Orthodox and Catholic views of Salvation

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ServingAll

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I’ve been watching an Orthodox priest explain the difference between Protestant and orthodox views of salvation in this video.


What about the catholic view. Is it closer to the orthodox or Protestant one?
I find the orthodox stress on the love of God rather than His judgement moving in the video. Often we are well aware of our failures and so are miserable and lost and we cry out for the love and forgiveness of God.
 
It’s going to vary by subtopic.

As a very broad overgeneralization, the West (Catholic and Protestant) puts more emphasis on Good Friday than the East (both Catholic and Orthodox), while the East puts more emphasis on Pascha (Easter) than the west.

Both concepts are critical to East and West, but the emphases are different.

My EC priest regularly asks us, "Are you living in Good Friday or the Resurrection.

AMDG

hawk
 
ServingAll said:
I’ve been watching an Orthodox priest explain the difference between Protestant and orthodox views of salvation in this video.


What about the catholic view. Is it closer to the orthodox or Protestant one?
I find the orthodox stress on the love of God rather than His judgement moving in the video. Often we are well aware of our failures and so are miserable and lost and we cry out for the love and forgiveness of God.
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Catholic and Orthodox are closest. Per Catholic teaching on justification, we are really made just, not merely having our sins covered by the merits of Christ (reformation teaching: fiduciary faith alone suffices for obtaining justification, and it cannot be lost). Catholic and Orthodox: we can be the cause our loss of salvation.
 
ServingAll said:
What about the catholic view. Is it closer to the orthodox or Protestant one?
I find the orthodox stress on the love of God rather than His judgement moving in the video. Often we are well aware of our failures and so are miserable and lost and we cry out for the love and forgiveness of God.
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These are very good questions. And it really just depends on which aspect of salvation that you’re talking about.

God as a loving Father has strong emphasis in all three traditions, thankfully.

The Orthodox are keen to point out the awful and deep ramifications of the Fall for all of humanity, whereas Catholics tend to give freewill defenses and want to make it seem that whatever are the effects of the Fall, we can still pull ourselves up by our own salvific bootstraps and get ourselves into heaven.

But, God seen as the Judge has strong emphasis in Catholic and Protestant theologies (and less so with the Orthodox). This may have something to do with the strong jurisprudence secular court traditions in the West.

The salvation of the entire human race is something one finds more readily among the Orthodox whereas Catholics and Protestants tend to focus on the individual (rather than the salvation of the group—humanity). This is a crucial distinction between East and West, as it turns out—the group vs the individual.
 
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The Orthodox view is essentially the same as Catholicism. I just watched this all the way through, and the entire Orthodox view could have been an Easter homily by any Catholic priest I know.

It may be that the Catholic Church historically emphasized judgment more than the Orthodox Church, but nowadays most priests don’t emphasize judgment. If anything they go too far in the other direction of emphasizing God’s love.
 
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Magnanimity said:
But, God seen as the Judge has strong emphasis in Catholic and Protestant theologies
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In recent years the Catholics have put a huge emphasis on God’s mercy when he is judging, so he’s now more often seen by the people in the pews as a judge who is giving everybody a light sentence or clemency.
 
Magnanimity said:
But, God seen as the Judge has strong emphasis in Catholic and Protestant theologies (and less so with the Orthodox).
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Mentioning of the Tremendous Judgement is in our daily morning prayer. So we wake up by thinking, amongst others, that we must be reminded of our personal.and then our collective Judgement.
The last Sunday before Lent is dedicated entirely to the tremendous Judgement.
The East emphasizes that side just as much except not all priests would use it as a pastoral tool. I bet many Catholics priests choose not to use it either. I have seen priests who would use in homilies in the East, especially during Lent.
 
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There are multiple atonement theories. The Orthodox go by the oldest ones and tend to consider the word “atonement” a western word. While we’d say it’s a point of emphasis, the Orthodox would say that our theology has orthodox roots but diverted and developed away from orthodoxy.

This priest is Anglican, but his points are interesting for appreciating all the atonement theories. Granted, I tend to reject Penal Substution theory as too protestant.

 
Didn’t read the whole thread, so I don’t know if it has been addressed, but the man who made the video is not an Orthodox priest. His name is Steve Robinson- and he has a podcast on AFR. He’s just a layman.
 
ServingAll said:
I’ve been watching an Orthodox priest explain the difference between Protestant and orthodox views of salvation in this video.


What about the catholic view. Is it closer to the orthodox or Protestant one?
I find the orthodox stress on the love of God rather than His judgement moving in the video. Often we are well aware of our failures and so are miserable and lost and we cry out for the love and forgiveness of God.
Click to expand...
The Catholic teaching on the “particular judgment”, taking place immediately after we die, in the Catechism, para #1022, quotes St John of the Cross:
"At the evening of life we shall be judged on our love."
 
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I couldn’t watch the video, but here’s what an old EO Catechism says in relation to the article on the judgment in the Creed–it seems they exhort a constant consideration of death and judgment, and it’s two possible results:
Question 122.
What more doth this Article teach ?

Answer.

It teacheth every Christian to bear constantly in Mind these four things — Death, the Last Judgment, the Torments of Hell, and, lastly, the everlasting Kingdom of Heaven.

Question 123.

What Benefit shall a Man receive by being mindful of these four Things ? ’

Answer.

A Man, by constantly reflecting on these things, will beget in himself Devotion, a Watchfulness against Sin, the Fear of God, a Dread of Hell Torments, and a Longing after the Joys of Heaven. And whosoever duly considers these things will undoubtedly take Care to prepare himself for the World to come : For, by thinking on that last Day wherein the whole World shall be judged, he will be mindful to make himself ready for the Account which he must then give of all his Thoughts, Words, and Actions. The Thoughts of Hell will quicken his Endeavours to avoid it, and the Consideration of Heaven must excite his utmost Earnestness to attain its Joys.
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dochawk said:
It’s going to vary by subtopic.

As a very broad overgeneralization, the West (Catholic and Protestant) puts more emphasis on Good Friday than the East (both Catholic and Orthodox), while the East puts more emphasis on Pascha (Easter) than the west.

Both concepts are critical to East and West, but the emphases are different.

My EC priest regularly asks us, "Are you living in Good Friday or the Resurrection.

AMDG

hawk
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Not to mention the variety within Protestantism…
 
There is no difference between the Catholic and Orthodox view of salvation, because there are Eastern Catholics that align substantially with their Orthodox counterparts.

Now, the Eastern Orthodox may not favor certain aspects of Western Catholicism, but the fact remains that they are one in substance.
 
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