Are you referring to my post or to the Byzantine model of Soteriology?
I expect it was my post, and I find it amusing in a self-deprecating way that my literary abstractions are themselves becoming Byzantine
St. Gregory Palamas is known to write that way, while St. Athanasius according to CS Lewis was one of the easiest Greek writers to read. In English, his Life of Anthony is well translated and is really a page-turner, but I have yet to find a translation of On The Incarnation that I liked.
John Wesley did not come up with them; Wednesday and Friday fasts are so ancient that their origin is obscure, but the thought is that Wednesday is a commemoration of our Lord’s arrest and Friday the Crucifixion. The only innovation Wesley introduced in his Sunday Service Book for North America recension of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer was to indicate that people should attend church on those days for the express purpose of praying the Anglican Litany, but that didn’t happen. Advent and Lent, which are newer, dating from the 5th-7th centuries I think, are also present, although the Roman Rite and the Protestant churches based on it are the only churches in the world where Advent is only four weeks long instead of the usual six (if you travel to Milan, where the Ambrosian Liturgy is used, Advent starts two weeks earlier), but this is a minor gripe, and also to be fair, if we lengthened Advent we would have to order new wreaths and the system of O Antiphons, and in high church Anglicanism, Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism, the Rorate Caeli masses might also break.*
But, it is frustrating to me how much of Wesley”s doctrine and his Anglican sensibilities, for example, his love of the Book of Common Prayer, were set aside by the Methodist Episcopal Church in favor of what was described in one article of the Oxford Handbook on Methodism as a Reformed church with Arminian soteriology. I have never been to a Methodist church with weekly Communion, heard a Methodist elder preach about salvation through Entire Sanctification (Theosis) or about the incident where Wesley”s heart was “strangely moved,” or seen any trace of the Book of Common Prayer or its Methodist customization, the Sunday Service Book, in use, but I am sure there are Methodist parishes where John Wesley plays a role similar to Martin Luther in Lutheran churches, St. Thomas Aquinas in Roman Catholic churches, St. Severus of Antioch in Oriental Orthodox churches, and St. John of Damascus in Eastern Orthodox churches, as someone whose material is particularly useful and relevant as a manual of the faith, (for example, Luther”s theology remains very visible in Lutheran churches, aside from his nasty anti-Semitism he developed towards the end of his life, but Lutheran ideas about the Mass still prevail, his hymns predominate, and his Catechisms and Law/Gospel dichotomy remain in use).
These thinkers, while not by any means innovative (except in the case of Aquinas and Severus, but its a good innovation, in that Severus advanced Theopaschite doctrine with his hymn “Only Begotten Son” which I regard as something approaching a litmus test for correct Christology, and Aquinas with his philosophical proofs for God. Conversely, the Reformed churches don’t seem to care about John Calvin as much as I would like; it is again exceedingly rare to find a Presbyterian church with weekly communion (although I think some of the Reformed churches in the US that are originally of Dutch origin do this, and I have also heard of it in the Church of Scotland). At present, however, the depressing reality for someone who loves both John and Charles Wesley is that only the latter is highly visible in Methodist worship, and the increasing dominance of “Praise and Worship Music” endanger this in some parishes, although there is some consolation from the fact John Wesley did theologically edit the hymns of his brother Charles, who was a better poet than a theologian.
No, and no; if you will permit me to elaborate: many people struggle with sinful behaviors which are habit-forming, like problem gambling, drugs, alcoholism, smoking, wrathfulness/uncontrolled anger, prostitution, inappropriate contentography, homosexuality, and other depravities. Support groups exist for many of these, but they don’t always work, and “Conversion Therapy” for homosexuals has been a disaster for the churches that tried it.
We have to anolish the Forensic model of sin, and embrace the Orthodoc medicinal model, where sin is viewed as a disease resulting from our condition which takes a long time to cure. But many of these these people are sorry for their sins, as they are suffering from an illness and our Lord says we should, and implies He will, forgive a sin not seven times, but seventy times seven (further implying boundless, infinite capability for forgiveness). Private confession can bring relief to pained consciences. There is also the Anglican approach of a public confiteor, where the congregation confesses at Morning Prayer and Evensong “we have left undone what we ought to have done, and done that which we ought not to have done...we are truly sorry) and the Priest pronounces absolution; a similar confiteor and the Prayer of Humble Access exist at traditional Holy Communion services. These sacramentals can bring great relief to people who feel a sense of Metanoia but cannot act on it.
Regarding penances, I don’t believe in them except for grave sins which involve murder or mayhem or racketeering, such as a doctor who performs abortions, or the leader of a shoplifting ring or a higj level drug dealer, or sins which threaten the integrity of the church, such as a member who spreads damaging gossip about other members. Only the Roman Rite and related rites insist on penancing all people who come to confess. The Orthodox do not; when I was with the OCA, which I loved (I left because I felt called to revitalize Congregationalism by injecting a blend of Orthodox and Wesleyan principles and pursue ecumenical unity among traditional churches), I went to confession many times, I found it very helpful, and no priest ever demanded a penance of me. This is the medicinal model in action, which is so much better than the forensic model that words fail me in trying to describe the extent of its superiority.
* Fun fact: Canon XX of the Council of Nicea prohibits fasting and prostration in church from Easter to Pentecost Sunday, although only the ban on prostration survives past St. Thomas Sunday (also known as Low Sunday, perhaps because it and Christmas Sunday have the lowest attendance), but I think if we want to get Protestants, as I do, to experience Advent and Lent, not just as fasts, because many people can’t fast due to illness, but instead, as times of increased prayer, communion and repentence, Canon XX should be in force. Canon I, in case you were wondering, extends the apostolic canon denying ordination to people who have killed anyone post-Baptism to people who have castrated themselves or been castrated for reasons other than medical neccessity, as the Church regarded this act as self- murder, which I think is a fascinating insight into the collective mindset of the bishops, largely those consecrated at the end of the Diocletian Persecution, who were at Nicea.
