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Into the Maw of Chaos
Read more: Into the Maw of ChaosHere in Appalachia, there are many thousands of people whose lives move in and out of chaos. Less than a paycheck away from a cascade of debt-borne disasters, personal behaviors add even greater danger. There’s no room for messing up. As a priest in the area, the stories come through the doors of the Church […]
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The Final Destruction of Demons – Holy Baptism
Read more: The Final Destruction of Demons – Holy Baptism“Final” is not a word you often hear in Christian teaching. Most Christians leave the final things until, well, the End. But this is not the language of the fathers nor of the Church. A good illustration can be found in the Orthodox service of Holy Baptism. During the blessing of the waters the priest […]
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The Holy Name of Jesus
Read more: The Holy Name of JesusIn 1913, a small Russian fleet landed a contingent of soldiers who forcibly removed a group of Russian monks from Mount Athos. This action came at the end of a stormy controversy surrounding the name of God. The monks were known as the Imyaslavsy (“Name worshippers”) and were following ideas that had been promulgated in […]
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Entering the Mystery of Christmas
Read more: Entering the Mystery of ChristmasOrthodox Christianity is deeply associated with the word “mystery.” Its theological hymns are replete with paradox, repeatedly affirming two things to be true that are seemingly contradictory. Most of these things are associated with what is called “apophatic” theology, or a theology that is “unspeakable.” This same theological approach is sometimes called the Via Negativa. […]
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Have a Dickens of a Christmas
Read more: Have a Dickens of a ChristmasIn the late 1600’s in colonial Boston, the celebration of Christmas was against the law. Indeed, anyone evidencing the “spirit of Christmas” could be fined five shillings. In the early 1800’s, Christmas was better known as a season for rioting in the streets and civil unrest. However, in the mid-1800’s some interesting things changed the […]
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And God said: יְהִי אוֹר
Read more: And God said: יְהִי אוֹרI apologize for the Hebrew, but you’ll understand in a minute. And God said, “Let there be light” (“yehi’or”). There is an old mystical Jewish notion that when God created things, He did so by speaking them into existence, such that there was an exact correspondence between the word spoken and the thing created. On […]
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Getting Our Heads Back Together
Read more: Getting Our Heads Back TogetherI recall being urged by my mother to eat the vegetables on my plate. I had my favorites, though not many, and have somehow managed to survive to this point in my life. There is a very practical side to eating. Despite the fact that it can give great pleasure, it has a direct connection […]
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Shadows, Icons, and the Age to Come
Read more: Shadows, Icons, and the Age to ComeWhat will heaven be like? It is not an unusual question. Sometimes it is asked with all the freshness of a child, other times with the anxiety of the old. It is not a question that admits of easy answers, nor a question for which language is sufficient. The cynic says, “Nobody knows.” That attitude […]
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Modernity Is An Abiding Crisis – It Cannot Exist Without One
Read more: Modernity Is An Abiding Crisis – It Cannot Exist Without OneThe ideas that constitute “modernity” center around life as management. Modernity assumes that life can be managed, and that human beings are well-suited for the job. It’s greatest successes have come in the careful application of technology towards various problems with a resulting rise in wealth. The well-being that comes with that wealth is limited […]
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Thanksgiving as Mystical Communion
Read more: Thanksgiving as Mystical Communion“This is good. This is bad.” In one form or another, we divide the world into light and dark. It might take the form, “I like this. I do not like that.” What we find easy are the things we see as good and the things we like. If a day is filled with such […]
Matthew, in western art the painter is always present, the person in the picture is a creature of the painter.…