Author Archives: admin

Why are Matthew’s and Luke’s birth narratives so different?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

The most celebrated critical commentary on the birth narratives is that of Raymond Brown – The Birth of the Messiah.

In discussing the birth narratives as history, Brown cites two sets of problems:

1. The problem of corroborating witnesses

Regarding the main body of the Gospel narratives, there is no shortage of witnesses whose reminiscences could be harvested.  And there was a tradition that had been passed down from this first witnesses.  See Acts 1:22; 1 Cor 15:3 etc.…

Deification

Walking With Giants Posted on by

‘Deification’ (Gk. ‘theosis‘) is a term widely used in Eastern Orthodox theology for the process by which God’s grace transforms believers into his likeness.  It involves belief that grace reverses the effects of the Fall, and confers on the believer the ‘divine’ attributes of incorruptibility and immortality.  But

‘its central tenet is that God through the Incarnation of his Son has called men to share the Divine life in the Son.’ (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, art.

…

Orthodox worship

Walking With Giants Posted on by

According to legend, in 987 Prince Vladimir of Kiev sent emissaries to different countries of the world to learn about the religion and worship of each.  The Muslims were found to be ‘disgraceful’ and the Western Christians without ‘glory’.  Of Constantinople, at the cathedral church of Hagia Sophia, they reported:

‘We knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it.

…

Orthodox writers on transcendence, mystery, paradox

Walking With Giants Posted on by

From Christian History Magazine, Issue 54 – Eastern Orthodoxy

The transcendence of God

‘God cannot be grasped by the mind. If he could be grasped, he would not be God.’

—Evagrius of Pontus (d. 399)

‘One day some of the brethren came to see Abba Antony, and among them was Abba Joseph. Wishing to test them, the old man mentioned a text from Scripture, and starting with the youngest, he asked them what it meant.…

Do we meet in a temple or tent? – a view from the East

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Vladimir Berzonsky, in his contribution to ‘Three Views on Eastern Orthodoxy and Evangelicalism‘ sets out in a striking way a characteristic feature of Orthodox worship, and how this contrasts with (what he understands to be) the Evangelical view.

‘When the Orthodox Christians come together to experience the joy of Eucharist’, Berzonsky explains,

‘only the best will do. Church as building becomes a temple, set apart to be made holy—prelude and paradigm of the world become church.

…

2 Peter 1:20 – ‘No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination.’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

2 Peter 1:20 ‘No prophecy of scripture ever comes about by the prophet’s own imagination.’

This passage may mean,

(a) no prophecy is to be understood by private interpretation; i.e. it must be interpreted as the Church understands it, or as the Holy Spirit illuminates it.  This would be consistent with the fact that the false teachers certainly did misinterpret Scripture (2 Pet 2:1; 3:16).

According to Bauckham, most commentators and translations adopt this interpretation. …

Eastern Orthodoxy – a brief history

Walking With Giants Posted on by

The Eastern Orthodox Church is also known as the Orthodox Church.

Foundations were laid in the pre-Chalcedonian period (up to 451) with the writings of Athanasius, Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa).  The theology of these teachers found expression in the ecumenical councils of Nicaea (325), Constantinople (381) and Ephesus (431).

The early Byzantine period (451–843) included what was, for the Orthodox, the last ecumenical council (Nicaea, 787). …

Orthodoxy and Protestantism – key differences

Walking With Giants Posted on by

What are the key theological differences between Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism?

1. Celebrating the Unknowable

Orthodox theology resists what it sees as the unduly rational approach of the West.  John of Damascus (655–749) wrote,

‘It is plain, then, that there is a God. But what he is in his essence and nature is absolutely incomprehensible and unknowable.… All that is comprehensible about him is his incomprehensibility.’

This reflects an ‘apophatic’ theology, which tries to describe God in terms of what he is not.  …

The assumption of Mary

Walking With Giants Posted on by

It is a pity that Protestants, generally, do not honour Mary as they ought to.  The most obvious reason for this is that they are nervous about honouring her too much (or in inappropriate ways), as the Roman Catholic Church does.

So what should we make of the doctrine of the assumption of Mary?

Some notes from this article, by Andrew Goddard:

The belief that Mary was taken up, body and soul, to be with Christ in heaven, has its roots in legends that began to circulate in the church during the first several centuries of its existence.…

Matthew 22:14 – “Many are called, but few are chosen”

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Matthew 22:14 – “Many are called, but few are chosen”

Two (not necessarily contradictory) aspects of this saying – the numerical and the theological – warrant consideration.

1. Numerical

For Enoch Powell, Jesus’ words ‘few are chosen’ mean ‘that his salvation will not be for all, not even for the majority,’ insisting that ‘ignorance, incapacity, perversity, the sheer human propensity to error are sufficient to ensure a high failure rate.’  But, as the contributor to Hard Sayings of the Bible (presumably F.F.…