Transhumanism is an ideology asserting that humans must harness technological advancements to take an active, intelligent role in their own evolution. The transhumanist push towards a reimagining of our own humanity and our shared future is a primary component of three growing cultural trends: artificial intelligence, human augmentation through biotechnology, and the transgender phenomenon. The means of effecting these transformative developments are entirely technical, and promise liberation from reproduction, liberation from disease and mortality, and liberation from the body itself. In awarding the mind complete power and authority over the flesh, however, we are not liberating ourselves, but submitting to the oppression of a consciousness we do not yet properly understand.
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One Hundred Years Since the Murder of the Russian Royal Family
Tuesday, July 17, 2018, marks the centennial of the killing of the Russian royal family. On that date a hundred years ago, the last tsar of Russia, Nicholas II, his wife the tsarina Alexandra, their five children and four retainers, were ushered into a basement in the city of Yekaterinburg during the early hours of the morning, for an execution that would mark a turning point in history.
Recent Articles
The Importance and Power of Words
We communicate mainly through word, and it does matter how we do it. Our word is a reflection of the Incarnate Word. The Lord said, “Let there be light.” And the invisible received its existence through word. Word is the greatest power in the world. “By the word of the Lord were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Ps. 33:6)…Words should make us closer, unite us, but not corrupt and separate us.
The Silence of Zacharias
“Behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place” (St. Luke 1:20). As we all have just heard, because of his doubt, the priest Zacharias was struck dumb. And with this silencing of Zacharias the three traditional leadership roles of Ancient Israel were all silent. The people of God had no priest, prophet, or king.
![In Memorium: Reader Herman (H. Tristram) Engelhardt (1941-2018) [VIDEO]](http://anothercity.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/xenglehardt-memory-featured-image-4-630x350.jpg.pagespeed.ic.hdhZp4zNr9.jpg)
In Memorium: Reader Herman (H. Tristram) Engelhardt (1941-2018) [VIDEO]
One of the towering figures in American Orthodoxy has reposed. Struggling to recover from surgery performed last December, Herman fell asleep in Christ on the morning of June 21 in Houston, Texas among family, friends, and clergy. As an author, as a lecturer, as a teacher and mentor, as a friend and brother and father to so many, as a man whose heart was as big as the state of Texas and as warm as the Texas sun, his influence on Orthodoxy Christianity has been incalculable. In this first part of our tribute to Reader Herman, we present a short biography written by two of his former graduate students, as well an interview with him conducted in Hong Kong, where he frequently lectured. He has inspired multiple generations not only to embrace the Orthodox Faith, but to hold fast to it with all our heart, and to preserve it uncompromised and undiluted, just as we have received it from the Fathers, just as he did himself. May his memory be eternal!
Fr. Patrick Viscuso Commencement Address: Counsels to Seminary Graduates
What compels a man to seek ordination? Is it the thought of exercising power and authority with those same hands over other lives? Or does the reason lie in becoming servants of the people of God? Such servants do not seek power over anyone, but are faithful examples, guides, and shepherds, who walk among the flock, go after the stray, and are a source of comfort and nourishment that keeps the people of God close to the Church, rather than trying to set up fences and chains to keep the people in.
Based on my experience of 27 years in the priesthood, I believe that one of the most fitting motivations for seeking lifelong consecration to God is because you have been gifted to be a σκεύος, a vessel of God, for the reception and imparting of sanctification through the invocation of the Deity, and to do some good in this world, whenever you can and wherever you are in the small part of creation in which you will live – to make present the same sanctifying blessing bestowed by the Savior, so that you can contribute in a meaningful way to the healing and new life of the people of God.
Part of your persistence and determination should be to never minimize or ignore the activity of Satan in this world, but to be aware and on guard, lest, in the words of one Byzantine commentator on the canons, “the evil one might not appear to derive an advantage, blazingly pilfering the eternal from the one performing priestly functions.” Satan must be opposed in your sermons, in the Mysteries that you celebrate, and especially in the confessions that you will hear, through which you may be able to help people turn away from sin and be healed.
