On unity

Union is possible with Rome. Unity alone is possible with Orthodoxy.Alexey Khomiakov

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A new sacrament?

Certainly, Christianity has a logical expression contained in the Creed; but this is not separate from other manifestations. It also has a logical teaching, which we call theology. But this is only a branch of general teaching. To isolate it is a great error; to give it exclusive preference is madness; to see in it [...]

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Of fops and dogs

Do not harness your intellectual freedom into a foppish dog-caller with the inscription ‘Europe’.Aleksey Khomiakov

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Knowledge

…is not yet true enlightenment. Knowledge is the broadening of man’s intellectual endowment. True enlightenment, however, embraces in itself development of high moral and spiritual principles over and above knowledge. To acquire knowledge is not very difficult; to attain a high moral development, however is the highest aim of man and many people who are [...]

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Woe! (Nelly)

…woe to them who wish to defend the power of Christ with the impotence of man’s weapons!Aleksey Khomiakov

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The perpetual revolution

A doubt about the possibility or reality of a communication between living and dead through Christ and in Christ is too un-Christian to want an answer. To ascribe to the prayers of living Christians a power of intercession which is refused to the Christians admitted into heavenly glory would be a glaring absurdity. If Protestantism [...]

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Ugly and indecent

With regard to women’s clothes one should not even talk. They have always been either ugly or indecent, and most often ugly and indecent at the same time. Western dress continuously changes and is determined by so-called fashion, and what results? Somewhere (mostly in Paris) a well-known circle of people change the style of dress [...]

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Khomiakov and Orthodoxy

As I promised yesterday I am going to offer up a few thoughts on Alexei Khomiakov’s thought and it’s relation to modern Orthodoxy. I am by no means qualified to do so but I will try to make something coherent.
Alexei Khomiakov (1804-1860) is most well known for his treatise on the unity of the Church [...]

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The expression of the Church

Certainly, Christianity has a logical expression contained in the Creed; but this is not separate from other manifestations. It also has a logical teaching, which we call theology. But this is only a branch of general teaching. To isolate it is a great error; to give it exclusive preference is madness; to see in it [...]

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Stating the obvious

So when I was in high school my friends and I had a silly game that if someone stated the obvious you could punch them…this guy would be punched real hard:
Since for Xomjakov [sic] true philosophy could exist only in the realm of faith, in considering Xomjakov [sic] the philosopher one must consider Xomjakov [sic] [...]

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The rights of women…(and men)

Many have attacked these imaginary rights of women; many more have defended them. But amidst all the eloquent verbiage that has aroused so many good souls and weak heads, no one has ever cited those principles of moral responsibility and world-wide truth upon which the concept of rights might depend, and about which a sensible [...]

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Ceaseless agitation

Every day, in her ceaseless agitation, the West declares her own thoughts to be lies and exchanges the old lie for a new one, or exchanges its own old scandals for new ones.Aleksey Khomiakov
True in 1845 true in 2006.

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The ‘authority’ of the Church

No—the Church is not an authority, just as God is not an authority and Christ is not an authority, since authority is something external to us. The Church is not an authority, I say, but the truth—and at the same time the inner life of the Christian, since God, Christ, the Church, live in [...]

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St. John, St. Gregory, St. Symeon, St. Gregory Palamas and Calvin(?)

Calvin the “Theologian”
A true definition of Theologian from Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos:
…theologians of the Church should be called “those who have reached theoria (vision of God)”, who formerly purified their heart from passions or at least are struggling to purify them.
Further:
…the beholders of God, specifically those who follow the whole methodology of the Church and attain [...]

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By what right? [incendiary comment]

…by what right can those who base their beliefs on the learned propositions of their forefathers begin to use tradition as a means of support? …to believe in the infallibility of learning, moreover of a learning which works out its propositions dialectically, is against common sense.
Aleksey Khomiakov (1804-1860)
I love quotes from the past like this [...]

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