Page 98 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV

orthodoxy, christian 1399

den of Eden, has been greatly shaped by the thinking of 1359), the Orthodox understand salvation as our
St. Augustine of Hippo (354–430 CE). Unfortunately, becoming by grace what God is by nature.
Augustine’s view of original sin was predicated on St.
Jerome’s Latin (mis-) translation of Romans 5:12, which Grace versus Free Will
Jerome misunderstood to say that all humans bear the A great part of the Reformation debate with Roman
guilt of Adam’s sin, and not merely the consequence of Catholicism centered on the relative roles of grace and
that sin, which is death.To avoid association with Augus- free will in human salvation. Some Protestants, con-
tine’s view, Orthodox Christians generally prefer to refer cerned to safeguard the efficacy of God’s grace, went too
to Adam’s sin as “ancestral sin.” The Orthodox also far and denied human freedom. Orthodoxy overcomes
reject the Calvinist notion that humankind is utterly this opposition with its understanding of synergy, the
depraved as a result of the Fall and the resulting denial biblical idea (as in 1 Corinthians 3:9) that we are coop-
of human freedom. erators with God.

The Atonement Moral Theology
Western Christians since the eleventh century have Western moral theology, utilizing the insights of philo-
largely understood the reconciliation between God and sophical ethics, usually portrays the nature of morality as
humankind in terms associated with St. Anselm of Can- a function of nature (natural law), utility (various conse-
terbury (1033–1109). His “satisfaction theory” of the quentialist theories), the character of the moral agent
Atonement seems to portray God as requiring satisfac- (virtue ethics), or simply as a matter of God’s command
tion for the sins of humankind, with Christ undergoing or prohibition (voluntarism). While these elements play
the required vengeance. In contrast, the Orthodox or a role in the work of some Orthodox moral theologians,
“classical” theory sees the Cross as the victory of Christ the patristic understanding characteristic of the tradition
over the forces of evil. More than that, however, the as a whole sees the moral life as a function of theosis.
Christian East understands the salvific work of Christ
as considerably wider and more far ranging than the Spiritual Theology
Crucifixion alone. Humankind was separated from God The classic text of Orthodox spirituality is The Philokalia
by our nature, by sin, and by death; Christ overcame of the Neptic Fathers, a five-volume Greek work edited by
these obstacles through his Incarnation (by which he St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (1748–1809) and
assumed and therefore healed human nature), his Cruci- St. Makarios of Corinth (1731–1805), published in 1782.
fixion (by which he overcame sin), and his Resurrection The Philokalia (“love of the beautiful”) is a collection of
(by which he destroyed death and made all of human- writings on the life of prayer ranging from the fourth to
kind immortal). the fourteenth centuries. It is associated with hesychastic
(from the Greek hesychia, meaning “stillness”) spirituality
Soteriology and gives special attention to the Jesus Prayer (“Lord Jesus
Orthodoxy has been largely untouched by the Western Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me”).
disputes concerning justification and sanctification,
instead understanding salvation as a mater of theosis, or Science and Religion
deification.Tracing the idea from biblical texts such as 2 Because Orthodoxy has emphasized a spiritual epistemol-
Peter 1.4, the Gospel of John, and the epistles of St. Paul, ogy, or gnosiology, aimed at the deification of the creature
through the texts of patristic witnesses such as St. Ire- rather than a totalizing narrative subjugated to biblical
naeus of Lyons (c. 120–203 CE), St. Athanasius of accounts, it has not been concerned with either the astro-
Alexandria (298–373), and St. Gregory Palamas (1296– nomical debates sparked by Galileo in the seventeenth