Glory to God For All Things

February 28, 2015

The Icon of Music

Orthodox theology is a “seamless garment”: no part of Orthodox doctrine, worship, prayer or life stands in a category of its own. Everything refers and reveals the one thing in Christ – our salvation. Even the doctrine of the Trinity, as utterly sublime as it is, remains a matter revealed for our salvation. Because this […]
Read more: The Icon of Music
Beauty, Icons, Music, Union with God
February 25, 2015

Get Real for Lent

According to St. Basil, God is the “only truly Existing.” Our own existence is a gift from God who is our Creator. None of us has “self-existing” life. We exist because God sustains us in existence – in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28). Sin is the rejection of this gift of God […]
Read more: Get Real for Lent
Asceticism, Fasting, Morality, Reflections
February 20, 2015

Forgiving What We Do Not Know

The first service of Great Lent in the Orthodox Church is “Forgiveness Vespers,” served on the eve of Monday of the First Week. There is nothing unusual about the service itself – other than the “rite of forgiveness” appended to it. In this, the priest and the faithful ask forgiveness of one another. Often this […]
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Forgiveness, Reflections, Repentance, Union with God
February 18, 2015

Singing the Lord’s Song

I have been attending a conference and traveling this week and have not had time to write. I offer here a reprint of an article that is a personal favorite. It is frustrating for me that the article is so short – simply because I have a deep sense that the topic could be so […]
Read more: Singing the Lord’s Song
Existence, Modernity, Music
February 12, 2015

Sex and the Moral Imagination

As the day draws near for the US Supreme Court to insist on nationwide approval for gay marriage, a watershed in modern thought has been reached. For although the Supreme Court is not the arbiter of morality, its decisions generally signal a deep level of cultural acceptance. Of course, in American practice, the court represents […]
Read more: Sex and the Moral Imagination
Cross, Modernity, Morality, Personhood, Reflections, Union with God
February 9, 2015

The Moral Path of Being

If Christian morality is not a legal or forensic matter, how are we to think about moral behavior? Does the word have no use for Orthodox Christians? What do we think about when we confess our sins? If morality is ontological – a matter of being – what does that look like? To say that […]
Read more: The Moral Path of Being
Modernity, Morality, Personhood, Reflections, Secularism
February 5, 2015

Boundaries, Borders and the True God

Years 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. […]
Read more: Boundaries, Borders and the True God
Existence, Knowledge of God, Modernity, Personhood, Reflections, Time
February 3, 2015

To Be or Not To Be – A Moral Question?

As I continue this series on morality (or unmorality) the conversation continues to push me back to basics. There are deeply important reasons for unthinking the morality of the modern world and rethinking its place in our relationship with God. The most important reason is because it is incorrect to think of us as primarily […]
Read more: To Be or Not To Be – A Moral Question?
Modernity, Morality, Reflections, Tradition
January 31, 2015

The Unmoral Christian Revisited

My article, The Un-moral Christian, along with You’re Not Getting Better, have continued to generate conversation around the internet, and within parishes. At least that’s the impression I get from numerous conversations, emails, social media, and even phone calls. Most of those conversations seem to be serious and are engaging the question of how Orthodox […]
Read more: The Unmoral Christian Revisited
Modernity, Morality, Reflections, Salvation
January 29, 2015

The Doors and God

You cannot attend an Orthodox service and not be aware of doors. There are the doors that form the center of the icon screen, opening directly upon the altar. There are the two doors that flank them, one on either side, known as the “Deacon Doors.” Someone always seems to be coming out of one […]
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Liturgy, Mystical Theology, Reflections, Salvation

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