Unity, Liberty, Charity

Unity

I was recently involved in a Facebook discussion where someone attributed the following quotation to St. Augustine:

“In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; and, in all things, charity”

I have previously heard these attributed to St. Augustine, but I had always been extremely doubtful of its origin. After commenting to this effect, someone else on the thread said he thought it was John Wesley, which sounded a bit more like it. However, after some digging, I found a post which confirmed that it definitely wasn’t Wesley.

After further research, I found that many people attributed these words to a relatively obscure German Lutheran theologian from the seventeenth century named Rupertus Meldenius, also known as Peter Meiderlin), who wrote a tract on Christian Unity (1627). However, after further digging, it appears that the earliest usage of the phrase is in 1617 by Marco Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Split, in his anti-Papal work “De Republica Ecclesiastica”.

Eastern Catholic interview on Ancient Faith Radio

Last night, the Eastern Orthodox Young Adult group in San Diego had their monthly meeting, led by Fr. John Strickland. The discussion that evening focused on the differences between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. I attended the evening, together with some of my Eastern and Western Catholic friends and I’m very pleased to report that it was a friendly and respectful discussion between brothers and sisters in Christ.

As you might expect, the subject of the Eastern Catholic Churches came up. To make up for whatever was lacking in my explanations, below is a link to an Ancient Faith Radio interview of Father James Babcock, an Eastern Catholic priest in Placentia:

Ancient Faith Radio

“Let us love one another that with one mind we may confess…
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Trinity, one in essence and undivided.”
– Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom

An Eastern Orthodox Christian Looks West

Over lunch I finished reading An Eastern Orthodox Christian Looks West, an article posted on Devin Rose’s blog written by Eastern Orthodox Christian Timothy Flanders. In his extensive article he discusses his journey from Protestantism to Eastern Orthodoxy and then goes on to discuss his investigation of Catholicism.

Eastern Orthodox Christian Looks West

As a Catholic with a great attraction to the Eastern Christian heritage, I found it a really interesting read and I’m planning on reading it again tonight in an attempt to fully digest its content.

Devin is hoping for some really good Comment Box discussions so I decided to publish a link here in an effort to get more people to read it. I know that there are a good number of people who read this blog who come from different religious backgrounds who will have an interesting perspective on this article, particularly my Eastern Catholic friends.