Why I Can’t Be Your Spiritual Father: A Localist Lament

As I think probably happens to just about every clergyman who has some sort of media presence (even one so minor as mine), I get requests every so often from folks essentially to do the job that their local pastor should be doing. Now, it may be that they don’t have a local pastor, perhaps because there is no Orthodox church near them, because…

Encomium Fidei

In light of yesterday’s post, I thought it might be useful to comment on the “other” side of the questions of inter-religious relations. By no means is this a sort of antithesis of yesterday’s thesis. Indeed, I believe a vigorous engagement precisely on doctrinal terms is the basis on which the best inter-religious friendships can occur. I’ve known some good men who have been…

And the winner is…

…JENNIFER HOCK! Jennifer Hock has just won a free, autographed copy of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy. Her entry was drawn randomly from numerous entries via the True Random Number Service. Jennifer entered the contest via both Facebook and Twitter, giving her two entries. (By using a combination of weblogs and other social media, one contestant had 10 entries!) Coincidentally, Jennifer is also the person behind…

Win an autographed copy of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy!

Are you an Orthodox Christian who wonders how to explain to your Baptist grandmother, your Buddhist neighbor, or the Jehovah s Witness at your door how your faith differs from theirs? Or are you a member of another faith who is curious what Orthodoxy is all about? Look no further. In Orthodoxy & Heterodoxy, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick covers the gamut of ancient heresies,…

Updates and Notes

A number of updates and goings-on of variable interest: Book News: Conciliar Press tells me that Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy is selling very well. Thank you to all who have bought copies, recommended it to friends, or written reviews! I honestly had no idea when I did the original parish lectures in Charleston and then repeated them in Emmaus that they’d get so far away…

Freedom, the Path to God, and the Orthodoxy of Orthodoxy

I was recently passed on a question by my grandmother from some of my non-Orthodox relations who live out in the mountains of Western North Carolina. The question was whether, in my preaching, there is room for a “personal Gospel.” I must be honest that I don’t know exactly what that phrase means, but I cannot imagine they are asking whether I am “allowed”…