Dear friends,
First, thanks A LOT for all your comments, suggestions and warnings. On their basis I have made a few early decisions (which we can revisit as many times as needed):
- I will not write an essay discussing the issue of “Sergianism”.
- The short (1-4 para max) vignettes thing will happen.
- “
Shortcuts” SANDBOX will be the place where I will host them. - If technically possible (I need to ask my webmaster) I will probably restrict comments only to those who did ask for it and signed up with me. If not possible, I will moderate the comments under these vignettes myself, rather strictly I think (I expect these vignettes to be simple enough, but I do expect the comments to be well-informed, fact-based and logically presented. If not – bye bye!
Also, I like the idea of readers using the comments space under these vignettes to ask for further clarifications, facts, details, etc. or to ask new questions or suggest new topics.
One more thing: I am always always always struggling for time. So I will squeeze in these vignettes when inspired and when I can find the time to do so. I cannot promise any regular periodicity. Besides, this blog was never intended as a religious blog, so while religion is crucial to understand our times, it should not obfuscate other very important topics.
So, how does the above sound?
May I ask for some more comments/suggestions/warnings/criticisms?
Kind regards
The Saker
PS: The picture I used above is the one I will use for all the vignettes: this is what I consider one of the most beautiful Orthodox churches on the planet: the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl river in Russia.
Hi Saker,
I hope you can interweave the geopolitical aspects with your take on Christianity.
I would be interested in how religion has aided and abetted the psychopaths that rule us in its various forms. Does religion offer a way out of political systems where the law is written by and for them?
What does Christianity offer to move forward to a more decent, livable future?
The current plandemic in France is leading to numerous provocations by the government against the people. It seems the objective is to stimulate a violent reaction to be able to crack down on the minority of descenters to bring in again a totalitarian state. This was the recipe of numerous despots before him (under Adolph the Jews were initially put down by the Nazis as being diseased).
The last two weeks in the US the death rate from COVID vaccines has surpassed that from the virus itself (see the VAERS system). Objecters to being vaccinated in a grand experiment where no control group is organized attracts little opposition for the moment (maybe twenty percent).
This may very well change in a year or so. Those who were vaccinated may start dropping like flies on a hot tin roof before long from micro-blood clots in the brain. When that happens, those who were vaccinated will realize they were poisoned by their own governments and, as such, have a death sentence hanging over their heads. At that moment, they will become extremely violent and all the police in the world won’t be able to contain them. The elite will either flee or feel the full fury of the “dead men walking.”
Those who were vaccinated may start dropping like flies on a hot tin roof before long from micro-blood clots in the brain
TOTALLY offtopic, but okay, I will bite.
Question: what is by some incredible miracle those who were vaccinated do NOT start dropping like flies.
What will you conclude from this if that happens?
Or are you 100% sure what will happen in the future?
Whether or not the virus is a “killer virus” makes no difference to me. The powers that be have me between a rock and a hard place. If I refuse to be vaccinated, I will be ostracized and most likely lose my job, not be able to travel, and may even be forbidden to go shopping or enter places of business such as restaurants and food stores. Additionally, I might not be able to make use of hospital or other necessary services.
So far, in the US, there have been more than 10,000 deaths related to the vaccines, according to VAERS. There have been more than 20,000 deaths in Europe. Literally, hundreds of thousands of people have suffered varying degrees of injury from them. Two people in our building here nearly died after receiving the vaccine. The lady down the street is paralyzed on one side after receiving it. To get a vaccine is like picking up a pistol and playing Russian roulette. And if you suffer injury, not to mention death, there are no means available for compensation. You suffer and pay for all your expenses alone, no insurance will cover you. I spent 21 years in the military, so I have gotten many vaccines. This is the first time I have been genuinely frightened to get one.
The Boston Marathon got people acclimatized to being locked up. That taught the government they could do what they wanted and no one, at least not many, would rebel. As long as the people had food, clothing and shelter, they would pretty much do whatever the government told them to do. After the virus invaded our lives, the government even told the Christians to stay home on Sunday and not go to church! And the Christians obeyed!!! So now, here we are getting locked up for months at a time inside our own houses. They told us after 911 that the wars would last years…and they were right. Twenty years later and we are still fighting them. Now they are telling us that this is the “new normal”. That tells me that we will be locked up off and on for the better part of the next twenty years or more.
