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To: D-fendr; kosta50
Can’t let your post 8,062 go by without thanking you for recognizing the contemplative tradition in the West.

Some people have often compared the East and West to Mary and Martha respectively. However, both churches have their own traditions of actives and contemplatives. Men of the East no doubt appreciate the writings of St. John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, and Thomas Merton.

Some of us Western Christians, especially Protestants, I think, are prone to attempt to rationalize the faith. This is a mistake, if one forgets about God's Transcendence. There is a long tradition of the "negative way", even in the West, that recognizes that very little is known about the essence of God.

Heck, we hardly know about our own essence, let alone God's!

Regards

8,236 posted on 10/04/2007 5:06:08 AM PDT by jo kus
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To: jo kus; D-fendr
There is a long tradition of the "negative way", even in the West, that recognizes that very little is known about the essence of God

Indeed there is. Apophatic approach is the approahc of the hesychast, the Cappadocian Fathers and the Desert Fathers. The backbone of our common orthodox and ctaholic faith is in apophatic knowledge of God, through prayer, Eucharist, liturgy, fasting, etc., and not through scholastics.

Of course, scholasticism has a place in the Church in bringing people to stop "figuring out" God by way of reason and logic, paradoxically, by using reason and logic. It is through cataphatic knowledge that we realize we know nothing of God's essence.

8,244 posted on 10/04/2007 5:50:54 AM PDT by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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