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To: qua

"The ground of the Catholic faiths is Greek philosophy, not free will per se. In Greek philosophy there is pure non-being, or diversity, and pure being, or unity, or God. Man is caught in the middle and is being pulled by both ends in a dialectical manner. The problem with the Catholic faiths is that God is an abstract unity, not a personal being."

I would have to say that this is a very similar criticism that the Orthodox Church has always had of Roman Catholic theology. One of the great ironies is that the "Greek" Orthodox world emphatically rejected pagan philosophy and embraced the Hebrew concepts and religion -- while expressing those concepts in the Greek language.

In the West, pagan philosophy played a much larger role, starting with the neo-Platonism of St. Augustine's speculative theology and culminating in the Aristoteleanism of Thomas Aquinas. (The process actually continues with various syntheses of Christian theology with secular philosophy today.)

Traditional Roman Catholic seminaries start with two years of philosophy prior to beginning theological studies. Traditional Orthodox clerical training does not include philosophy at all, and actually until quite recently did not even involve formal seminary training. It certainly has no "systematic theology."

Our critiques of Western theology actually are broader than a rejection of philosophy, but include a rejection of the very idea of theoretical constructs and systematic theology (and thus that critique also includes most Protestant theology as well.)

Our belief is that God's revelation was given to us in a certain way for a reason (and that way is hardly systematic) -- and that we attempt to improve on that style of expressing revelation at our peril. Ask us what we believe, and we will not give you a systematic answer, but begin to tell you what this Scripture, that Father, that liturgical text, etc... have to say about it.


3,110 posted on 02/28/2006 10:49:55 PM PST by Agrarian
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