St. Augustine’s doctrine of Original Sin is tied to his views on preexistence of souls. Throughout his life he grapples with different theories of the soul’s origin. He rejects bits of some theories & embraces pieces of others. Here is a non-exhaustive arc of his thoughts (1/34): 1. St. Augustine’s (4) hypotheses about the origin of the soul in De Libero Arbitrio. 1st: the Traducian theory. 2nd:the Creationist theory. 3rd: souls preexist in a secret place before individuation. 4th: souls come into bodies of their own accord (2/34).

If you’re a Protestant who thinks it odd that Orthodox apologists always bring up the canon of scripture in response to the modern doctrine of Sola Scriptura, I’d encourage you to read this chapter from Lee Martin McDonald.

Learn where our Holy Scriptures came from. 🧵





The Holy Scriptures emerged out of the oral tradition that was handed down via Apostolic Succession.

There was no set canon of scripture for several centuries after Christ set up His Church… yet Christianity survived & flourished.

One reason Western Christians have a hard time grasping the essence energies distinction, is that English translations of the Greek word “energeia” get chopped up in our Bibles, and in particular, the teaching of St. Paul.

Dr. Bradshaw’s chapter on Divine Energies in the NT:





Here are instances of its use in verbal form:

Dr. Barnes’ chapter on the Nicene & Pro-Nicene fathers starts with Eusebius of Caesarea but I really enjoyed the section on St. Athanasius’ understanding of power theology: God’s existence includes a wisdom, word & power which is identified with the Second Person. 🧵





St. Hilary of Poitier’s power theology is based in the Son having an independent & substantial existence… which he was probably building in a reaction to Tertullian’s own power theology.

St. Symeon the New Theologian's book 'The Divine Eros' contains a multitude of hymns that teach Orthodox theology. Here are a few examples of hymns that teach the Orthodox essence energies distinction doctrine. 🧵

These are from Hymn 23.





These are from Hymn 28.

Volume three of Dumitru Stăniloae’s ‘Orthodox Dogmatic Theology’ centers on our Soteriology. I am just posting one chapter here, in the hopes it whets some appetites.

He explains in minute detail, why we do not hold to the Reformed or Papal doctrines of justification. 🧵





Again, this is merely one of seven chapters in his six volume dogmatic theology series. There are very important reasons why our Christology & Triadology prevent us from holding to Western Atonement doctrines.

Dr. Christopher Veniamin tracks the Transfiguration of Christ from Sts. Irenaeus & other pre-Nicene sources, to Sts. Athanasius & the Cappadocian’s, to post-Nicene’s like St. Cyril of Alexandria & Maximus Confessor. He wraps up his study on Sts. Gregory Sinai & Gregory Palamas.🧵 For Origen, the Transfiguration of Christ was a revelation of Christ, prefiguring His resurrection & second coming. For St. Irenaeus it was a Christological fulfillment of Mt. Sinai. For Clement of Alexandria, it was Christ’s pre-eternal light that man could partake in.

Vladimir Lossky's chapter on Original Sin in 'Orthodox Theology,' does a great job of explaining the Orthodox position. Namely, how our doctrine is tied into correct Christology. We do not accept the Latin view because they reject the distinction between essence & energy. 🧵





Correct Christology leads naturally into why there is only a Divine person in Jesus Christ. He has two unique natures, of course, but there is only one divine subject.

Fr. Pomazansky puts forward the Orthodox teaching on Original Sin:

When and if the term “Original Sin” is used by the Orthodox Church, we refer to the inheritance of death through Adam, not his guilt.

This is why the Greek fathers prefer the term Ancestral Sin. See below…

He explains precisely why the Orthodox Doctrine of Ancestral Sin is different from the Augustinian views of the Latin Church and the Reformed churches. He shows how St. Augustine refuted Pelagius but his fell into the opposite extreme, which we see in the modern West.

“The essence-energies doctrine is Eastern woo-woo mystical pagan nonsense!”

No. The energies doctrine is Biblical. The Greek translation of the Bible speaks of God’s energies in terms of work, virtue, operation, etc…

Here is a thread of scripture references: Col. 1:29
“Whereunto I also labor, striving to his working (energy), which worketh (energize), in me mightily.”

Some highlights from St. Justin Popovich’s Dogmatics. They are being published soon in English by St. Herman’s Monastery.

Very much anticipated. 🧵

https://twitter.com/real_rye_bread/status/1543667673191665666

St. Dumitru Stăniloae
Orthodox Dogmatic Theology
Volumes 1-6

On the Divine Hypostasis of the Logos being the only hypostasis of the Logos. There is no human hypostasis in Christ.

A thread 🧵 Volume 3.

Standard Neo-Chalcedonian Christology,

We figured out why Five Sola’s guy is unhinged: he has his own version of the Bible. Eg.

“Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven… as long as it is written down.”

Matt. 16:19 “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle, but really only by epistle.”

2 Thess. 2:15

Starting a list of Orthodox books I’ve read & recommend to others - a 🧵.

After starting my journey from Protestantism to Orthodoxy in 2015, I began working my way through history, the canon, the fathers & theology. I still have a long way to go.

So I’ll add chronologically… I started with these two books: Early Christian Writings & The History of the Church by Eusebius.

These books gave me an intro level overview of the early church. I recommend starting with these to get your appetite wet. You can get into much more detail later.

An eye-opening thing to me about early church history, was finding out who the successors to the Apostles were. Men that followed & listened to the Apostles preaching day & night for years. These men were ordained directly by the Apostles. Clement of Rome (Phil. 4:3), Ignatius of Antioch, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Hippolytus, etc… we have a good portion of these saint’s writings. These men fall within the four generations of Apostolic successors outlined in 2 Tim 2:2.

Many aren’t taught the difference between veneration & worship. Yet, Holy Scripture shows us there is clearly a difference. These are just a few examples from the Old Testament of acceptable veneration: “Let people serve you, and nations bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may your mother's sons bow down to you.”

Gen. 27:29

“They said, ‘Your servant our father is well; he is still alive.’ And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.”

Gen. 43:28

Thoughts on the canon of Scripture: Even among first century Judaism, no such thing as a fixed canon of Holy Scripture existed, whether in Greek or Hebrew, Old or New Testaments. Each book / letter of scripture was written independently of the others & was circulated & hand-copied separately. The collections of scriptures in the early congregations, whether Christian or Jewish, were not the same initially.

Father Florovsky detailing in what sense the ideas are prototypes / archetypes in the Divine Names and in what sense they are cataphatic. And the meat n potatoes with nature, Essence and will… the distinction between East & West.