anglomedved

On the windy bridge between western Christianity and Orthodoxy where my bishop has placed me, one of my most difficult problems is turning out to revolve around four terms:

 Tradition, Culture, Civilization and Morality.

 I am not sure that western Christianity and Orthodoxy mean the same things here.

 Tradition is the West is pure Christian traditio, in the East it is an impenetrable amalgam of traditio and national tradition, with the exact dosage of the two left largely to the discretion of the individual priest.

 In the Orthodox mind, it seems that Culture and Civilization seem to go together, in the West, Culture, in the form of 'popular culture' can be pretty uncivilized.

 In particular for the west, Morality is inseparable from the other three, whereas I get the impression it rather goes its own separate way in Orthodoxy. You can be damned immoral but still be viewed as civilized and cultured…