If anyone thinks vaccinations are about protecting the people, you are living in an extremely naive mindset. Someone has said, “If you can keep your head while everyone around you is losing theirs…then, you probably don’t fully grasp the reality of the situation.”
So, to your question, “what is by some incredible miracle those who were vaccinated do NOT start dropping like flies.” My answer is that If they do not start dropping, then we are all in a world of trouble. Without some sort of catalytic event to get the people really upset and angry, they will never do anything to throw off the shackles of slavery that the elite are trying to impose upon us. Protests will never help as long as the police and military protect the elite and fight against the people. However, if the police also started losing parents and brothers and sisters to the vaccines, then they too would stand up on the side of the “deplorables”. (I’m proud to be one of those.) I’m sorry to say, it will probably take such a terrible event as the deaths of about 100 million people in a month’s time to get the populace motivated enough to stand up and fight. I don’t want 100 million people to die, but the die has already been cast. Over 143 million Americans have already been vaccinated with the spike protein producing mRNA. There is no antidote or way to undue that. What will happen will happen. I prefer it happens now before another 143 million are vaccinated.
No, the vaccines are not about helping people. Do you think the US government cared about those people on 911 whom they destroyed in the towers? Make no mistake, this is absolutely about depopulation. That’s why there’s such a push to get everyone vaccinated. That’s why they’re ignoring the statistics on how many people have died from the vaccine. That’s why doctors are being threatened if they attempt to treat their patients who are infected with covid. They do not want them to recover. They want death for those patients due to lack of treatment, or else due to vaccine. We are at war with the elite. We will either eventually defeat them, or will will die, literally. Those who do not die soon will be sterile or have millions of micro-blood clots throughout their bodies. Say thank you to the spike protein which the vaccine instructs our bodies to make.
On the other hand, if no one dies from the vaccine and this is only about the rich getting richer by selling vaccines to the ignorant masses, then it will only get worse. Prepare to be inoculated numerous times each year for the rest of your lives. That means, if you do not yet know how to say, “Moo!” in a convincing way, you should learn. In the eyes of the elite, we are cattle. They can corral us, disinfect us, or even cull the herd at will.
——-
So, to your question, “what is by some incredible miracle those who were vaccinated do NOT start dropping like flies.” My answer is that If they do not start dropping, then we are all in a world of trouble.
Yes, and that is an amazing admission…
The Saker
Because of amazing comments like this i read this blog
This comment section is one of the best worldwide
That the Saker has another view on this topic is his right
Yes many don’t understand him in this regard but that’s life….
I would conclude that the experts who are foremost in the field were wrong, a thing that happens all the time when the proper application of the scientific method occurs.
Also, on a lighter note, as Discordians are aware “Only the madman is absolutely sure”.
Them, and the COVID-dissidents I suppose :-)
Actually, no
Every totalitarian ideology/worldview is based on total certainty…
No need to suppose! But I’d say yes, as I don’t think totalitarian psychopathic rationality is actually sane. ;-)
As it’s a case if six of one and half a dozen of the other, the point will probably remain moot.
Cheers.
Faith is a world view, often something of the metaphysical. God, Allah, Brahman, nothing, chaos, absurdity – all can be absolutes to people and societies.
Religion is a path to tame a human being. Christianity has it, Islam has it, Buddhism has it, nihilism borrows it from the others haphazardly (at best).
Ideology is it’s drive to change (“tame”) the other. Just war and such.
Ritual is a reason free, dogmatic repetition.
Every being has a world view, whether they have religion and at the same time lack ideology and ritual.
Atheists don’t have religion, mostly just blind preachers of the metaphysical position “God does not exist”, and strong idealogues for it, in my experience!
You do realize that your comment is nothing but a list of slogans?
Please tell me that this was all deliberate, that you don’t really “think” like that!!
I think he is confused over the scope of the word “domestication”, aka “socialisation”.
“A faith” may be a world view, but “faith” is an individual subjective state that justifies itself to “the faithful”.
The rest is equally and demonstrably erroneous in several different egregious ways.
I might not be of the Saker’s faith, but I see no need to dispute with him over something I might not accept myself. I am not so arrogant, I think, as to assume his faith is immature, undeveloped or improperly thought through; in fact, I would assume the reverse, having been exposed to it on this site.
