The tone for the western Christian approach to unbelievers was, - TopicsExpress



          

The tone for the western Christian approach to unbelievers was, perhaps, set by Augustine of Hippo. When Nectarius of Calama wrote to him about the contradiction between Augustine’s assertion that man can do good deeds only through the grace of God in Christ, and the common experience that unbelieving pagans sometimes do show forth some splendid virtues, Augustine’s reply to Nectarius was simply that the virtues of the pagans were but splendid vices. If we were to say the same thing about the many instances of unbelievers in our secular society sometimes putting Christians to shame by their superior spirit of unselfishness and self-sacrifice, we would be regarded as bigoted and narrow-minded. We cannot write off a Gandhi or a Marx or a Lenin as simply pagans with splendid vices. Augustine’s loyalty to the doctrine of an exclusive grace that come to Christians alone for the doing of good deeds goes both against our experience and the spirit of our age. -H. G. Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios Metropolitan (Malankara Orthodox Church)
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 02:09:29 +0000

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