When you talk to an Orthodox about nationalism or a nationalist about Orthodoxy, you often hear that these doctrines are incompatible.
In Europe, the recognition of this incompatibility gave rise to an entire intellectual movement of the New Right (Alain Benoit, Guillaume Fay, Dominique Wenner and others). For them, Christianity is one of the universalist doctrines whose ideas of determinism, the only truth, and monotheism, became the basis of totalitarianism. According to the New Right, liberalism and Marxism are secular variations of "Judeo-Christianity", a natural chapter in its development.
And some quotes from Orthodox authors and preachers can convince a person of difference or even hostility to the ideas of nationalism and Christianity. St. Luke Cases said in his sermon: "Bad and wicked divisions were established under tsarism between nations. The national and class barriers of Antichrist did not make room for Christian love and brotherhood. In the book of the philosopher F. Soloviev we find the following passage: "True Orthodoxy cannot be a national or local trait. " Pastor Daniel Sisov wrote in his LiveJournal: "Orthodox Christians are convinced as globalists, subjects of the world empire of the Lord Jesus Messiah. Therefore, the diversity of cultures in the world is not a value for us. ".
In the midst of a controversy, he will surely come to a quote from the apostle Paul's letter to the Colossians. It is usually said this way: "In Christ there is no Greek or Jew. But how should this phrase be understood? The eleventh verse of the third chapter says in full: "When there is no Greek or Jew, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Messiah is all and all. ".
To properly understand the biblical text, we must turn to the commentators of the holy fathers.
It makes sense. We read interpretations of laws from lawyers, self-defense guides. from martial arts experts. and an understanding of the spiritual meanings of the Holy Scriptures. We look at the scriptures from people who know by experience what the spiritual life is. Ephraim the Syrian (fourth century).