Cheers!
Hi Saker – sounds good – but where were we supposed to sign up ? I missed that
Looking forward to short vignettes on Saker’s views of religion ?
Is that the full title or is it just about Christianity ? …great idea
And I would also wonder if you will ever cover the Gnostics ? Which were the same time period right ?
And what about Irish Christianity ?
No worries, I will let everybody know!
kind regards
I very much look forward to it. Is there a ‘list’ that one can be added to?
The Saker,
Thanks for what you do. I am wondering if you would cover the differences, if there are, among Eastern Orthodoxies?
Excellent point! I will make sure to cover that too (if I forget, please remind me!)
thank you
I would like for you to discuss how non-Christians became Christians in the first century.
That is an amazing topic, in the Lives of the Saints there are some quite amazing accounts of how pagans were very interested by Christianity and that many of them were baptized.
Some pagans were also quasi proto-Christians in many ways, this is a very interesting topic indeed, I will try to cover it.
Thank you!
I will be delighted to read your vignettes. I think they will be both interesting and enlightening. Will it be possible to ask questions in the comments section, such as for further clarifications.
Wishing you all the best.
Will it be possible to ask questions in the comments section, such as for further clarifications.
Absolutely!
In fact, I very much hope for this :-)
Cheers
The Saker, you can count me in, but not to talk too much, but to read.
And then, in your piece above, at number 3, did you mean ‘sandbox’ or ‘shortcuts’. (Do we have a shortcuts? lol)
I meant SANDBOX of course, sorry about that!
I am a shitty writer and a scatterbrain one at that
I never see my own mistakes (how typical!)
Thanks for your vigilance!
Count me in. I hope you can help with links to the church fathers. (I am still thankful for your link to Raimonides, very enlightening about the spiritual roots of the western empire.)
Very much look forward to these vignettes. Reading your blog for several years now and learned so much about so many topics, has made me wanting to know more about Orthodox Christianity as well.
Btw. Is this the same Church you are referring to on your picture?;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZREIYxYuM
Yes! That is the one!
And thanks for this very beautiful video, love it!
Kind regards
It is ‘The Church of the Intercession (Pokrov) of the Holy Mother of God’ on the Nerl River built in 1165 by Prince Andrey Bogolyubsky to celebrate his victory over the Moslem Volga Bulgars. He took to the battlefield the holy icon of the ‘Mother of God of Vladimir’ (brought to Vladimir by the same Prince in 1155) and the Honorable Cross of the Lord. The Russian host was gratified with the vision of the fiery rays emanating from the Cross and from the icon of the Mother of God.
In the same year of 1158, on August 1, Emperor Manuel Komnenos saw from the Holy Cross (the real one kept in Constantinople) and the Icon of the Mother of God, which he took with him on a campaign against the Arabs, a similar miracle – the fiery rays that illuminated the whole army with their brilliance.
That led to the establishment by common accord between Russians and ‘Greeks’ of a feast to the Lord and His Mother on August 1. It can be little doubt that in these circumstances the Emperor bestowed the title of Grand Prince on the Prince of Vladimir-Suzdal (or rather confirming the title in the lineage of Vladimir Monomakh).
I have long considered myself an agnostic. I simply do not think it is possible to know what comes next, or what it is all about.
But, I have also always thought faith fascinating. I look forward to your vignettes.
I have long considered myself an agnostic
GOOD! An open mind is the hardest thing to achieve for many, but you won’t have that issue :-)
Was wondering if you had a small bibliography for studying the first few centuries of christianity?
By your previous post it sounds like you have weeded out the worthless.
Thanks and good luck!
small bibliography for studying the first few centuries of christianity?
Yes, absolutely, you need to read the ORIGINAL texts (well, their translations anyhow). The more you read the Fathers, the more you get “info” but the more you are exposed to something much more subtle – their “phronema” or “spirit”!
As a friend of mine once said “you cannot read the Fathers with impunity” – and that is quite true.
Where to start?
