Glory to God For All Things

August 23, 2009

The Agent of Change

A continuation of the series on culture and the individual. As inhabitants of our modern culture, we find ourselves trapped in a world of “cause and effect.” It is a physical explanation of the universe that has, for all intents and purposes, become a universal metaphor, dominating religion and the most personal aspects of our […]
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Orthodox Christianity
August 22, 2009

Dostoevsky on the Individual

The following passage from The Brothers Karamazov is taken from one of the “Talks and Homilies” of the Elder Zossima – one of the key characters in the novel. His thoughts echo earlier articles here that contrast man as “individual” (isolation) to man as Person (brotherhood and communion). I plan to offer a series of thoughts […]
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Orthodox Christianity
August 19, 2009

The Mystery of Faith – Sacrament and Icon

Recent questions have been raised about the difference between icons and sacraments in the Orthodox Church. It is an easy place for confusion to occur – particularly when seen from the outside. The Church in the West, particularly the Roman Catholic Church, developed a carefully-worded and defined understanding of sacrament during the Middle Ages. This […]
Read more: The Mystery of Faith – Sacrament and Icon
Orthodox Christianity
August 18, 2009

The Role of Icons

Icons are not about art. Icons are not about left-overs of Byzantine style. Icons are not about the idolatrous impulse within fallen humanity. Icons are about the very nature of our salvation. The history of Western theology, particularly the opposition to icons within the Protestant movement, has removed one of the most traditional components of […]
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Orthodox Christianity
August 17, 2009

Bad Icons

And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being changed into His likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18). It is a teaching of the Fathers concerning the holy icons that we do not truly “see” […]
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Orthodox Christianity
August 16, 2009

The Face of God

Orthodox Christians mark August 16 as the Feast of the Icon “Not Made With Hands,” the miraculous face of Christ first left on a cloth sent to King Abgar of Edessa. The stories of the icon are swathed in the mists of history – but the image (or representations of it on icons) remain among […]
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Orthodox Christianity
August 15, 2009

Rejoice, O Virgin – A Blessed Feast

[vodpod id=Groupvideo.3196836&w=425&h=350&fv=%26rel%3D0%26border%3D0%26] more about “Rejoice, O Virgin“, posted with vodpod
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Orthodox Christianity
August 14, 2009

Being Famous Doesn't Make You Moral

The news story is so common that the name can be left blank. “N. confessed today that he has been unfaithful to his wife and children and let down his fans. ‘I want to say I’m sorry for what I’ve done and ask God’s forgiveness.’” I do not believe that our nation is suffering a […]
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Orthodox Christianity
August 14, 2009

The Last Battle

The Scriptures end with the description of a battle that is truly “apocalyptic” in its scale: all the forces of evil arrayed against all the forces of good. It is grand theater, having caught the imagination of countless generations (and even Hollywood). I do not know quite what to make of the description. That it […]
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Orthodox Christianity
August 13, 2009

The Inverted Pyramid

No greater image of prayer and the love of God has been given in our modern time than that of the Elder Sophrony’s Inverted Pyramid. The subject of such prayer has risen. I thought to share this as an effort to shed some light. Fr. Sophrony [Sakharov], in his book on St. Silouan, presents this […]
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Orthodox Christianity

Regarding those books, it of course depends on which book we might encounter at a key moment in our life.…

Matthew W, interesting thoughts about The Orthodox Way and The Orthodox Church. Interestingly, I had the opposite experience. The first…

As a teenager, The Master and Margarita (Bulgakov) affected me in profoundly, with the combination of very entertaining humor and…

The best book is William Faulkner’s “The Sound and the Fury” is my favorite especially section 3.

I second the Orthodox Way. People kept recommending the other book, the Orthodox Church to me. I read it later,…