Citoyen

Why I converted to Orthodox Christianity Theosis: the process of union with God through active participation in the Uncreated Energies Essence energies distinction: God is utterly transcendent in His essence, but knowable through His energies, both essence and energies are fully God, distinction without division Synergeia: free will is synergy of individual effort and divine grace, cooperation or resistance Physical/spiritual interdependence: the essence energies distinction and synergy allows for a radical affirmation of both immanence and transcendence, Orthodoxy is a both/and of holistic harmony The nous: the eye of the soul or mind of the heart, the faculty by which we know and experience God, when the nous is pure it sees God and experiences the Uncreated Energies of God intuitively Monarchical Trinitarianism: God is both one and many; one essence, three persons; Father as sole cause, Son begotten, Spirit proceeds, whatever is not common in the divine is unique to the person (against subordination in God, polytheism, or modalism) Apophaticism: asserting through negation ex. “God is unknowable”, preserves divine mystery as life giving, carving away Logos theology: aligning with God as the ordering principle and source of life, Jesus Christ as the Logos of the Greeks and Dao of Lao Tzu (the way, the truth, the life, the vine, the bridegroom, etc.), movement towards God as theosis, sin (stagnation) separates us from God, sin/evil as privation “It is only the misuse of things that is evil, and such misuse occurs when the intellect fails to cultivate its natural powers.” -St. Maximus the Confessor “God became man so that man might become God.” -St. Athanasius “What is unassumed is unhealed.” -St. Gregory of Nyssa Everything else flows from here Any worldview presupposes answers to the philosophical problem of the one (unity/changlessness/being) and the many (plurality/change/becoming), the question of how one and many fundamentally relate, which applies to its affirmation or denial of life and its coherence as a position. I believe Orthodox Christianity is the most coherent/universal worldview (I have yet to see good argument addressing philosophically/practically). Here and now is how you experience God/eternity, “the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), you are what you do, theosis is eternal progress (epektasis), already but not yet. Man’s goal is to metabolize, God is the fire that does not consume you, the flow of energy and transcendent. Theosis is purification, illumination, deification. Jesus accepts if we accept Him. Forgiveness is love neutralizing the enemy. “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you.” (John 6:53) “He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.” (John 6:56) Holy Communion as the act of assimilating God as He assimilates us, nutrition as our most intimate interaction with the world. Ancient Greek understanding of the Bible: ex. “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) is present active imperative (ongoing process). Historical continuity: apostolic succession/faith and decentralized church structure. “A person must be in the religious search not for the sake of religious experiences, which can deceive, but for the sake of truth.” -Fr. Seraphim Rose “Come and see.” (John 1:39) The greatest mysteries are within the Divine Liturgy. If I’m presenting anything wrong, I welcome correction.