I would say ANY text by Saint John Chrysostome, but especially his discussions of the Scripture. His homilies of Marriage and family life are a superb start! This: https://www.amazon.com/Marriage-Family-English-Ancient-Greek/dp/0913836869/ is a cheap and SUPERB book I HIGHLY recommend (FYI – Saint John Chrysostome, the “Golden Mouth” is especially known for dealing with very complex issue in an apparently simple, almost informal, yet very effective way. This is subjective, of course, but for me he is step #1.
Then the so-called “Cappadocian” Fathers: Saint Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Saint Gregory the Theologian.
I would also highly recommend the lives of the saints (typically a collection of 12 or 13 books), but you need to make sure to get an Orthodox version (a translation of the Russian text by Saint Dimitri of Rostov would be great).
Finally, but crucially, the collection called the “Philocalia”. This is “The Core”, but you can only read it after reading at least some of the more famous texts of Saint John Chrysostome and the Cappadocian Fathers
Is that helpful?
Kind regards
Thanks for the sources. Very useful because my (our) knowledge of that stuff is basically zero.
Sure, count me in.
Speaking of St. Basil, I was just writing about his views on the acceptance of usury:
In 345 the First Council of Carthage (whose main aim was to condemn the Donatists), declared that taking interest was reprehensible for all Christians, not only for members of the clergy. Canon 5 (“On Avarice”) stated:
The cupidity of avarice (which, let no one doubt, is the mother of all evil things), is to be henceforth prohibited, lest anyone should usurp another’s limits, or for gain should pass beyond the limits fixed by the fathers, nor shall it be at all lawful for any of the clergy to receive usury of any kind. …And what is reprehensible in laymen is worthy of still more severe censure in the clergy.
However, no penalties were imposed for violating this canon. The Cappadocian bishop Basil “the Great” (330-379) shared this tolerance. On the one hand he described how: “Taking advantage of the latter’s poverty, the usurer has managed to persuade the borrower to undertake to pay an interest whose term amount is not revealed, and which is so great as actually to be impossible to pay, so that in effect the borrower is contracting a voluntary servitude for life.” But Basil also wrote: “A taker of usury, if he consent to spend his unjust gain on the poor, and to be rid for the future of the plague of covetousness, may be received into the ministry.” The Church hierarchy was becoming pragmatic and ended up simply urging creditors, landlords and other wealthy Christians to donate charitably to the poor, via the Church clergy. At Constantinople in 692, the Council of Trullan (Canon 10) ruled that: “A bishop, presbyter or deacon who receives usury … let him desist or be deposed,” but an epitome of this canon permits the sinner not to be deposed if he stops practicing usury.
“… donate charitably to the poor, via the Church clergy.”
This sounds very much like money-laundering, and adding at the same time to the temporal power of all the people involved — except of course the debtors!
Dear Michael
About usury, this is all very new and, I admit to my TOTAL SHAME, I know *nothing* about! I mean – I knew what everybody thinks he knows, but I never studied it, and never in the context of Patristics.
Could you please point me to any good articles or books about that? I would be most interested.
Kind regards
The Saker
Yes it was very helpful.
Psalm 50 In Aramaic: Have mercy on me, O God – ܪܲܚܸܡܥܠܲܝ ܐܲܠܵܗܵܐ ܐܲܝܟ݂ ܛܲܝܒ̇ܘܼܬ̣ܵܟ݂ (Lyric video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z0CJxM3hm58
(A Psalm i can relate too and often bring tears to my eyes)
One of the challenges in the internet age is finding reliable information and discerning the useful from the useless. Will you include links to what you consider to be valuable information, as an aid to learning and discussion?
Yes, I will.
Let me mention that not being limited to the English language can also really help! There is A LOT of excellent stuff recently translated into English, but compared to, say, French or German, the English language is still behind, at least in my experience.
Also
Check out this interview of mine: /orthodox-faith-yvonne-lorenzo-interviews-the-saker/
I list a lot of good info available on the Internet and in English, please check it out.
Kind regards
Well I for one would also be interested in knowing about your criticisms about the present state of the Moscow Patriarcate or the Eastern Church as a whole from an Orthodox perspective. Are you still discerning anything about that?
Nope, sorry. If only because this question makes no sense “criticisms of Orthodoxy from an Orthodox perspective”?!
Also – what I believe is irrelevant.
What matters is what the Fathers believe (yes, present tense, there are still real Church Fathers alive today). The truth is in their “consensus patrum”.
