Antioch Abouna writes about the place of monasticism in an age of secularisation:
Antioch Abouna: The Monastic Call: "In this new setting for monasticism the call of the angelic life has a profound opportunity and challenge. By its very distinctiveness and isolation from worldliness monasticism is presented with a renewed prophetic vocation by its ability to present a transformation of the common life in God. The city is now the desert where the spiritual meadow must bloom.
In short I think that monasticism will help to restore the credibility of Christianity again in the west. Familiarity with innocuous, adaptive heterodoxy, the bourgeoisification of the Christian tradition has bred a certain contempt and hardness of heart toward the gospel in our culture. Only an Orthodox Christian witness that is both radically obedient to God and warm in its love for Him will now make a difference."
2 comments:
I think two things would really make a difference to the western attitude to Christianity:
1. If all denominations signed up to the Phoenix Affirmations(especially the bit that acknowledges other faiths as valid, and the bits about the environment and attitude to LGBT people);
2. If Western Christians stopped talking about original sin and God's judgment and hell.
I suspect that silence and abstainance can be very helpful contributions to out time and place: at least we will cease to say hurtful words, and desist from this culture of grasping at personal satisfaction.
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