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  1. nicholas123

    Doubts over the second principle of Monothelitism

    All I will are things not in accordance to nature, but if you don't care to listen there can be no discourse.
  2. nicholas123

    Doubts over the second principle of Monothelitism

    It is precisely what dyothelites say. Maximos says the natural will is "a faculty desirous of what is in accordance with nature" and an inclination to something unnatural is due to sin. The monothelites said the will is free, for it is based on spirit, and one ought to search for God and his...
  3. nicholas123

    Doubts over the second principle of Monothelitism

    What do you mean? I have said one thing only, that the will is spiritual and subjugating to idols such as the "the good" is sin. The Laws of Nature and Reason are not good, God alone is good and beyond good. I have asked one question and you have not answered: how can something determined by...
  4. nicholas123

    Doubts over the second principle of Monothelitism

    A spirit is not a hypostasis. A spirit is what differentiates a hypostasis from another, crudely saying. A Divine hypostasis is not a created hypostasis because they differ in spirit, each having the one proper to it. The Holy Spirit, genuinely a person, is not mere spirit, but is called so...
  5. nicholas123

    Doubts over the second principle of Monothelitism

    I know the words of the 6th council. My problem is that the material I could find and understand in English seemed poor to me and I found myself more sympathetic to the monothelites who seemed simpler and humbler, they seemed to care about freedom and persons while the dyothelites about reason...
  6. nicholas123

    I want God to just understand me and what I'm going through...

    Some questions don't have answers, we falsely assume the way to spiritual knowledge is raising questions because it is what we do in the natural sciences. A happy life can only come through constant remembrance of Christ's victory over death and corruption, for we necessitate greater blessings...
  7. nicholas123

    Christianity that Works

    I pray only for that which no man could ever give me, for all men can give is useless vanity. What is good can only come from God, who does not count or skimp like us mortals.
  8. nicholas123

    Doubts over the second principle of Monothelitism

    If what you said is true, the fact that there is harmony in will in the Triune God is also due to a voluntary submission of the Son and Comforter to the Father. Likewise with human communities. If one nature in multiple hypostasis implied agreement, there would be no strife in men. But since you...
  9. nicholas123

    Doubts over the second principle of Monothelitism

    The Trinity is a terrible example, for it is three in one and one in three. It is very mystical and beyond intellect. So while being very liberal with the words, one might say the fact a will is hypostatic would not imply multiple hypostasis cannot share a single will, since they can be of full...
  10. nicholas123

    Doubts over the second principle of Monothelitism

    Hello, I have contemplated monothelitism and now I'm full of doubts. I tried studying Saint Maximos, but it was of little help. If anyone has struggled with this position, or knows where I could inform myself better, please reply. My biggest problem is the second principle of monothelitism. It...
  11. nicholas123

    On Exodus 32:9-14 and Exodus 32:26-29

    I think you just need to keep reading, reading Exodus 33 with special attention might help.
  12. nicholas123

    Uncreated Energies in Genesis...

    No, St. Palamas uses grace, light and energies interchangeably in his texts, though the connotation here and there are different. On a side note, studying even the fathers like St. Basil without a throughout knowledge of ancient symbology will do one more harm than help.
  13. nicholas123

    Rod Dreher and Philip Yancey

    The only way to learn about orthodoxy is to partake in it. Of course inquiry might encourage someone, but spiritual matters can only be learned in common activity, that means a communion of love, such that the mysteries of orthodoxy remain ineffable and invisible to anyone outside it.
  14. nicholas123

    A Good Defense

    The only good defense is blessed silence, so Christ can speak. What justice would there be in the world if Christ were not both the judge and our defender?
  15. nicholas123

    [TAW] Synthetic / bullet point Orthodox apologetics?

    Going to church is a direct relationship with God, all relationships are manifold. Christ himself prescribed us the Lord's prayer. Some people...
  16. nicholas123

    Is the Virgin Mary the Spouse of the Holy Spirit?

    We don't confound the Son with us as sons of God, so Mary is only a daughter of the Father as much as any woman. Theotokos is tradition. In the meaning of complementary union, it makes no sense for the Holy Spirit to get married for he is the Kingdom in which the marriage of Christ and Church...
  17. nicholas123

    Healing of the Great Schism ...

    No, the sky is not falling. Sometimes I wish it did already, maybe one can sympathize, because it shall slowly go down for centuries until heaven comes down for new creation. There will come a time there will not be two or three to celebrate the Lord. It is a sober view, in my opinion, yet one...
  18. nicholas123

    Healing of the Great Schism ...

    If you'd spend more time talking with regular folk outside the internet, you'd realize people who see the differences between the Orthodox and the roman catholics are a loud minority. Most people don't even wish to care about differences in spirituality, they see the church as a gigantic NGO...
  19. nicholas123

    Toll houses: gnosticism or revealed truth?

    Any attempt to describe the life to come is failed, this is the indisputable christian position. It might have value a parable, but its illuminating value is highly questionable. In my opinion, it gained notoriety because most people today don't know the limits of language, be they laity or...
  20. nicholas123

    How does one see the Cross of Christ in the Tollhouse’s?

    I tried to say that the question "what is afterlife like?" is utterly senseless, as it cannot be answered in words, so it cannot be questioned in words. It can be answered in the mystical intuitions, and, therefore, only questioned in the mystical participation of the liturgical life. If you and...