Thoughts on Modernism
By Michael Haldas, August 8, 2016
“A symbol has an ontological connection with what it symbolizes not just an arbitrary connection assigned by human culture…There is a great tendency in our modern society to reduce symbols to mere signs. This stems from a secular view of the world which views the universe not as the Spirit filled creation but as a cold, external and empty void, devoid of human meaning and independent of and indifferent to human existence.” (Archpriest Lawrence Cross)
“Modern education, by contrast, offers only intellectual attainment, omitting God as the reliable source of true wisdom. At best, education does a creditable job of accumulating reserves of human knowledge, enlarging intellects, and sharpening perception within a defined framework. At worst, it merely provides access to professional fields and produces leaders who lack the wisdom to address life’s abiding problems.” (OCPM 6/3/2016)
“… modern culture defines the happy life as a life that is “going well”—full of experiential pleasure—while to the ancients, the happy life meant the life that is lived well, with character, courage, humility, love, and justice.” (Nicholas Wolterstorff)
“The great difficulty is to get modern audiences to realize that you are preaching Christianity solely and simply because you happen to think it true; they always suppose you are preaching it because you like it or think it good for society or something of that sort.” (C. S. Lewis)
“We thus might even dare to think that the account of Adam in the Garden is so simplistic that it might become confusing to our ‘modern advanced intellectual prowess.’ We, too, might be beguiled: “as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so [our] minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (II Cor. 11: 3).” (Archimandrite Sergius)
Thoughts on Relationship with Faith
By Michael Haldas, August 9, 2016
“…reason has been reduced to discursive reasoning, i.e. logic. Popularly, it refers to what can be proven by demonstration (and often less than that). At the same time, there has been a groundswell of sentimentality, in which how we “feel” about something has been elevated to a position above rational argument. It is in this context that faith is easily misunderstood. Faith is not a leap beyond the provable, nor is it a motion based on strong sentiment. Faith is a mode of perception, a means by which we may know. But it belongs to a much larger understanding of human cognition that is unknown to our culture.” (Father Stephen Freeman)
“In Matthew 16:8-9, Jesus chided the Disciples saying, ‘O you of little faith…Do you not yet understand…’ The Disciples were rationalizing about the ‘leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees’ and not seeing, or perceiving, beyond the literal. Christ links their lack of faith to their lack of true understanding. We can be intellectual geniuses but without faith we can never truly understand.” (Sacramental Living Blog)
“The knowledge of the only true God is far more than intellectual understanding. It is participation in His divine life and in communion with Him. Thus eternal life is an ongoing, loving knowledge of God in Christ and the Holy Spirit.” (Orthodox Study Bible, John 17:3)
“…when we pray every day, God strengthens us, He pours his grace upon us. He blesses us. He wants us to grow in faith, and life, and spiritual understanding.” (Father John Zeyack)
“To go on to maturity in our understanding, we need to move beyond (but not away from) the basic teachings to a more complete understanding of the faith.” (Life Application Study Bible, Hebrews 6:1-2)
~Michael Haldas, https://www.ancientfaith.com/contributors/michael_haldas.
Michael Haldas is an author, a religious educator and a speaker. He wrote Sacramental Living: Understanding Christianity as a Way of Life (published by Eastern Christian Publications), a book which he presented special editions of as gifts to Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in private audiences. Michael is also published monthly in Theosis Magazine and he has authored several Orthodox Christian themed articles for various publications. Additionally, he has recorded and contributed to multiple YouTube, DVD and CD educational projects. He teaches adult religious education and high school Sunday school at the Greek Orthodox Church of St. George in Bethesda, Maryland and has worked with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Religious Education Department to create educational lessons and materials.
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