Iqbal
posted on May 02, 2009 - 11:36 AM
Christ is Risen
It is on many levels beyond that of the foundational Christological issues that it is a real blessing that our Church did not follow in the footsteps of our Chalcedonian brothers in developing and formulating a dyophysitic conception of the Incarnate Word's wills. Many Chalcedonian Orthodox theologians are today trying to counter various non-Christological ideologies which conflict with the general Orthodox Christian worldview and which yet ironically stem from such developments and formulations.
For example, popular Western (both Christian and secular) understandings of "freedom"--subsets of popular western (again, both Christian and secular) understandings of "human rights" in general--which stand with great tension to Orthodox anthropology and soteriology are very much influenced, even if without conscious recognition as such, by a dyophysitic conception of Christ's wills. An emphasis on distinguishing between the human and divine wills in Christ, and hence a methodology in which each is to be understood in its own right apart from their essential unity, in turn gave birth to an emphasis on the freedom of Christ's human will to submit to the Father's will. Some (though not all) inheritors of this Chalcedonian legacy thus conceived of the potential of Christ to sin and deemed such integral to the doctrine of man's salvation. With Christ upheld as the perfect example of what it means to be human, human freedom thus ultimately came to be conceived as that which admits the ability to make 'wrong/sinful/erroneous' choices (at least insofar as doing so does not inflict harm upon anyone else). This concept of human freedom was finally exalted to the level of a 'right' to which all humans are entitled.
Putting aside the philosophical problems associated with liberalism (Christian and secular), the fact remains that it is another in a long line of post-enlightenment movements which, whether consciously (in the case of the openly secular expressions of it) or not (in the case of the purported Christian expressions of it), works towards leading humanity further astray from the path of God.
.