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The End of History

03/04/2024

By Fr. Stephen Freeman, October 17, 2017  There is a proverb from the Soviet period: “History is hard to predict.” The re-writing of history was a common political action – enough to provoke the proverb. Students of history are doubtless well-aware that re-writing is the constant task of the modern academic world. The account of American and World History which I learned (beginning school in the 1950’s) differs greatly from the histories my children have

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part XI): Means to the End (Part I)

07/25/2019

Here is how things stand so far. We have observed the five most important virtues through which the fathers in the Conferences teach us to establish the purity of heart that is the go al of Christian life. These are detachment, discernment, discretion, balance, and humility. We have observed that the fathers taught Christians to practice these virtues in order to guide them to their proper telos, which is the kingdom of God. We have

A Trinitarian Revolution

10/01/2018

I think we are in the beginnings of a Trinitarian Revolution. History has so long operated with a static and imperial image of God—as a Supreme Monarch and Critical Spectator living in splendid isolation from what he (and God is always and exclusively envisioned as male in this model) created. His love is perceived as unstable, whimsical, and preferential. Humans become the God we worship. So it is quite important that our God is good and

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part XIII): All Things Working for Salvation

10/04/2017

We conclude by presenting some assurance that what we are seeking to do as lay people—namely, to pursue purity of heart—really can be done through life in the world. We require such an assurance simply because life in the world can often seem terribly ill-suited to the pursuit of our goal and telos. For instance, we may ask, how is one to develop discretion and discernment in a world full of false teachers pulling us

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part XI): Means to the End (Part I)

09/20/2017

Here is how things stand so far. We have observed the five most important virtues through which the fathers in the Conferences teach us to establish the purity of heart that is the go al of Christian life. These are detachment, discernment, discretion, balance, and humility. We have observed that the fathers taught Christians to practice these virtues in order to guide them to their proper telos, which is the kingdom of God. We have

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part X): Theoria

09/13/2017

Theoria, often translated as “contemplation,” is a critical concept for most of the ancient fathers of the Church, and it is important for us to talk about it right away. Coming into true contemplation, theoria, is, according to the Conferences, the essential purpose of a monk’s life. According to Abba Moses, theoria is a state of mind in which the monk contemplates “only the vision of God.”41 We may thus define it as the transcendent

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part IV). The Goal and Telos of Christian Life (Part IV)

07/13/2017

In this vein, the difference between the kingdom of God and God himself can begin to blur in the words of the Abba. For example, he notes that the reason Christians pursue their goal, purity of heart, is to attain the telos of a permanent connection not just to holy things, ideas or states associated with God, but to God himself. This, then, must be our primary undertaking-chis the never-altered destination and never-failing pursuit of

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part III). The Goal and Telos of Christian Life (Part III)

07/06/2017

First, though, we need to define the Christian telos, which is to say, the kingdom of God, a little more clearly. 14 As with purity of heart, Abba Moses says a great deal about it over the course of his conference. The first thing with which he connects the kingdom of God is eternal life. So then, the telos of our [monastic] commitment is, to quote the apostle, eternal life-for he says “having, indeed, your

The Purpose and Method of Christian Life (Part I). The Goal and Telos of Christian Life.

06/22/2017

But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. Romans 6:22 The Goal and Telos of Christian Life We noted that Christian salvation is fundamentally the same, whether pursued in the world or through monasticism. It is this foundational unity, which is the unity of the Holy Spirit himself, that makes monastic spirituality and literature so valuable for the

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