creation Archives - Page 4 of 8

Figures of the Nativity—All of Creation Rejoiced

12/20/2019

By Fr. Stavros Akrotirianakis, December 14, 2018 We began this short series on figures of the Nativity by comparing them to roles in a Christmas pageant. There are eight defined “speaking” roles in just about every Christmas pageant—Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, the magi, the innkeeper, King Herod, the angels and the crowd in Bethlehem. There are some other roles in the story. I’ve watched many a Christmas pageant in my years as a priest,

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Hidden with Christ in God.

09/30/2019

The Judeo-Christian creation story says that we were created in the very “image and likeness” of God: “Let us create humanity in our own image, in the likeness of ourselves” (Genesis 1:26). The true human identity must build on this foundational goodness, a true identity “hidden in the love and mercy of God,” as Thomas Merton once put it. [1] “Image” is our objective identity as children of God and “likeness” is our degree of

Sacred Cosmology in the Christian Tradition (Part IV)

08/30/2019

Logos and Creation The fundamental cosmic intuition of the Christian spiritual path is that creation is the manifestation of an order that at one and the same time transcends it, sustains it from within and manifests itself through it. This intrinsic, transcendent, immanent order is the Logos — the eternal son of God. The term ‘Logos’ in Christian theology marries, through the revelation of St. John’s Gospel and the Epistles of Paul, its Greek philosophical

Sacred Cosmology in the Christian Tradition (Part III)

08/28/2019

The Original Christian World-view A study of the lives and writings of the great spiritual masters of the First Millennium of the Christian Church — East and West — will show that a sacred cosmology was integral to the Church’s world-view. Salvation, or deification, as the ancient Church and the Orthodox Church of today calls the process of reconciliation with God, was cosmic as well as personal in scope. It included not only human beings

Sacred Cosmology in the Christian Tradition (Part II)

08/27/2019

“Man’s Divorce from Nature” What I wish to suggest is a way to recover the lost cosmic dimension of religion by showing how it might be found again in the Christian tradition. What must be recovered above all is the vision — not only that religion needs to be imbedded in the cosmos, but also that the world is imbedded in God. For it is this loss that inevitably led to the separation of religion

Sacred Cosmology in the Christian Tradition (Part I)

08/26/2019

“Where is the life we have lost in living; where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge; where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” — T. S. Eliot These three poignant questions, penned by T. S. Eliot over a half-century ago, point us directly at the problem of the Christian view of the Creation as we face the new millennium. The Christian conscience has lost its ancient wisdom, and needs to recover

The Difficult Task of True Theology

07/26/2019

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, May 19, 2015 Nothing is as difficult as true theology. Simply saying something correct is beside the point. Correctness does not rise to the level of theology. Theology, rightly done, is a path towards union with God. It is absolutely more than an academic exercise. Theology is not the recitation of correct facts, it is the apprehension and statement of Beauty. It is this aspect of liturgical life that makes it

The Natural World: The Substance of God

06/10/2019

Saint Irenaeus . . . taught that the whole of creation flows from the very “substance” of God. [1] All things carry within them the essence of the One. Irenaeus . . . signaled his concern about the doctrine of creatio ex nihilo, creation out of nothing. . .. This was to become the standard of Western Christianity’s approach to creation. Creation would be viewed not as coming forth from the substance of God but as fashioned

The Fifth Friday after Pascha. CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Last Pascha – A Reverie

05/31/2019

By Stephen Freeman, May 31, 2015 I had a reverie around the time of Pascha. My life has had many chapters. I have loved friends and lost friends. My memory is filled with much that is bittersweet – not my favorite flavor. But my reverie was a dream of Pascha – the Last Pascha. I wrote this in a Facebook post and have looked it up numerous times for balm for my tired soul. Today, I

Members of one another (Part VI)

02/07/2019

In the monk’s relationship with the world, St Silouan distinguishes a double movement. First, through prayer the monk withdraws into himself, shutting out the world, gradually liberating himself from visual imagery and discursive thinking, and so entering into the image-free stillness of the heart. But then, within the depths of his own heart, he rediscovers his solidarity with all humankind and with the whole creation. So the monk’s flight from the world turns out to

Archive

Figures of the Nativity—All of Creation Rejoiced

Sin: Symptom of Separation. Hidden with Christ in God.

Sacred Cosmology in the Christian Tradition (Part IV)

Sacred Cosmology in the Christian Tradition (Part III)

Sacred Cosmology in the Christian Tradition (Part II)

Sacred Cosmology in the Christian Tradition (Part I)

The Difficult Task of True Theology

The Natural World: The Substance of God

The Fifth Friday after Pascha. CHRISTOS ANESTI! CHRIST IS RISEN! The Last Pascha – A Reverie

Members of one another (Part VI)

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