Glory to God For All Things

August 6, 2018

Transformation and Forgiveness

There are various applications in our culture directed towards “feeling good about ourselves.” In contrast to being shamed and condemned it is an improvement. But it also misses the truth of things. Pretending that everything is ok does not make it so. There is within this, a kinship to the Penal Substitution Theory of the […]
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C.S. Lewis, Morality, Reflections, Repentance, Salvation
July 30, 2018

The Singular Goodness of God

It has long seemed to me that it is one thing to believe that God exists and quite another to believe that He is good. Indeed, to believe that God exists simply begs the question. That question is: Who is God, and what can be said of Him? Is He good? This goes to the […]
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Cross, Hell, Interpretation, Pascha, Personhood, Reflections
July 22, 2018

Consent to Reality

Catholic philosopher, Alasdair MacIntyre (After Virtue), has presented perhaps the most cogent account of our modern cultural landscape. It is not an account of how one set of ideas gave way to another set of ideas, but how a once-upon-a-time consensus gave way to our current collection of competing truth-claims and world-views. Indeed, he demonstrates […]
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Knowledge of God, Modernity, Orthodox Christianity, Reflections, Tradition
July 16, 2018

Face to Face – Without Shame or Fear

We are apparently living in the age of the face, and I don’t think it’s necessarily bad. I know all the complaints about our culture of “selfies,” and there are certainly many things in that to make us wonder, but our fascination with our faces long predates the technology of our phones. In the usage […]
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Communion, Icons, Personhood, Reflections, Salvation
July 11, 2018

Beyond Narcissism – To Behold the Face of God

Perhaps the most difficult personalities encountered in anyone’s life are those that can clinically be labeled “narcissistic.” It refers to a very describable disorder that can be diagnosed but treated only with difficulty. The narcissist is critically handicapped when it comes to recognizing and respecting boundaries. They want to run your life (and will). Everything […]
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Knowledge of God, Personhood, Reflections
July 9, 2018

Politics and the Princes of This World

The tenth chapter of Daniel records the prophet’s final vision, one that contains a very interesting tale: Now on the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was by the side of the great river, that is, the Tigris, I lifted my eyes and looked, and behold, a certain man clothed in linen, whose […]
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Liturgy, Modernity, Reflections, Secularism
July 2, 2018

The Peaceable Kingdom in a World at War

The English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes, described the world as composed of autonomous, competing self-interests. We are at war with one another, a reality, he said, that can only be controlled through external force. The state serves as the enforcer of a negotiated peace agreement, a social contract, in which we legitimize its use of force […]
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Modernity, Morality, Reflections, Salvation, Secularism, Solzhenitsyn, The Church
June 26, 2018

The Meekness of God

“Brood of vipers!” with those words John the Baptist is often introduced in the movies and the minds of believers as a loud, nearly violent prophet of the desert. That Charlton Heston played him in one of those movies was almost type-casting, at least with regard to the popular imagination. And yet, St. John is […]
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Cross, Knowledge of God, Modernity, Reflections
June 20, 2018

Providence and the Music of All Creation

God’s being and actions are one. This is essentially the teaching of the Church on the topic of the Divine Energies. When I read discussions about this – it seems to get lost in the twists and turns of medieval metaphysics or passes into the territory of seeing the “Uncreated Light.” Both approaches are unhelpful […]
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Morality, Music, Pascha, Reflections
June 18, 2018

Marriage as a Lifetime of Suffering

When couples come to ministers to talk about their marriage ceremonies, ministers think it’s interesting to ask if they love one another. What a stupid question! How would they know? A Christian marriage isn’t about whether you’re in love. Christian marriage is giving you the practice of fidelity over a lifetime in which you can […]
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Family, Modernity, Morality, Reflections, Secularism

Chris, Excellent word.

Father, I’m another of your readers expressing gratitude for your words today. I’ve been under pressure to “achieve” lately. So,…

Related but different perspective, I had a light bulb moment just a few years ago with a statement about the…

Father, My experience is that the people who learned best saw meaning in learning it. Beauty certainly could provide meaning,…

Father, thank you for this. I am wondering if you have read or are familiar with the works of Jacques…