A CREDO FOR TODAY'S CHRISTIAN
By Fr. Alexander Men (Russian Orthodox
Priest - d. 1990)
(The
whole set is in "Christianity for the XXIst Century" published by
Continuum 1998)
A Christian...
...believes that the coming to earth of Jesus Christ
the God-man was not a divine one- sided act but a call for people to respond to
the love of God.
...does not look on faith as abstract conviction but
total trust in God revealed in Christ.
...accepts the word of God recorded in scripture but
guards against giving a literal interpretation to every line.
...views the academic study of the Bible and Church
History as an important means of clarification of the meaning of revelation and
establishing the actual circumstances of Sacred History.
...recognizes the activity of Christ in the Church
and in all life.
...believes that the Church lives and grows in the
strength of Christ.
...respects the ritual forms of devotion without
forgetting for a moment that they are secondary in comparison with love for God
and other people.
...guards against authoritarianism and paternalism
which are rooted not in the spirit of faith but in characteristics inherent to
the fallen nature of humanity.
...know that the opponents of Christ(illegitimate
rulers, power-loving members of the Hierarchy, fanatical supporters of the
past) are to be found not only in the Gospel period but reappear under various
guises at any time in history.
...experiences the divisions among Christians as a
sin which is common to all and a violation of Christ's will.
..sees all that is beautiful, creative and good as
belonging to God, the secret activity of Christ's grace.
...treats the works of art of the church over the
centuries not as a mistake but as a way of realizing God's gifts.
...recognizes the line dividing Tradition, the
spirit of faith and learning, from traditions, many of which are associated
with folk-lore and are impermanent accretions to religious life.
...believes that Christ reveals himself in the
sacraments of the church, in her sanctification of the world, in her teaching
and in acts of service, but knows that none of these aspects is sufficient on
its own, for Christ came as savior ,healer and teacher.
...knows that the kingdom of God which is to come
can reign within us even today.
...believes one and the same God revealed himself in
both Testaments, but that God revealed himself gradually as befitted the level
of human consciousness.
...does not ask for tangible signs but remembers
that creation is a miracle.
...refuses to point to human imperfection or to the
'survival of the animal nature' as the sole reason for the existence of evil in
human beings but believes in the reality of metaphysical evil.
...rejects the tendency to find in scripture or the
writings of Church fathers statements about natural science to be held valid
for all time.
...believes in the significance of the hierarchical
and canonical principal in the church seeing them as structural features of an
active organism (and) knows that liturgical rules and canon law have changed
over the centuries and cannot and should not remain absolutely unaltered in the
future. This is also true of theological interpretation of the truths of the
faith, which has a long history and passed through phases when more of the truth
was revealed and interpretation deepened(for example in the councils).
...is not afraid to look critically at the church's
past following the example of the teachers of the 0ld Testament and the Church
Fathers.
...is open to all that is valuable in all Christian
denominations and non-Christian beliefs.
...does not consider reason and science to be
enemies of the faith. Knowledge enlightened by the spirit of Faith deepens our
understanding of the greatness of the creator.
...affirms with the apostle Paul that the witness of
faith in the world is first and foremost the witness of service and active
love.
...does not reject good even if it comes from
non-religious people but rejects force, dictatorship and hatred even if they
are perpetrated in the name of Christ.
...professes that freedom is one of the most
important laws of the Spirit and in the light of this sees sin as a form of
slavery.
...sees that the Christian vocation can be realized
in everything: in prayer, work, creativity, in active work and moral
discipline.
...considers that when some area of life is infected
by sin this should not serve as a reason for rejecting it. On the contrary, the
struggle to establish the Kingdom of God should take place at the center of
life.