The Meaning of Holy Chrism and Holy Unction
The Holy Oil used for Holy Unction in the healing prayers and Holy Chrismation during baptism is a symbol but in the Greek, not English, meaning of the term. In Greek the term symbol (σύμβολον) means the place where two realities come together, in this case the oil becomes a concrete means by which the grace (energy) of God is offered. Grace and nature work together, much like how Christ (“The Anointed One”) took on human flesh and human nature to reveal Himself as the Uncreated Second Person of the Trinity, the Son of God.
In English we take symbol to mean something that represents something else. We don’t grasp the interconnectedness of grace and nature, we don’t see that grace is more than merely God’s good favor that must be comprehended to be actualized (which reduces salvation to primarily a psychological or emotional experience), we have little awareness that created things can become holy.
In this essay Dr. Mario Baghos surveys the Orthodox understanding and practices of the distribution of Holy Oil in the Orthodox Church. Read it to understand how our Lord takes the matter, the stuff, of creation and elevates it to show that salvation encompasses more than just man but involves the recapitulation of the entire creation.
The Unbearable Essentializing of Being: Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s Sorrowful Joy of Sex
Sexual identities, in contrast to sexual practices or passions, are a relatively new concept. Only recently were passions taken to define people, i.e. seen as constituting an identity or essence, such as homosexual or heterosexual—an understanding that even many secular circles now scorn as untenable. It is, then, discouraging to see a highly respected Orthodox hierarch dare to breach the unwavering moral tradition of the Church based upon such an “essentialist” notion of “sexual orientation.” Siewers argues that this step undermines Orthodox anthropology by turning the body into a thing (reification) and alienating humanity from the incarnation of the God-man Christ.
Love is Giving Yourself to Another, That He Might Live By You
Readers of Kyriakos Markides’ “Mountain of Silence” already know Metropolitan Athanasios of Limassol as “Fr Maximus” of Mt Athos. In this wonderful talk on marriage, Metropolitan Athanasios exhibits the same personal, relaxed, but powerfully insightful style of discourse that we remember from Markides’ book, as he discusses wide-ranging issues from the the communion of marriage to the nature of Orthodox Sacrament to the grounds of human dignity.
On Suicide
Orthodoxy not uncommonly calls on us to maintain a sort of binocular vision, affirming two seemingly opposing views. Nowhere is this more evident than in the case of suicide, where we are asked both to love the perpetrator and refrain from judgment, while at the same time condemning the act as itself profoundly abhorrent. Our therapeutic mindset finds the former easy, and the latter difficult. This text by Nun Barbara, first published in Russia in 1943, helps redress the imbalance.
An Open Letter to a “Gay-Rights” Advocate
From the point of view of consistency within the Tradition through the ages, it’s inconceivable that the Orthodox Church as a whole would ever endorse sodomy – or any other form of same-sex sexual activity – as an acceptable practice, as something consistent with the quest for holiness and purity in spirit, soul, and body which her members have always preached and endeavored to practice.
Advice to Future Priests: Be Open to Questions
“Why does God impose His commandments upon us?” asks the young student. In his recent (May 19, 2018) commencement address at St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, philosopher (and Another City Associate Editor) David Bradshaw offers future Orthodox priests tools to overcome the doubts and objections that they will encounter from their parishioners, especially the young who feel that God’s commandments are arbitrary and onerous. Bradshaw explains how we can show them that the God we worship Himself fulfills the goodness and beauty for which they themselves long, and how the divine commandments in fact serve to guide them toward that very beauty. Eliciting and encouraging the questioning process, the new priest can show the questioner, who is often stranded in a world of disrupted families and digital distractions, the divine beauty they already seek within the liturgies of the Church, in the lives of its saints, in the ascetic life that leads to holiness, and in the forgiveness they are invited extend in their own lives.
Pastoral Ponderings: The Analogy of Freedom
Human freedom is an experience before it is a concept. Indeed, even as concept, freedom is extremely elusive.
Myth of Enchantment
By Peter Leithart Once upon a time, magic was a mighty force, but not anymore. Once Britain was filled with fairies, but no one ever sees an elf nowadays. My opening paragraph may sound like a tale from Max Weber or Charles Taylor, but the first sentence summarizes a regular motif of English folklore and […]
Everlasting Joy: A Sermon by Fr. Pavel Florensky
There exists a cherubic center of our soul, its angelic kernel which is of great significance. But it is buried in mystery and cannot be seen by the eyes of the flesh. . .
