different things. And I think that speaks to a basic difference between Eastern and Western Christianity. And the West is so analytical in its approach to Christianity and everything else. That's one of the strengths about the West. But it's very, very easy to fall into thinking as a Western Christian, to fall into thinking that you know God, when in fact, you really know about God. And in the East, it's so much more about conversion of the heart. Now, I would have thought as a Western Christian hearing that from the outside, I would have thought that sounds very emotional and simplistic, but that's not it at all. It all has to do with the way the Church of the East thinks about who the human person is. And I mentioned earlier the word noetic faculty. Well, when Orthodox Christians talk about the heart, they don't mean the organ in your chest. They're talking about the quality of the human mind that is sort of like the receiver for things of the Spirit. And to be a sinner is to have a (42/57)
You are viewing a single comment's thread from: