- Sep 29, 2016
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One more post.
This is something I feel like I've brought up on other threads, but it's something that I have never been able to understand - and that's how Orthodoxy interracts with culture in comparison to other sects.
Now, of course, there is some cultural chauvinism inherit in God by choosing the Israelites above all other people, but this is somewhat understandable - number one, they are given a much higher moral standard, number two, such a chauvinism was temporary in order to lead up to Christ, and to provide the Early Christians examples of Sainthood from the very beginning of the Church.
However, in the current day, in all denominations except one, cultural chauvinism has been placed on the back-burner.
In Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Oriental Orthodoxy, etc. (with the exception of Mormonism, but I don't consider it Christian, and maybe the Church of the East), what the Church is and culture are seen as two distinct entities. Of course, culture of specific peoples must be subordinate to the Church and it's theology, but the culture is seen as something that is sanctified and judged by the Church; it's something external that is observed by the Church.
Orthodoxy is different. The lines between culture and dogma are so blended in Orthodoxy that what it means to "sanctify" culture is to Byzantinize it. Byzantine iconography, in comparison to Romanesque or Coptic iconography, is seen as the supreme standard. Prostrations are fundamental to Orthodoxy. The way one makes the sign of the cross is fundamental. The specific prayers are fundamental. The types of monasticism are fundamental. The iconostasis is fundamental.
This is simply just the beginning; some have taken it so far that some see the words "Greek" and "Orthodox" as synonymous, and I've even heard of stories of some priests who see the OCA as "not really Orthodox" because they aren't explicitly Russian or Greek. That's the first question I get all the time, "what ethnicity are you?"
I see this as almost a problem of God's justice as a matter of fact, and it's an experience that I struggle with, especially when talking to other people who aren't Orthodox.
How is it fair or just of God to select specific cultures to be the supreme standard of Truth?
How is it fair or just that God can condemn someone to hell just because they could never feel psychologically or culturally comfortable going to the only Serbian parish in town?
How is it fair or just that God will allow various, pretty cultures - Christian or non-Christian - for example, the Aleut - to be developed, only for it to be destroyed by some Russian or Greek evangelization, or for it to go into schism and be lost to the ages?
Why do these things happen?
This is something I feel like I've brought up on other threads, but it's something that I have never been able to understand - and that's how Orthodoxy interracts with culture in comparison to other sects.
Now, of course, there is some cultural chauvinism inherit in God by choosing the Israelites above all other people, but this is somewhat understandable - number one, they are given a much higher moral standard, number two, such a chauvinism was temporary in order to lead up to Christ, and to provide the Early Christians examples of Sainthood from the very beginning of the Church.
However, in the current day, in all denominations except one, cultural chauvinism has been placed on the back-burner.
In Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Oriental Orthodoxy, etc. (with the exception of Mormonism, but I don't consider it Christian, and maybe the Church of the East), what the Church is and culture are seen as two distinct entities. Of course, culture of specific peoples must be subordinate to the Church and it's theology, but the culture is seen as something that is sanctified and judged by the Church; it's something external that is observed by the Church.
Orthodoxy is different. The lines between culture and dogma are so blended in Orthodoxy that what it means to "sanctify" culture is to Byzantinize it. Byzantine iconography, in comparison to Romanesque or Coptic iconography, is seen as the supreme standard. Prostrations are fundamental to Orthodoxy. The way one makes the sign of the cross is fundamental. The specific prayers are fundamental. The types of monasticism are fundamental. The iconostasis is fundamental.
This is simply just the beginning; some have taken it so far that some see the words "Greek" and "Orthodox" as synonymous, and I've even heard of stories of some priests who see the OCA as "not really Orthodox" because they aren't explicitly Russian or Greek. That's the first question I get all the time, "what ethnicity are you?"
I see this as almost a problem of God's justice as a matter of fact, and it's an experience that I struggle with, especially when talking to other people who aren't Orthodox.
How is it fair or just of God to select specific cultures to be the supreme standard of Truth?
How is it fair or just that God can condemn someone to hell just because they could never feel psychologically or culturally comfortable going to the only Serbian parish in town?
How is it fair or just that God will allow various, pretty cultures - Christian or non-Christian - for example, the Aleut - to be developed, only for it to be destroyed by some Russian or Greek evangelization, or for it to go into schism and be lost to the ages?
Why do these things happen?
