IF ANYONE EVEN READS THIS...

I know I've been on the inactive side of things for awhile (though not as badly as have others), but I have a question, if anyone happens to drop by. I just encountered this quote on Karl Thienes' website.

"The Bible vigorously opposes mystics of all descriptions, including Christians, who ascend to heaven and contemplate God by means of ascetic practices. God can never be directly grasped or contemplated face to face ... The only channel of revelation is the Word."

The source of this quote is apparently a certain Jacques Ellul. I don't know who he was, or what his religious affiliation was. The above quote (taken from here) sounds like a theological conclusion stemming from Sola Scriptura taken perhaps beyond what the Reformers intended for it (or, to state it more bluntly, run amuck). ;)

I'd like to think this sort of theology (with its many extremely practical implicatations, all of them negative, in my view) isn't universal to Protestantism. But I really don't know whether it is or not. When I was a Protestant, what Sola Scriptura meant to me was that I read the Bible myself, as much and often as I could, and tried not to listen to what other people said. Ironic though it is that said course brought me to the Orthodox Church, that's not my point--rather, I simply don't know what the loftier heights of Protestant theology hold. I never studied them. So perhaps my Protestant friends can tell me--is this what Protestants generally believe? Is this what you believe? And if it is, what does that do to your way of life? What is your goal in life if not communion with God?

I'd love to talk more about this. I suspect that this is where the fundamental rift lies between Protestantism and Orthodoxy, but I'd like to know more.

Humour me? ;)