Too many of our discussions about the Church suffer from a failing that I pointed out in an earlier post about heroes. We tend to lionize the Early Church far beyond what the Bible itself, nay Jesus Himself, says about the Church. Mind you, as an Eastern Orthodox priest, I am sold on the Church. […]
Link spasm
I learned a new term today, “Link Spam.” The title of this post is a deliberate misspelling so that people searching for information on the subject would not accidentally link here expecting something else. It started this way, I have a very handy WordPress plug-in called Akismet. It is also available free for other platforms, […]
Playing gotcha
We have been hearing a lot about Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He has been a regular on the late night talk show joke circuit as well as on all the editorial cartoon pages. I must admit that my favorite is the one above because I am a Lord of the Rings fan. (If you click […]
On requesting intercessory prayers from the saints
Are there any Biblical and historical quotes that appear to demonstrate that both the Apostles and the Early Church Fathers expected that the saints and angels would be aware of what we are doing and would intercede for us? And is there anything that says that we should revere them and remember them with special […]
Remember Real Life
None of us spend full-time blogging. We all relate to the world outside our house, outside our windows. Sometimes, however, in the midst of our blogging, in the midst of our disputes, we tend to forget that most of the people with whom we are involved neither know nor care about the things that seem […]
I miss Advent
I miss Advent. Yes, the Orthodox have Advent, but it did not develop the multitude of rich traditions that the West did. In every culture into which Christianity has travelled, local traditions have developed that enrich the local Christian culture. To put it another way, there is no such thing as a “culture-less” Christianity. That […]
What do Eastern Orthodox believe about free will?
I have very obviously not done a good job explaining what Eastern Orthodox believe about free will. So, rather than using my own words, let me quote a couple of excerpts from The Confession of Dositheus. This confession was approved by the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672. It is not considered an Ecumenical Council by […]
Faith comes by hearing
One of the conclusions of post-modernist linguistic philosophers is that words do not speak for themselves. Rather, words function within a context. That context includes culture, history, personal experiences, etc. This is particularly true with written words. Written words not only lack the context of culture, history, personal experience, etc., they also lack the verbal […]
Why are we afraid of free will?
The definition of a hero is: “a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal: He was a local hero when he saved the drowning child.” We do sometimes use it for a person with heroic qualities, such as the widowed […]
Imperfect people do great deeds
“I don’t confuse greatness with perfection . . . all great deeds have been accomplished out of imperfection.” I am a fantasy and science fiction fan in my reading-for-relaxation. I love going to other worlds that imagine other realities. Today–for Monday is my day off–I read the following quote: “‘Are you saying that no matter […]
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