Glory to God For All Things

July 22, 2016

The Disenchanted World

A very apt word for the world we live in is: disenchanted. It was first used by Max Weber and a number of others to describe a certain aspect of the modern world – the absence of the sacred. Where people of earlier eras and other cultures have experienced the world around them as charged […]
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Knowledge of God, Modernity, Reflections, Secularism, The Sacraments
July 19, 2016

The Secular Mind versus the Whole Heart

Thinking is among the most misleading things in the modern world, or, to be more precise, thinking about thinking is misleading. For a culture that puts such a great emphasis on materiality, our thinking about thought is decidedly spooky. The philosophy underlying our strangely-constructed modernity is called nominalism (of which there are many formal […]
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Communion, Knowledge of God, Modernity, Reflections, Secularism
July 18, 2016

The Hand in the Gospel

My desk sits looking out of a wall of windows. My small backyard is shaded by a lush green this time of year. At any time of day or night, nature sounds mark the movement of the sun as much as the shifting shadows: birds in the early morning give way to katydids as the […]
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Liturgy, Modernity, Orthodox Christianity, Reflections, Secularism, The Sacraments
July 13, 2016

Secularized Sin

I have had numerous responses across social media about yesterday’s article on sin. It’s title, “Sin Is Not a Legal Problem,” drew some strong reactions. A particular concern is worth thinking about carefully. There is, as many have pointed out, plenty of juridical language in both the Scriptures and in the liturgical tradition of the […]
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Atonement, Interpretation, Modernity, Reflections, Secularism
July 12, 2016

Sin Is Not A Legal Problem – Athanasius and the Atonement

I often struggle when people speak of their “sins.” Indeed, it is not unusual to be asked, “Is ___ a sin?” The question always makes me feel like a lawyer. Imagine that, instead of a doctor, you have a lawyer whom you consult for your medical problems. You are having trouble breathing. You’re short of […]
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Atonement, Fathers, Interpretation, Reflections
July 10, 2016

The Context of Faith

Shortly after moving to this side of the Smoky Mountains (the Tennesee side rather than the South Carolina side), I began to notice that the local dialect differed from my own. It was rounder, somehow, less nasal, but still with very strong “r’s.” Local phrases could also be puzzling. “I don’t care to,” for example, […]
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Church, Interpretation, Liturgy, Modernity, Reflections, Scripture, Secularism, The Sacraments, Tradition
July 6, 2016

The Long-Range Option

In 1981, Alasdair MacIntyre published his book, After Virtue. He offered a historical analysis of the breakdown of moral conversation, essentially noting that a once classical agreement about the grounds of moral thought and action had been shattered into many conversations, most of which were incompatible and mutually contradictory. To make matters worse, he […]
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Conversion, Modernity, Morality, Orthodox Christianity, Reflections, Secularism, Tradition
July 5, 2016

Reading Scripture in the Kingdom

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (Joh 3:6) It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. (Joh 6:63) Now this I say, brethren, that flesh […]
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Allegory, Interpretation, Morality, Mystical Theology, Orthodox Christianity, Reflections, Repentance, Scripture, Tradition
June 29, 2016

The Contradictions of Scripture

We can, however, only express the Truth if we foresee the extreme expression of all the contradictions inherent in it, from which it follows that Truth itself encompasses the ultimate projection of all its invalidations, is antonymic and cannot be otherwise. -Pavel Florensky I wrote in a previous article about the importance of contradictions in […]
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Reflections
June 28, 2016

Reading by the Light of Christ

Let us suppose that you have heard the story of Jesus, in a fairly bare form, nothing like as complete as any of the gospels – just a general outline. And then let us suppose that the only Scriptures you have access to are the Old Testament. You have never seen a New Testament […]
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Interpretation, Orthodox Christianity, Reflections, Scripture, Scripture

Hello again Dee. Do you think Anatoly is an example that all Orthodox should emulate?

Thanks Dee.

I wouldn’t say you are unique in your view, Matthew. In fact I think it’s very understandable. But the movie…

Sometimes I think I saw a different movie than everybody else ….

Again, yes. I believe he lived in repentance and humility, as a holy fool.