First Thoughts

I support the notion that Christianity is about experiencing an intimate personal relationship with God.  Proper theology is about how we experience that relationship from God to us. Classically, Greek Eastern (Orthodox) theology has been largely based on the experience of God’ relationship to man.  The theology of the Latin West (Roman Catholic and Protestant), at least since the days of St. Augustine, has been largely based on philosophical speculation of man’s relationship to God.

 For example, let’s contrast these two different approaches as they apply to Trinitarian doctrine.  According to Orthodox theologian Fr. John Meyendorff, in the Eastern Greek tradition, “the incarnate Logos and the Holy Spirit are met and experienced first as divine agents of salvation, and only then are they discovered to be essentially one God.”  In contrast, 19th century Jesuit theologian Fr. Theodore de Regnon stated, “Latin philosophy considers the nature in itself first and proceeds to the agent; Greek philosophy considers the agent first and passes through it to find the nature.  The Latins think of personality as a mode of nature; the Greeks think of nature as the content of the person”.

The Latin approach is based on philosophical concept from man’s view of God.  The Greek approach is based on how we experience God’s Biblical relationship to man.

I pray that pentecostal/charismatic Christians re-discover their ancient, authentic, experienced-based theology.