Can a Christian agree with the “modern values” of Modernity about abortion and homosexuality?
Eirini ARTEMI
Published in Games from Antiquity to Baroque
Keywords: Abortion, Church Fathers, Homosexuality, Orthodoxy, Sodomy.
Today, many people insist that their body belongs to them and they are free to use it as they want. Some argue that homosexuality and abortion are morally reprehensible and other try to embody in a law their moral or immoral convictions. Christianity refuses sodomy and abortion. God forbids the killing of innocent human beings because we are made in his image. Moreover, according to the doctrine of the Orthodox Church, fetus is a perfect human being since its conception. As for homosexuality, God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, or Eve and Mary. Of course, a very small percentage of homosexuals indicate a genetic basis for their homoerotic sexual orientation. Is homosexuality accepted by Christianity in this case? What do the Church Fathers believe about that? People who support abortions argue that it is up to the woman to decide whether it is right for her to have an abortion because it is her body. Some Christians believe that a woman has a right to a safe abortion, and that it shows compassion if the law allows this. Here is the mistake, our body does not belong to us, it is a creature of God, and we should pray for the miracle in any case. We are the directors of our body, not the masters. Roman Catholics and Orthodox Christian believe that abortion is morally wrong because of their belief that human life begins at conception. They may make an exception if an abortion is essential to save the life of the mother (the 'principle of double effect'), assuming all efforts have been made to save the fetus. So, the sin of wilfully aborting a child, except in those very rare situations where it may be necessary to save the life of the mother, is a sinful act, totally contrary to the will of God. Additionally, the homosexuality is condemned in the Bible and by Church Fathers. Is there a common place between traditional and modern values? How can religious people face these new “values”?
“In the Syrian Taste”: Crusader churches in the Latin East as architectural expressions of orthodoxy
Susan BALDERSTONE
Original title: “Ao sabor sírio”: as igrejas dos cruzados no Oriente latino como expressões da arquitetura ortodoxa
Published in The Middle Ages and the Crusades
Keywords: Crusader churches, Latin East, Orthodoxy.
This paper explores how the architectural expression of orthodoxy in the Eastern churches was transferred to Europe before the Crusades and then reinforced through the Crusaders’ adoption of the triple-apsed east end “in the Syrian Taste”2 in the Holy Land. Previously, I have shown how it can be deduced from the archaeological remains of churches from the 4th-6th C that early church architecture was influenced by the theological ideas of the period3. It is proposed that the Eastern orthodox approach to church architecture as adopted by the Crusaders paralleled the evolution of medieval theology in Europe and can be seen as its legitimate expression.
