[Greapyjeory]

Dear Annick,
Thank you so much for your kind post and especially the effort you must have taken in the translations. It shows a good & kind heart more open to talking than arguing.
You have remarked on how the Orthodox try to emphasise sobriety in their spirituality & its great importance. This is so that as much as possible we may live truly in Christ and not our own emotions and not (as we find in so much of contemporary Christian spirituality) confuse one with the other. This is so much the more critical when it comes to the Passion & Resurrection of our Lord for who could ever worthily repay in love to Christ what He has done for us? What as Christians are we called to in the face of such love as Christ's Passion?
In some way our struggle to discover how to relate to Mr Gibson's movie may relate to this larger question. Is the effort of Mr Gibson worthy of the Church or not? Is it in any or some way similiar to the love of a true Christian for our Lord? It is not easy to find answers to these questions but in an important way the struggle to find the answers is a part of our Christian reaponsibility living here in the 21st century. We are in the world but not of it.
You Annick are probably aware of the Schism that occured within Christendom in the 11th century. The Orthodox do not accept the modern viewpoint that none of this mattered or was just the result of a few grumpy old men. Primarily the Schism was a seperation over what were contradictory ways of perceiving what the Church is; and this seperation still tragically remains to this day. It is therefore no surprise that we see the Passion of Christ in such fundamentally different ways right up until nowadays.
What are these differences? The atonement theory of Anselm is a major root of the problem for the Orthodox; Anselm held to the view that God's anger was offended by man's sin and that the guilt incurred could only be payed for by Christ since He is pure from sin & God Himself. Thus in this view the Passion of Christ is legal payment for the sin of man. As in your quote: "But that (ie Christ's Passion) had to be so, because according to divine decree, it was so that He had to die to expiate by His death the sins of men & save them in accordance to the prophecies of Isaiah." But we do not agree Annick that it 'had to be so', since the Passion occured from the free will of Christ and not from legal neccesity. The fact that Christ freely offers Himself is exactly the expression of Christ's love for us- if it had to be so how could it have been love?
Anselm with his Cur Deus Homo & atonement theory is not the originator of what ocurred in the West- rather he is an expression of what was already occuring within that Christian society. Up until the 9thc-11thc centuries both East & West think with the same churchly mind (we Orthodox are only beginning to learn this recently) tho thru different linguistic & cultural expressions. It is largely one unified Orthodox society. In Anselm however we hear a voice not only different from this but quite seperate in tone & direction; it is distinctively rationalistic and strongly influenced by Classical philosophy. What further happens in the West to divide us? With the gradual seperation from the Partristic way of seeing the Church there comes a gradual seperation from a patristic spirituality, piety, way of life. Something occurs within the soul that fragments it (read Matthew's post about the heart & other excellent posts also); it becomes divided into a cold rationalism and a bubbling emotionalism; these two war with each other and mark western culture & spirituality with a kind of dynamic restlessness to this day. All of this affects how the Pssion is seen.
I will end here for now as we could go on forever and indeed to continue this discussion in later posts could be profitable. In ending just let me share that as usual I do not see things in just black & white; on the one hand there is a real seperation of vision between many of us within present-day Christianity. But on the other hand what with the decay of Christian values within the society we all live in we can appreciate the love of others for Christ and connect in whatever way is God-pleasing.
In Christ- Fr R