E(ndless) O(bfuscations)

A lot of people I read (either in print or blog) are constantly name-dropping an Eastern Orthodox theologian, Alexander Schmemann. I decided to find out what all the fuss is about by actually reading something of his myself. So I went to Christ the King Seminary Library to pick up something of his (actually I went there to find Josef Pieper's In Tune With the World and picked up something by Schmemann as an afterthought).

There's plenty to think about in the Schmemann book that I'm reading, and maybe I'll end up posting my thoughts here, maybe not.

(I'm also 300+ pages into King's massive The Stand, but school starts on Tuesday and all of my extracurricular reading will suffer).

Anyhow, here's a random quote:

Baptism is forgiveness of sins, not their removal. It introduces the sword of Christ into our life and makes it the real conflict, the inescapable pain and suffering of growth. It is indeed after baptism and because of it, that the reality of sin can be recognized in all its sadness, and true repentance becomes possible. Therefore, the whole of the Church is at the same time the gift of forgiveness, the joy of the "world to come," and also and inescapably a constant repentance. The feast is impossible without the fast, and the fast is precisely repentance and return, the saving experience of sadness and exile. The Church is the gift of the Kingdom-- yet it is this very gift that makes obvious our absence from the Kingdom, our alienation from God. It is repentance that takes us again and again into the joy of the paschal banquet, but it is that joy which reveals to us our sinfulness and puts us under judgement.

from The World as Sacrament by Alexander Schmemann