tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-512615033583182026.post7044546976984495261..comments2023-10-23T11:50:35.699-07:00Comments on Marks of Authentic Mission: The Catechetical Lectures of Cyril of Jerusalem (c.313–386) reviewed by Lester RuthAndrew Kennyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02714318748847734699noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-512615033583182026.post-18500876209234251262008-06-05T03:33:00.000-07:002008-06-05T03:33:00.000-07:00Thanks Romanos.I do love reading about the Church ...Thanks Romanos.I do love reading about the Church Fathers despite some of there faults they were generally men of Iron. However during times of peace i'm sure some were tempted to take things easy and enjoy the power.<BR/><BR/>I had heard Cyril of Alexandria but didn't know too much about him ( I'm more familiar with the famous Clement of Alexandria). On reading about Cyril of Alex. I agree with you: what a terrible Church leader- was there worse?Andrew Kennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02714318748847734699noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-512615033583182026.post-52349689287083655002008-06-03T07:28:00.000-07:002008-06-03T07:28:00.000-07:00By the way, the Cyril who is the topic of this pos...By the way, the Cyril who is the topic of this post was indeed a great early Church father, as the article relates. Don't get him confused with Cyril of Alexandria, who was a vindictive, power-hungry denominational dogmatist, responsible for harassing Nestorius practically to death.Ρωμανός ~ Romanóshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00212143017939554092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-512615033583182026.post-69553716083621305132008-06-03T06:34:00.000-07:002008-06-03T06:34:00.000-07:00It's good that we look at what the Church fathers ...It's good that we look at what the Church fathers said and did, what they taught, how they lived, and how they died. They were people like us, living in a culture not really too unlike our own, facing very similar social and ethical challenges. To their glory they laid down the foundations of our common orthodox faith, to their shame they quibbled and sometimes nit-picked each other to death over trifles, or over speculations on divine things for which there was never any warrant in scripture.<BR/><BR/>The contemporary Orthodox Church sometimes idolizes them, even seems to put them above scripture, while quietly shuffling their misdeeds under the rug, but the fact is they were humans just like us, their squabbling no different than modern denominational disagreements, and yet, underneath it all, they had a common faith that they could have practiced in peace and love, had they put away the works of the flesh.<BR/><BR/>Yes, faith in God and in His Christ is one thing, and faith as a body of doctrine quite another, yet we use the same word for both. This has been largely responsible for the decline of Christianity throughout the ages, and especially now, when we are living not in a post-Christian age, but deservedly in a post-church one.<BR/><BR/>Church is people in Christ. We can institutionalise "church" just as church has institutionalised "faith." We think we do this to preserve both, yet we do exactly the opposite.<BR/><BR/>Christianity is not and never was perpetuated by institutions, only by what C. S. Lewis so aptly called "good infection." In our studies of the Bible and the Church fathers, we should never forget that it is only God and His Christ, Jesus, and what He has won for us, that matters.Ρωμανός ~ Romanóshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00212143017939554092noreply@blogger.com