Cheers!
I said: “criticisms about the present state of the Moscow Patriarcate or the Eastern Church as a whole from an Orthodox perspective.”
Or at least your personal perspective, which you brought up to begin with about how you felt the MP was behaving due to recent statements and present day interactions with the state, or if clergy are failing to live up to their calling. I was not asking for “criticisms of Orthodoxy from an Orthodox perspective”, which would indeed make no sense.
There are Eastern Orthodox members out there whose opinions would disagree with yours and whom you’d no doubt disagree with, as is natural. I was only curious about yours.
Okay, understood, but I am not going to go after the Sergianists as such. But I will definitely outline what the Orthodox Church views on the secular state and what is acceptable and what is not.
There are Eastern Orthodox members out there whose opinions would disagree with yours and whom you’d no doubt disagree with, as is natural. I was only curious about yours
Again, my views or the views of anybody else are simply not germane to this topic. The ONLY thing which matters is the consensus patrum. This is another truism which I will mantrically repeat in my vignettes.
Saker,
I’d be curious to know if you have any inputs or thoughts on how the Latin Church has affected geopolitics in the last 50-75 years (especially in light of Rome’s increasing liberalization since Vatican II in the 1960s). Perhaps some thoughts specific to the USA, CIA, Ukraine, the Unia, etc., would be a good place to start.
Additionally, perhaps some philosophical thoughts on how the Western Church (including Protestant denominations) found itself in the situation it is currently in. Is the state of deformation and disintegration in the Western Christian movements traceable back as far as the Schism? If so, are there Eastern saints who commented on this? I seem to remember St. Justin Popovic writing about this vis a vis the Papacy and even St. Gregory Palamas in his dialogue with Barlaam.
About the Latin Church, I am not qualified, but I would recommend you read Michael A. Hoffman’s superb research into these issues.
About the Unia, that is not directly a topic I plan to cover, but if I can provide the readers a halfway decent sense of Christian ecclesiology, you won’t need me or anybody else to know what the Unia was :-)
I will try to address your other (very good) questions in the upcoming vignettes. One last thing, if you have access to the writings you mention, they are top notch for sure, but “steep” in complexity. Just be aware of that, especially in the case of Saint Gregory Palamas (about him: careful with sources, the Latins still hate his guts ;-)
For most non Christians their contact with Christianity is largely with the Roman Catholic and Protestant denominations. So, this series of writings will go some way to provide a different perspective. Wherever relevant in your writings it would therefore be interesting and useful to point out the places where the Orthodox differs from these denominations. Or perhaps a separate set of writings if that is more appropriate.
Your thesis that the current East-West (or Zone A/B or anti Russian) confrontation has its roots in the historical split of the Christian church has always intrigued me. This would be interesting too.
A couple of suggestions for the new vignettes section:
1. Please arrange to have the vignettes option available on the homepage, on the right, even as other news items / sitreps / analyses / speeches … et cetera … come and go over time.
2. Instead of pre-approved commenters, much stricter moderation rules may be a better option — so as not to put off new visitors curious about the teachings. That will preserve the much-appreciated openness of the site. A max word count of 100 or so can be considered for each comment, since this section should not attract pre-written essays! External links can be disallowed within comments.
Saker: I hope that my brief response to your first article qualifies me as having asked to be included in the readership of these vignettes and right to post comments. And this note is my second attempt should the first have failed.
As for your question above, I agree with your suggestions. After all, the key to this whole thing is your work, your time, and your personal journey. You have sweat equity. Perhaps someone else will contribute some, but until then, you are the only one who has that equity. In other words, I am all for however you want to manage this.
Dear Saker. Sounds great to me. I would also like you to further develop your toghts about how religion is important to understand our time, as a citizen in the foremost atheist country in the world, namely Sweden, I’m longing for knowledge.
Andrei My Orthodox Brother,
I know you belong to the Genuine Orthodox Church. I am very curious about the GOC but almost afraid to investigate any further because I was once a Roman Catholic and left the RCC for the ROC MP (Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate). I converted in the former Soviet Central Asia so the only Orthodox presence there was Moscow Patriarchate. Then upon my return to the USA I began attending an OCA (Orthodox Church of America Parish) but unbeknownst to me (I believed it to be ROCOR) I was a guest many times at a GOC Russian mission overseen by a priest I respect and admire.
