Re: Philippians 2:6

From: Steve Puluka (spuluka@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Dec 21 1999 - 06:17:03 EST


<x-flowed>Thank you Steve Craig Miller for your synopsis of the grammar issues on this
question. I always find you posts informative.

But I must comment on:

>From: Steven Craig Miller <scmiller@www.plantnet.com>
>
>First of all, I would note that there are two basic interpretations of
>early Christology.

I will refrain from discussing the theology of this passage on list but I
feel I must make a few general observations.

With a topic as complex as Christology I believe it is unwise to limit the
number of interpretations. There is at least a third alternative, the
position of the Eastern Orthodox community. If memory serves it was
Athanasius that said "The real horror of heretics is that they force us to
discuss things about which we should not speak." We are not clever
theologians looking for our ideas hidden in the past, but defenders of the
faith responding to ideas expressed by others. Patristic writers and
Orthodox theologians will only go as far in explanations as is necessary to
defend against what we see as false teachings.

In writing theology the worst name you can be called in the Orthodox
tradition is an **innovator**. The true faith has no history. The true
faith exists from the beginning, only heresy has a history in time.

We are **not** looking for our new ideas in the prior writings of scripture
and the fathers, but anything we express **cannot contradict** what has been
handed down before. The way Orthodoxy recognizes false teachings is by
laying them up against scripture and the "sense of the Fathers" to see if
they are contradictory. When we examine new preaching or writings we see
if they contradict what has been taught before.

We call these truths "Mysteries". They are realities that our finite human
minds cannot fully understand. We do our best to express them in human
language but we do so knowning we will never succeed. Perhaps the unknown
Orthodox Hymographer expresses this best in a song we often use to open
Liturgical services:

So great is God, in power and glory.
No mortal tongue can ever proclaim.
So great his throne and power sublime.
No mortal mind can ever contain.
The one true God, we worship with Love.
Brighter than sun, more splendid than stars above.

Steve Puluka
Adult Education Instructor
Byzantine Catholic Archeparchy of Pittsburgh
http://arrive.at/byzantinecatholic

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