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To: MarMema; kosta50
A nice article, and while it does give a good explanation (I hope understandable to those outside the Church) of the historical roots of the Western incomprehension of and antipathy toward Holy Orthodoxy, as well as touching on the actual theological import of Western secularism, I don't think it quite explains Western pravoslavophobia.

Western papism, protestantism and secularism all likewise partake of a completely different understanding of the world and of ultimate realities from such East Asian religions Buddhism and Taoism, but except for the occasional protestant evangelical ranting against them as species of paganism, one senses none of the hostility which is directed toward Holy Orthodoxy. Indeed Western secularists, liberal protestants and even some Latin Christians (Thomas Merton comes to mind) are fascinated by and love flirting with Buddhism and Taoism.

And while in this, as much as in either the hatred or the blank incomprehension of Holy Orthodox exhibited by most Westerners, we see the work of the forces preparing the way of the Anti-Christ, I think we might look a little at the 'how' of the demons' prompting of fascinated tolerance for non-Christian religions along with intolerance of pure Christianty as kosta50 likes to call Holy Orthodoxy.

The fascination with Buddhism and Taoism stems from a longing for what has been lost in the Christian and then secular post-Christian West, a longing which is truely satisfied by a return to Holy Orthodoxy. But alas, it is too easy for the demons to block that path of return.

Westerners by and large will not look at Holy Orthodoxy squarely and objectively, because to do so means abandoning their most cherished preconceptions: Papists find evidence that their ecclesiology is a lie, that the Pope of Rome was never the head of the Church in the sense they imagine; protestants find their claim to have 'reformed' the Church in the sense of restoring her is likewise a lie; secularists are robbed of their talking-points against Christianity, all of which are either coopted by the Orthodox (yes, the Crusades, the Inquisition and the wars of religion were very evil things) or become irrelevant because they address the seculative theological heirs of Blessed Augustine and not the experiential (I would even dare to say, empirical--remembering that the noetic sense is the most important sense) theology of the Orthodox.

Even those who truely wish to repent of their sins sometimes have a hard time turning away from a lie they have lived all their lives. Those who fancy themselves more or less fine as they are, but are whistfully seeking something, aren't likely to discard misconceptions ingrained by their culture from their youth. And, glimpses of the fact that truth would demand they do so makes them angry. This, I think, is the 'how' of the demonic prompting to pravoslavophobia.

19 posted on 03/28/2004 9:02:48 PM PST by The_Reader_David
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To: The_Reader_David; kosta50
thanks to both of you for your insightful replies.
21 posted on 04/02/2004 6:20:17 AM PST by MarMema (Next Year in Constantinople!)
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