Ancient Christian Witness

From the blog Lutherancatholicity

You can see the quotes here:
http://lutherancatholicity.blogspot.com/2010/12/peter-of-damascus-on-clarity-and.html#comment-form

and
http://lutherancatholicity.blogspot.com/2010/12/basil-great-on-authority-of-scripture.html



Pr. Mark Henderson's comment about Peter of Damascus:

Quote:
"But what concerns us here is not Peter’s hesychasm, but his high regard for the authority of scripture, which he traces back to several of the greatest Fathers of the Greek church, and his suggestions on hermeneutics, which assume the clarity of scripture, properly defined, and the usefulness of the analogy of scripture and interpreting in context. In this he shows himself a disciple of the ancient Antiochian school of Biblical interpretation, which pre-figured many aspects of Reformation hermeneutics. With not a little irony, then, we must say that it is a pity Peter did not more consistently apply his hermeneutic to his hesychasm, which bears the impress of neo-Platonism. Perhaps we can say in his defence that, like him, we all have our blindspots, which are often related to the worldview of our particular time and place."

My response, which may or may not be seen on his blog. The reason why I re-posted this here is because of past experiences in where my comments weren't ok'd, but the response to them was visible to the public. I was puzzled by this practice, but I thought it's his blog and so he has the right to do what he wants. At the time I thought my censureship was mostly due to protecting his protestant readership from anything non-Lutheran, but then I saw the visible comments of Anglicans and other protestant posters. And so I really don't know why. However, just as he has the freedom to censure my comments. I have the freedom to re-post them here.


My Response:

Pr. Mark Henderson,

There is a difference between the Patristic belief of Prima Scriptura vs the Lutheran, Reformed, and Anabaptist beliefs of Sola Scriptura?

Their rule of Faith is different from that of Lutherans, Reformed, and Anabaptists. Their view of the clarity of Scripture had everything to do with the rule of Faith of the Church. And it had everything to do with those reading the Bible who were in communion with them. It had nothing to do with just anyone picking up the Bible and reading it.

I'm gonna re-post this comment and your quote on my blog. I hope you don't mind.