Morality

Early Church Writing

St Irenaeus Blog 2 On Heresies

07/20/2018 Bruce Strom 6

St Irenaeus elegantly summarizes his refutation of Gnosticism, “If Christ was not born, neither did He die. If Christ did not die, neither did He rise from the dead. If He did not rise from the dead, He did not conquer death and abolish its reign. If Christ did not conquer death, how are we to ascend to the light, we who from the beginning have been subject to death? Those who rob man of redemption do not believe that God will raise man from the dead.” […]

Morality

Philokalia, On the Character of Men and the Virtuous Life

07/18/2018 Bruce Strom 1

What is our most precious possession? “A virtuous way of life, conforming to God’s will, surpasses all wealth. When you reflect on this and keep in your mind constantly, you will not grumble, whine or blame anyone, but will thank God for everything, seeing that those who rely on repute and riches are worse off than yourself.”(4) “The more frugal a man’s life, the happier he is, for he is not troubled by a host of cares.” We should seek the prosperity that fills our soul rather than our pocket, for chasing after new cars and castles and country clubs will only add to the cares of this world. Should we pray to God to fill our pockets, and should we complain to God when our pockets are not filled, complaining how our prayers are never answered? Should our prayers be a shopping list we hand to God? Thieves can steal our wealth, but never our virtue. Here the Philokalia teaches that we should never consider it a loss when we lose our children, our money, or our possessions, but be thankful for all the God has loaned to us for our use, realizing it could be taken away at any time. […]

Early Church Writing

St Irenaeus Blog 1 On Heresies, Introduction

07/16/2018 Bruce Strom 3

St Irenaeus teaches us, “The redemption depends on the real Incarnation, the real suffering on the Cross, and the real resurrection of the flesh. All three of these are a scandal for Gnosticism. On their view, Mary is not really Mother of God, and Christ did not really suffer, NO, the heavenly Christ escaped before the man Jesus suffered, and there can be no question at all of an actual resurrection of the flesh. Underlying this refusal of the flesh and its saving role in the Incarnation is a confusion between the human spirit (nous) and the divine Holy Spirit.” The Gnostics want to replace the Holy spirit with the human spirit. Irenaeus preaches “the salvific character of the Incarnation of God’s Son and Word.” […]

Morality

St Isaiah the Solitary on Guarding the Intellect

07/14/2018 Bruce Strom 0

St Isaiah the Solitary “On Guarding the Intellect” gives us this advice, “If you find yourself hating your fellow man and resist the hatred, and you see that it grows weak and withdraws, do not rejoice in your heart; for this withdrawal is trick of the evil spirits. They are preparing a second attack worse than the first; they have left behind their troops behind the city and ordered them to remain there. If you go out to attack them, they will flee before you in weakness.” […]

Morality

St John of Karpathos, 100 Texts for the Monks in India

06/18/2018 Bruce Strom 0

St John of Karpathos encourages us to persevere in the spiritual life. When we stumble on the rocky path, when we skin our knees on the hard rocks, we should seek the hand of the Lord to pull us back up again. When we allow evil thoughts to roam about in our consciousness, for a time we forget grace, we distance ourselves from God, but that is when we should make every effort to seek God, so we are not deprived of the grace of God. St John of Karpathos tells us that “lifted by the wings of the Spirit and freed from the weight of my body, I was able to soar above he predatory demons,” those demons who care not for our soul, those demons who seduce us with the pleasures of this world. […]

Early Church Writing

St Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, Blog 3, Justin Is Converted

06/11/2018 Bruce Strom 5

Justin asks him why he needs philosophy when he can profit from Moses, his lawgiver, and the prophets. Trypho responds, “Why not? Do not the philosophers turn every discourse on God? Do not questions continually arise on God’s unity and providence? Is it not truly the duty of philosophy to investigate the Deity?”

How do the Jewish Scriptures and Greek philosophy relate to the Good News, the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Do they conflict with the Gospel? Can Christians profitably study Jewish Scripture and Greek philosophy? These are the questions this dialogue explores, and St Justin the Martyr was one of the first of apostolic fathers to explore these issues. When you read teachings you have read many times before, remind yourself, you are probably reading the original source. […]

Morality

St John Cassian on the Other Seven Vices, Blog 2

06/08/2018 Bruce Strom 1

We must not only watch what we eat, we must watch what we think, as we seek to conquer the next vice, the demon of unchastity and the desire of the flesh.  St John Cassian teaches, “Bodily fasting is not enough to bring about perfect self-restraint and true purity; it must be accompanied by contrition of heart, intense prayer to God, frequent meditation on Scriptures, toil and manual labor. . . Humility of soul helps more than anything else. . . We must take the utmost care to guard the heart from base thoughts.”  Contrition and humility comes from sincere confession and repentance. […]

Morality

St John Cassian and the Vice of Gluttony, Blog 1

06/06/2018 Bruce Strom 2

John Cassian’s teachings in the Philokalia are a good summary of the Ladder of the Divine Ascent.  His teachings on the Eight Vices are advice to those seeking salvation as monks, so we must discern how these teachings apply to those of us who seek salvation in the secular world; indeed, imagine what advice he would give to us living in the secular modern world to resist the vices of gluttony, unchastity, avarice, anger, dejection, listlessness, self-esteem, and pride.

The early Church Fathers always talk about fasting, the struggle against gluttony, as the first vice to conquer, once you conquer fasting, the other vices become easier to conquer.  The spiritual life is about changing your habits, adopting good habits, discarding bad habits, indeed habitually seeking to change your daily habits for the good. […]

Early Church Writing

St Justin Martyr’s Second Apology to Senate, Quoting Xenophon’s Socrates, Blog 2

05/18/2018 Bruce Strom 8

Justin compares Jesus to Socrates, who was accused of the same crimes as the Christians, being accused of atheism and impiety, and of corrupting the youth.  The Greeks accused Socrates “of introducing new divinities, and did not consider those to be gods that the state recognized.  In the Republic he cast out from the state both Homer and the rest of the poets, and taught men to reject the wicked demons and those who did the things which the poet related.”  The early Church Fathers, including Justin, did not deny the existence of the pagan gods, rather they saw them as demons active in the world.  But Jesus was mightier than Socrates, whereas “no one trusted in Socrates so as to die for his doctrine,” many willingly believes and are martyred for their faith in Jesus Christ. […]