Monday, November 24, 2008

Too Much Orthodoxy, Too Little Christ

From Fr. Gregory Jensen:

"We run into problems when we forget that our calling, our vocation given to us in baptism, is to proclaim Christ and Him crucified--we are all of us apostles and evangelists of the Good News and not of Orthodoxy as such."

...

"Kerygma and Dogma are not opposed, as St Basil the Great reminds us--but neither are they the same thing."


From his excellent post praising our new Metropolitan and exhorting us to remember ourselves at the same time, HERE.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, you tend to put "too little Christ" and "too much Orthodoxy" in your churches and doctrine a lot. Wow, that's a surprise.

Steve Robinson said...

On the other hand, Orthodoxy properly understood IS Christ. You can't judge the Church by what constitutes "issues" for converts and what gets the most internet time. All you have to do is read the prayers of the Church and you'll see that it is really ALL about Christ. Any human being that converts to anything is the worst apologist for it for a while. I should know...

Fr. David said...

anon,

Well, a comment's a comment; thanks for leaving one. I know these anonymous comments get left on blogger all the time, but I'd at least appreciate a decently thought-out comment instead of a "drive-by" with no elaboration if you're going to comment anonymously.

s-p,

I think I agree with you -- that is, if you're saying in the "worst apologist" comment that we tend to put all the saving kerygma of the faith on the backburner in favor of all the esoteric details and distinctives of the Orthodox faith, at least until we realize that it's still all about accomplishing the same goal (knowledge and experience of, and union with, the God-Man Jesus Christ in all aspects and moments of our lives), albeit in a radically different way. Confusing the means with the end, in other words.

Did I get you right, s-p?

Steve Robinson said...

Yup. :)