…we cannot lay the blame for the world’s ills entirely elsewhere. To the extent to which we perceive the world, as well as our own sinful selves, our misguided choices, our skewed priorities, we will see the relationship between the two: there is evil in the world, and we human beings are systemically complicit in it.
If [God] is not (in our sense) “good” we shall obey, if at all, only through fear — and should be equally ready to obey an omnipotent Fiend. The doctrine of Total Depravity — when the consequence is drawn that, since we are totally depraved, our idea of good is worth simply nothing — may thus turn Christianity into a form of devil-worship.
[…]
I disbelieve [Total Depravity], partly on the logical ground that if our depravity were total we should not know ourselves to be depraved, and partly because experience shows us much goodness in human nature.
Just listen to them. You may be surprised what you may find in [the] Gospels.
Theological anthropology begins from the first three chapters of Genesis. People today wonder what the historical value of these stories [are], given that science tells us another narrative about human origins. Yet when Orthodox theologians have read Genesis 1–3, they have looked for answers to questions about humanity here and now, not about our ancient ancestors. These biblical stories tell us who we are in relationship to God and the natural world around us. By depicting Paradise they tell us what our life is supposed to have been like and what we can hope to become; by depicting the Fall they tell us where we went wrong and what our life has in fact become. Adam represents every human person.
The person conformed to Christ, whose love of God spills over to embrace all creatures, starts to realise around himself or herself the intended relationship between humans and the rest of creation. Stories of saints enjoying the cooperation of dangerous animals and even of the elements continue up to our own day, and are seen as an important testimony to the intended relationship among all creatures. It is in this light that miracles in general are seen: they are not a matter of overpowering the laws of nature, but rather ‘exceptional anticipations of the eschatological state’, ‘revealing to nature a window that opens out onto its own most appropriate goal’.
Internationally and historically, killing is the predominant method of choice to make the world a better place. It is the easiest, quickest, and most efficient way by far to clear the ground for someone or something with more promise. [Luke 13:6-9] interrupts our noisy, aggressive problem-solving mission. In a quiet voice, the parable says, ‘Hold on, not so fast. Wait a minute. Give me some more time.’
“The avatar is a transition for human beings … a transition which will allow us to stop aging … get rid of diseases … and finally to be almost immortal,” [Dmitry Itskov] said.
So Aubrey and I are dreaming of opening our own bakery that will be puns of philosophers and theologians. The name of the shop would be called Hegel’s Bagels.
The specialty item would be Hegel’s Bagel, aka the Dialectic, which is one half plain bagel and the other half an everything with cheese slice.
We’ll have Plato’s “Form” bagels, our eternal, never-changing, constant bagels that will never leave the menu: Plain, Blueberry, Everything, Cheese, Raisin, Cinnamon Raisin.
Mondays would be Marx Mondays, where people would bring in bagels 7-10am and everyone would share.
There would be a special called “Kant’s Construction” where you can make your own bagels.
There would also be Nietzsche’s Dionysian Donut, which would a super sweet chocolate glazed cake donut (that will make you dance).
There’s also a special membership you could buy every month called “The Eternal Recurrence”, where you pay $10, choose one bagel, and you get the same bagel every day for that month.
Socrates’ Scone — a scone that you would die for.
…the preeminent Church Fathers of the fourth century – Athanasius, Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa and John Chrysostom – perceived an intrinsic human element behind the genesis of the Bible. The Bible is the word of God in human words. Without diminishing the divine inspiration of scripture in its saving message, those Fathers acknowledged that God’s revelation inescapably involved human beings with intellectual and spiritual limitations. They assumed a dynamic view of inspiration that allows for the contingency of human understanding. Not every verse of the Bible is to be taken literally. To speak of scripture as the ‘word’ of God pertains not necessarily to every word of the Bible, but to the Bible’s saving message and to those of its passages and verses that communicate its saving message in various degrees of clarity. For example, the Bible in places appears to teach straight predestination (Jn 12:39-40; Mk 4:11-12; Rom 8:29). John Chrysostom called such instances ‘idioms’ of scripture which must not be taken at face value; otherwise ideas unworthy of God would accrue, presenting him as an arbitrary and cruel tyrant. Again, in Revelation 20:2-4 we read about the expectation of a millennial Kingdom upon Christ’s glorious return. But the major ancient interpreters from Origen to Gregory of Nyssa either entirely ignored this book or interpreted it symbolically. The Church eventually condemned the teaching of a literal millennium as a heresy. Furthermore, numerous texts of the Bible present women as being subservient to men. But Gregory the Theologian, when consulted by Emperor Theodosius on marriage and divorce, strongly argued by his interpretation of the underlying message of scripture that the same rights ought to be equally accorded to both men and women. These are but a few examples showing that the ‘mind’ (phronema) of the major Fathers with respect to biblical interpretation held a flexible view of the Bible as a divine and human book.
