High Petrine view in the early Church

  • Thread starter Thread starter mardukm
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Cavaradossi said:
Yes they do. If anybody doesn’t, then he’s wrong, to be quite frank.
Click to expand...
Then how do you explain this statement from Bishop Kallistos Ware’s well-known book, The Orthodox Church. second edition, revised 1993 version, page 296: “Concerning contraceptives and other forms of birth control, differing opinions exist within the Orthodox Church. In the past birth control was in general strongly condemned, but today a less strict view is coming to prevail, not only in the west but in traditional Orthodox countries. Many Orthodox theologians and spiritual fathers consider that the responsible use of contraception within marriage is not in itself sinful. In their view, the question of how many children a couple should have, and at what intervals, is best decided by the partners themselves, according to the guidance of their own consciences.”
Or the book: The Orthodox Church: 455 Questions and Answers by Fr. Stanley S. Harakas, professor of Orthodox theology at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology (Minneapolis, MN: Light & Life Pub. Co., 1987), pages 40-42:
“56. What beliefs does the Orthodox Church have about Birth Control?
Within modern Orthodox Christianity, varying views on the subject exist . . .
What we are saying is that if a married couple has children, or is spacing the birth of their children, and wishes to continue sexual relations in the subsequent years as an expression of their continuing love for each other, and for the deepening of their personal and marital unity, the Orthodoxy of contraception is affirmed.”
Or
Orthodox Church in America
Tenth All-American Council, July, 1992
synodal affirmations
On Marriage, Family, Sexuality,
and the Sanctity of Life
“Convinced of these God-revealed truths, we offer the following affirmations and admonitions for the guidance of the faithful:
. . . Married couples may express their love in sexual union without always intending the conception of a child, but only those means of controlling conception within marriage are acceptable which do not harm a foetus already conceived.”
And:
The Sacramental Life of the Church, by Rev. Alciviadis C. Calivas, Th.D. “Sexual relations are related to the mutual fulfillment of the spouses and then to child-bearing. The decision, therefore, to suspend fertility through the use of contraceptives is not necessarily in violation of natural law. Regarding this matter, Metropolitan Chrysostomos Zapheris notes the following:
While the Orthodox Church fully acknowledges the role of procreation in the marital sexual act, it does not share the deterministic understanding of the act … which ignores love as a dimension of great value in sexual intercourse between husband and wife.
Creation of new life requires serious, prayerful, honest and sincere reflection. While some forms of contraception are more admissible than others, it is clear that abortion is not an acceptable form of birth control. The decision to regulate the size of one’s family is the personal responsibility of the spouses. A serious commitment to the Gospel, however, precludes decisions that are based solely on hedonistic, selfish and prideful reasons.”
 
Louis- Neither of those quotes deny that the use of contraceptives in Orthodoxy is a matter of oikonomia. The fact of oikonomia is such a basic assumption in Orthodox thought that the theologians do not need to spell it out every time it is an appeal to it. Especially so for Ware if you read the entirety of his book.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top