Today was Day 5 of our Greek Island Travel Devotional Tour, and our destination was Santorini.
Even if you’ve never been to Santorini you have seen pictures of it. Pictures of the white buildings with blue domed roofs perched on the rim of a volcano in the middle of a blue sea seem to be in just about every travel agency in the world.
Santorini’s Christian history
Santorini has an interesting Christian history. As best we can tell, Christians first came here in the 3rd century. Throughout the tenure of the Byzantine Empire, of which Santorini was a part, Orthodox churches were established here. Then after the Fourth Crusade, which we discussed yesterday, the island came under Venetian control and Catholic churches were established.
Thus, Santorini includes an interest mix of Orthodox and Catholic churches and culture in close proximity on a small island. In that mix is a lesson for us on how to relate across denominational lines. One of the books on our reading list for this tour, Light from the Christian East, by James R. Payton, Jr., a Protestant theologian, gives an insightful side-by-side comparison of Orthodox (“Eastern”) Christianity and Catholic and Protest (“Western”) Christianity.
Eastern and Western Christianity side-by-side
What one sees is agreement on the major doctrines of Christianity. The difference is often how those doctrines are explained or understood.
For example, Western Christians would say original sin is the inherited guilt of Adam’s sin, passed to us at human birth. Orthodox Christians believe humans inherited the consequences of Adam’s sin (mortality, inclination toward sin), i.e. that we are born in a broken state but not guilty because of Adam’s choice. Both, though, believe that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23.
On the atonement, the focus in Western Christianity is Jesus paying our debt to satisfy divine justice. The cross is central. Eastern Orthodoxy also affirms the cross but emphasizes the resurrection where Jesus defeats devil, sin, and death. This explains why so much Western Christian art and symbolism is focused on the cross, and why Eastern Orthodox focuses more on the resurrection and the victorious Christ.
Biblically navigating the differences
How we navigate such differences is something Christians have struggled with for centuries, but 17th century German theologian, Rupertus Meldenius, is credited with this gem, which sums up the Biblical approach to such differences:
In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love.
Rupertus Meldenius, 17th Century German theologian
This admonition captures the New Testament’s call for unity in the essential doctrines (Ephesians 4:3-6), to give one another freedom in matters that are disputable (Romans 14), and requires that all be covered in love (Colossians 3:14). It is good advice for us today.
Getting to Santorini was no easy task. After we anchored away from the shore, we waited for the tenders to shuttle us to shore. Three hours we waited. I was not feeling well and so after the three-hour wait I went back to my room to sleep and sent the rest of the GSB team on to Santorini without me. They took the picture above from the top of Santorini, looking down on the ship where i was sleeping in the cabin.
I’m not sure whether to blame my illness on a faulty N95, dumb luck, or the devil, but it is what it is, and my focus for the past few days has been to get over it as quickly as possible, and certainly before Athens. The Wife has been praying for me each day, and I have been doing my part by staying in the room and trying to sleep and drink a lot of water.
More tomorrow. GS.
