“I suppose that a weak God’s succumbing to a more-powerful-than-Him ransom demand does sound nicer. :)”
You didn’t read +Athanasius the Great did you? Well, its sort of long. Try this and then tell me the Orthodox worship a “weak” God.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/chrysostom-easter.html
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/chrysostom-easter.html
Thanks for the link, and I have reasonable agreement with it. I just can't match the money lines with what I have been taught of Orthodoxy. For example:
"Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen from the grave."
But the forgiveness spoken of is extremely limited. Upon the single next sin, the next time he falls again, the person again has a reason to mourn. Likewise:
Hell was in an uproar because it was done away with. It was in an uproar because it is mocked. It was in an uproar, for it is destroyed. It is in an uproar, for it is annihilated. It is in an uproar, for it is now made captive.
This doesn't appear to match the theology. Hell is still there and many people still go there to this day. What Jesus did spared no one from hell itself. It just gave men the chance to not go there if they were smart enough to make the correct decision. That's not insignificant, but it isn't all that big a deal either, compared to what we view as the finished work of Christ. The "weakness" I am speaking of is not stand alone, but only in comparison to the God we see.