A Generous Orthodoxy

[John Charmley]

Dear Kirk,

Yes, indeed, and you are quite correct in saying that God has done everything for us save coerced us - and as a Just God He cannot go outside His own moral laws. How sad though that we are so determined on sin.

There are serious questions here, though, about non-believers and heretics. I love St. Isaac's writings, but he does seem to me to be essentially a universalist; this is a position to which I suspect I naturally incline, but it is one that the Church does not teach - as Origen found!

That was one reason that I raised the question of judgement as part of this discussion, because even in passages such as the Sermon on the Mount where His love for us shines through, Our Saviour is quite clear that there will be a judgement.

And again, on things such as doctrine and dogma, the Fathers laboured so long and fought so hard for Orthodoxy that it must matter what one believes - as well as how one manifests that belief in life. Again, our modern western mindset is to take the view that tolerance is all, and provided people are OK and 'good' that is enough; but that does not seem to be the teaching of the Church.

In Christ,

John