The Whole Counsel Blog
Christ in the Apocalypse
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The book of Revelation takes its name from the first verse, identifying the text as ‘the Revelation (Apokalypsis) of Jesus Christ’. This is important to understanding the text. It is not the revelation of ‘end time’ events in the distant future. It is not the revelation of esoteric spiritual secrets about the cosmos. It is a revelation of who Jesus Christ truly is. The Revelation received by St. John is a communication from Christ to seven churches in Asia Minor, who are facing persecution, schism, compromise, and heresy. In answer to all of these difficulties faced by his people, Revelation proclaims the divine identity of Christ, who he is, what he has done, and what he shortly will do when…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Christ in the General Epistles
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The ‘general’ or ‘catholic’ epistles are a group of texts within the New Testament consisting of the epistles of James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, and Jude. These are a group of texts which are too often neglected for several reasons. They are relatively short texts, which means though they are part of the Orthodox lectionary, they tend to be moved through very quickly, and mostly on weekdays in the regular lectionary cycle. While the Pauline epistles share a common background and theological purpose, the general epistles are extremely eclectic. James, for example, has little in common with the others. Based on biographical information in the Acts of the Apostles and his own biographical comments in…
The Whole Counsel Blog
St. Paul the Mystic
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As a bridge between the discussion of Christ in St. Paul’s epistles and Christ in the General Epistles, it is important to discuss a second factor in St. Paul’s understanding of Christ as God. This concerns the oft-neglected area of St. Paul’s own personal practices of prayer and piety, and how this relates to both his vision of the risen Christ on the road to Damascus, in his call to be an apostle, and to his own direct knowledge of Christ as God. While the previous post discussed St. Paul’s identification of the second hypostasis of Israel’s God as the person of Jesus Christ based on Second Temple Jewish tradition, this one will focus on the epistemological issue of how…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Christ in St. Paul's Epistles
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The Christology presented in the letters of St. Paul is particularly important to an understanding of the viewpoint of the New Testament as a whole, in that St. Paul’s epistles are the earliest documents, the first written, that discuss who Christ is. Though obviously these letters were written after the events described in the gospels and, in most cases, the events described in the Acts of the Apostles, St. Paul’s written exhortations to the nascent Christian communities which he had established precede the setting down of the gospel accounts in writing. If there was indeed some sort of ‘development’ of the understanding or the idea of Christ, from a ‘lower’ to a ‘higher’ Christology, one would expect to find in…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Christ in the Gospels
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Several weeks ago, a series of articles discussed how Christ can be seen, and was understood within Second Temple Judaism in the Old Testament. A companion series discussing how Christ is seen in the New Testament may seem counter-intuitive due to its apparently obvious nature. This is particularly true of Christ in the gospels, which are quite obviously entirely about our Lord Jesus Christ. However, the core of that previous series was developing the way in which Second Temple Judaism had come, through careful attention to the text of the Hebrew Bible, to see God as a godhead of two or more persons even before the incarnation of Christ. This then provided those to whom Christ came with the means…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
"Blessing": Does It Actually Mean Anything?
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Sixth Sunday after Pentecost / Sixth Sunday of Matthew, July 8, 2018 Romans 12:6-14; Matthew 9:1-8 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Today I would like to speak about blessing and cursing. Our epistle reading from Romans 12 ends with this verse: “Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse”…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Shepherds of Israel
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There is a common misunderstanding of the origins of clerical orders within the Church. It is argued that the Christians of the apostolic era, including the apostles themselves, believed that Christ would certainly return within their own lifetime. It is only when that clearly did not occur, when the apostles, or at least most of them, had died, that the concept of the church came into being, as well as varied understandings, which evolved over time, as to how the newly constituted church ought be governed. It is thought that these structures were deeply influenced by the prevailing culture at the time, most especially Roman culture, as the church, by this time, was primarily Gentile. This narrative has been put…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
No Love? No Church. No Christianity.