If I understand correctly ROCOR or ROCA (Russian Orthodox Church Outside or Russia/ ROC Abroad) was once in communion with the GOC? That was the time of St. John Maximovich was it not?
The reason I was hesitant to inquire further about the GOC is because I already left the Roman Catholic Church and was chrismated into Orthodoxy via the Moscow Patriarchate and I have a strong community in my parish with close friends and am Godfather to a little girl in our parish. I didn’t understand the divisions within Orthodoxy itself when I converted. I just simply believed that the Orthodox Church was the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church and the True Catholic Faith. I am still curious though, but cautious.
I know you belong to the Genuine Orthodox Church. I am very curious about the GOC but almost afraid to investigate any further because I was once a Roman Catholic and left the RCC for the ROC MP (Russian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate).
Oh I very much understand your feelings! After the collapse of the ROCOR, I really had a hard time believing that there are still truly Orthodox clergymen out there. Frankly, I cannot give you a blanket endorsement of the GOC, which has its own problems (including still all too prevalent ethno-phyletistic tendencies in some parishes).
But this is a false dilemma! Nobody should ever “trust” any one jurisdiction blindly. The ONLY person you can truly blindly trust is God Himself and, therefore, His Church. This One Church of Christ is ADMINISTRATIVELY divided in discrete, local, Churches which each have their unique history and its unique ups and down. So the only really important question is this: amongst all the putatively “Orthodox” jurisdictions, which one happens to truly Orthodox *AT THIS MOMENT IN HISTORY* (I know, I banned CAPS, but being the host here, I have some privileges! Besides, I use them not to shout, but for emphasis.).
Yes, RIGHT NOW, I am sure of the GOC and her three (Romanian, Bulgarian and Russian) Sister Churches. But only God knows what will happen in the future, as you know “many are called, few are chosen”.
This is why “jurisdictional fidelity” is such a lame concept. Our ONLY total loyalty ought to be to God – all others we should carefully evaluate :-)
Andrei My Brother,
I thank you for sharing your thoughts on this most important matter with me. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “By their fruits you will know them”. We definitely seem to be entering a new epoch where the wheat will be separated from the chaff.
It deeply bothers me when American Orthodox make Patriarch Bartholomew’s actions in Ukraine to be merely a trivial dispute over regional authority. I was ready to leave OCA over it and join ROCOR but was told by an influential priest at Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco (where St. John Maximovich’s relics are) that they maintained good relations with OCA.
I am intrigued by the GOC and how tgey came into existence. I am not ready to make that jump yet. When the ROC MP and the Antiochians start spouting the Globalist line then I will absolutely jump ship to the GOC the way I left the Roman Catholic Church for Orthodoxy. As you know there is no substitute for Absolute Truth.
I look forward to learning about the Orthodox Church. My belief is that a faithful person who does not fully understand the Church will not be turned away. His heart is in the right place.
My belief is that a faithful person who does not fully understand the Church will not be turned away.
Correct!
I have a felling that you are somewhat contradictory by criticizing the Church’s obedience to the government especially in the light of its position regarding Covid19 and specifically on the issue of vaccination – on the one hand, and in the same time you staunchly support Russian government policies in general including its fully globalist approach in dealing with Covid19 – on the other hand. Or maybe, you are slowly and undoubtedly justifiably coming around regarding the government too.
There is another possibility: you simply cannot understand that I approach these issues in maybe more complex way than what you are used to :-)
So many possibilities! We all like to think ours are superior. :-)
True. They beauty is that time always eventually shows what is true and what is not :-)
One example:
The Papacy in, say, the 17th Century was one (loud, arrogant, obnoxious) beast, by Vatican II it became a shame-filled and quickly sinking piece of irrelevancy dealing with sexual scandals.
Sic transit gloria mundi!
But the gloria Dei remains eternal.
Cheers
I am not educated enough to know whether or not I am violating your policies. I’ll just read. The world can survive without my wisdom :-)
okay, but maybe we would appreciate your comments or questions?
just saying
cheers
How should we understand the passage in Job where God says, essentially, how dare you think you can understand me? To some extent, it seems to me, “of course,” but where is the line?
