Author: Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick

The Very Rev. Archpriest Andrew Stephen Damick is Chief Content Officer of Ancient Faith Ministries, former pastor (2009-2020) of St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church of Emmaus, Pennsylvania, and author of The Lord of Spirits, Arise, O God, Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, Bearing God and An Introduction to God. He is co-host of the following podcasts: The Lord of Spirits (with Fr. Stephen De Young), The Areopagus (with Michael Landsman), and Amon Sûl (with Richard Rohlin). He is also host of The Orthodox Pilgrim, Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, Orthodox Engagement, and Roads from Emmaus. With Richard Rohlin he is collaborating on the major documentary series The Wolf and the Cross. You can follow him on YouTube, Facebook, Telegram and Instagram.

On Ecstasy and Laundry: Spiritual Experience in the Orthodox Church

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost / Third Sunday of Luke, October 19, 2014 Rev. Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. Fourteen years ago, an American convert to Buddhism named Dr. Jack Kornfield published a book entitled After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. Although a Buddhist himself, in the work he…

Is the Age of the Earth Important? A Footnote and a Response

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
On page 20 of An Introduction to God appears this footnote: Orthodoxy makes no definitive statement about exactly how God created the universe or in what amount of time. The important point is that He did create it ex nihilo, out of nothing. The footnote is connected with this text: “In the beginning, God created the universe, including mankind, whom He placed at the…

Suicide as “Death with Dignity”: The Power in Suffering at the End of Life

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I recently came across this article, which tells the story of a 29-year-old young woman who has decided to end her life by her own hand rather than letting an aggressive brain tumor (the same kind that took my mother’s life) do its work. It’s suicide, but a lot of people in the Facebook comment thread where I encountered the article did not seem…

Is the Bible “above” the Church? A Chat with Moses

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I recently engaged in a sort of thought experiment about what it would be like for someone who believes that the Bible is “above” the people who actually produced it to have a chat with the earliest name associated with the production of the Scriptures. Here’s the result: “Moses, Genesis is above you.” “Um, I wrote it.” “But it is above you.” “Yeah, well,…

Unifying the Orthodox Church in America

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
I’ve got a new piece published today at First Things, where I discuss the problems and solutions of Orthodox Christian unity in America. Here’s an excerpt: Are you Greek?” This is the question I get asked the most when I tell someone that I am an Orthodox Christian. At first, this question rankled, because I am not Greek. (I am, among other things, Lithuanian.)…

I’ve got a new book (and other news)

· Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick
If by some minor miracle you haven’t yet heard, I’ve got a new book out, An Introduction to God: Encountering the Divine in Orthodox Christianity, with a foreword graciously provided by my friend Jonathan Jackson. (It also includes a sneak preview of his forthcoming book, The Mystery of Art.) You can listen to an interview I did with Bobby Maddex about the book, read…