I have been slogging through The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church by Vladimir Lossky (a little light reading – actually I barely understand a fraction of it) and in his chapter on “Created Beings” came across this interesting section:
The theology of the Orthodox Church, constantly soteriological in its emphasis, has never entered into alliance with philosophy in any attempt at a doctrinal synthesis… Having no philosophical preferences, the Church always freely makes use of philosophy and the sciences for apologetic purposes, but she never has any cause to defend these relative and changing truths as she defends the unchangeable truth of her doctrines. That is why ancient or more modern cosmological theories cannot affect in any way the more fundamental truth which is revealed to the Church… Revelation remains for theology essentially geocentric, for it is addressed to men [RW - human beings] and confers upon them the truth as it is relative to their salvation under conditions which belong to the reality of life on earth.
Uh yeah that is a bit dense and might require a bit of translation. (Translating things into Simple English is something we do every day in Church of the Nations.) Basically Orthodox theology has never tried to tie itself to any philosophical system (as opposed to say the classic example of Thomas Aquinas and his use of Aristotle). Philosophy changes and science changes. But because Orthodoxy does not rely upon any particular philosophy or science – theological truth does not change. Nor is it threatened or affected (now I find “not affected” a bit hard to believe but anyways) by modern science. Because Orthodox theology is “soteriological and geocentric” – it focuses on salvation on this earth. Western Christianity has a great deal to learn from the Eastern church.
(Also posted on Facebook – but not everyone goes there and I wanted to share this with others.)
