Re: CHAT: Homo Sapiens (was: fiery spirits)

At 06:17 PM 10/27/03 +0000, you wrote:
>On Monday, October 27, 2003, at 01:16 , John Cowan wrote:
>
>>Ray Brown scripsit:
>>
>>> From the Orthodox, Catholic and mainstream Protestant point
>>>of view, God is worshipped as three _persons_: God, three in
>>>one & one in three, without confusion of persons.
>>
>>To that list may be added the so-called Monophysite
>>churches, aka the Oriental Orthodox.
>
>I was sort of including them under the umbrella of 'Orthodox'  :)
I can understand why you grouped them together, but it's really better not
to.  We believe that they're heretics, and they believe that we're
heretics, and we have not been in communion with each other for
approximately the last millenium and a half.  (No hard feelings intended if
there are any Monophysites/Non-Chalcedonians on the list.  I just know that
the truth is that you think I'm wrong as much as I think you are.)

>>This passage, part of a joint declaration of Catholic and OO theologians,
>>is "semantic" and so fit to post here:
>>
>>         For those of us in the Western tradition, to hear of the
>>         one nature of Christ can be misleading, because it may be
>>         misunderstood as a denial of his humanity. For those of us in
>>         the Oriental Orthodox Churches to hear of two natures can be
>>         misleading because it can be misunderstood as affirming two
>>         persons in Christ.
>
>Yes, the problem seems to be rather with 'nature'.  It's a reminder that
>abstract
>ideas don't always translate neatly. Greek 'physis', Latin 'natura' and
>English
>'nature' (and whatever words are used Armenian & Syriac) may have a good
>deal of
>common meaning, but there will not be 100% mapping. The different 10% or
>20% can
>be important.
I've found that it's necessary to learn the *precise* technical meanings of
a specialized vocabulary, and to learn the words in both Greek and English,
if you plan to discuss Christian theology.  If you know the tems in both
languages, then you know that when you say that all human beings are of one
nature, you are stating that all human beings are homoousios with each
other.  (If I spelled homoousios correctly...At least I didn't write
homoiousios, which I *know* is not at all what I wanted to say.)  In the
end, it is safer, and more precise, to use the Greek, in my opinion, though
I'm hardly one to speak, because I absolutely can't remember the Greek for
"person" at the moment.

Isidora

Replies