I also understand why the Reformation happened (I personally think it needed to happen), in some ways I wish Luther had joined with the East. But I also trust God did all of this for a purpose, maybe to have the West work on WORD, while the East was strong on IMAGE. I have a vision of both joining together in one bridal dress in the end.
So I'm basically half Confessional Lutheran, half EO (there is no EO church near me so I haven't been able to visit one yet). But I love reading the early church fathers now, and people like Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor bring an entire world of symbology to life. Chrysostom is awesome also (and based, warned about the jews).
I want to be a peacemaker, and help unite true believers in Rome, the East, and among Protestants. I see true believers in all three, I also see problems in all three because there are sinful humans in all three, along with enemy infiltrations.
Pageau, Fr. Damick, and those other guys are great. I'm "Orthodox curious" but yeah like you I'm precluded from actually digging more into it because the closest Orthodox church of any type is hours out. There just aren't many of those in the Bible Belt lol
I grew up Southern Baptist and still practice, but the focus on an almost superficial level of "fEeLiNg" along with the sense that the only theologians that matter are essentially C.S. Lewis or Billy Graham (everyone earlier being basically Papist garbage or completely forgotten) really left me lacking. Heck, I'm doubtful if the average Southern Baptist congregant can even tell you who Martin Luther was. Honestly, the focus on feeling was one of the reasons why I left the faith and it took people like Peterson and Pageau to re-enchant Christianity for me.
But then again, maybe that's less a function of the Baptists and more just being a "sophisticated" Christian.
I've really gotten into Jonathan Pageau lately, the symbolic world of the ancient Chrisitan church has opened up to me in the past year. I want to read this next by Fr. Damick, "Arise O God: The Gospel of Christ’s Defeat of Demons, Sin, and Death." He also has a good podcast on metaphysics and symbology called "The Lord of Spirits"
I also understand why the Reformation happened (I personally think it needed to happen), in some ways I wish Luther had joined with the East. But I also trust God did all of this for a purpose, maybe to have the West work on WORD, while the East was strong on IMAGE. I have a vision of both joining together in one bridal dress in the end.
So I'm basically half Confessional Lutheran, half EO (there is no EO church near me so I haven't been able to visit one yet). But I love reading the early church fathers now, and people like Gregory of Nyssa and Maximus the Confessor bring an entire world of symbology to life. Chrysostom is awesome also (and based, warned about the jews).
I want to be a peacemaker, and help unite true believers in Rome, the East, and among Protestants. I see true believers in all three, I also see problems in all three because there are sinful humans in all three, along with enemy infiltrations.
Pageau, Fr. Damick, and those other guys are great. I'm "Orthodox curious" but yeah like you I'm precluded from actually digging more into it because the closest Orthodox church of any type is hours out. There just aren't many of those in the Bible Belt lol
I grew up Southern Baptist and still practice, but the focus on an almost superficial level of "fEeLiNg" along with the sense that the only theologians that matter are essentially C.S. Lewis or Billy Graham (everyone earlier being basically Papist garbage or completely forgotten) really left me lacking. Heck, I'm doubtful if the average Southern Baptist congregant can even tell you who Martin Luther was. Honestly, the focus on feeling was one of the reasons why I left the faith and it took people like Peterson and Pageau to re-enchant Christianity for me.
But then again, maybe that's less a function of the Baptists and more just being a "sophisticated" Christian.
Billy Graham is a charlatan.
Also, Padre Trenham at Patristic Nectar.