Month: April 2008
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Faith and Fasting
In our world of Christian variation, it is easy for some to think of things like fasting as though they were “works” and somehow opposed to grace (if you had a radical protestant understanding of these matters). The truth, however, is quite different. Actions such as fasting are grouped under the general heading of “asceticism”…
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Scripture, Icons, and the World We Know
I ask for grace in writing this, lest I go beyond my ability. It seems to me well worth saying as discussions of the relationship between Scripture, dogma and science have surfaced. I offer this as food for thought as well as a ground of discussion. First, I will note an American Protestant tradition (somewhat…
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A Request for Prayers and Patience
I ask my readers for your prayers – I’m having trouble with an old injury in my back. I hope to be back to my relatively normal state, but have not been able to keep up with my full schedule for the past week or so. If it seems I’m writing a little less, pray…
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Where Was God?
I have made reference to an interview with David Bentley Hart, an Orthodox theologian, in an appendix to the article on “What makes the world go ’round.” The more I have read his response the more important I think it is for others to read. I have always held his writing in a bit of…
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“Learning” to Sin
I wrote this more than a year ago. As I go through Great Lent, particularly as it is marked with successive Saturdays (“Soul Saturdays”) in which we pray for the departed, these thoughts become increasingly relevant. I repost them here for that reason. As strange as it sounds – human beings have to “learn to sin.”…
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What Makes the World Go ‘Round?
It is a popular theme in music to suggest various possibilities for “what makes the world go ’round.” I know of two immediately: music and love. Both are wonderful sentiments but not very useful to me as answers. I have asked the question in this way to yet again bring our thoughts to the nature…
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New Zealand and Orthodoxy – A Question
I know I have readers in all sorts of corners of the world. At the moment I have a young parishioner who is spending some months in New Zealand. He’ll be on the South Island during Pascha and is looking for a good parish to attend. Can any of you good readers recommend a parish…
“The Self”. A phrase that has many avenues to its realization. Each of them of which I am aware has…