tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post7950975268955851225..comments2023-07-16T05:05:29.285-04:00Comments on Paredwka: Catching the Ball: Response to "A Lutheran Looks at ... Eastern Orthodoxy" -- part 4Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-37502116335979512172022-02-03T01:43:14.400-05:002022-02-03T01:43:14.400-05:00Many thanks for your detailed attention to Koeste...Many thanks for your detailed attention to Koester's treatment of theosis! It is a concept I never really grasped, but seeing it explained over against this Lutheran attempt at describing Orthodoxy makes it much clearer! As I read, mentally the pieces of western theology I grew into fell into place, making sense for the first time as parts of a whole rather than items on a list of doctrines. When you wrote, " Growing in the image and likeness of God throughout our life is Theosis", I know I've read something like that before, but without the foil of a bad explanation it didn't come across.<br />Thanks are due greatly because theosis has been one of my stumbling points as far as Orthodoxy, and it is now off that list. I am still what I call an "evangelical orthodox catholic of the Augsburg Confession (having had Lutheran pastors who were but a finger's width from Orthodoxy), but just took a big step closer to no longer needing that last appellation.Trail_dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03298202418810022176noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7617525341761466610.post-61863898111545003332022-02-03T01:32:46.237-05:002022-02-03T01:32:46.237-05:00I find it interesting that the claim is made that ...I find it interesting that the claim is made that the Orthodox do not believe in sola scriptura, because that teaching comes from the Fathers! One problem is that what the Lutherans mean by sola scriptura now is not what they meant at the beginning; at the beginning they meant only what Cyril and Athanasius state, that scripture is the highest authority. If your comment is responding to Koester, that's understandable; Koester is as bad at representing what Lutherans believe as what the Orthodox do! <br /><br />What I learned from Lutheran theologians is that far from denying tradition (they didn't make a distinction, but their usage suggests holy Tradition), sola scriptura requires tradition in a twofold way: first, the promise of Jesus to the Apostles that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth meant that there would be teaching from the Holy Spirit beyond the scriptures, a point confirmed by St. Paul when he informs us that the Holy Spirit gives teachers to the church as gifts; and second, if there were no traditions or further teachings then the term would be "nuda scriptura", which states that there is nothing but scripture, rather than sola scriptura, which says that scripture stands as the ultimate authority. Indeed, they noted, the Lutheran phrase that the scriptures are "the rule and the norm of every doctrine" is taken straight from St. Gregory and is not an innovation.<br /><br />I know this is hardly heard from Lutherans these days, even from theologians, but such Lutheran 'greats' as Martin Chemnitz and, much later, Charles Porterfield Krauth, are very clear on it. Had Lutherans held to those worthies, no future pastor would be graduated from seminary without sound grounding in the Councils and the Fathers, because the original intent of "sola scriptura" requires it!Trail_dudehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03298202418810022176noreply@blogger.com