EENS and the Orthodox

[thessalonian]

Something is really striking me as interesting on this board I am posting on. There are a couple of Orthodox Christians on the board. 'The Orthodox split off BEFORE the council of Flourence and EENS. What I find VERY interesting is that there explanations when confronted by the question "so can someone who is outside the Orthodox Church be saved" are very much like ours and I have gained a few insights from them. I.e. they don't respond with, "if your not Orthodox your going to hell" but leave it to God's mercy and justice. I don't know why it should amaze me because this area "no salvation outside the Church" has never been discussed as a major concern in reunification. I doudt they got it from us post Vatican II Catholics (the time most non-catholcs claim it changed) and we most certainly did not get it from them. Gee, could it have a common root. Sacred Oral Tradition.

[thessalonian]

I think it would be interesting to do a study to see what doctrines protestants claim were started after the split and check in on the Orthodox stand and explanations.

[phatcatholic]

that would be interesting. good call on that.

i also wonder if they have any recent Orthodox encyclicals or something like that, that have articulated their Church's belief regarding non-Orthodox christians or if their belief stems largely from Tradition.

[p0lar_bear]

[quote name='phatcatholic' date='Sep 3 2005, 09:27 PM']that would be interesting. good call on that.

i also wonder if they have any recent Orthodox encyclicals or something like that, that have articulated their Church's belief regarding non-Orthodox christians or if their belief stems largely from Tradition.
[right][snapback]710071[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]


Well, since the Orthodox churches aren't exactly united, a letter from one patriarch (should one address this issue) wouldn't necessarily reflect the beliefs of all the churches. I'm not even sure it would necessarily be binding on those in his church. I'm really not sure the Orthodox churches hold any statements after the 7 Councils to be definitive.

[thessalonian]

[quote name='p0lar_bear' date='Sep 4 2005, 10:49 AM']Well, since the Orthodox churches aren't exactly united, a letter from one patriarch (should one address this issue) wouldn't necessarily reflect the beliefs of all the churches. I'm not even sure it would necessarily be binding on those in his church. I'm really not sure the Orthodox churches hold any statements after the 7 Councils to be definitive.
[right][snapback]710614[/snapback][/right]
[/quote]

In all honesty I don't have alot of direct contact with anyone of the Orthodox faith. My experience on boards is that while many are anti-catholic, their beliefs for the most part are very similar and they seem to have held to what is "Catholic" besides the main disagreements, i.e. papacy and filoque. While they may not hold the statements beyond those councils as definitive, I think your point actually makes my point even more intriguing because there are alot of statements since those councils and I don't have the impression that they have big problems with those statements. When the talk to the Vatican it seems like it is the filoque and the Vatican and a few other details about Mary and purgatory (not the concept, more the name I think).

Blessings

[Apotheoun]

For those interested in understanding better the Eastern Orthodox position on the ecumenical status of councils after the seven great councils, I recommend reading the brief article by Fr. George Dragas in the [u]Greek Orthodox Theological Review[/u] (44, nos. 1-4, 1999, pages 357-369), entitled "The Eighth Ecumenical Council: Constantinople IV (879/880) and the Condemnation of the Filioque Addition and Doctrine." It is in that article that he expounds on the dogmatic status of later conciliar definitions. Another good article on the ecumenical status of councils in the East is by the Eastern Catholic theologian Francis Dvornik in the [u]Journal of Ecumenical Studies[/u] (3, no. 2, 1966, pages 314-328), entitled "Which Councils are Ecumenical?," and in the article he speaks about which councils are ecumenical, with a special emphasis focused upon the disagreement between the East and the West over which council actually qualifies as the Eighth Ecumenical Council, i.e., the Ignatian Synod of 869/870 or the Photian Council of 879/880.