Let me start here by quoting the introductory section of this website that states that what I am writing here “is not intended to be authoritative in any way - it’s just one guy thinking through things out loud in the public domain and inviting others to eavesdrop.” If you agree, Glory to God. If you disagree, Glory to God. All I ask is that if you disagree, please have some foundation for the disagreement that is more thoughtful than “what you have always heard,” “what we have always done,” or “not everything needs to be perfect.”
Organizations languish when growth is stifled by these three pillars that entrench the status quo:
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When we simply go by what we heard somewhere without a system of integrating what we have heard we are trying to navigate a large ocean with no map and no compass.
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They say insanity is doing the same thing over an over expecting a different result, and many organizations continue to do the same things simply for the sake of comfort.
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Self acceptance and mutual encouragement are great virtues, as long as they are coupled with an ongoing commitment to self examination and mutual accountability.
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I love quoting my life changing moment with Father Dan Habib, when I told him something I thought I understood to be true as an Orthodox concept, and he asked me “yes, but where have you read that?” This was the beginning of an ongoing journey to deepen my understanding of Our Orthodox Faith in a way that goes beyond the pillars of heterodoxy above. My journey continues, as I still fall into these traps, and I invite you to be kind enough to point it out to me if what I am saying or doing is falling prey to one of these limitations.
Are we though? Sometimes we are. There’s a reason it is important to make sure that we are all using the same language the same way or at least translating between terms effectively (Defining Key Terms) because we can get into unnecessary disagreements that lead to divisions if we insist on using specific words to say the same thing. Words are simply expressions of what St. John Cassian calls noemata.
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Noemata (νοήματα): Mental concepts or thoughts that exist in the mind before being expressed through language. In patristic literature, noemata refers to the inner meanings or spiritual concepts that transcend literal expressions and form the foundation of our understanding of divine truth.
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One thing we must not do is consider all noemata to be identical. Even equivalent noemata are not identical. When we speak of the Trinity as one in essence (ousia), we are still clear that they are three distinct persons (hypostases). We can similarly have complementary or synergistic ideas that can be seen as in harmony, but it would be dangerous to say they are saying the same thing. Indeed, this limitation of language and thinking was a basic tenet of the brainwashing scheme of Big Brother in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.
My point in making this website is not to complicate things by getting myself and others mired in terminology and semantics. My goal is for us to explore Orthodoxy together in a deep and meaningful way. Sometimes I am interested in specific topics that others find esoteric or uninteresting. Sometimes I am asked a question about something that I find to be beyond what I would personally consider to be beyond the critical questions that comprise our Christian Framework.
Orthodox study is not an end in and of itself but rather a part our Orthodox life — it is part of but not the whole picture. Further more, I believe that there is a limit to the amount of learning that is beneficial since If it Doesn't Matter, it Doesn't Matter, but we cannot expect everyone to agree with us on what matters any more than we can expect everyone to agree on the same telos (I can do whatever I want).
As we strive to learn together, it is completely fair and reasonable to have healthy disagreement. We will have and should have different ideas, priorities, and means of communication that require ongoing effort to harmonize. Just like any healthy relationship, disagreement is inevitable, and a healthy framework requires a mechanism for reconciliation.
As a case study that we can use to model how to approach disagreement, I’d like to explore how a dear friend and mentor of mine are navigating the language that we use in expressing what we are trying to convey as the pillars of Sunday School education. Briefly, my perspective on Orthodox Understanding is that a proper Orthodox thought that is worth learning or teaching should be supported Patristically, Liturgically, and Biblically. Similarly but not exactly, my dear friend and mentor states teaching Orthodoxy requires “ensuring that servants understand the Orthodox Way (Dogma, Sacraments and Scripture) and its application to life.” While I agree to an extent, I have the following comments:
The only pillar that I have that is not explicitly present in my friend and mentor’s framework is the Patristic pillar, and we both agree that it is implicitly present in what he would call dogma and what we would both call Faith. The key reason I would highlight it specifically is to bring attention to the role that the Patristic Age had on Church formation. Also, I would include the Sacraments (Liturgical) and Scripture (Biblical) as part of the Faith of the Church.
This goes back again to the analogy to the Trinity. God the Father is God. God the Son is God. God the Holy Spirit is God. The Trinity is God. Similarly, it is possible to see the Orthodox Church in the unity and diversity of the Patristics, Liturgics, and Biblical pillars. I would say that the three of them together are The Faith, and it doesn’t matter if you switch around the words to synonyms as long as the overall system is the same.