Some of the most popular modern Orthodox writers
have very unorthodox teachings, many of which track
(as do most problems in Orthodoxy) to Origen.
Callistos Ware, John Romanides, Anthony Krapovitsky
or Khrapovitsky, Alexander Kalomiros, and others
come to mind.
There are in their teachings deviations from truth which
appeal to the flesh, including the flesh that likes to be
in love with the idea that it is loving, to feel superior
to such supposedly inferior things as retribution which
is a matter of justice, what one deserves, and of course
lacking any concept of justice cannot appreciate the
greatness of God's mercy.
Vladimir Moss runs to what Fr. Seraphim Rose called
"super correctness," so is not to be taken whole hog
without question. Reading a critically important writing
of his on Ware and Romanides I came across something
which is a distinct error a failure to consider Scripture
in context.
Moss follows St. Vincent of Lerins Commonitory, in
solving a dispute: what is the opinion or practice at all
times in all places, and if that isn't clear what do the
canons and Fathers say and if there is still ambiguity
or flat out mutual contradiction what does the Scripture
say? (I am going by memory here.)
Moss draws heavily on Scripture as much as any
protestant would, exactly as do The Fathers. But unlike
the typical protestant he does not do so from a narrow
mechanistic mindset, inherited from Roman Catholic
scholasticism.
At one point he points out that "After death we cannot
be saved by our own repentance, but only by the prayers
of the Church, which God does not allow to be offered
for all men" and cites Ezekiel 14:14 and I John 5:16, but
read in context these are ONLY ABOUT THE LIVING.
God spoke to Ezekiel regarding the people that He was
about to bring the hammer down on, don't bother praying
for them any more. John speaks of observing some
sinning and pray for some but not for others.
Buried in the text of at least one Orthodox prayer for the
dead is a statement that includes the dead everywhere.
Most prayers are explicitly for the Orthodox dead, and the
general attitude is that there is no point praying except for
Orthodox or at least Christian dead, because these may
be in some trouble because of unrepented sin but have
hope while the non Christian are without hope prayed for
or not. But there were early indications of prayer for
the dead and damned, notably St. Perpetua.
http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/downloads/311_THE_NEW_SOTERIOLOGY.pdf
http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/downloads/415_THE_MYSTERY_OF_REDEMPTION_without_appendices_.pdf
http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/downloads/415_THE_MYSTERY_OF_REDEMPTION_without_appendices_.pdf
discusses these issues better than almost anyone. Moss is a
schismatic, but none of the issues in these online books is part
of that and they stand or fall on their own, dependent on the
Fathers and Scripture the Tradition of the Orthodox Church.
