Category: Church
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Scripture and the Church
I recently encountered a use of Scripture in a web posting that was alarming to a degree. The writer (who was not apparently a believer) sought to use Scripture to prove that God was a murderer and that the Bible was an immoral book. It gave me an opportunity to reflect on why certain approaches…
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In the Father’s House
There is a tremendous kindness in the parable of Prodigal Son. There are many ways to speak of reconciliation with God, or of the forgiveness of our sins. In the parable of the Prodigal Son, however, we find perhaps the most gentle of all images. The son who asks for his inheritance in a greedy…
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The Mystery of Salvation
Salvation is truly the great mystery of human life. Essentially we are saying that the path from where we are now, in our sins, to where we shall be, conformed to the image of Christ, is as unknown to us as possible. We know the commandments of Christ, and our weakness both in keeping those…
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A Personal Salvation
Perhaps the most difficult theological truth to communicate in the modern world is that of personal existence. Modern English has taken the word person from the realm of theology and changed it into the cheapest coin of the realm. Today it means that which is private, merely individual. As such, it becomes synonymous not with…
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A Few Things More
It’s very easy in longer postings (such as the previous) to forget the closest things. Church is everything the Scriptures say of it, but we largely encounter Christ in a particular setting, among particular friends and family (sometimes). Thus, just as He gives Himself to us in His consecrated Body and Blood, so too, He…
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The Ecclesiology of the Cross
The following article is a series I wrote during the early months of the blog. I think it worth reprinting (surely people aren’t going back to read everything I’ve written). It is also available in the “Pages” section of the blog. If you’ve read it before I hope you enjoy rereading it – if not,…
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At the Edge of Tradition
There are many things that we see in our lives to which the word “traditional” may be attached. It can refer to a style of dress or an understanding of relationships. In Church it may refer to the use of certain kinds of music or a sytle of worship. Many years ago, pastoring my first…
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The Theological Task of Orthodoxy – A Further Word
Last October I ran the following quote from Fr. Georges Florovsky: Orthodoxy is summoned to witness. Now more than ever the Christian West stands before divergent prospects, a living question addressed also to the Orthodox world… The ‘old polemical theology’ has long ago lost its inner connection with any reality. Such theology was an academic…
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All the Fullness of God
A good Biblical word, used frequently in Orthodox writing and liturgy, is the word “fullness.” I think I have long preferred to say that the Orthodox Church is the “fullness” of the Christian faith, rather than say, “This is the one, true Church.” I believe it is the one, true Church, but how I understand…
He is risen indeed!