A Friend is Revealed in Times of Trouble
In one sense, the original sin was the killing of God in self. He, who from the creation of man was ever-present with him was cast out, the presence was killed. This act of killing God’s presence, the intolerance for the presence of God, still rests in man.
Islam: Through the Heart and Mind of a Convert to Orthodox Christianity – Part 1
Part 1 of this interview takes us deep into the life of a young man who converts to Islam at the age of fourteen, and goes on to devote his life totally to his newly discovered faith, not only robustly practicing all the Islamic precepts, but going on to study for three years in a Muslim seminary to become an imam, where he learns Arabic, and intensively studies the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic theology and jurisprudence. Gradually he becomes disillusioned with the Islam he has learned, discovers an authentic Christianity that he had not known existed, and converts to Orthodoxy. Even as he retains a certain respect for for his former religion, his comparisons of Islam and Orthodoxy Christianity are vivid and compelling. Drawing on his own life-experience, he shows us Islamic faith and practice from within, indicating point by point its differences from the Orthodox Christian faith.
Islam: Through the Heart and Mind of a Convert to Orthodox Christianity – Part 2
Part 2 of this interview takes us deep into the life of a young man who converts to Islam at the age of fourteen, and goes on to devote his life totally to his newly discovered faith, not only robustly practicing all the Islamic precepts, but going on to study for three years in a Muslim seminary to become an imam, where he learns Arabic, and intensively studies the Quran, Hadith, and Islamic theology and jurisprudence. Gradually he becomes disillusioned with the Islam he has learned, discovers an authentic Christianity that he had not known existed, and converts to Orthodoxy. Even as he retains a certain respect for for his former religion, his comparisons of Islam and Orthodoxy Christianity are vivid and compelling. Drawing on his own life-experience, he shows us Islamic faith and practice from within, indicating point by point its differences from the Orthodox Christian faith.
An Unpublished Life of Fr. Seraphim Rose, Written By His Godfather
A short biography about the life and conversion of Fr. Seraphim Rose was written by his Godfather years ago and never published. It provides a glimpse into the life and character of Eugene Rose before his conversion including his reaction to Orthodoxy when he first encountered it and the profound influence that St. John of San Francisco had on his life.
Biographical information on the early life of Fr. Seraphim Rose is rare and this welcome reflection helps us understand Fr. Seraphim more, particularly as Americans who have experienced the cultural milieu that shaped and formed the early early Eugene Rose and that he would analyse with prescient depth after he became a monastic.
The Spirituality of Everyday Life
Archbishop Sergius (Korolev) of Prague (1881-1952) was born in Moscow, but spent the defining years of his life (1922-1946) in Prague where he unified the Russian émigré community and courageously served daily molebens throughout the German occupation. The central theme that runs throughout his pastoral writings is that of spiritual life in the world: “The cultivation of the inner man is done not in the world of astounding podvigs, but in everyday life.” He believed that it was especially through interpersonal relationships, especially within the family, that salvation must be sought: “All of life is in people’s interpersonal relationships,” he wrote. “We have to illumine them with the light of Christ’s Truth. We have to find the hidden treasure in every heart.” “Man was created for happiness,” he tells us, “and only through everyday victories can he obtain joy and a state that brings light to everyone and to himself.”
In Depth Articles
Original Sin According to St. Paul
In regard to the doctrine of original sin as contained in the Old Testament and illuminated by the unique revelation of Christ in the New Testament, there continues to reign in the denominations of the West a great confusion, which in the last few centuries seems to have gained much ground in the theological problematics of the Orthodox East.
The Divine Liturgy as Mystical Experience
There are cases in scripture where God appears directly and sensibly to man—indeed, does not only appear to him, but walks, speaks, dines, and even wrestles. There is no suggestion that, because God is “purely spiritual,” such appearances are not of God “as He is in Himself.”
Nature and City in the Greek East
The poet seems to suggest that we can now find the natural city only in the imagination. The bridge for the modernist poet is now an interior, and even a psychological function. It was not always so.
