The Ottoman Empire, Roger Scruton writes, was not composed of nation-states but of creed communities. Peace between the sects could not be ensured by borders, as in Europe, but only by custom. Peace is precarious and requires constant work and architecture is part of that work. When France was given the madate to govern Syria in 1923, the character of the ancient cities of the … [Read more...] about How Western Urban Planning Fueled War in the Middle East
The Wider World
You are as Prone to Love as the Sun is to Shine
Thomas Traherne was a seventeenth century Anglican priest originally known as one of the less prominent “metaphysical poets,” although he was until recently overshadowed by figures such as John Donne and George Herbert. As a simple country priest, he led a quiet, obscure, and pious life, dying of smallpox in 1674 at less than 40 years of age. In the winter of … [Read more...] about You are as Prone to Love as the Sun is to Shine
The Night that Changed My Life
In this moving account, Archpriest Nikolai Agafono narrates how a foolish childhood escapade led his family into Orthodox Christianity, despite their dismissive view of religion that exemplified attitudes imposed by the Soviet state. As the details emerge, he skillfully reveals how God’s love can permeate even the most rigid ideological filters that modern secularism is able … [Read more...] about The Night that Changed My Life
Ye Shall Be As Gods: The Nature of Lawlessness
Source: Remembering Sion. Reprinted with permission. By Hieromonk Gabriel I wrote several days ago that lawlessness is the defining characteristic of both Antichristianity and the modern world. The Antichrist is described by St. Paul as “that lawless one,” and without any doubt at the heart of the modern era is revolution: the unprecedented systematic … [Read more...] about Ye Shall Be As Gods: The Nature of Lawlessness
In Memorium: Reader Herman (H. Tristram) Engelhardt (1941-2018) [VIDEO]
PART ONE 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 … [Read more...] about In Memorium: Reader Herman (H. Tristram) Engelhardt (1941-2018) [VIDEO]