Essentially the passage in Job is rather: ‘how dare you judge me?’.
Sounds good to me, i am looking forward to your vignettes.
i hope to learn a lot from ur vignettes and the comments.
Excellent idea as belief, and more especially, convictions are ultimately the foundation and driving force for perceptions and subsequent words and actions.
Unfortunately these are often logically and/or physically false, their supposed authority or basis of proof having been taken out of context or obviously contorted in some way.
So if the driving force or foundation are misplaced, the ensuing words or actions will probably be too? Its not about being right but about trying to ensure you aren’t wrong and correcting where, when and how you may be led to?
Hence the importance of civil, rational dialogue on these issues not only to test our foundations and motivations but to develop them as well.
The Saker website and its community are the perfect place for such an endeavor.
I personally look forward to the launch!
I am Agnostic but my grandfather Greek grandfather was a village Pappas in Ithaca, and I still regard the Catholic Church as one of the greatest and longest lasting social forces for good in the world. What is the Catholic Church? A very interesting answer to this question was given by the Roman Catholic Hilaire Belloc in the opening chapters of his 1920 book, Europe and The Faith (available on Gutenberg https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/8442 ).
According to Belloc the Catholic Church is not only the Body of Christ (ie the bodily congregation of living Christians) but also the working social organization set up by followers of Jesus probably during His lifetime and headed by his brother James, with a treasurer. It never stopped working: not even during the collapse of successive Empires through which the Church continually worked and spread (Greek Empire, Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire etc). The Church’s code of conduct, its discipline, its learning and its treasury enabled civilization to continue and civil projects to be funded, even during the dark ages after collapse of Empire. The Church as a social organization is the backbone of stability in times of prosperity, and it is the fountain of courage and the seed of rebirth in times of adversity.
The Church has always been subject to internal division. Roman Catholic author Belloc ignores the greatest of all the many divisions in the Church: the Great Schism of 1053 AD in which the bishop of Rome made a play for supreme authority; instead Belloc concentrates on the more recent Protestant breakaway of 1517 AD. Perhaps your history of the Russian Church could cast a glance at the Catholic Church in Damascus at which V.V.Putin worshiped not too long ago: founded by the original followers of Christ, some of whom knew Him in the flesh, who went out from Syria to spread the good news “Kat’Holos” (To the Whole World) a thousand years before the Great Schism and all the lesser schisms in what is essentially one great and good global movement namely, Christianity.
2 points.
If there were no roman catholic church, would there still be Christianity?
Revelation 18:4 And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not
partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. This refers to the roman catholic church.
@Ralph: “If there were no **Roman** catholic church, would there still be Christianity?”
The Christian church founded by the earthly Rabbi Yeshuah of Nazareth, headed by His brother James and spread by the Apostles was Catholic (a Greek word meaning “For the Whole World’) before it was Roman. The Gospel was written in Greek because the Middle East was the Hellenistic Empire of Alexander before it was the Latin Empire of Caesar. The language of the Syrian Church founders was Syrian Aramaic and Hellenistic Greek. St.Paul wrote in Greek to Christians in Greece before he went to Rome. The Greek Empire of Byzantium outlived the Latin Empire of Rome by 1,000 years. The point is, that the Catholic Church was already a working social organization in the days of its Founder in the Syrian province of Palestine, and His church has never stopped working: its message, its learning, its social discipline and its treasury helped to build Empires, but the Church survived when those Empires died because the Catholic Church is not tied to any one country; the province of the Catholic Church is the Whole World — and the World beyond the World. This is not to downplay the importance of Latin Rome and Roman Catholicism but to remind readers that the bishops of Rome made their power play that split the Church less than 1,000 years ago (1057) and the Germanic nations (including England) made their Protestant breakaway less than 700 years ago (1530), whereas the Catholic Church as a whole is approaching its 2,100th celebration of the Resurrection of its Founder — and is likely to continue for a lot longer. Viewed by an outsider — a Buddhist or a Confucian or a Hindu or an Agnostic — even the Great Schism looks like a little Shakespearean comedy (Much Ado About Nothing) with a potential happy ending.