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Ss. Cosmas & Damian of Rome / Fifth Sunday of Matthew, July 1, 2018 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:8; Matthew 8:28-9:1 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. What is love? If you grew up when I did, you probably now have that 1993 Haddaway song in your head. But if you don’t know what…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Being and Doing: On Rebellion
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The relationship between the truths of the Christian faith, and the Christian way of life, has fallen into great disrepair in modern times. At its core, the Protestant Reformation was focused on this relationship. In the contemporary world, our idea of faith itself has become anemic. One is a Christian if they believe that certain propositions are true. This reduces the last judgment to a true/false test, in which correct answers gain one eternal life. This misunderstanding then generates a whole series of debates regarding exactly which propositions, and how many, are absolutely required for salvation, or to be a Christian, and which ones and how many can be held in disagreement. In those areas where it has been decided…
Nearly Orthodox
Waking Anxious, Underwater
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Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Phil 4:6-7 I woke up feeling anxious. It happens like this sometimes. I go to bed feeling fine. I sleep well. I might even stumble around after waking for a few minutes,…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Man as the Image of God in Reverse
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That human persons are created in the image of God is explicit from the first pages of the scriptures (Gen 1:27). As a concept, removed from its particular purpose in the Genesis narrative, this fact has become the subject of a seemingly endless series of speculations as to exactly what this means. In contemporary theology, this most often takes the form of seeking to identify ‘the image of God’ in man with some characteristic or characteristics of human person. So it is proposed that rationality, or language, or freedom, for example, are the substantial meaning of God’s image. All of these speculations, and this approach as a whole, have severe difficulties. On one hand, as we advance in our knowledge…
The Whole Counsel Blog
The Spirit of God in the Old Testament
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This week serves as a sort of epilogue to the recent series on Christ in the Old Testament. These previous posts discussed the reality that Second Temple Judaism, through a close reading of the Hebrew scriptures, had developed the idea that there is a second hypostasis of Yahweh, the God of Israel. The terminology for this within the Jewish world was to speak of the ‘Two Powers in Heaven’. The identity and origin of this second hypostasis was the subject of much debate and conjecture in Jewish literature. The New Testament authors clearly identify the second person of the Godhead as Jesus Christ, incarnate in their day. In response to this core argument of the Christian proclamation, the Jewish community…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Why Christianity Must Have Saints
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Sunday of All Saints, June 3, 2018 Hebrews 11:33-12:2; Matthew 10:32-33, 37-8; 19:27-30 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. This first Sunday after Pentecost is dedicated to the commemoration of all the saints, and so it is commonly called “All Saints Sunday.” So I thought we could spend a little time today…
The Whole Counsel Blog
God's Body
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One feature of the Orthodox Jewish synagogue service is the hymn sung near its dismissal which repeatedly affirms that ‘God does not have a body’. This particular hymn was added in the fourth or fifth century as a direct response to, and rejection of, Christianity. On the surface, far removed as we are from the issues in the early debate between the nascent Christian and Rabbinical Jewish communities, we might assume that this is aimed at a rejection of the Christian doctrine of the incarnation. In reality, however, the primary field of debate in that era was over the correct interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures which would become the Christian Old Testament. The repeated reaffirmation that the Jewish believer ought…
Nearly Orthodox
Always Standing
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I am getting familiar with the words so I am sitting down. In fact, I am sitting on my bed in the middle of a sunny Sunday afternoon, avoiding doing anything I had on my long list of things to do after Liturgy. I tell myself it’s a “day of rest” and all that. It feels legit. I pick up a prayer book given to me by a friend and begin to…
The Whole Counsel Blog
The Son of Man
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The title ‘Son of Man’ is best known by most readers of the scriptures as the title which Christ most often applies to himself in all four of the Gospels, a rare thread running through all four with utter consistency. In fact, other than references to the Old Testament and a single instance in the Acts of the Apostles, this title occurs in the New Testament only as a form of self-reference by Christ. When Christ uses this term, however, he is drawing on an Old Testament tradition which was already by that time well-defined. Further, from this Old Testament tradition, the idea of a particular divine figure had formed within Second Temple Judaism, and many of Christ’s references are…
The Whole Counsel Blog
God the Word
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Famously, the prologue of the first chapter of St. John’s Gospel speaks of the Logos, who has existed eternally with God from the beginning, and is God. It became extremely common to read these statements in the prologue philosophically. To read them as an attempt by St. John to philosophically represent the deity of Jesus Christ in relationship to the God of Israel as a Jewish monotheist. Philo of Alexandria’s mention, as a Jewish Middle Platonist, of the divine Logos as an emanation of the one true God is seen as either a parallel or a precursor by this view. Others looked to the idea of the logos in Stoic philosophy. This line of thought has so permeated patristic studies…
The Whole Counsel Blog
The Angel of the Lord
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There is within the Christian world, even among Orthodox Christian writers and scholars, a certain presupposed narrative regarding the ‘development’ of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity within Christianity. It is presupposed that the people of the Old Testament were Unitarian monotheists, that they believed that only one God existed, and that that God was a single person. It is then presupposed that through his teaching and deeds, culminating in his resurrection and ascension into heaven, early Christians came to believe that Jesus is also divine in some sense. The development of Christian belief over the next several centuries is then seen in evolutionary terms, in which early ‘low’ Christology in which Christ is seen to be divine, but not…
With Lamps in Hand
Two Spiritual Lessons We Can All Learn from a Mother's Love
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A few weeks ago, I was sitting on the playground at my daughter’s school while my girls played for a little. I was sitting on a bench on the edge of the basketball court holding my son. There was a group of middle school boys playing basketball and pestering some middle school girls. As I watched them make sixth-grade boy jokes and mess with the girls, I had a thought I’ve had…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Women Disciples of the Lord
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The phrase “women disciples of the Lord” is enough of a commonplace in Orthodox hymnography that it moves past the modern ear with little notice. It seems simply obvious at even a surface reading of the gospels that Christ had a number of followers, and that some of them were women. Contained within this brief phrase, and in the use of the word disciple, however, is a massive transformation in the way in which women were viewed in the ancient world, and their perceived role within the Christian community. As in a previous post, in the person of Jesus Christ, priesthood is reunited with masculinity as a calling, so too in the revelation of Jesus Christ attested by the New…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Jacob and His Well: Baptism for the Nations
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Sunday of the Samaritan Woman, May 6, 2018 Acts 11:19-30; John 4:5-42 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is risen! Today let us begin by contemplating the meaning of water. The Gospel we read today is focused quite literally on water, in which Jesus meets with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
The Paralysis of Life on the Go
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Sunday of the Paralytic, April 29, 2018 Acts 9:32-42; John 5:1-15 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is risen! Something happened in my life this past week that for years I wasn’t sure would ever happen. And it’s something that hadn’t happened in my life for almost 20 years. On Friday,…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Priesthood and Masculinity
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The theme of priesthood in the scriptures begins at the very beginning. The first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis draw heavily on the literature and traditions of the surrounding nations, though always with alteration, and in some cases even inversion, of the pagan themes found therein. The most obvious example of this is the story of the flood, which existed in many forms in the Ancient Near East before Genesis was written, and so Genesis both corrects these accounts, and serves as an apologetic for the true God of scripture against the various Near Eastern deities. This is also true of the story of the creation of Adam itself. In the Ancient Near East, the various pagan cultures…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
That Very Body
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Sunday of the Myrrh-bearers, April 22, 2018 Acts 6:1-7; Mark 15:43-16:8 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Christ is risen! On this third Sunday of Pascha, we are returned mystically to a series of events in Scripture which have to do with the body of the Lord Jesus. This is the Sunday…
The Whole Counsel Blog
Marriage and Sexuality According to Christ
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While it has become a commonplace in modern rhetoric to minimize, or even deny, that Jesus himself had anything to say about sexual morality, this is simply not true. In answering a question regarding divorce in Matthew 19:3-12, Christ directs us back to the first two chapters of the book of Genesis in order to illustrate God’s plan for gender, sexuality, and marriage in his creation. By pointing to and reaffirming these passages, Christ in fact makes a strong statement which has consequences for the Christian understanding of issues as diverse as divorce, polygamy, and homosexuality. Understanding this teaching of Christ presents an additional hurdle, however, as the Genesis narratives to which he points have themselves been the subject of…
Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
20 Years of Being Orthodox: 6 Things I've Learned
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Today marks the 20th anniversary of my reception into the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church — the Orthodox Church. I was just 22 years old at the time and still in college (I had something of a “career” in college, accumulating one BA, most of another, and three minors, all while working to support myself). In 1998, April 19 was Pascha, and at…
Nearly Orthodox
Running
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Remember when I said I don’t like to run? I mean, there’s a whole chapter in Garden in the East on exercise in which I make it super clear that I don’t like to run and that I am NOT going to run. I do other things. I enjoy Pilates and weight training. I’ll even sign up for Flamenco classes if the mood strikes, but I don’t like to run. Oh. Um.…
