Scholasticism - Tumblr Posts

Once one accepts reason as the standard of truth, you have to follow it all the way. And that is why, as we are examining these religious thinkers, we see that one generation holds on to more of the past and thinks that is rational. The next generation subjects that to criticism and holds on to less, but thinks there's still something left. The next generation destroys all that, and thinks there's very little left. And that generation resembles [overturns?] the next one.

As long as you believe that reason is capable of giving you truth, you have no argument against it. And that's why there was no one; even the ones who were defending Christianity were arguing on the same rationalistic terms. It's the same thing that Dr. [Alexander] Kalimiros talks about: that between Orthodoxy and the West there is this gulf because in the West they are all talking in the same language, the Protestants, Catholics, sectarians, atheists; it's all the same language. They're all used to taking reason as the standard, even when they do not take it all the way, because they're scared to go too far, most people; still, they have this rationalistic atmosphere in common.

And in that atmosphere you cannot escape.

You have to admit that reason is capable of truth; and, therefore, when your enemy has a very good argument, you have to grant that that's true. If it's true, he explains away your faith. But in Orthodoxy, reason has an entirely different function which we'll talk about later.

And so we'll see also in one of the next lectures that the history of our world in the last 200 years is a continuation of a kind of dialectical process whereby reason overthrows everything in the past and finally destroys itself. That is, reason must destroy itself once it is given the license to be the standard of truth. That's why this Enlightenment Age seems now so naive.

Another reason which acted for the overthrowing of this world-view is that the loss of the whole spiritual tradition and spiritual experience which we can see by the very fact that reason is made the standard -- which means they lost the spiritual tradition -- this loss made men actually hopeless, helpless before the negative criticism of reason, which you see in Voltaire, being very pathetic in his defense of some small part of the old tradition.

And also made them unaware of non-rational influences which actually act upon the rationalists themselves. Later on people will become more aware of this, and that's when reason actually destroys itself, in our own time. And also they did not see when demonic powers intervened because they don't believe anymore in demons. There's no -- these people weren't even arguing for the existence of demons anymore.

Orthodox Survival Guide Seraphim Rose

All girls these days know how to do is be lesbian, obsess over niche medieval theology, hyperfixate on Mary Mother of God and yearn.