Search results for: “theology of the cross”
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Self-Emptying
Read more: Self-EmptyingI offer a brief apology to Buddhists – forgive me if I have mischaracterized your religious practices. We are enjoined by St. Paul to have within us the mind that was in Christ – specifically in His self-emptying love in going to the Cross (Philippians 2:5-11). It is the very heart of humility. Of course there […]
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Why Should Beauty Matter?
Read more: Why Should Beauty Matter?Reflecting on my last two posts, The Nature of Things and Our Salvation and Beauty and the Salvation of the World, I have a question: What is the nature of things such that beauty should matter? It is a commonplace in our culture to think that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” (rendering […]
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Kalomiros on the Orthodox Life
Read more: Kalomiros on the Orthodox LifeDr. Alexander Kalomiros, author of the River of Fire and other well known Orthodox writings, offers these simple thoughts on the Orthodox Life. They are taken from the small book, Nostalgia for Paradise. When the ascetical life of a Christian and the privations that he imposes upon himself are beyond the measure of grace that […]
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The River of Fire – Kalomiros
Read more: The River of Fire – KalomirosThe River of Fire Copyright 1980 St. Nectarios Press THE RIVER OF FIRE by ALEXANDRE KALOMIROS As presented at the 1980 ORTHODOX CONFERENCE sponsored by St. Nectarios American Orthodox Church Seattle, Washington A reply to the questions: (1) Is God really good? (2) Did God create hell? + In the Name of the Father, and […]
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Salvation in a Cloud of Witnesses
Read more: Salvation in a Cloud of WitnessesPerhaps more than any culture in history – America has championed the individual. The context for this cultural development was the nation’s historic resistance to the class structures of 17th and 18th century Europe (and later) as well as a positive response to certain intellectual concepts that were popular at the time of the nation’s […]
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Salvation in a Cloud of Witnesses
Read more: Salvation in a Cloud of WitnessesPerhaps more than any culture in history – America has championed the individual. The context for this cultural development was the nation’s historic resistance to the class structures of 17th and 18th century Europe (and later) as well as a positive response to certain intellectual concepts that were popular at the time of the nation’s […]
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Give Thanks In All Things
Read more: Give Thanks In All ThingsI heard this from Archimandrite Zacharius, the disciple of the Elder Sophrony: The Elder Sophrony once said that if a man would give thanks always and for everything, he would have kept the saying which Christ gave to St. Silouan: “Keep your mind in hell and despair not.” I pondered this statement for a long […]
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The Agent of Change
Read more: The Agent of ChangeAs 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 lives. We see ourselves as the agents of change – […]
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The Absence of Beauty
Read more: The Absence of BeautyWe can say without hesitation that God is the ultimate author of Beauty, and what we know and love of beauty is an echo or stronger of our desire for the Beautiful God. It becomes a major problem of sin, largely unrecognized, when beauty begins to recede from the consciousness of people, or something tawdry […]
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The Fullness of the Fullness
Read more: The Fullness of the FullnessIt is frequently the case that Orthodox theology uses the word “fullness” to describe its understanding and life of the gospel. This is a far more apt expression than simply saying “we have the truth.” Fullness, I think, better describes something. Truth, in our modern vocabulary, can mean something quite flat – as in a […]
Fr. Stephen, You both have been an inspiration to me. Two bright lights of faithful creativity in American Orthodoxy. For…