Christian Unity (the book) - The Maranatha Community

fallen corruption and mortality but not his guilt, and consequently in Orthodoxteaching an unbaptised baby is not in danger. Recent theologicaldevelopments in the Roman Catholic Church on the question of limbo, anintermediate, eternal place for unbaptised babies outside heaven, are pointingin the direction of the doctrine being dropped, which would bring Catholicismcloser to Orthodoxy and Protestantism.All three traditions agree, however, that mankind is fallen and cannot bringitself back to God without the Incarnation and the Atonement.While Orthodoxy and Catholicism share much in common – sacramentalworship, ‘sacerdotalism’, 32 veneration of Mary, and belief in the efficacy of theprayers of the departed – yet Orthodoxy can be quite close to Protestantism,especially in its Evangelical form. For instance, on the question of purgatoryOrthodoxy parts company with Catholicism:‘When a man dies in the grace of God, then God freely forgives him all hissins and demands no expiatory penalties: Christ, the Lamb of God whotakes away the sin of the world, is our only atonement and satisfaction.’ 33It would be true to observe that in general Eastern Orthodoxy has not tried toproselytise in the way that both the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestantchurches have tried to win the Orthodox to their brands of Christianity. For thisboth groups need to repent of any unchristian conduct towards the Orthodox,while in no way retracting their particular views and emphases. 34Yet, to be realistic, Orthodoxy looks askance at both the Roman Church andthe Protestant churches, seeing them all as defective. A very interestingOrthodox writer who critiques both camps is Alexis Stepanovich Khomiakov(1804-1860). Under the influence of William Palmer of Magdalen College,Oxford (not the Palmer of the Tractarians), he wrote a seminal work, TheChurch is One (1844-45).32Sacerdotalism. The idea that a propitiatory sacrifice for sin must be offered by theintervention of an order of men separated to the priesthood.33Ware, Timothy, The Orthodox Church, Penguin Books, 1967, p 259.34See Lawrence, John, Hard facts of Unity, a Layman Looks at the Ecumenical Movement,SCM Press, 1961, Ch 8.Page 48