Author: Rev. Prof. Sorin Cosma (Caransebeș Faculty of Orthodox Theology)
Keywords: family, Christianity, Church, Antiquity, legislation, legitimacy, psychology, authority, tradition
Abstract:
The family (which by definition can only be Christian) is an inexhaustible theme, which can be treated from very many points of view. In the pre-modern times its legitimacy and status were undeniable, as it was protected by laws which secured its continued existence in society. Without this legitimacy an efficient social cohesion – which could assure a prosperous future for society – could not be conceived. The theme of this paper is an attempt to recover this legitimacy, by using the arguments of spiritual tradition, which have been deliberately ignored by modern society. The author states that the union through marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, at the creation of the world, and if he asserted that this statement was enough to prove its unique status, he would not be mistaken. Even the pagans from prehistory and Antiquity, despite their idolatry and immorality, have preserved the institution of marriage and observed this pattern, but the actual new-paganism brought about the second fall (after the Fall from Heaven); and this time people fell into the darkest passions of nature, because by rejecting any idea of transcendence or divinity, they implicitly reject marriage, namely any type of natural interhuman relations. The results of the modern psychological research have shown that the spouses’ complete happiness (at least on a horizontal level), both the man’s and the woman’s, as well as the children’s (on all levels: education, affection, etc) can be attained only in a monogamous family. And this happens simply because the monogamous non-Christian family proved extensively over the centuries that it cannot be safe from problems (crises, character incompatibility, unnatural principles inspired by pagan practices, etc). The only way to overcome hardship is to assume the sacrifice and love towards one another, a feeling which can only be taught by Jesus Christ, man and God, and only through His sacrifice for the Church, which He transformed from a whore into a saint, consecrating her with His blood, according to the words of the Holy Fathers. Since then, the Christian family, which follows a Christ-like pattern, was an essential factor in establishing Christian Europe, whose foundation is now on the verge of collapse under the domination of all sorts of idolatries, renamed through different types of new social engineering (political, educational, philosophical and moral).
Pages: 12-24