Communiqué of the International Commission for Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue

September 2015, Buffalo, New York, United States of America

In the name of the Triune God, and with the blessing and guidance of our Churches, the International Commission for Anglican-Orthodox Theological Dialogue (ICAOTD) met in Buffalo, New York, from 19 to 25 September 2015. The Commission is deeply grateful for the generous hospitality extended by the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Buffalo (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople).

Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit formally welcomed the Commission to its meeting in his diocese. He offered praise and encouragement for the work of the dialogue. He stressed the urgent need for expressions of Christian unity in light of the deep challenges and crises before the global community, mindful of events unfolding even as the Commission undertook its deliberations.

The Commission brought to completion the first section of its work on the theological understanding of the human person, with the adoption of its agreed statement, In the Image and Likeness of God: A Hope-Filled Anthropology. The report, shortly to be published, is the culmination of six years of study on what Anglicans and Orthodox can say together about the meaning of human personhood in the divine image.

Richard Dawkins, Rowan Williams, Anthony Kenny: “Human Beings & Ultimate Origin” Debate

Arhiepiscopul de Caterbury îl „dezbate” pe Richard Dawkins la Oxford. « Methoughts, mefeats and medefeats.

Something to absolutely not miss. Thanks to Manu Contac for the link.

Jeremy Rifkin – The Empathic Civilisation

Bestselling author, political adviser and social and ethical prophet Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development and our society.

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Rifkin’s relatively optimistic view of humanity may not stand very well with the overly pessimistic anthropological perspective of the neo-reformed, but it makes lots of sense to me.

Fr. Rohr on being ‘fully human beings’ vs. being ‘spiritual beings’

The human journey is not about becoming spiritual beings nearly as much as becoming fully human beings, which is actually much harder. We are already spiritual beings from the moment of our conception; we just don’t know it yet. The Bible tries to let you in on the secret, by revealing God in the ordinary. That’s why so much of the text seems so mundane, practical, specific and, frankly, unspiritual! (Most Catholics stopped reading the Bible for this very reason, and many New Agers do the same.)

40 Years in the Desert – 1. The Legacy of Communism 4

1.4 Devaluation of the Human Person

At the centre of Marxist anthropology, besides the ideal of creating the ‘new man’, we find the view that people have economic value for society to the extent that they can function as mere means of production. They have no more value than a cog in the machine and as soon as they can no longer be useful for production purposes, their social value decreases dramatically.

From Bondage to the Desert – 1.1 The Religious Character of Communist Ideology – 3

1.1.3 Marxist Anthropology

Definition – Anthropology is the study of humanity (from the Greek word anthropos, meaning ‘human being’).

The Marxist understanding of what it is to be human can be summarised as the Myth of the New Man – a transformed human being who functions according to the principles established by the Marxist ‘religion’ in order to create a new type of society. This ‘new man’ is in fact nothing other than the re-elaboration in secular and ‘scientific’ terms of a similar Christian project for the transfiguration of the human being. Why is there a need for a ‘new’ man? Obviously, this is because the ‘old’ man is not good enough. Christianity and Marxism agree on this point.