[Kolokotronis]

You know, if there is one thing you can say about Orthodoxy, its that it understands human nature.What you are speaking of, of course, is economia, a doctrine which is, to my knowledge, a purely Orthodox concept. The basic reason or purpose of our Faith is theosis of the individual, the advancement of each person in the community toward the fulfillment of the image and likeness of God. The exercise of economia becomes a possibility when strict application of the rules, as important as they are, recognized as detracting from the basic intent of the purpose of the Church, theosis. "Thus, both order and compassion are harmonized in an approach to Christian ethics that seeks to avoid the extremes of legalism and relativism." If reasoning, in an ultimate, theological sense, always leads to the advancement of theosis, then, in a world populated with the inheritors of the sin of Adam, economia is absolutely necessary, as necessary as the "rules".

[Destro]

"economia", has its origins in the Jewish faith. Many Jewish denominations have it (though I am sure some have none) via the supervision of Rabbis.

[kosta50]

You know, if there is one thing you can say about Orthodoxy, its that it understands human nature

That is a sweeping generalization. How can you say that with such absolute conviction? If Orthodoxy takes credit for its stance on sex in medieval Russia (as I posted), it is obvious that your generalization is wrong, because the Orthodox Church and hence Orthodoxy no longer stands for that, and the Chgurch was terirbly wrong in that particular instance.

The faith Jesus Christ gave us has nothing to do with understandinhg human nature. It has to do with defeating it by doing what he said we need to do: obey the commandments, rules, absolute unchaining principles, as spelled out. The Church does not need to understand human nature; it should teach that which Jesus taught; not more and not less.