St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov)
Rating: 8.2|Votes: 13
Confession requires decisive self-denial. It must be triumphant. It must be made as if in the open arena, before all mankind, before angels, saints, and fallen angels, before the gaze of earth and heaven. For we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men (1 Cor. 4:9), as the Apostle Paul says of himself and the rest of the Holy Apostles.
Deacon Kevin J. Kalish
Rating: 4.1|Votes: 7
It is necessary and desired to present an Orthodox defense of dogma and its unchanging status in order to demonstrate how Orthodoxy understands this crucial issue. Since the idea of development is often assumed in other circles, it is presented as being natural. This is precisely how Cardinal Newman presents it in his influential essay. It seems easy to assume that, just as ideas and theories develop and change over time, so too does dogma. This would be the case if dogma were simply ideas and theories about God and salvation.
Rating: 6|Votes: 10
The First Ecumenical Council was summoned by Emperor Constantine the Great in 325, May 20th. The Council assembled at Nicaea in the province of Bithynia of Asia Minor and was formally opened by Constantine himself. The Council passed 20 canons including the Nicene Creed (described below), the Canon of Holy Scripture (Holy Bible), and established the celebration of Pascha (Easter).
Deacon Victor E. Klimenko, Ph.D
Rating: 6.8|Votes: 24
Eventually, St. Augustine “won” the dispute, as Pelagianism was condemned at the Third Ecumenical Council. The Orthodox East largely stayed out of this controversy, seeing the dispute as a local Western affair and both theologies as opposite extremes. As we already mentioned in Chapter 1, the Orthodox position could be, in a way, seen as a compromise between the Augustinian and the Pelagian views: that in the process of our salvation, our human free will cooperates with Divine grace.
Rating: 5.2|Votes: 75
Why do we call Christ “the Savior”? Likewise, we can also ask: what is salvation? Salvation from what? If we are talking about salvation, someone must be in danger. The answers that the Orthodox Church gives to these questions are tied to the Orthodox teaching about the “original sin” and its consequences. "The doctrine of original sin has great significance in the Christian world-view, because upon it rests a whole series of other dogmas.”
