With the exception of Greece, this sad legacy has made Western Europeans notoriously slow to accept countries with large Orthodox populations into pan-European institutions. In the current expansion eastward, however, it is inevitable that the values and mores of European institutions and alliances will be shaped more and more by the traditionalist views of Orthodox Christian believers and less and less by the modern, secularized Protestant assumptions of Western European democracies. Orthodox believers already far outnumber Protestants across Europe, and by some estimates they may eventually even surpass Roman Catholics. If 21st-century Europe ever develops a religious complexion, it will be predominantly Eastern Orthodox.Amin, amin.
The things that grow in water cannot bear fruit in dry and arid places.
~St. John Climacus, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 2
Friday, October 12, 2007
An Orthodox balm for Europe
...and for Western Christianity, particularly Catholicism. From Christian Science Monitor: