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Ancient Faith Blogs presents a select group of writers and thinkers who regularly post on matters of theology, culture, art, parish, and family life.

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Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
A Clear Vision of Eternity
November 26, 2024 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Twenty-Second Sunday after Pentecost / Thirteenth Sunday of Luke, November 24, 2024 Galatians 6:11-18; Luke 18:18-27 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. In Luke 18, we hear the Gospel account of the Rich Young Ruler. This man comes to Jesus and asks Him what He can do to receive eternal life. Jesus…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Divine Council of Nicea
June 16, 2024June 17, 2024 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sunday after Ascension / Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, June 16, 2024 Acts 20:16-18, 28-36; John 17:1-13 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. In this period between the feasts of the Ascension of Christ and Pentecost, we celebrate on this Sunday the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, who met in…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Bending Toward Bethlehem
December 24, 2023December 22, 2023 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sunday before the Nativity / Eve of the Nativity, December 24, 2023 Hebrews 11:9-10, 32-40; Matthew 1:1-15 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. All things bend now toward Bethlehem. From Nazareth, the righteous Joseph, the betrothed of the Virgin, comes to Bethlehem, the city of David his forefather, at the summons of…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
St. Ignatius on the Nativity: Abolition of Death, Re-creation of the World
December 20, 2023 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Five days before the Nativity of Christ, the Orthodox Church celebrates the great hieromartyr Ignatius the God-bearer of Antioch. As he was traveling to Rome to be torn apart by lions, he wrote six epistles to Christians who met with him along the way, as well as an additional one sent ahead to the Roman Christians. Among these epistles is one sent to the…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Should Orthodox Christians Talk to False Teachers?
October 20, 2023November 1, 2023 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I understand that some people believe that one should simply never, ever even talk to people who say things that are false, that doing so constitutes endorsement of their teachings, and they believe that this is the Orthodox way. But as someone who knows Church history pretty well, I know that that is not the Orthodox way. Indeed, some of the most prominent moments…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Transfiguration on Eden
August 6, 2023August 7, 2023 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Holy Transfiguration of Christ, August 6, 2023 II Peter 1:10-19; Matthew 17:1-9 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today we behold the restoration of Eden. Today we see the door of Paradise standing open, and we gaze within, seeing there the Kingdom of God. Today we behold the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ.…
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
How "Nous” Became a Trojan Horse For Secularism, and Why it is So Difficult to Translate
May 19, 2023October 19, 2023 · Robin Phillips
Anyone who has been involved in Orthodoxy in America will likely have seen much discourse (often polemical in nature) about the “nous.” In fact, the nous plays a pivotal role in anti-western polemics since it has become a trope that “the West doesn’t have a concept of the nous.” Accordingly, the nous functions as a type of secret thing you can only…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I am faithful to one God, the Father Almighty
May 5, 2023May 5, 2023 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
We’ve mentioned a number of times on the Lord of Spirits podcast that usually where you see faith or believe in the Bible it is better translated “faithfulness” or “be faithful to.” Many verses of the Scriptures become much clearer when read this way, e.g., “For by grace you have been saved through faithfulness” (Eph. 2:8a). The many references to “increasing” faith also make…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
NEW RELEASE: The Wolf and the Cross
January 2, 2023January 11, 2023 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I am ecstatic — yes, actually ecstatic — to announce the release of the first episode of my new documentary podcast series The Wolf and the Cross: An Orthodox Christian Pilgrimage in Lithuania, which I am creating along with my friend and collaborator Richard Rohlin. In August 2022 we made a pilgrimage to the Baltic country of Lithuania, and in this documentary we’ll be…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Christ, Myth & Tolkien: 5-Part Seminar Begins Oct. 25
October 11, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I’m going to be teaching live on Zoom for 5 nights in October and November 2022 reading Tolkien’s works and making use of both Biblical and mythological material — the very worlds in which Tolkien himself was steeped.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Present and Future of Orthodox Christian Media
September 20, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
We have every right to feel that we may be at the beginning of a golden age of Orthodox content creation in the English language. But at the very same time that a renaissance of Orthodox content creation is happening, expanding into new platforms and providing insight and challenges for new fields of human life, there are marginal, extreme forces seeking to pierce into the middle.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Lamp of the Body
July 4, 2022July 4, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
If we sit depressed and are anxious over all the things that depress us, that anger us, that cause us to despair, then we become more like those thoughts. But if we orient our spiritual sight toward what is holy and good, then the evil thoughts being suggested by the demons will have no place in us to take root and grow.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
A Historic Day for Life
June 24, 2022June 25, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
With the declaration by the Supreme Court today that there is no constitutional right to abortion, this is a historic day here in America.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Justice is Coming
May 29, 2022May 27, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Justice is indeed coming, the very justice of God. This justice will wipe away every shred of demonic rule and influence from creation and set everything right. The cries for justice of those who have been crushed beneath the heels of the powerful and the violent have been heard by God, and they will be vindicated.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Sin, Holiness and Human Nature
May 15, 2022May 13, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Christian life is not easy, but it actually is simple. When we clearly understand what sin and holiness are, then our choice to turn away from sin and be holy becomes clear, too.
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
How COVID-19 Led to a Spiritual Pandemic
May 5, 2022May 9, 2022 · Robin Phillips
As the Orthodox Church struggles to get back to normal in the wake of COVID-19, there is emerging a growing climate of division that threatens to engulf us long after the pandemic has subsided.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
No, the Paschal date difference is not about Passover (and other Orthodox urban legends)
April 17, 2022May 10, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Orthodox Christians should find their identity in Christ and in the saving dogmas proclaimed about Him universally in Orthodox tradition. How we calculate Pascha (which was not set by the Apostles) is not one of those things.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Martyrs’ Blood Against the Demon Hordes: A Reflection on the Akolouthia of the Three Martyrs of Vilnius
April 14, 2022April 13, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Scriptures and all the liturgical services of the Orthodox Church include the theme of spiritual warfare, but it is particularly prominent in the liturgical services for the martyred saints.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Is There a Triumph of Orthodoxy?
March 13, 2022March 11, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Ten years ago, I was present at a sermon on the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy given by the late Fr. Thomas Hopko, three years before he died. The title he gave the sermon was “What Triumph of Orthodoxy?” And he said that there never really was such a thing.
Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy
Review: "A Spiritual Revolution" by Andrey V. Ivanov
February 22, 2022February 22, 2022 · Dylan Pahman
Many converted to Orthodoxy from Western confessions. Some may wonder what of their past faith needs to be rethought and what they should retain. The good news is Orthodox engagement with nearly all contemporary Western teachings and trends can be found in this period.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Purification for Pascha
February 14, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Why not just ask to enter into the Great Feast of Pascha, into the Kingdom of God, without having to go through this purification? Why won’t God just open the door and say, “Come on in” to everyone?
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Ignored by God
February 8, 2022February 8, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Real love for God is when we can begin to pray without expectations, without conditions that we lay down for God, willing to accept whatever God is going to give us. A true child of God will fall down at the Master’s feet and say, “Lord, help me.” It doesn’t matter what then happens.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The City Which is to Come
January 31, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
We don’t get caught up in the endless controversies and pursuits of this world. Let such dead ways of living bury themselves, because death is their aim. Here we have no lasting city. We seek the City which is to come.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The False Virtue of Woke Puritanism
January 25, 2022January 25, 2022 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Here in 21st century America, the only truly unforgivable sin — in many cases, the only sin — is having the wrong opinion.
The Whole Counsel Blog
Paul's "Works of the Law" in the Perspective of Second Century Reception, by Matthew J. Thomas - A Review
January 8, 2022 · Fr. Stephen De Young
Easily the most important work in Pauline Studies, and likely in Biblical Studies as a whole, of the current decade is Matthew Thomas’ published Oxford dissertation, Paul’s “Works of the Law” in the Perspective of Second Century Reception. This book is not merely an entry into the ongoing discussion of various perspectives on St. Paul’s understanding of salvation and relationship to Judaism. Thomas bridges the fields of New Testament studies and patristics to deliver what may be a definitive blow to the Lutheran, and thereby typical Protestant reading of St. Paul. As a published dissertation with minimal editing, this book is written in academic form and makes its arguments in academic fashion. If one follows through on the threads here…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Lady at the Center of a Christian People
December 26, 2021December 24, 2021 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
A friend of mine likes to say that no nation or people is truly a Christian nation or people until it has a nationally-venerated icon or shrine of the Theotokos. This is not a doctrine of the Church, of course, but it is a cultural observation that rings true in a certain way. There is something about how a Christian society works that almost inevitably results in having a veneration for the Lord’s mother at the center.
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Not By Heroism, Lest Anyone Should Boast
December 1, 2021December 3, 2021 · Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Pagans did get some things right. Salvation does mean rescue from Hades, and it does mean being seated together with the Most High God. But they were wrong when they thought you could get it by impressing the gods.

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