tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post8587895758716791097..comments2024-03-22T11:37:52.668-05:00Comments on Byzantine, Texas: Adam DeVille on the theology of Metropolitan Hilarion Byzantine, TXhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17845681957622343484noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-56832236929744040812014-12-11T15:59:48.817-06:002014-12-11T15:59:48.817-06:00It seems to me that you're simply repeating th...It seems to me that you're simply repeating the approach of DeVille...ie taking bits and pieces out of context to build straw men.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-22758750519389011752014-12-11T15:54:48.222-06:002014-12-11T15:54:48.222-06:00Agreed on DeVille's approach. And it sounds li...Agreed on DeVille's approach. And it sounds like he expects Abp. Hilarion to comment as if he already agrees with him. It's not hard to pick someone apart if they speak your theological language. DeVille cannot define Orthodoxy for the Russian Church.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-26068208621961156922014-12-07T17:42:21.500-06:002014-12-07T17:42:21.500-06:00Having read both Met. Hilarion's speech at SVS...Having read both Met. Hilarion's speech at SVS and Dr. Deville's brief response, as well as personally knowing the background context of Met. Hilarion's disingenuous track-record regarding the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church and personally being familiar with Dr. Deville's thesis on the question of Roman primacy, I thought it appropriate to make a few brief observations here. (Full disclosure: I'm a priest of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church)<br /><br />Dr Deville is no more attributing motives to the Metropolitan than simply following the proverbial bread crumbs. The facts are that Met. Hilarion is on record lying about the false synod of 1946 by which Stalin, with the cooperation of the Russian hierarchy, liquidated the UGCC and began her existence as the largest banned religious body in the world after the Second World War. Untold numbers of our faithful, priests, nuns and every last one of our bishops were tortured and exiled to Siberia. Among the latter category most died as martyrs for the principle of unity with Peter. In Deville's defense, he is not attributing motives to Hilarion. Yet, as an earnest historian and theologian he cannot ignore the propensity of the Russian Church's hierarchy (I speak not against the Russian tradition, nor against her faithful) to coddle with authoritarian regimes to its own advantage, even going so far as to contravene her own tradition to do so. This brings us to the specific issue of Met. Hilarion's speech at SVS.<br /><br />In Hilarion's speech at SVS it should be admitted by anyone of noble intent and Gospel eyes that he simply misrepresented his own tradition on the question of primacy. How so? Simplification and misrepresentation. <br /><br />I say "simplification" because the Metropolitan attempts to cast the West as centralized and the East as decentralized. Anyone who has read the history of the Constantinopolitan Church and her many reforms knows that the operative term here is centralization. <br /><br />I say "misrepresentation" because Hilarion says that "primacy is alien to the East." Here he departs from the patristic roots of his own tradition whereby primacy and key instances of Roman authority being acknowledged in the East are matter of record, yet he completely skips over them. Further, in his address he misrepresents and dismisses out of hand the notion of Trinitarian theology being superimposed on ecclesiology, yet he somehow devotes considerable energy trying to interface the Russian iconographic tradition into the discussion. Alarmingly, for a Christian leader there is no Scripture in his speech at SVS. This is a clear misrepresentation of the issue: to overlook/downplay the role of Trinity and Scripture in this discussion, yet overplay 15th century Russian iconography. <br /><br />I believe Deville does everyone a service by pointing this out. His book is not "Uniates" lecturing Orthodox. Even the Chancellor of the OCA has recommended it as a guide to helping Orthodox know what their own tradition says. Sure, Deville plugs his book a bit frequently in his all-too-brief article, but, pray tell, what other book from a major publisher is out there which addresses these fundamental questions?Charnetskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11226725558375307586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-6732835808398546822014-12-07T07:37:03.839-06:002014-12-07T07:37:03.839-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Charnetskyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11226725558375307586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-59254962924724988582014-12-04T19:36:54.368-06:002014-12-04T19:36:54.368-06:00How do we move forward in a helpful and healing wa...How do we move forward in a helpful and healing way?<br /><br />That is indeed the question. Somehow I think the answer does not involve Latins and Uniates lecturing us Orthodox about the content of our own tradition and ecclesiology when one of our spokesmen says something they don't like.DNYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04258266827678438757noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-72271763237478107332014-12-04T11:19:14.746-06:002014-12-04T11:19:14.746-06:00The topic Metr. Hilarion rose needs to be discusse...The topic Metr. Hilarion rose needs to be discussed in a forum by all3 partie: Uniates, Roman Catholics and Orthodox but I think DeVille's article is NOT a helpful response. DeVille is using the topic to promote his book. We need a calm unemotional discussion taking into account historical circumstances of the political force by which the Uniate churches were created, the open wound that was left in the Orthodox Churches and at the same time the present reality of Uniates churches that have now existed as Christian communities for centuries. How do we move forward in a helpful and healing way?Steve_Barriehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01700596373993979010noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-43841559063867184332014-12-04T02:42:28.242-06:002014-12-04T02:42:28.242-06:00Hilarion Alfeyev has a habit of saying half the ri...Hilarion Alfeyev has a habit of saying half the right thing in the wrong place - he did the same for the Anglicans in his notorious Nicaean Club dinner speech at Lambeth in 2010. His diplomatic skills are, shall we say, somewhat wanting. Also remember how when first made a bishop he was sent to England and within months created a split in the Diocese of Sourozh.Triggstarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01207102854621511529noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-76836322114145243902014-12-03T18:07:52.449-06:002014-12-03T18:07:52.449-06:00Attributing motives as if he can read minds makes ...Attributing motives as if he can read minds makes DeVille no better than Weigel. Pity.Stephenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12833345391579579562noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-73042886598650075.post-70029072768065420862014-12-03T13:49:56.885-06:002014-12-03T13:49:56.885-06:00This comment has been removed by the author.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com