Glory to God for All Things

Irony and Belief

Posted on 5/7/2013 in Conversion, Forgiveness, Orthodox Christianity, Salvation with 73 Comments

Irony is probably too much to ask of youth. If I can remember myself in my college years, the most I could muster was sarcasm. Irony required more insight. There is a deep need for the appreciation of irony to sustain a Christian life. Our world is filled with contradiction. Hypocrisy is ever present even within our own heart. The … Continue reading →

Therapeutic Substitutionary Atonement

Posted on 4/19/2013 in Atonement, Communion, Forgiveness, Holy Week, Mystical Theology, Orthodox Christianity, Pascha, Salvation, Union with God with 87 Comments

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures… (1 Cor. 15:3-4) No statement is more central to the Christian faith than St. Paul’s rehearsal of the Apostolic Tradition … Continue reading →

Sweet Commandments

Posted on 4/14/2013 in Enemies, Forgiveness, Last Things, Morality, Orthodox Christianity, Union with God with 113 Comments

Somewhere in the early ’70′s, I recall being in a group of Church youth. They were singing a song based on Psalm 19: The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; The statutes of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; The commandment of the LORD is … Continue reading →

An Unnecessary Existence

Posted on 2/8/2013 in Dostoevsky, Existence, Forgiveness, Orthodox Christianity, Personhood, Thankfulness with 92 Comments

In Dostoevsky’s The Demons, the character, Kirillov, is insanely fascinated with freedom. He cannot bear the fact that he did not choose his own existence. Life is a “given.” In what must be seen as a parable of the radical thought of the 19th century, Kirillov determines to kill himself, the only act of true freedom he can take. His … Continue reading →

Harlots and Drunkards at the Last Banquet

Posted on 12/3/2012 in Dostoevsky, Forgiveness, Last Things, Mercy with 61 Comments

Once a week I teach a class at a local alcohol and drug treatment program. It is on the “spirituality of recovery.” Recently I shared Marmaladov’s speech from Crime and Punishment (at the end of this article). There were tears in the room. For many, the version of the gospel they have heard only condemns. Most of the men I … Continue reading →

Notes from the Underground

Posted on 9/23/2012 in Dostoevsky, Forgiveness, Orthodox Christianity with 7 Comments

I have recently been reading in a classic work, Nicholas Berdyaev’s Dostoevsky. Berdyaev was a twentieth-century Russian philosopher (existentialist) and deeply sympathetic to Dostoevsky’s works. I find some of his treatment to be tremendously satisfying and “on the mark.” I offer an extended quote and some thoughts… Berdyaev quotes from Dostoevsky’s Notes from the Underground: I shall not be a … Continue reading →

Read “Everywhere Present”

Have you ever referred to God as “the Man upstairs”? Most Christians living in a secular society have unwittingly relegated God and all things spiritual to the “second storey” of the universe: Read More...
Christianity in a One-Storey Universe