Thinking Orthodox Quotes

“Although more people are more educated today than in the past, common sense is often lacking, and we have not necessarily become more intelligent.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Orthodox think of sin not as an offense against God that demands punishment or restitution, but primarily as an illness that needs healing.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Western theologians who disagree with aspects of their church’s teaching or practice mostly remain dedicated to their particular church with a hope and expectation that they can influence it, change it, or reform it. By contrast, the true Orthodox theologian does not try to change, develop, or improve the Orthodox Church but seeks to conform his own mind to the mind of Christ and the Church, to achieve a deeper understanding of what has already been received.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“They consistently cite the Holy Scriptures, the writings of the Church Fathers, the holy canons,8 and the decisions of the ecumenical councils. All of these are important aspects of Tradition and as such carry authority. This, in itself, creates our phronema. Since Orthodoxy does not routinely generate official and contemporary authoritative definitions and statements, Orthodox theologians turn again and again to the ancient sources.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“The Orthodox Church does not offer exact definitions and explanations for theological mysteries. The Orthodox Church has always preferred apophatic theology, that is, expressing what God is not, since God is beyond description.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Theology in the East is based not on discursive thought but on “knowledge that stems from the vision of God.”16 The Western approach is fundamentally intellectual; the Eastern is fundamentally spiritual.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Acquiring an Orthodox phronema is not primarily an intellectual task. Phronema is formed consistently, habitually, regularly through behaviors. But phronema is not merely moral values that people profess. It is a way of life based on complete faith and confidence in the Church. In that respect, phronema is “the completely self-sacrificial trust and faith in religious and ethical truths which derive not from human experience and wisdom, but from the voice of God through revelation which is self-evident and does not undergo censure or doubt.”18”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“They prayed and called upon the Name of the Lord, Panaghia, the Angels and Saints in their everyday life, as though it were second nature. They kept strict fasts; observed Feast days and name days; censed their homes each Saturday night and eve of holy days; journeyed through the Lenten seasons for the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos, Christmas, and Easter as spiritual pilgrims; looked upon Ta Phota (Epiphany) and Pentecost as days of rededication; and they unconsciously made arrangements for Memorials, Artoklasia (Blessing of Five Loaves), Parakleses (Prayers of Supplication), Ephchelia (Unction), and a host of other Orthodox Christian religious practices which were a part of their life from as far back as they could remember.17”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“When Orthodox people came to the shores of the American continent, they did not come fortified with books of theology, nor even Bibles, for the most part. What they brought with them was something intangible. They brought with them the Orthodox Christian phronema, the parakatathiki (“deposit”), the heritage and legacy of scripture, tradition, doctrine and history which they received as a deposit, from one generation to another.16”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“It was the way the early Christians expressed their theology long before doctrines, creeds and canons were promulgated and decreed through official councils. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ were first lived as a tradition and then put into sentences and chapters that formed the written source of knowledge we know as scripture. As tradition and scripture surfaced, they did so through the annals of history. As each of these four dimensions—scripture, tradition, doctrine and history—converged and blended, they became the pillar and foundation comprising the phronema, and whose mode of expression became liturgical life for both the Church and the believers.15”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Saint Gregory Palamas discusses proper attitude and its effect on behavior: As long as we are faithful to the ways of salvation, our mind is at one with itself and with God, the first and highest Mind. Whenever we open the door to the passions, immediately it is dispersed, wandering continually among fleshly and earthly things, all kinds of pleasures and passionate thoughts about them. The wealth of the mind is prudence [phronesis] which stays with it, discerning between what is better and what is worse, for as long as the mind itself stays obedient to the commandments and counsels of the heavenly Father. Once the mind rebels, prudence is dispersed in fornication and foolishness, shared out between both evils.12”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“The demons fell from heaven because of the wrong phronesis.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Saint John Chrysostom commented on St. Paul’s distinction between the spiritual man and the natural man and what it means to have the mind of Christ. His preference for spiritual insight over the application of human reasoning is completely consistent with the patristic (and thus, Orthodox) view of the use of human wisdom and philosophy in theology. “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit.” For he is “a natural man,” who attributes everything to reasonings of the mind and considers not that he needs help from above; which is a mark of sheer folly. For God bestowed it that it might learn and receive help from Him, not that it should consider itself sufficient unto itself. . . . For the mind which we have about these things we have of Christ; that is, the knowledge which we have concerning the things of the faith is spiritual; so that with reason we are “judged of no man.” For it is not possible that a natural man should know divine things. . . . For reason was absolutely made of no effect by our inability to apprehend through Gentile wisdom the things above us. You may observe, too, that it was more advantageous to learn in this way from the Spirit. For that is the easiest and clearest of all teaching. . . . “But we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16), that is, spiritual, divine, that which has nothing human. For it is not of Plato, nor of Pythagoras, but it is Christ Himself, putting His own things into our mind.9”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Phronesis is a “virtue . . . exercised in the practical domain.”3 In Latin the term was rendered prudentia, or “prudence” in English.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Greek philosophers developed the idea of a certain mode of thinking and limited the word phren to its physical meaning. The philosophers used instead a derivative word, phronesis, to refer to inner thoughts connected to activity. Because phronesis links thought and action, it differs from wisdom (sophia), which is a purely intellectual pursuit.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“we are self-absorbed and often seek affirmation from the world to feed our pride. The emphasis in our culture is on feeling important or presenting an appealing image of oneself. Social media encourage us to present an enhanced image of ourselves in order to be admired, to gain social acceptance, to make our lives appear more interesting and ourselves more accomplished, more intelligent, more beautiful, and more exciting. In extreme cases, the consequences are emotional exhaustion, emptiness, or, even worse, depression, because we believe the illusions put forth by others while knowing that our own lives are not at all as we present them to be.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“proliferation of armchair theologians is a lack of piety. I am more educated than my ancestors, but I am certain that my mother and grandmothers far surpassed me in piety, devotion, faith, and wisdom. Our culture is coarse. The fear of God is absent from public discourse.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“We take the Church, our spiritual lives, and our doctrine extremely seriously, and yet the Orthodox phronema is essentially relaxed. It is not rigid, not demanding, not stressed, but calm. Anxiety and obsessiveness are qualities of the world, but our relationship with Christ results in freedom and inner peace. This is reflected in our phronema.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Being Orthodox in mind requires that one accept ambiguity, uncertainty, mystery, and paradox. Perhaps this encourages humility before God. We cannot rely on clever explanations or beloved definitions, and we must accept that we cannot completely explain or fully understand our faith. Therefore, we must rely solely on the grace and mercy of God. Perhaps this allows us to focus less on the mind and more on the heart, which is where we encounter God.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“A virtuous person shows good phronema, since a proper intellectual or spiritual attitude is reflected in one’s behavior.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind