Religion, Rules and Reality

One of the unfortunate aspects of Internet converse that I’ve noticed during my nearly twenty years online is that often interlocutors write as though they assume that what they see in front of them is in fact the only thing that a poster has ever written on a subject. I think this comes of living in a sound-byte world, in which it is proposed…

Updates and Two New O&H Reviews

Two new weblog reviews of Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy have been posted recently. You can read them here: The Hair-Shirt Agenda On Behalf of All Also, for those who don’t regularly follow my posts on Facebook and Google+, you may be interested to know that I am currently at work on a new book (title to be announced later) on introducing Orthodox Christianity to the…

Why I Love (True) Religion, Epilogue

After well over 300 comments posted, and probably close to 200 ad hominem rants and attempts to get me to convert back to the Evangelicalism from whence I came deleted without being published, I’ve decided to close comments for my previous post, “Why I Love (True) Religion Because I Love Jesus.” I thank those who had something new and useful to contribute—even those who…

Why I Love (True) Religion Because I Love Jesus

The above video by Jefferson Bethke has been making the rounds lately via various bits of social media. A few people have sent it to me to ask what I think. This touches on a lot of themes that I’ve written on before, and while it doesn’t particularly make any new theological claims—it’s really just a sort of standard, monergistic, anti-ecclesial, sentimentalist Evangelical Protestantism—for…

Voice from Antioch

In honor of the feast of St. Ignatius of Antioch today, I’m reposting links to all the parts of my podcast series, Voice from Antioch: An Ignatian Catechism, which covers major themes in Orthodox Christianity from the writings of the third bishop of Antioch and great hieromartyr of the early Church. Happy feast! I. Martyrdom: Part 1, Part 2 II. Salvation in Christ: Part…

Abdication in the Soul

December 11, 2011 In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen. On this day in 1936, exactly seventy-five years ago, His Majesty, Edward the Eighth, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, Ireland, and of the British Dominions beyond the Seas, King, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India, abdicated his throne and…