A Welcome Return and a Sad Loss

I am very pleased to recommend the excellent article posted by Fr. Al Kimel (aka The Pontificator) on the subject of predestination. This one is a home run.

I do not believe God to be the absolute predestinarian of Augustine, Calvin, Beza, and Bañez. I do not believe God to be a God who has eternally decreed, before prevision of irrevocable rejection of divine love and forgiveness, the eternal salvation of some and the eternal reprobation of the rest. I am convinced that for all of his greatness, St Augustine went tragically astray on this matter of predestination and that his theory has had pernicious repercussions on the spiritual lives of Western Christians. The theory of absolute predestination calls into question, at the most fundamental level, the identity and character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ.

I know I am not alone in expressing my hope that this portends the return of Fr. Kimel from his self imposed blogging fast. Read the entire post here.

On a less sanguine note I am sorry to have to report that Sub Deacon Anderson's incredible blog Occidentalis is now accessible by invitation only. The blog has been dormant for some time but I maintained the link in the side bar due to the wealth of material on Western Orthodoxy in the archives. Should the blog become open to the public again I will happily restore the link.