Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Christian Unity, Cultural Decline, and Trinitarian Hope

On his Blog, Second Terrace, Father Jonathan Tobias offers a profoundly moving reflection on Christian unity, cultural decline, and Trinitarian hope.

Here's an excerpt:

We have come full circle, in the history of the Church, back to the experience of the Apostolic generation. They, too, were faced by a society in decadence and decline. They, too, had to demonstrate, by the sign of spirituality and unity, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

Here is where Eastern Christianity has its profound vocation and opportunity. This is probably the reason why Eastern Christians have intermingled with Western culture in such significant numbers. It is also the reason why Eastern Christianity has garnered such an appeal for many in the West, to the extent that many Protestants, even, are magnetically attracted to icons, and flock to presentations at Evangelical campuses on Eastern Christianity.

This is happening because Eastern Christianity offers a life of spirituality, where eternity may be experienced, even on this world. It is a life where passions may be successfully conquered, where the vision – or theoria -- of reality and universals may be gained, and where communion with the Holy Trinity may be known existentially...

Read it all here.