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Practical Prayer

09/07/2015

In the same way as the early Church, the desert Christians were deeply committed to Jesus’ teachings and lived practice. Their chosen solitude and silence was not anti-social but a way to become better at seeing clearly and at loving deeply. Withdrawal was only for the sake of deeper encounter and presence. Diana Butler Bass describes the natural flow from solitude to prayer to active love: “[Jesus’ invitation to] ‘Come follow me’ was intimately bound

Dealing with Our Passions (Part VI)

09/04/2015

Another method of dealing with our thoughts and feelings, our passions and needs, consists in thinking them all the way through to the end, in picturing to ourselves all the consequences of admitting the passions into the imagination. In this way we can also discover which way the passions actually want to lead us. Sexual fantasies, for example, stand for something quite different, for the longing to be free, to let oneself fall, to be

Voices of Wisdom (III)

09/03/2015

In all forms of ego-defense, from the generation of bodily aches and pains and itches to distract one from quiet to the beginning stages of spiritual narcissism as manifested in expectations and false dark nights, the ego is reacting against an intentional attempt to enter into willingness and surrender. It is defending itself against an outright, self -imposed attack. People whom William James considered to be a “once-born” or “healthy” mentality may be spared all

STEWARDSHIP AS CREATION CARE (Part II)

09/02/2015

By Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis What Can I Do? There are numerous practical ideas available and readily accessible today for parishes and families that would like to become aware of their ecological impact on the planet and on people. Indeed, some of our Orthodox parishes – and even more of our sister Christian congregations – have already undertaken initial steps or else made considerable progress toward this goal. Seeking their counsel, or offering our advice

STEWARDSHIP AS CREATION CARE (Part I)

09/01/2015

By Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis Scripture and the Fathers When we think of the term stewardship, we frequently consider only matters of financial support. The prevalent rendering of the term oikonomia as “stewardship” or “economy” is not very illuminating as it provides both a linguistic as well as conceptual reduction of this critical and originally Biblical word. In so doing, however, we have narrowed the scope of the Bible’s teaching and neglected the depth of

The Early Eastern Church

08/31/2015

In addition to the Desert Fathers and Mothers, I particularly value the wisdom of the Greek-speaking theologians in early Christianity, the “Fathers” of the Eastern Church. These names would be known in a Western seminary and some church calendars, but they would not be familiar names for most lay Catholics or Protestants: Origen, Athanasius, Basil, the two Gregorys (of Nazianzen and Nyssa), Evagrius Ponticus, John Chrysostom, Pseudo-Dionysius, the two Cyrils (of Alexandria and Jerusalem), and

TRADITIO DEFORMIS (Part II)

08/28/2015

By David Bentley Hart Throughout the book of Genesis, the pattern of God’s election is persistently, even perversely antinomian: Ever and again the elder to whom the birthright properly belongs is supplanted by the younger, whom God has chosen in defiance of all natural “justice.” This is practically the running motif uniting the whole text, from Cain and Abel to Manasseh and Ephraim. But—this is crucial—it is a pattern not of exclusion and inclusion, but of

TRADITIO DEFORMIS (Part I)

08/27/2015

By David Bentley Hart The long history of defective Christian scriptural exegesis occasioned by problematic translations is a luxuriant one, and its riches are too numerous and exquisitely various adequately to classify. But I think one can arrange most of them along a single continuum in four broad divisions: some misreadings are caused by a translator’s error, others by merely questionable renderings of certain words, others by the unfamiliarity of the original author’s (historically specific) idiom,

Voices of Wisdom (II)

08/26/2015

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You. And I hope that I

Treasures from our Subsequent Conversations (Part V)

08/25/2015

I read a lot “I read a lot. I was very studious. I read mystically. I took the time to do this whenever I could. I learned the Gospels of Matthew and Luke by heart and I learned half the Gospel of John. I also learned the Psalms. I studied the Fathers. I studied for many hours. I did spiritual work. And you should know that I did not know how to read. I had

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Practical Prayer

Dealing with Our Passions (Part VI)

Voices of Wisdom (III)

STEWARDSHIP AS CREATION CARE (Part II)

STEWARDSHIP AS CREATION CARE (Part I)

The Early Eastern Church

TRADITIO DEFORMIS (Part II)

TRADITIO DEFORMIS (Part I)

Voices of Wisdom (II)

Treasures from our Subsequent Conversations (Part V)

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