Secular Book-Question

sue57 · Post by **sue57** » Wed 30 June 2004 8:22 pm

Has anyone read "Why Angels Fall" by Victoria Clark? I don't plan on reading it, I don't want to give my time to reading a negative portrait of Orthodoxy, by someone who is not Orthodox. However, I'm sort of curious about it. Here's a short excerpt:
As Clark puts it, after the ancient split between eastern and western Christianity, "each side lost something it could not happily do without ... at the risk of over-simplifying for the sake of clarity, western Christendom can be said to have lost its heart, eastern Christendom its mind."

Hmmm...lost (it's ) mind. Well that's ok, I'm kind of crazy myself

Like I said, I don't plan on reading this, but I just hope it doesn't trash Orthodoxy. Ijust read some of a book called, I think, "Unveiled Lives", which is about nuns. One RC nun says "I don't worship Christ, I worship the goddess Sophia." Hey, it all just pushes me Eastward.

Aristokles · Post by **Aristokles** » Wed 30 June 2004 8:50 pm

IS OUTRAGE! :shock:

Seriously, I don't read this kind of stuff, either. Who cares what "they" think?

Demetri

Lucian · Post by **Lucian** » Wed 30 June 2004 10:18 pm

"western Christendom can be said to have lost its heart, eastern Christendom its mind."

I haven't read that book either, but I found the quote above hilarious for some reason.

George · Post by **George** » Thu 1 July 2004 5:38 pm

Unfortunately I have read it, and I am not sure how I made it to the end. The author has heaps of preconceptions and does her utmost to find examples of them. The whole book is a waste of time.

Justin2 · Post by **Justin2** » Sat 3 July 2004 2:26 pm

If we equate the heart with the soul and the mind with the rational, then perhaps the more fitting line would be:

"Western Christendom can be said to have lost it's soul, Eastern Christendom it's rationalism"

Which doesn't bother me all that much.

sue57 · Post by **sue57** » Sat 3 July 2004 3:16 pm

The priest who teaches us catachumens calls it "Western scholasticism." I think that trying to describe the east/west division is almost beyond language. What I mean is, the mysticism and spirituality of the Church of Christ is beyond the words of men. You always hear it said that Russia missed out on the Enlightenment, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. I'm not saying that democracy and human rights aren't important, but the Enlightenment also led to Revolution, with all it's consequences, good and bad.