[aron]

Continuing the discussion, the Protestant view that salvation is by grace through faith, not by works, may lead to a fixation on the endpoint, and ignoring the points in between, as "dead works". By faith we Protestants (or post-Protestants) see a vision (the New Jerusalem, the Consummation of the Processed Triune God, the One New Man as the Fullness of Christ, The Bridegroom and His Bride, the New Heaven and New Earth, Becoming God in Life and Nature [But Not in the Godhead]) and we ignore all the steps in between (love the person next to you, bear patiently with them even as God has been patient with you, etc) as irrelevant, even vain human efforts.

But the "good works" of the Christian faith, so often remarked upon in the pages of the New Testament, should be of a pace with the endpoint. The danger of fixation upon the endpoint as the end in and of itself is that our days become consumed with this theory, presenting it, supporting it, arguing it, and so forth. That becomes our "work"; ignoring those who think differently, masticating the ministry, attending meetings, conferences and trainings, and avoiding palace intrigues - who's on the in and who's on the out.

So even if the end point is arguably, objectively real, the ignoring of the necessary steps in between as "dead works" seems to erase it from our experience, either present or future.

Just thinking aloud here.

ICA's quote of St. Mark the Ascetic seems to be on the same track. Good works without Christ are vain, but so is theology without commensurate good works. And the LC model seems completely shorn of good works. So their endpoint, however carefully phrased and defended, is essentially irrelevant.