I focused on the notion of Holy Tradition in the homily. Following that homily, Presvytera Deborah reminded me of two outstanding passages on this all-important subject from Fr. John Meyendorff (+1996), both a prominent historian and theologian from the 20th c. and my professor at St. Vladimir's Seminary. The importance of these two passages is found in the fact that Fr. John both recognizes our Lord's condemnation of "human traditions" when they become an obstacle in our relationship with God; while simultaneously making it clear that there is a Holy Tradition by which the Church lives, moves and has its being. Faithful Orthodox Christians always need to keep that in mind, as small "traditions" can at times consume our attention at the expense of the  endlessly-widening expanse of Holy Tradition. These texts are equally important for our inquirers, who are coming to terms with learning about the Church's Holy Tradition from a background that either ignores or rejects the very notion of "tradition." _____ "No clear notion of the true meaning of Tradition can be reached without constantly keeping in mind the well-known condemnation of "human traditions" by the Lord Himself. The one Holy Tradition, which constitutes the self-identity of the Church throughout the ages and is the organic and visible expression of the life of the Spirit in the Church, is not to be confused with the inevitable, often creative and positive, sometimes sinful, and always relative accumulation of human traditions in the historical Church." Living Tradition, p. 21. "The very reality of Tradition, a living and organic reality manifesting the presence of the Spirit in the Church and therefore also its unity, cannot be fully understood unless it is clearly distinguished from everything which creates a normal diversity inside the one Church. To disengage Holy Tradition from the human traditions which tend to monopolize it is in fact a necessary condition of its preservation, for once it becomes petrified into the forms of a particular culture, it not only excludes the others and betrays the catholicity of the Church, but it also identifies itself with passing and relative reality and is in danger of disappearing with it." Living Tradition, 25-26.