Posted in Opinions, tagged christ, christianity, death, DNR order, euthanasia, evangelism, feeding tube, god, Good Samaritan, holy orthodoxy, Holy Spirit, Lord, medicine, No Code Blue, orthodox, Parable of the Good Samaritan, religion, Religion and Spirituality, religious philosophy on March 28, 2009 | 1 Comment »
My wife and I have an understanding. Resuscitate, revive, and sustain life as often and as much as possible. Neither of us will accept any prodding to pull the plug, sign DNR orders, or any such thing.
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We do this, not only because we love one another, and want to live together forever, as [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged Christ on the Tree on September 12, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Someone asks how we speak in our hymnography of Christ being crucified on the tree, and do not confine our language to describing specifically the cross. One answer is that, for us, the matter is intensely important. In other words, there is significance in that it was wood and that it was a tree. By [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged apostolic succession, deconstruction, Enlightenment, epistemology, fathers, holy orthodoxy, orthodoxy, patristics, proof texts, Protestantism, scriptures, The Orthodox Church on September 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
From a comment posted to another blog:
Indeed: How could we Orthodox base our authority on the scriptures, when we wrote the scriptures? Rather, the reverse is true. The scriptures derive such authority as they have from us. Indeed, were it not so, the Ecumenical Councils would have no meaning, for in them we articulated the [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged Christian doctrine, Christian Enlightenment, deification, divinization, Enlightenment, logic, logicians, orthodoxy, religious philosophy, Rush to Balance, Rush to Qualification, Study Bibles, theology, theosis, union with God on September 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
You’re coming within earshot in the middle of this conversation…
Gregory: … well, one hopes we’re actually making progress in theosis, otherwise what are we doing?
Basil: Sure, but how do you measure that? I mean it’s not like notches on your belt.
Gregory: No, but the fathers do speak of increments to enlightenment, though I think those [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged Corporate Culture, discussion topics, idolatry, Methodist, Post-Christian, religion, Soft Skills on August 24, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
One would like to say it shows balls; unfortunately, what it really displays is completely giving up.
Posted in Opinions, tagged asceticism, boycotts, christianity, ethics, fasting, morality, patristics, religious philosophy, spiritual warfare, Walmart on August 23, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Increasingly, I find dissidence and social resistance are considered, among the religious, to be either un-Christian, or somehow an unpleasant aspect of Christianity that is best swept under the rug along with keeping the fasts. Actually, fasting and resistance to the world, in fact open warfare with the world, are related. The very purpose of [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged culture, Dormition Fast, eschatology, fasting, food, orthodox, prophesy, religion, scripture, sociology, Thetotokos, war with the world on August 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
We just finished the Dormition Fast. As one writer said in The Dawn, our Matriarch was on her bed of repose, and so the whole family ceased its celebration and stayed by her side. Theotokos, save, by thy prayers.
I’m interested in the eschatological aspects of fasting. I see fasting, and the life of the monks, [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged faith, libertine, orthodox, religion on July 12, 2008 | 4 Comments »
Response to a Friend:
Don’t be discouraged by your fellow Orthodox. Think as highly of them as you can manage. Whenever you have faith, it attracts religion. With religion, you get a spectrum, with the libertines on one end, those who prefer infinite diversity but don’t really care about the Faith at all – they’re just [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged Christ became an orphan for us, Christ is an orphan on May 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
If this week 40 people would give $25 each to New Futures Orphanage, instead of that same amount spread out over a year’s time, the children could buy chickens, fish, plants, and other sustainable food sources that would last over a long time, and wouldn’t have to eat the small increments of money coming in, [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged Cambodian Orphanage, charity, Christian Charity, compassion, direct giving, Giving Directly to the Poor, justice, the least of these, The Poor on April 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
What is direct giving. How is it a means of salvation for the Orthodox Christian?
Posted in Opinions, tagged apophasis, apophatic theology, desert fathers, entertainment, fantasy, fiction, literature, orthodoxy, prose, sci-fi on April 22, 2008 | 6 Comments »
I know people deeply immersed in one or the other, and just a few immersed in both. The thing is, non-fiction gives us a direct dosing of ideas, seemingly without setting or apparatus. Fiction often doesn’t pay off what it promises, in terms of meaning. And our reading, really, is either a search for entertainment [...]
Posted in Opinions, tagged charitable giving, charity, christianity, globalgiving.org, kiva.org, orphanages, orthodoxy, oxfam.org, pride on April 21, 2008 | 7 Comments »
A friend and I were recently discussing what’s important in charity or, more specifically, charitable giving. And we came up with some key elements:
consistency: it’s better to give consistently than to splurge once in a way you can’t sustain, and in fact give less, and nothing over time. The same is true of prayer rules. [...]
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