Category: Beauty

Scattered Thoughts and the One God

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 14 Leave a Comment on %s
“My thoughts are scattered…” It’s an observation I make frequently to myself, and one that I hear constantly from others. It is not that we think about many things (though we do), but we think many things about everything often with contradictions, questions, competing allegiances and inner struggles. The inner world of modern man is a noisy place. This makes it very hard for us to hear the theme of the One…

Beauty and the Face of God

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 22 Leave a Comment on %s
Everything is beautiful in a person when he turns toward God, and everything is ugly when it is turned away from God. Fr. Pavel Florensky +++ As I am preparing for next weekend’s interview on A Crisis of Beauty, I am digging back through my writings on the topic. In Orthodoxy, all truth is one and the same truth, simply seen from various angles. Thus, beauty is a perfectly fine place to…

A New Level of Conversation – the Crisis of Beauty

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 6 Leave a Comment on %s
  I am excited by the opportunity to have this conversation with Kevin Allen on Ancient Faith Radio. He does a masterful job of researching and guiding a conversation within the world of Orthodox thought. This is a topic that has been greatly on my heart and in my thoughts lately (no surprise to readers). “Tune in” on Sunday, May 26, at 8 pm Eastern Time (New York time). The program is…

To Behold the Beauty of the Lord

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 42 Leave a Comment on %s
By using the elements of this world, Art reveals to us a depth which is logically inexpressible. It is in fact impossible to “tell” poetry, to “decompose” a symphony, or to “tear apart” a painting. The beautiful is present in the harmony of all its elements and brings us face to face with a truth that cannot be demonstrated or proved, except by contemplating it. – Paul Evdokimov A while back, I suggested…

A Crisis of Beauty

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 152 Leave a Comment on %s
There is a crisis of beauty within my culture. That is a very kind way to say that much of the world around me, at least the civilizational part, is ugly. It is not an ugliness born of poverty (though poverty is very ugly around here) – unless we understand that there is a poverty within the human spirit that begets ugliness. My thoughts on my environment are not just my opinion.…

Depth Perception

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 20 Leave a Comment on %s
One of the great blessings of the human brain can be found in its ability to take two things and make them one. We have two eyes, which means they necessarily see things differently. Look at the world with one eye open and switch to the other eye. Things appear to move. Viewing the world through one eye also makes things appear somewhat “flat.” The wonder of “stereo-scopic vision” (seeing through two…

God and Creation

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 53 Leave a Comment on %s
Conversations about “God” often discuss Him as though He were a concept, and idea that can be isolated, studied and considered. Of course, the word “God” can often be little more than a cipher for something whose meaning everyone thinks they know, but whose meaning may vary a great deal. This can especially be true when modern popular culture speaks of “God,” and we read the same word in a translation of…

The Beauty of Truth and the Existence of God

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 24 Leave a Comment on %s
What is the criterion of the rightness of this life? Beauty.  – Fr. Pavel Florensky It is our habit of thought to think of Truth as, more or less, a correct description or a correct statement. As such, Beauty belongs to some other realm of thought. Beauty cannot be “correct” or “incorrect.” In Orthodox thought, Truth is understood as a matter of being (it is ontological). If something is true, then it…

The Shape of Scripture and the Orthodox Faith

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 41 Leave a Comment on %s
I have written frequently about the Orthodox understanding of the Scriptures. I offer a quote taken from a lecture by Fr. Andrew Louth, Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies at Durham University, priest in the Diocese of Sourozh (Great Britain) in the Russian Orthodox Church. This passage comes from the first lecture in the series. I heartily recommend the entire 8 lectures. I could not possibly have said it better: What does…

Love Has No History

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 71 Leave a Comment on %s
St. Nikolai Velimirovich’s Prayers by the Lake are a theological feast. St. Gregory the Theologian wrote wonderful theological poems – it is a form deeply suited to theology but too little used. I heard this poem recently on a broadcast from Ancient Faith Radio – it came at a very timely moment and allowed me to see and pray. Images such as “wandering through my soul like a wayfarer in the night,”…