Andrew

“It was the way the early Christians expressed their theology long before doctrines, creeds and canons were promulgated and decreed through official councils. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ were first lived as a tradition and then put into sentences and chapters that formed the written source of knowledge we know as scripture. As tradition and scripture surfaced, they did so through the annals of history. As each of these four dimensions—scripture, tradition, doctrine and history—converged and blended, they became the pillar and foundation comprising the phronema, and whose mode of expression became liturgical life for both the Church and the believers.15”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“They prayed and called upon the Name of the Lord, Panaghia, the Angels and Saints in their everyday life, as though it were second nature. They kept strict fasts; observed Feast days and name days; censed their homes each Saturday night and eve of holy days; journeyed through the Lenten seasons for the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos, Christmas, and Easter as spiritual pilgrims; looked upon Ta Phota (Epiphany) and Pentecost as days of rededication; and they unconsciously made arrangements for Memorials, Artoklasia (Blessing of Five Loaves), Parakleses (Prayers of Supplication), Ephchelia (Unction), and a host of other Orthodox Christian religious practices which were a part of their life from as far back as they could remember.17”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“Theology in the East is based not on discursive thought but on “knowledge that stems from the vision of God.”16 The Western approach is fundamentally intellectual; the Eastern is fundamentally spiritual.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind

“The Orthodox Church does not offer exact definitions and explanations for theological mysteries. The Orthodox Church has always preferred apophatic theology, that is, expressing what God is not, since God is beyond description.”
― Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind