My Struggle With Eastern Christianity

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Ziggamafu' post='1865119' date='May 12 2009, 09:23 AM']Just because things of God will ultimately remain mysteries does not mean that we cannot plunge our minds (along with our spirits) deeper and deeper into the truths that may be grasped.[/quote]
If I were willing to reduce the mysteries of the faith to discursive axioms open to logical development I would agree with you, but I am not willing to do that. I reject the Scholastic reduction of God to a "supreme being," for He is in fact beyond being.

[Hassan]

[quote name='Apotheoun' post='1865280' date='May 12 2009, 01:57 PM']If I were willing to reduce the mysteries of the faith to discursive axioms open to logical development I would agree with you, but I am not willing to do that. I reject the Scholastic reduction of God to a "supreme being," for He is in fact beyond being.[/quote]


That strikes me as very sane, more so than the reductionist approach you mention.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Ziggamafu' post='1865098' date='May 12 2009, 08:02 AM']Apo,

I appreciate your posts, but I do not feel you adequately addressed the portions of my post, above. And as regards both the theological developments of the Fathers and the experience of marital intimacy with regards to a progressive understanding of marriage and one's spouse, I think further exploration is warranted. I will try to find the time to more adequately present my stances, which stem from my own reading of the Fathers. I am open-minded, but the fundamental problems I mentioned in the OP are fairly large stumbling blocks.

Thanks again.[/quote]
Although there is a sense in which the Old Testament manifests a "progressive pedagogy" the New Testament does not, for Christ is the definitive revelation of God to man, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. That said, I simply reject the modern notion that people living today can know more (experientially or discursively) about God than the Apostles.

I think that you are confusing changes in the linguistic formulas in the decrees issued by the God-inspired Fathers in council with [i]development of doctrine[/i]. The Church Fathers never believed they knew more about the mysteries of the faith because they issued a decree in defense of the Church's Tradition. They simply used different words in order to restate one and the same mystery of faith.

Check out my posts at the Byzantine forum on this topic: [url="http://www.geocities.com/apotheoun/development_of_doctrine"][b][u]Select Posts on Doctrinal Development[/u][/b][/url]

Edited May 12, 2009 by Apotheoun