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What To Do When God Is Everywhere
Read more: What To Do When God Is EverywhereIf there is no such thing as “secularism” (see my previous article), then how are we to live? If God is “everywhere present and filling all things,” how are we to spend our time in the day? It is possible to be distracted by such questions, to wonder whether Christians need to construct an alternative […]
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There Is No Such Thing As Secular
Read more: There Is No Such Thing As SecularJust so that we can be clear: there is no such thing as a secular world. By that, I mean that there is no such thing as the world-apart-from-God, a world without God, or a world existing in a “neutral zone.” The good God who created the heavens and the earth, sustains all things in […]
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The Difficult Task of True Theology
Read more: The Difficult Task of True TheologyNothing is as difficult as true theology. Simply saying something correct is beside the point. Correctness does not rise to the level of theology. Theology, rightly done, is a path towards union with God. It is absolutely more than an academic exercise. Theology is not the recitation of correct facts, it is the apprehension and […]
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A Good Life Versus The Good Life
Read more: A Good Life Versus The Good LifeOne way to contrast modern sensibilities with Christian sensibilities is to describe the difference between “the good life” and “a good life.” “The good life” is an advertising theme, a photoshoot of the American Dream where all obstacles are overcome through the miracles of technology, market forces, and unfettered freedom. “A good life” is an […]
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Love Has No History
Read more: Love Has No HistorySt. Nikolai Velimirovich’s Prayers by the Lake are a theological feast. St. Gregory the Theologian wrote wonderful theological poems – it is a form deeply suited to theology but too little used. I first heard this poem on a broadcast from Ancient Faith Radio – it came at a very timely moment and allowed me […]
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Things You Can’t Invent
Read more: Things You Can’t InventMost of the things in our lives are not of our own making – they were given to us. Our language, our culture, the whole of our biology and the very gift of life itself is something that has been “handed down” to us. In that sense, we are all creatures of “tradition” (traditio=“to hand […]
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Providence, Freedom, and Love
Read more: Providence, Freedom, and LoveI was married at age 22 (my bride was 21). Both of us were believers and sought to ground our lives in the life of God. I remember that my wife was quite clear that “God had brought us together.” For a variety of reasons at the time, I chafed at the expression. I had […]
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Orthodoxy and Religious Experience
Read more: Orthodoxy and Religious ExperienceHow do we experience God? Do we hear voices? Do we sense a presence? Are there physical sensations involved? Should we see light or feel warmed? Some may be surprised to hear that our belief in God is not based in an interior human experience. Such things stretch across an incredible variety (such is the […]
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Boundaries, Borders, and the True God
Read more: Boundaries, Borders, and the True GodYears ago, as a young seminarian, I wanted to paint icons. I knew nothing about icons, only that I liked them and that they were holy. The vast wealth of books and materials on their meaning and even on the technique of painting them simply did not exist. My knowledge of painting was also non-existent. […]
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Messiness in the Modern World
Read more: Messiness in the Modern WorldSalvation can be messy. I believe this with all my heart and so I state it at the outset of this article. As such, it marks me as a heretic in Modernity. I not only believe that salvation is messy – I believe that messiness is pretty much inherent to salvation. And along with that, […]
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Paul, I have offered an excerpt from an elderly, holy Nun (now reposed). The terms are those she used. We…
Christian, In the article, I’m trying to follow the use of the terms that the Abbess used. I gather from…
Fr. Stephen, I appreciated your reflection on the paradoxes of faith, especially the lived tension between faith and knowledge. I…
Dear Fr. Stephen, thanks so much for all of this blog post! This very much reminds me of the words…
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Faith is acquired. It is kind of like the story of the tightrope walker. He first asks the crowd if…