My thoughts on Eastern Orthodoxy

I don't know much about theology ( as the song might have gone ) but I'm inclined to doubt the genuineness of this image

 

There is a basic, fundamental rule of ritual in Eastern Orthodoxy that is reinforced over and over again: do not venerate the living. For that reason alone, I seriously doubt the genuineness of the picture.

 

The picture of men kissing an "icon" of Putin is obviously a smear. But the saints are alive so this answer that "Orthodox do not venerate the living" is wrong. Even Christ said that God is the God of the living and not the dead. On the other hand we do not venerate political leaders, only the saints.

 

I do not think I have heard of a more ridiculous approach to history than this - that the value and merits of the Byzantine Empire being measured by the length of a Wikipedia article on inventions from there.

As Orthodox, we have a different measure of value and merit - that is especially see in the Orthodox saints who lived and died in Byzantium. So while this Anglican apparently thinks that inventing new "stuff" is the only valuable thing a culture can do, then the Orthodox will continue to know and experience God.

 

It is also hard to invent a lot of things when you are under assault for roughly 800 continuous years.

 

I am not sure if that is the case. In fact I think one could easily argue that the main driver of technological change is conflict and the military. Just recently, the Western empire with it materialism and all its conflicts produced atomic energy, the internet, etc - from military R&D.

My point is that the value of a culture is not measured by the amount of new technologies it invents. That is a very worldly measure, and nothing to do with the Christian life. The value of a Christian empire of culture is the men and women who lived Holy, Godly lives.

St Paul from Philippians 3: 8
"Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ"

 

Well they actually innovated a lot in military affairs. I was thinking of more practical things. Either way I am a big fan of Byzantium.

 

The Ancient Romans did many creative things in science, literature, culture. The Greeks invented many things. Even the Arabs were incredibly inventive, with science, medicine, Avicenna etc being some of the greatest Aristotelian philosophers in history. But apart from Hagia Sophia inherited from the late RomanEmpire, Byzantium had nothing great in any aspect of human endeavor. They were mentally barren for a thousand years. Do you deny this?

 

Byzantium, or Nova Romanium, or Constantinople as it came to be called was indeed the Capital of the Roman Empire longer than Rome. Constantinople was the pre-eminent city of the day, and the only great city dedicated to the God of the Christians and under the patronage of the Virgin Mother of God. I think your assessment os mean-spirited.

 

History can be mean sometimes. Don’t be afraid to look facts in the face.

As for great cities, I think you mean 10th century Baghdad. Christians had a far richer intellectual culture there than in Constantinople: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_ibn_Adi

 

No, I didn't.

 

@Paul Robson @Lowly Layman @Botolph @Stalwart
Get off y’all’s sundry high-horses.

 

How did I or my high horse get roped into this?? I haven't even commented in this thread.

 

I'm interested in the use of "y'all". I gather it is local slang in the US south and means "you, and you, and you", in the above example being the plural of "you". It struck me as odd until I considered it. In fact it seems to be similar to what in some northern parts of England and the West of Scotland would be the use of "youse" to fulfil the same function. Maybe we're not as separated by a common language as people imagine

 

@Stalwart I was re-reading this thread tonight. I'm still an Anglican having a good hard look at Orthodoxy. Although your comments go back a bit and I read them first a fair while ago, but the more I have understood and read, and experienced of Orthodoxy, the more I get what you mean: not to say that I've concluded against Orthodoxy yet.

 

You'll hear that in the New England region of the US. There is another less common plural variant: y'inz. This is highly localized to the greater Pittsburgh metro area including down to about Moundsville, West Virginia and a little slice of a couple of Ohio counties.

 

If it wasn't already clear, it is a contraction of "you all." You're gathering was correct

 

If it is a large group, then you'd get "all y'all".

 

Does "y'all" ever get used to refer to one person only? I have been looking and it seems to be the case. Mind you it is in clips from "gangster' " type films so maybe specific to that group

 

My View is that the 'y' is redundant. If you can't manage 'Hello Everyone' then perhaps it would be sufficient to say 'Hi All', or you could take a more Anglican approach and simply say 'The Lord be With You'!?