-
Knowledge that Saves
Read more: Knowledge that SavesIt is perhaps unfortunate that our English language (as well as the Greek and many other Indo-European variations) do not make a clear distinction between knowing something as a fact, and a different kind of knowing which requires participation in the actual life and reality of that which we know. Thus it is possible for […]
-
Do We Want to Know God?
Read more: Do We Want to Know God?It was remarked briefly in a recent comment that “we cannot know God completely,” and that we should be satisfied with the mysteries of the faith and trust the teaching of the Church (I apologize for using the writer’s honest statement as the point of departure for this post). However, this short quote from St. Silouan: […]
-
Help Vladik Find a Home
Read more: Help Vladik Find a HomeI am posting this at the request of John Hogg, an Orthodox Christian, who worked in a Ukrainian Orphanage. He’s trying to find a home for a wonderful child, Vladik. If you can be of help then contact John at his website. I have borrowed a picture of Vladik from John’s site as well. If […]
-
The Importance of Being Ignorant
Read more: The Importance of Being IgnorantI remember a talk given by Fr. Thomas Hopko last year in Dallas. In the course of some side remarks, he said that his son, Fr. John Hopko, had been asked what his dad was doing now that he was retired and no longer Dean of St. Vladimir’s. As reported by Fr. Tom, young Fr. […]
-
Ignorant Man – Part 3
Read more: Ignorant Man – Part 3Twice before I have written on the topic, “I Am an Ignorant Man.” In both cases I posted the article for good reason. Today I post because occasionally I need to confess this before others, lest I be taken for some kind of an authority beyond what I actually am. Yesterday I posted a short […]
-
Reading the Fathers
Read more: Reading the FathersI mentioned in a comment to a recent post that more people talk about the Fathers of the Church than actually read them. I also noted that good translations are hard to find. I wanted to offer some thoughts on reading the Fathers as well as some suggestions on how to begin that important task. […]
-
Solidarity and Salvation
Read more: Solidarity and SalvationWho is God? And what is man? What is wrong with man such that he needs to be “saved?” Is there more than one way of explaining this? The issue of salvation, of how man is brought back into a proper relationship with God, has been the primary concern of Christianity since its very inception. […]
-
The Fullness of the World to Come
Read more: The Fullness of the World to ComeI am fascinated by what the Holy Tradition does with the idea of “fullness” or “fulfillment.” The Church is described as the “fullness of Him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:23). And it is not unusual for Orthodox Christians to express the meaning of Orthodoxy under the rubric of “fullness”: Orthodoxy is the “fullness […]
-
Music from Georgia – Ethnos Fulfilled
Read more: Music from Georgia – Ethnos FulfilledThe subject of Orthodoxy and ethnicity has come up in several recent posts. To limit Orthodoxy to a particular ethnic group is, of course, heretical. But as I have noted earlier, the fullness of Orthodox does not destroy the particularity of who we are – but fulfills it. A man does not become less himself […]
Robert, you in particular will be in my prayers tonight.