Eastern Themes

Eastern Themes deals with theological and social subjects from the perspective of the Orthodox East.

The Church has power to transform humanity, the world and life. ‘A Human Being from Conception’ stresses that the embryo has a soul from the moment of conception, and is a human being with a right to live and to progress from the image of God to His likeness.  Reading ‘Marriage Before and After the Fall’ and ‘Salvation in Marriage’, we note that, when marriage is placed within the environment of the Orthodox Church and is inspired by it, it is a way of healing and salvation for people.  In the Orthodox Church there is no fundamental difference between those who are married and those who are not. The pieces on ‘The Theological Aspect of the Problem of AIDS’ and ‘Drugs and Young People’ stress that both drugs and AIDS bring to light the absence of meaning in people’s lives.  We see the causes of the problem, and what the appropriate conditions are in order for young people to find love and the meaning of life. The Orthodox Church has a therapeutic method by which man’s inner world is healed. 

‘Justice’ stresses that there is no true justice outside life in Christ. In the Orthodox Church we do not just speak about human justice prevailing, but about God’s justice, which is charity and love for mankind.

The Church is able to cure all the wounds of contemporary society, because from its own theanthropic culture it can offer vital solutions and salvation. In the teaching of the holy Fathers there is no opposition between theology and life. The Orthodox Church is the only one which can save the world, because there is no salvation outside the God-Man.