145 Search Results for theology of the cross
Secularized Sin
... carefully. There is, as many have pointed out, plenty of juridical language in both the Scriptures and in the liturgical tradition of ... so we come to the use of legal and forensic imagery in theology and doctrine. The Biblical and Traditional use of this language has ...
A Festival of Celtic Orthodoxy
The Pilgrimage of Holy Week
The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement
The Act of Veneration
Modern Illusions
Unecumenism – The Saving Union
If It Makes You Happy
... 1998, my family and I were received into the Orthodox Church. I had served as an Episcopal clergyman for 18 years prior ... staff and tremendous programs. I took up the work of starting an Orthodox mission. Of course, such a life-change creates awkward ... well and rightly. A primary sacrament of this flawed theology is adult-only baptism. Infants are not able to choose and are ...
No One Is Saved Alone
No More Debt
... debt that cannot be repaid. It is an image that the Scriptures know full well. But it is a situation that is easily seen from two sides - and only one of them belongs to God. The two sides are simple: the one who owes the debt ... Greece and Germany. It’s a rare thing to find such theology in the popular press. Food for ...
A Lesser Atonement
The Moral Path of Being
... we confess our sins? If morality is ontological - a matter of being - what does that look like? To say that morality is ontological, a ... For though we describe one another as persons, in the theology of the Church, that is something that we have yet to fully become. Our ...
St. Mary of Egypt and Moral Progress
The Bible and the Spirit of Democracy
The Grammar of the Faith
Singing the Lord’s Song
... - but I was serving in a “Low Church” parish. I was the first priest in their history to wear Eucharistic vestments as a normal ... “sung” mass - one in which the priest chants many of its parts. It was well-received, without controversy. But one teenager’s ... seemed perfectly natural to him within the context of his theology. Music was an indispensable part of all philosophical ...
Orthodoxy Versus Christian Materialism
... the years I find myself coming back to a number of ideas within the modern world that differ markedly from Orthodox thought. ... to the fact that we are not self-existing. In Trinitarian theology an example can be found within the Trinity itself. God exists as ...
The Marriage of Love and Hate
The genius of Dostoevsky lies in the profound theological insight of his tumbled novels. ... the lovers of Dostoevsky’s work. But there is profound theology here as well. For morality, the various systems of do’s and ...
The Scope of Passover and Penal Substitution Theory
... of the terms used in the early fathers when interpreting the Scriptures was the ... deformations of Christian thought, a sad detour for theology. That it has now passed into fixed dogma within some circles should be ...
Orthodoxy and the Global Threat
The peculiar approach of Orthodoxy to the peoples of the nations is often a point of criticism. The ... to nations, languages and culture is rooted in its theology. It goes to the heart of what it means to be human, and it is an ...
Creation and Evolution
The crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ is the proper beginning point for all Christian theology. Christ’s Pascha should be the source for all Christian reflection. ...
The Agent of Change
... inhabitants of our modern culture, we find ourselves trapped in a world of "cause and effect." It is a physical explanation of the universe that has, for all intents and purposes, become a universal ... our culture (although itself the product of Christian theology rather than modern culture) is the understanding found within the 12 ...
Therapeutic Substitutionary Atonement
... I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day ... Christ as "replacement." Christ as replacement creates a "theology of absence." If Christ simply "takes our place," then salvation is ...
America and the Perversion of Christianity
... cultures have only a vague or non-existent knowledge of history. This is especially true of Americans. The downside of such ignorance should seem obvious. Most modern Christians have ... for Evangelism Both movements shared a growing theology of personal experience. True Christianity was increasingly identified ...
The Time Lords versus John Nelson Darby
... timeline stretched across the front of the classroom, presenting a quick glance at the world and all that ... from the classroom of children and placed in the world of theology. Such a misplacement occurred in between 1827 and 1832 when the ...
The True Agent of Change
... inhabitants of our modern culture, we find ourselves trapped in a world of "cause and effect." It is a physical explanation of the universe that has, for all intents and purposes, become a universal ... our culture (although itself the product of Christian theology rather than modern culture) is the understanding found within the 12 ...
From Mud to Light – the Saving Work of Christ
... is mud whom God has commanded to become god. - St. Gregory of Nyssa +++ How do you create a God? How do you create a being that has true ... the lips of Orthodox Christians, is not a tale of abstract theology. There is no offended justice and original sin, no theories of ...
A Life of Thanksgiving
... capable of thanksgiving is capable of salvation. Fr. Alexander Schmemann I have ... a monastery and leading a retreat in Santa Fe. One of the retreat participants reminded me of this post on giving thanks and shared ... was coming to terms with the wrathful God of some Western theology (or the misunderstandings of the "wrathful God"). At the heart of ...
Justice Enough?
