Nea-Synaxis

(N.G. Pentzikis)

Over the next several months Synaxis will explore a new direction in the living adventure we call Theology.  If you remember from the Synaxis Manifesto this study group chose to primarily examine the classical dogmatic texts of the Orthodox Church as a gathering.  To a large extent this blog has been just that, a place to encounter the teachings of the Fathers together with contemporary Orthodox witnesses and theologians (also the occasional personal digressions of the blog’s editor).  This, for many of us, has been a great joy.  However, the very goals of the Study group and the blog, by being almost exclusively textual, have left us wealthier but still paupers.  As we attempt to engage theology we cannot neglect the fact that in Orthodoxy our theology is more than a theology of “words”.  We must reject every form of sola scriptura and sola patristica, ours is a theology expressed and lived in prayers, the colors of icons, the stones of temples, the melody of hymns, the stories of people and places, the way we create space, how we fast and feast, our relationship with the environment, and even the way we make and consume our “daily” bread.