Category: Orthodox Christianity
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Knowing the Truth
This Sunday in the Orthodox Church commemorates St. Gregory Palamas. His work represents the triumph of reality over theory – of true knowledge of God versus scholasticism. This is an article written in 2008, following my pilgrimage to the Holy Land. +++ From the book, The Enlargement of the Heart, by Archimandrite Zacharias: For Elder Sophrony…
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The Desert Struggle
One of the best-known sayings to have come from the Desert Fathers is: “Stay in your cell and your cell will teach you everything.” To a large degree the saying extols the virtue of stability. Moving from place to place never removes the problem – it only postpones the inevitable. Somewhere, sometime we have to…
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The Christian Crisis
Any student of Church history should be well aware that there has been no century in which the Christian faith was safe, untroubled and not in crisis. To a certain extent, the Cross will always bring Christians into crisis. However, these are some thoughts on the present and some aspects of the crisis in which…
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Do Something
My recent post, The God Who Is No God, spoke of Christianity as a set of practices. This is a crucial understanding – a requirement for a living faith. It requires that we ask the question of the rich young ruler, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Oddly, he did not ask, “What…
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The God Who Is No God
A God who remains generalized and reduced to ideology is no God at all. Only the daily encounter with the living God, with all the messiness it entails, can rise to the name Christian. Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe _____________ Belief in a true and living God is a very difficult thing, fraught…
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Stumbling Toward Salvation
On occasion I have written on topics that seem to scandalize readers, or certainly cause difficulty for many. Some of those topics have been articles on the wrath of God; the radical forgiveness of everyone for everything; the commonality of our life and our salvation; and various posts on giving thanks always for all things…
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How Do You Feel About That?
In the near decade-and-a-half that I have been Orthodox, I cannot recall ever being asked, “How do you feel about that?” It is not a wrong question, but one that simply doesn’t come up much in Orthodox conversation. The Tradition of the Church is not set by feelings (at least officially). Neither is the Church…
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A Young Missionary
A young man whom I know from our local Orthodox Christian Fellowship at the University of Tennessee is looking to return to Tanzania as part of a mission team this year. It is a joy to see young people giving their lives for the cause of Christ and reaching out at home and across the…
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After My Own Heart
I love this post on Pithless Thoughts. Good read. Good words.
Thank you, Sr. Teresa!