Presented by the Orthodox School Association with funding from the Virginia H. Farah Foundation.
Hosted at Hellenic College and Holy Cross School of Theology in Boston, Massachusetts.
August 1st & 2nd
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“We tend to think of nature as an autonomous system that can be understood largely in its own terms. It may need grace to complete or fulfill it, as Aquinas taught; nonetheless, as the very notion of “completion” shows, the starting point is nature. That is why Aquinas begins the Summa by discussing at length what can be known of God based on natural reason. I think it is fair to say–though I will not argue the point here–that this view of nature was a precondition for the rise of modern science. Historically its roots go back to the sharp dichotomy between nature and grace drawn by Augustine during the Pelagian controversy.
The view of Maximus is different. He does not think of nature as an autonomous system; it is more like a bush burning with divine fire, or a garment worn by God and shining with uncreated light. Another metaphor Maximus offers makes his view clearer. He says that physical things are to God as printed words are to their meanings. To study the physical world as an autonomous system would make as much sense as scrutinizing the marks on a piece of paper as if they were mere physical objects. The marks are not there to be studied in their own right, but to be read through, as it were, so as to discern the meaning behind them. If they seem to make no sense, then the solution is not to scrutinize them more and more closely; it is to learn the language in which they are written. The way one “learns the language,” however, is not by intellectual effort. It is by purifying oneself from the passions through ascetic struggle and obedience to the divine commandments.” Philosopher David Bradshaw in his excellent paper “Christianity East and West:Some Philosophical Differences”
Amma Theodora said that a teacher ought to be a stranger to the desire for domination, vain-glory, and pride; one should not be able to fool him by flattery, nor blind him by gifts, nor conquer him by the stomach, nor dominate him by anger; but he should be patient, gentle and humble as far as possible; he must be tested and without partisanship, full of concern, and a lover of souls.
- Amma Theodora
Amma Theodora said, ‘Let us strive to enter by the narrow gate, Just as the trees, if they have not stood before the winter’s storms cannot bear fruit, so it is with us; this present age is a storm and it is only through many trials and temptations that we can obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven.’
-Amma Theodora
“A Christian intellctual development occurs when all the truths of the Faith are impressed so deeply into the intellect that the intellect’s whole existence is made up of these truths alone. When it begins to reason over something, it reasons according to what it knows of the Christian truths, and would never make the slightest move without them. The Apostle calls this keeping the image of a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7).
Exercises or work related to this are: reading and hearing the Word of God, patristic liturature, lives of the Holy Fathers, mutual discourse and asking questions of those more experienced. It is good to read or listen, better to have mutual discourse, and even better to ask questions of those more experienced.
The most fruit-bearing is the Word of God, then patristic literature and the Lives of the saints. Incidentally, it is needful to know that the Lives of the Saints are better for beginners, patristic literature for the intermediate and the Word of God for the perfect.
All of these are the sources of Truth as well as the means for drawing from them; obviously, impressing them in the mind along with preserving the spirit of zeal also helps.”- (From The Path to Salvation by St Theophan the Recluse, p. 247)
Men have wished to persuade students to be content with slender means, that is, not to hanker after superfluities. This is a matter of especial importance for their discipline. “A fat belly,” as the saying goes, “does not produce a fine perception.” But what will the students of our time be able to say for themselves on this point? Not only do they despise frugality in the course of their studies, but they even labor to appear rich beyond what they are. Each one boasts not of what he has learned but of what he has spent. But perhaps the explanation of this lies in their wish to imitate their masters, concerning whom I can find nothing worthy enough to say!- Hugh of St. Victor (12th century)
Take a look at the books on culture at the American Orthodox Institute website.
A New Voice for Orthodox Christianity in America
“The mission of the American Orthodox Institute is to bring the witness of the Orthodox Christian moral tradition into greater prominence in the American “public square.”
Founded in 2005, AOI is the first independent civil society institution or “think tank” to promote the views, achievements and aspirations of Orthodox Christians in the United States. AOI believes that Orthodox Christianity, and the sorely needed moral witness it provides to a pluralistic and secular society, can no longer be content with its “best kept secret” status.”
“Before he ever met the Apostle Paul, the life of young Timothy was already full of blessings. Indeed, Paul himself, among the last lines he wrote on this earth, reminded Timothy of those blessings: “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:14–15).
Both Paul and Timothy knew who were the latter’s first teachers of Holy Scripture. Paul wrote earlier in this same epistle, “I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also” (1:5).
These two women, Timothy’s mother and grandmother, had raised him, not only in the faith but also in the study of the Sacred Writings, ta hiera grammata—sacred grammar. It was this early study of Sacred Letters, carried on in the home, that grounded the soul of young Timothy and prepared him to become, in due course, an apostle of the Church and the bishop of Ephesus. The whole Church, for the past 2,000 years, owes to these two women an immense and unpayable debt of gratitude.”- Fr. Patrick Reardon
Read the entire article here.
“No source of instruction can be overlooked in the preparation for the great battle of life, and there is a certain advantage to be derived from the right use of the heathen writers. The illustrious Moses is described as training his intellect in the science of the Egyptians, and so arriving at the contemplaton of Him Who is. So in latter days Daniel at Babylon was wise in the Chaldean philosophy, and ultimately apprehended the Divine instruction…But we must not take everything indiscriminately but only what is profitable.”-St. Basil the Great (379)
“In our day the cheif ingredient missing from this ideal harmony of human life is something one might call the emotional development of the soul. It is something that is not directly spiritual, but that very often hinders spiritual development. It is the state of someone who, while he may think he thirsts for spiritual struggle and and elevated life of prayer, is poorly able to respond to normal human love and friendship; for if a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that lovest not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? (I John 4:20)
In a few people this defect exists in an extreme form: but as a tendency it is present to some extent in all of us who have been raised in the emotional spiritual wasteland of our times.
This being so, it is often necessary for us to humble our seemingly spiritual impulses and struggles to be tested on our human and emotional readiness for them. Sometimes a spiritual father will deny a child the reading of some spiritual book and give him instead a novel of Dostoyevsky or Dickens, or will encourage him to become familiar with certain kinds of classical music, not with any aesthetic purpose in mind-for one can be an expert in such matters and even be emotionally well-developed without the least interest in spiritual struggle, and that is also an unbalanced state- but solely to refine and form his soul and make it better disposed to understand genuine spiritual texts.”- Fr. Seraphim Rose
