Tag: creation

Evolution, Creation and the Hidden Cause

· Fr. Stephen Freeman
Recent pop culture presented a debate between a scientist and a fundamentalist Christian over evolution and creation. The Christian, a Biblical literalist, holds to the idea of a “young creation,” a universe that is roughly 6,000 years old – this – based on calculating from the Biblical record. It is the most extreme form of Biblical literalism – one in which the appearances of the universe to be much older must be…

From Mud to Light – the Saving Work of Christ

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 207 Leave a Comment on %s
Man 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 freedom, true love and thus, true existence? This is obviously not an entirely rational question – but it is a serious question for Christian thought. For, as St. Gregory of Nyssa notes, the creation of man is more than the story in…

Life in a Sacramental World

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 57 Leave a Comment on %s
At the ordination of a priest, the consecrated Body of Christ is placed in his hands. He is told to “Guard this!” until the coming of Christ. It is a very solemn moment – the beginning of a lifetime in which a man’s relationship to bread will never be the same. It is also something of a conversion – a movement from the secular inert character of matter towards a world of…

The Sacrament of the Heart

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 101 Leave a Comment on %s
Scholars of the New Testament occasionally conjecture about what is termed the ipsissima verba of Christ, the “very words themselves.” It is a term for those sayings that are considered historically authentic beyond question. One saying which in my opinion belongs to such a category are the so-called “words of institution” (“this is my body…this is my blood”). They are certainly the words with the earliest attestation of any spoken by Christ.…

Rational Sheep and the Word of God

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 23 Leave a Comment on %s
Any parent who has raised a child has witnessed the miracle of human language. Even children with handicaps find ways to communicate except in the most extreme circumstance. The genius of language is not something we learn – it is instinctual for human beings. Those who study linguistics and neurobiology recognize that we have an instinct for grammar – not the polite rules of a high school English class – but the…

All In The Head

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 46 Leave a Comment on %s
Some questions are so obvious we fail to ask them. Is it all in the head? The question is whether the sense of spiritual, refers to anything other than ourselves. Is there any connection between myself and others, between myself and God, between myself and nature, or is such a perception only a set of ideas in my head? In classical theological/philosophical language, the question is between realism and nominalism. Nominalism, a…

The Trees of Pentecost

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 11 Leave a Comment on %s
My annual posting for the feast of Pentecost: From the Feast The arrogance of building the tower in the days of old led to the confusion of tongues. Now the glory of the knowledge of God brings them wisdom. There God condemned the impious for their transgression. Here Christ has enlightened the fishermen by the Spirit. There disharmony was brought about for punishment.// Now harmony is renewed for the salvation of our…

All Dogs Go to Heaven

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 94 Leave a Comment on %s
The fathers do not agree utterly on the question of animals and eternal life – so the question of their eternal disposition is never answered in a manner that satisfies. But there are a few things worth pondering about the lives of animals (of which I have chosen dogs as representatives). Animals, like all creation, are subject to the same corruption as human beings. St. Paul says that all creation has been…

The Intuition of Narnia

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 49 Leave a Comment on %s
A child, in a game of hide-and-seek, enters a large wardrobe. However, the wardrobe is more than furniture – it is a doorway into another world. That entrance is the introduction of the world of Narnia. C.S. Lewis’ children stories, beloved by one generation, are block-buster movies in today’s empire of Disney. In that wonderland of cinema, the books are overwhelmed in images of battling dwarves and unicorns. Echoes of Tolkien (and…

The Song of God

· Fr. Stephen Freeman 28 Leave a Comment on %s
Man is a musical composition, a wonderfully written hymn to powerful creative activity. – St. Gregory of Nyssa (PG 44, 441 B) In St. Gregory’s thought,  man is not only a singer, but a song. We are not only song, but the song of God. Indeed within one theme of the fathers, all of creation is the song of God, spoken (or sung) into existence. “Let there be light,” is more than…