tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5134782302655515338.post3012371720396081507..comments2023-12-25T05:12:46.199+01:00Comments on ORA ET LABORA: Orthodoxy: Conservative or Radical?Felix Culpahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18062279686869827534noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5134782302655515338.post-65808880375339003822009-02-15T21:11:00.000+01:002009-02-15T21:11:00.000+01:00First of all, I want to Greet you with the Feast o...First of all, I want to Greet you with the Feast of the Meeting. Welcome back to the "hyperspace". You were sorely missed!<BR/> I think that we find pigeonholing Orthodoxy into conservative or radical categories difficult precisely because the Truth of the Church, while continually descending like an invisible dew to sanctify and transfigure the world, ultimately transcends time. While this transcendence of time does not cancel out the fact that secular-chronological time has a real meaning for our salvation, Orthodox Truth resists any attempt to be grounded in a temporal order with which the secular, political categories of "conservative" and "radical" are chiefly associated.<BR/> "Tradition" as we all well know, is based in a Latin word meaning something like "handing down". Make no mistake: this is not a handing down of some profane object, teaching, or event from discrete moments in the past - no matter how historically significant they may be - to fill up otherwise meaningless and discrete moments of today. Essentially, the trajectory of this "handing down" follows a metaphysical, rather than temporal, path from a higher level of reality (Heaven) to a lower (earth). Thus, the event of Pascha which we celebrated in 2008 is actually closer to the Crucifixion than the event of the signing of the Declaration of Indenpendence in 1776, or the Fall of Rome in the fifth century. <BR/> The eternal nature of Orthodox Truth manifests itself on our "plane of reality" (for lack of a better expression) in kairotic events which appear temporally diverse, but are, in fact, united typologically. A perfect example of this is the Tree of Life, the archetype of which appears at least three times in sacred history (Genesis, the Gospels, the Apocalypse), but which in fact stands for a singular, eternal Truth which, in heaven, is a unified reality imbued with God's uncreated energy. Once again, we are not blocked from enjoying and being blessed by the uncreated energy that emerges from the realm of eternity through history to the realm of time. But these sanctifying energies cannot be said to originate in anything so profane as the temporal order.<BR/> In the last analysis, the Orthodox believer looks neither to a profane past, a modern present, nor a utopic future for his hope, but to the eternal "TODAY" of the Gospels, in illo tempore. Thus, we can not be said to be conservative, liberal, or radical. The source of our hope is handed down "from above". <BR/> I propose that we Orthodox do everything we can to disabuse ourselves of worldly politically-based labels fallaciously describing ideological positions that we should in fact shun, and instead - if we must be labeled - strive to simply be known as radical traditionalists.Simkahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02820058659103259146noreply@blogger.com