The human desire for justice is insatiable. And that is a problem. It is a problem ... use justice as a lens for understanding the work of our salvation. The fathers have a term for insatiable desires: passions. ... perverted desire for infinite justice confirmed. Such theology does not heal the soul - it corrupts it further and feeds its ...
All In The Head
... it all in the head? The question is whether the sense of spiritual, refers to anything other than ourselves. Is there any connection ... Christianity true? Fr. John Romanides described Orthodox theology as "empirical dogmatics." He did not mean an empiricism rooted in ...
The Christian Crisis
... student of Church history should be well aware that there has been no century in which the Christian faith was safe, untroubled and ... let the Church disappear as an important category in theology. Thus the "invisible Church" was born. The Church exists "invisibly" ...
The True Agent of Change
... inhabitants of our modern culture, we find ourselves trapped in a world of "cause and effect." It is a physical explanation of the universe that has, for all intents and purposes, become a universal ... our culture (although itself the product of Christian theology rather than modern culture) is the understanding found within the 12 ...
So Great A Cloud of Witnesses
... righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of ... a Grammy for the best song of year in 1991). It's pop theology told us: ...From a distance you look like my friend, even though we ...
Escape from Reason
... Schaeffer, the Evangelical Protestant theologian, authored a book by the title Escape from ... a solid ground within a world grounded in the inerrancy of Scripture. This article does not engage Schaeffer's work. Instead, it ... has played an off-again, on-again role in Christian theology. St. John’s use of the word Logos [which can be translated, ...
Apocalypse Now
... teachings of the Christian faith are as easily misunderstood and equally misapplied as the ... of the movie's plot). The End, as understood in Orthodox theology, is not a cosmic conspiracy theory being wrought within the linear ...
On Pascha – Melito of Sardis
... powerful meditations on Pascha is found in the writings of Melito of Sardis (ca. 190 AD). His writing On Pascha is both a work of genius as poetry and a powerful work of theology. Its subject is the Lord's Pascha - particularly as an interpretation ...
From the Foundations
... everyone whose name has not been written in the book of life, of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world... That ... are many difficulties when Christians begin doing theology and introduce historical time into the mix. The sacrifice of Christ ...
The Grace of Just Showing Up
... has been a tendency in much teaching about the notion of salvation by grace to ground the image in a legal or forensic metaphor. ... to the full understanding of either point. Orthodox theology, has largely been nurtured in the understanding of salvation as a ...
The Life of Thanksgiving
... with family for the (American) Thanksgiving holiday. Fewer of my children will be there - a mark of the maturing of their own families and ... was coming to terms with the wrathful God of some Western theology (or the misunderstandings of the "wrathful God"). At the heart of ...
Fellowship and the Tower of Babel
... clearly identifies me as a priest (though in this part of the world most people know nothing of Orthodox priests). It also makes you a ... little has been written about the politics (and theology) of Bible translations. From the very first instance, the goal of ...
The Mystery of Goodness
... is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God (3John 1:11). One of the most ... the passage is not necessarily the grounds for a "natural" theology (a knowledge of God derived from contemplating nature). For the wrath ...
A Secular Eucharist
... God. The reigning culture has relentlessly moved God out of the day-to-day world and relegated Him to various "religious spheres" of ... - a theological error born of an over-reaction to Catholic theology during the Reformation and post-Reformation. We think, but we are not ...
We Have Seen
... have been on the road and out-of-town this week, visiting with my daughter and her husband ... of faith of every Christian: "Jesus is Lord." All theology finds its proper root in this true knowledge of God. It should never ...
Hidden and Triumphant – Learning the Story
... certain truth to this - the ignorance in the Western world of Byzantine history, let alone Russian and Balkan history - is staggering. ... gives both an excellent and readable introduction to the theology of the icon, but also a wonderful summary of the modern struggles with ...
Why Small Things Matter
... reader's comment on an old posting of mine (from 2007) took me back to read the same. It seemed worth re-posting. Some things bear repeating - again and ... its fullness makes it difficult for somebody's systematic theology - so be it. The reduction of Christianity to a virtual land of ...
The Change of the Most High
... we celebrate Christ's Paschal victory - these thoughts are offered on the nature of our deliverance. One of the Psalms appointed for use ... our culture (although itself the product of Christian theology rather than modern culture) is the understanding found within the 12 ...
Just Showing Up and the Work of Grace
... has been a tendency in much teaching about the notion of salvation by grace to ground the image in a legal or forensic metaphor. ... to the full understanding of either point. Orthodox theology, has largely been nurtured in the understanding of salvation as a ...
Looking for the Self in All the Wrong Places
... It would have been more accurate to describe the whole of modernity as a "me generation." For it has been a hallmark of our age to ... are significant elements of this identity. Orthodox theology has often offered criticism of modernity's over-emphasis on the ...