A Generous Orthodoxy

[John Charmley]

Dear Rick,

This was an interesting but difficult one. When you write:

Quote:In this way, all ecclesiological divisions have been transcended by the one(s) who find their path made straight by means of a christological pneumatology, or a pnuematological christology. And, all paths/journeys are not the same for all to be sure.

I am not sure that I am able to quite follow; but that's my ignorance at work I fear

I am constantly struck by the way in which the OCs and the RCC all use the same Cyprianic ecclesiology. St. Cyprian himself, of course, used it to criticise those who had apostasized in the Decian persecutions - not to criticise other Christians who had remained faithful. I wonder sometimes whether it amounts to an abuse of the Fathers for us to use St. Cyprian's comments in the way we do; after all, to do so is, implicitly, to say that other Christians are apostate. Perhaps if we stopped abusing the Fathers we could stop abusing each other?

It is we who create separate denominations. Often this is a failure of love; but we have to remember that sometimes it must be because others preach that 'other gospel' against which the Apostles warned. But between the preaching of heresy and the expression of a different linguistic usage, there is a wide field in which we might play.

In peace,

John