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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 10 - Page 6 |
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GlorificationRomanides states that the glorification which the apostles received at Pentecost is the same glorification which all those glorified down through the ages since them received, "because they too have been guided into all the Truth (Acts 10.47-11.18)." None of the Church Fathers ever considered or proposed the Augustinian idea that the Church understands the faith better with the passage of time. "Every glorification is a participation in all the Truth of Pentecost, which can neither be added to nor better understood." Thus, Orthodox dogma and theology are not, as in the West, concerned with abstract concepts and interpretation about the Godhead and Christian truths; rather, they focus upon the healing and cure of individual and social sickness and the perfection of the hearts of the believers. This single focus is the essence of Biblical and Patristic spirituality, since for the purified, illumined and glorified hearts of the faithful their chief purpose, no matter what their station and work in life, was to teach and pass on this cure to others. They literally worked in their societies in a capacity similar to that of psychiatrists. Unlike them, however, they did not seek mental equilibrium by conformity to social standards of normality. Their standard of normality was glorification. Their healing power was not and is not of this world. Yet they are in this world as part of its transformation. ConclusionIn John 17, Christ prays for the unity of all his followers in glorification, so that the world might believe, and in believing become healed (or saved). For two reasons: because historical factors severed contact with the Eastern Roman Empire, and because of the dominance of Augustinian theological interpretations, Romanides claims that Western Christianity lost not only the understanding, but also the living experience of, the cure of the sickness of human souls and, indeed, of human society and culture. With this loss, the five keys to Biblical interpretation (given above) also vanished. Thus, Western theology has, to this day, gone astray from the true purpose of the Christian church, which was that it should serve as a hospital for the cure of sick souls and, through curing them, should also contribute to the cure of the illness of society.
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