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Dear friends, There can be a measure and a degree of freedom and of truth and of orthodoxy among the non-Orthodox. It doesn't take much effort to learn about Eastern Orthodoxy; but to really become Eastern Orthodox is far from easy, and it is a challenge for a person who has personal baggage from non-Orthodox shortcomings. No, not everything is bad and wrong outside of Orthodoxy. By no means no. But the Augustinian presuppositions and limitations of Western Christian theology becomes more apparent to me with each day that passes. It's not all to blame upon Augustine of Hippo, but since the West makes more of him as "the teacher" than it should, we have to ask ourselves why so many people trust him to explain everything in theology and why they tend to turn to him alone to answer their deepest spiritual questions. He is by no means the best teacher in all of Christendom.
What can we learn from those non-Orthodox theologians who reject the filioque? A lot! A very lot! Lutheran theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg is the most courageous Western theologian. We read:
"It should now be evident that Pannenberg rejects the filioque view (that the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son). He believes it is wrong because it presupposes that the Father-Son is the primary relation of origin to which the spiration of the Spirit is added. This makes the Spirit secondary and represents subordinationism of the Spirit" (page 161: Christology: A Global Introduction - An Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective. Copyright 2003, Baker Academic, a division of Baker Book House Co., Grand Rapids, MI). God save us all in Christ Jesus in the kindness and mercy and love of God in Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen. In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington
What can we learn from those non-Orthodox theologians who reject the filioque? A lot! A very lot! Lutheran theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg is the most courageous Western theologian. We read:
"It should now be evident that Pannenberg rejects the filioque view (that the Spirit proceeds from both the Father and the Son). He believes it is wrong because it presupposes that the Father-Son is the primary relation of origin to which the spiration of the Spirit is added. This makes the Spirit secondary and represents subordinationism of the Spirit" (page 161: Christology: A Global Introduction - An Ecumenical, International, and Contextual Perspective. Copyright 2003, Baker Academic, a division of Baker Book House Co., Grand Rapids, MI). God save us all in Christ Jesus in the kindness and mercy and love of God in Jesus Christ. Amen and Amen. In Erie PA Scott R. Harrington