Thursday, February 26, 2026

'Orthodox' means orthodox in life as well as faith

"It was a sign of the times that in the discussion about the vertical and horizontal aspects of the faith, not only [at the W.C.C. Assembly] in Uppsala [in 1968] but also after the Assembly, the most frequently quoted sentence from this [(from my)] address was: 'It must become clear that church members who deny in fact their responsibility for the needy in any part of the world are just as much guilty of heresy as those who deny this or that article of the faith.' If I had known beforehand that this sentence would become so popular, I would have added a complementary phrase such as: 'And church members who deny that God has reconciled men to himself in Christ are just as much guilty of heresy as those who refuse to be involved in the struggle for justice and freedom for all men and who do nothing to help their brethren in need.' For it seems to me that the health of the ecumenical movement depends on our readiness to stand with equal firmness for these two convictions at the same time."

     W. A. Visser't Hooft, Memoirs (London: SCM Press; Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973; 2nd ed., unchanged, Geneva: WCC Publications, 1987), 363.  The address in question was entitled "The Mandate of the Ecumenical Movement".

Wednesday, February 25, 2026

'Orthodox' means orthodox in life as well as faith

Index of Medieval Art (Public Image)
"orthodoxus est recte credens, et ut credit [recte] vivens."

The orthodox man is [the one who is] believing rightly, and, as he believes, living [rightly, too].

     
St. Isidore of Seville (c. 560-636) in Etymologies 8.14.5.  Latin ed. (with the interpolation of that second recte) Lindsay, Scriptorum Classicorum Bibliotheca Oxoniensis (Oxford:  Clarendon Press, 1911), vol. 1, n.p. (there are more recent critical editions that I haven't consulted).  Cf. PL 82, col. 294, which leaves that second recte out.  M. Sesan, "'Orthodoxie': histoire d’un mot et de sa signification," Istina 15, no. 4 (1970):  428 (425-434), cites PL 82, col. 388, but that is wrong.  The whole of sub-section 5 as trans. Barney, Lewis, Beech, & Berghof (Cambridge University Press) in 2006:

An 'orthodox person' (orthodoxus) is one who believes rightfully, and who lives [righteously] as he believes.  Now ὀρθῶς in Greek means 'rightly' (recte), δόξα is 'good repute' (gloria):  an orthodox person is a man 'of good and right repute' (recta gloria).  He who lives otherwise than as he believes cannot be called by this name.

And St. Isidore is right, both on the etymology (OED), and on the senses of δόξα; which, according to LSJ, can mean both opinion and repute.

 

Sunday, February 22, 2026

"Nor did He stand in need of our service when He ordered us to follow Him; but He thus bestowed salvation upon ourselves."

"Not needing our service, but, bestowing salvation upon us [(nobis ipsis)], He commanded that we follow Him."

"Neque nostro ministerio indigens, iussit ut eum sequeremur, sed nobis ipsis attribuens salutem."

     St. Irenaeus, Adv. haer. IV.xiv.1, translation mine.  Latin from Liturgy of the hours (SC 100, 534-540); Ed. Harvey (1857), vol. 2, p. 184ANF 1:

"Nor did He stand in need of our service when He ordered us to follow Him; but He thus bestowed salvation upon ourselves."
 
Liturgy of the hours for the Saturday after Ash Wednesday:

"Nor did the Lord need our service. He commanded us to follow him, but his was the gift of salvation."