Hello Geneva Observer, I would highly recommend two books which I have read, and which very well explain the times we live in from an Orthodox Christian perspective. I believe the Saker is an Orthodox Christian, too, and might have read these books. The titles are:
1) Nihilism – the Root ot Revolution of the Modern Age
2) Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future
The author of these books is father Seraphim Rose, one of the best known Orthodox Christian authors of our time. Father Seraphim is American. He was not born Orthodox – he converted to Orthodox Christianity after a long and painful search for Truth and ultimately became a monk priest. An illumined, profound thinker, I would say.
A simple guess: christianity, possible way-forward to realize some kind of effective and peaceful multipolarity at least in some parts of the world? This, knowing that for the present time the West confirms each day that its neo-colonial imperialism is non-compatible with multipolar view.
Saker, I would be very interested if you could do a side by side comparison of the Russian Orthodox Church and the roman catholic church. What is the same and what appears the same but is not. Doesn’t have to be long; covering at least the main doctrinal points (Holy Trinity; Holy Communion; Virgin Mary etc). This might be your starter, the Big Picture, so to speak.
Also the recent schism wrt to the Orthodox Church in ukraine, and whether you think/know the rcc church was involved with that.
спасибо.
Well, the short answer is that these two Churches have nothing at all in common.
Or, at best, they use the same words, but give them TOTALLY different meanings.
Just like modern “Judaism” (rabbinical Phariseism) is an anti-Christianity
And the Ukronazi Ukraine is an anti-Russia
the Papacy is nothing but an anti-Orthodoxy (thus, in reality, an anti-Christianity)
Judge the tree by its fruits, and the fruits of the Papacy is the Woke West…
Sad, but that is the truth
Cheers
Thanks Saker.
If you could expand on the differences that would be great, but no need to go into detail: ‘TOTALLY different meanings.’
It is a beautiful church…I love it, I really do, but the most beautiful church that ever existed was on a dirt covered, dusty hillside in a desert in Israel. It’s beauty lay in both the message that was delivered and he who delivered that message.
Hi Dear Saker
I would also be interested in hearing your views on Gnosticism which was active during the early days of Christianity – I am a born Gnostic and am not sure if you are….haha
But would love to read your vignettes about it – if you would be so kind.
Love Ann
I have absolutely nothing good to say about Gnosticism, it is a toxic delusion, satanic in origin, sorry!
I love this from The Saker during a Yvonne Lorenzo interview:
“Saint Basil the Great wrote to those with wealth: “Oh mortal, recognize your Benefactor! Consider yourself, who you are, what resources have been entrusted to you, from whom you received them, and why you received more than others. You have been made a minister of God’s goodness, a steward of your fellow servants. Do not suppose that all this was furnished for your own gullet! Resolve to treat the things in your possession as belonging to others“.”
The very same could be said about those with advanced intelligence as well as those with significant power be it political or otherwise.
In the history of getting Orthodox classics into English in our time certain esoteric circles around Gurdjieff and Ouspensky play an important role behind the scene. See
https://www.josephazize.com/2017/08/12/from-ouspensky-to-the-philokalia/
And
http://www.gurdjieff-internet.com/article_details.php?ID=192&W=1
Orthodoxy and esotericism are mutually exclusive.
Just saying…
But why would esotericism benefit Orthodoxy by helping to get the Orthodox literature available exoterically in English? That happened.
You shouldn’t put the cart before the horses. Gurdjieff and his circus had very little to do with real Philokalia. Anyhow people entertain false ideas about what Philokalia is.
Thank you so much for this! I am interested in Orthodoxy and a total beginner.
Assalaamu alaykum.
I have been studying the religion of Abraham for about ten years now (praise be to God) and I have come to the conclusion that your (the Orthodox) direction for prayer is the temple in Jerusalem and not the East.
Because the Bible says this (Psalm 5 and Ezekiel 8) and also because Hagia Sophia is built with the direction of prayer towards Jerusalem.
So if you find this resonable then I urge you to turn back to your ortodox direction of prayer.
May God bless you all.
I will follow this avidly, and we waiting since the original announcement a few weeks ago. One question: I was once studying in an orthodox seminary and mentioned that I can fluently read Russian and Church Slavonic. I offered to translate stuff but was told (more than 30 years ago) that everything that needs to translated has already been translated. I was mystified. Maybe they thought there would be too much pridefulndss if I did something like that?