Anglian
let us love one another, for love is of God
Dear Beamishboy,
Glad you liked the new 'new signature'. Bar Hebraeus was a remarkable man, and, like so many in the Syriac Tradition, under-appreciated in the West.
One of our limitations in discussing the 'ECFs' is that there is no real definition of these in the Orthodox Tradition. I have always had a great fondness for St. Isaac of Nineveh, from whose work I have learned so much. On another (Orthodox) forum I had occasion to comment how nice it was that a man who was, in his own lifetime, a bishop (briefly) in a Church described as 'Nestorian' by ourselves and the Catholics, should be regarded by all of us as a saint. Well, the sky fell in, as I was told first that he wasn't from that Church, and then, when that could not be denied, that the only understanding of him that mattered was the Eastern Orthodox one. I beat a hasty retreat!
But it ought to remind us that whilst we throw about the term 'ECFs', the collection we most commonly use derived from choices made by nineteenth century Christians from an Anglican/Protestant background. So, if we take, for example, another of my favourites, St. Cyril of Alexandria, he was rather unpopular at that time and in those circles because of the portrayal of him in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and in Charles Kingsley's Hypatia, so he didn't get included.
So, I would say that the ECFs are edifying to read, but that we should not limit them to those approved of by a particular Western tradition at a particular time.
peace,
Anglian
Glad you liked the new 'new signature'. Bar Hebraeus was a remarkable man, and, like so many in the Syriac Tradition, under-appreciated in the West.
One of our limitations in discussing the 'ECFs' is that there is no real definition of these in the Orthodox Tradition. I have always had a great fondness for St. Isaac of Nineveh, from whose work I have learned so much. On another (Orthodox) forum I had occasion to comment how nice it was that a man who was, in his own lifetime, a bishop (briefly) in a Church described as 'Nestorian' by ourselves and the Catholics, should be regarded by all of us as a saint. Well, the sky fell in, as I was told first that he wasn't from that Church, and then, when that could not be denied, that the only understanding of him that mattered was the Eastern Orthodox one. I beat a hasty retreat!
But it ought to remind us that whilst we throw about the term 'ECFs', the collection we most commonly use derived from choices made by nineteenth century Christians from an Anglican/Protestant background. So, if we take, for example, another of my favourites, St. Cyril of Alexandria, he was rather unpopular at that time and in those circles because of the portrayal of him in Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire and in Charles Kingsley's Hypatia, so he didn't get included.
So, I would say that the ECFs are edifying to read, but that we should not limit them to those approved of by a particular Western tradition at a particular time.
peace,
Anglian
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