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[quote=JBenedict]To say that the scholastics get all their views from Augustine is ridiculous.

the Scholastics even took and then distorted certain opinions of Blessed Augustine which did not belong to the common mind of the Church of the first millennium

It came from reading although I do not recall the book. But it stayed in my mind as an interesting fact.

Would we count as a Christian someone like Joseph Stalin? After all, he was an Orthodox seminarian.

Excellent point, Utroque!

May I ask why you use that interesting moniker?

Alex

It would be a part of the movement "ad fontes."

CATHOLIC SCHOLARS SAY THAT THE CHURCH OF ROME USED LEAVENED BREAD
for the first 800 and more years.

The change to unleavened bread in Rome took place towards the end of the first millennium.

Fr. Joseph Jungman -- in his The Mass of the Roman Rite -- states that:

"In the West, various ordinances appeared from the ninth century on, all demanding the exclusive use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist. A growing solicitude for the Blessed Sacrament and a desire to employ only the best and whitest bread, along with various scriptural considerations -- all favored this development.

"Still, the new custom did not come into exclusive vogue until the middle of the eleventh century. Particularly in Rome it was not universally accepted till after the general infiltration of various usages from the North" [Rome itself, conservative as always, did not change to unleavened bread until a few decades after the schism.]
~ JosephJungman, The Mass of the Roman Rite, volume II, pages 33-34


Fr. Jungman goes on to say that:

". . . the opinion put forward by J. Mabillon, Dissertatio de pane eucharistia, in his answer to the Jesuit J. Sirmond, Disquisitio de azymo, namely, that in the West it was always the practice to use only unleavened bread, is no longer tenable."

"Now, the fact that the West changed its practice and began using unleavened bread in the 8th and 9th century -- instead of the traditional leavened bread -- is confirmed by the research of Fr. William O'Shea, who noted that along with various other innovative practices from Northern Europe, the use of unleavened
bread began to infiltrate into the Roman liturgy at the end of the first millennium, because as he put it, "Another change introduced into the Roman Rite in France and Germany at the time [i.e., 8th - 9th century] was the use of unleavened bread and of thin white wafers or hosts instead of the loaves of
leavened bread used hitherto"
~ Fr. William O'Shea, The Worship of the Church, page 128

"Moreover, this change in Western liturgical practice was also noted by Dr. Johannes H. Emminghaus in his book, The Eucharist: Essence, Form, Celebration, because as he said:

"The Eucharistic bread has been unleavened in the Latin rite since the 8th century -- that is, it is prepared simply from flour and water, without the addition of leaven or yeast. . . . in the first millennium of the Church's history, both in East and West, the bread normally used for the Eucharist was ordinary 'daily bread,' that is, leavened bread, and the Eastern Church uses it still today; for the most part, they strictly forbid the use of unleavened bread. The Latin Church, by contrast, has not considered this question very important."
~ Dr. Johannes H. Emminghaus, The Eucharist: Essence, Form, Celebration, page 162

"Thus, with the foregoing information in mind, it is clear that the use of leavened bread by the Eastern Churches represents the ancient practice of the undivided Church, while the use of unleavened bread by the Western Church was an innovation introduced near the end of the first millennium."

Given the Orthodox belief that the grace of Baptism and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit never fully leave even the greatest of baptized sinners, not until the moment of death, I think I would have to serve a Pannikhida for Stalin if requested by a parishioner.

It hasn't been discussed yet in the bilateral dialogue. Not really. It is absolutely forbidden for our Western Rite priests to use unleavened bread/hosts.

This is from an Antiochian Bishop:---

“The ancient question that continues to divide the Roman Catholic and Western Churches from the Orthodox Church regarding the use of leavened or unleavened bread in the Eucharist had to be resolved when the Western Rite parishes were received into the Orthodox Church. The host used in Western Rite liturgies resembles the unleavened wafer used by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians, but in fact it is leavened—although flattened—bread. The use of leavened bread in accordance with Orthodox theology, was required by Metropolitan Philip when he received these parishes into Orthodoxy.”

http://www.stgregoryoc.org/article/article-archive/metropolitan-isaiah-on-the-western-rite/

"The seat of the Christian Universe had been fixed in New Rome, the City of Constantine." Reflections, Archpriest Phillip

I don't think St. Gregory I (540 - 604), Bishop of Rome, would agree with this. Is there anyone in the east at this time who can match this man's missionary outreach and zeal? Unformed, immature, even crude theological outlook, indeed. In four hundred years we'd have the even cruder St. Anselm of Canterbury, but no mention of him.

"To say that the scholastics get all their views from Augustine is ridiculous."

I agree. Scholasticism was mainly an effort to reconcile Christian theology with Aristotle. The West discovered Aristotle when they discovered his writings during the reconquest of Spain. Ironically they first read Aristotle from translations made from Arabic language texts. The East never lost Aristotle, so his works were not new to them. However, the Eastern Church restricted Aristotle to philosophy and science and never felt a need to reconcile Christian theology with Aristotle because the East has always considered human reason too limited to comprehend the mysteries of God.
Augustine was not consistent. At times he affirmed free will, other times he denied free will. The Catholic Church never lost the memory of the Eastern Fathers. Therefore, Catholic theologians never accepted Augustine's more extreme positions. However, that was not the case with Luther and Calvin who accepted Augustine's most extreme writings as the basis for their theology. Augustine himself realized that he had gone too far and at the end of his life wrote a series of retractions in which he moderated some of his positions.

Fr. John W. Morris

Scholasticism was mainly an effort to reconcile Christian theology with Aristotle.