Below is a list of all the articles on published on Another City in descending order (most recent listed first).
2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017
2021- June 11, 2021 How to Be Nothing: Humility, Self-Confidence, and Restoring Love and Joy to the Christian Home“Not as the world gives, do I give unto you” (John 14:27). But does this promise of our Lord apply not only to His peace, but to other blessings as well. Could it be, for example, that the self-confidence of a Christian needs to be very different from the self-confidence that the world offers us? We endlessly seek approval from others, not just in direct interactions, but in poring over responses on social media, avid to fill ourselves up with positive appraisals and perceptions of ourselves by others. However, we learn all too quickly that this kind of self-confidence is fragile and uncertain, and that it is sure to fail us when we need it most. But what if we looked in the opposite direction, seeking not to fill ourselves up but to empty ourselves out, to be humble, to be...nothing? This is precisely the prescription offered by Archbishop Christophoros in a sermon recorded in February 2019, on the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee (at the beginning of the Lenten Triodion) in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Amman, Jordan.
- May 1, 2021 On Pascha We Receive An Invitation To Eternal LifeMany readers will recognize Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) as the author of the buoyant, inspiring, and irresistible book “Everyday Saints and Other Stories,” which sold record numbers of copies in Russia and has been translated into 17 languages, including English. In this brief, but powerfully insightful passage excerpted from a 2012 interview, Metropolitan Tikhon show how “the living feeling of the pulse of eternity” constitutes not only the center of the Great and Holy Feast of Pascha, but the living foundation of Orthodox Christianity itself.
- April 5, 2021 Return to Paradise: The How and Why of FastingWe are now well into the Holy and Great Fast of Lent, but for many of us it may have already begun to seem tedious: a routine and perhaps even empty exercise. This article by Fr Steven Ritter addresses this state of mind, offering fresh, thought-provoking, common-sense reminders of why the Fast is important to our spiritual life.
- March 19, 2021 A Reference to Alyosha Karamazov"Ayosha, the "angelic brother" of Dostoevsky’s novel. Aloysha the monastic novice. Alyosha the compassionate. Alyosha, who has chosen to live only for God. Yes. But Alyosha the depraved? Alyosha the corrupt. . .Alyosha the insect? Christos Yannaras, one of the foremost living philosophers of Europe, through his careful reading of The Brothers Karamazov has seen what many readers of the novel overlook: that the goodness and holiness of its principal character are not traits he possesses by nature, but gift of divine grace that emerge from his struggle "on the edge of the abyss."
- March 2, 2021 Is That All There Is? Mystery In The WorldThe insights of Dan Buxhoeveden (J.D from Loyola University, PhD from the University of Chicago) into the relation between natural sciences and the mystery of nature are no mere armchair speculation. He is an Orthodox Christian who teaches at the University of South Carolina and has conducted extensive research into the micro-organization of the cortex and how this this can be applied to comparative neuroscience, medicine and brain evolution. In this seemingly simple essay, the author offers us deep insights into what science can know and what it cannot, along with helping us discern the dangers of a purely materialist cosmology.
- January 30, 2021 Book Review: The Ethics of BeautyIn this short review, Dr. David Ford writes that The Ethics of Beauty by Dr. Timothy Patitsas "...has already brought for many people life-changing healing and personal reconciliation with God and with others." Patitsis covers a wide range of topics to show how Dostoevsky's dictum "Beauty will save the world" has practical application in our contemporary world.
- January 26, 2021 The Dystopian Nightmares of Orwell’s 1984 and Huxley’s Brave New WorldAs a new regime takes office in Washington, utopian dreams are reigning in high fashion. A good time, no doubt, to reflect two classic novels warning of the dystopian danger that invariably arises when utopian fantasies are implemented at the expense of both human nature and truth itself. This essay by Arthur W. Hunt III offers an excellent, comparative primer on these two novels that both, all-too-plausibly, envision the totalitarian horrors resulting from the ruthless imposition of technological planning and calculation on the organic relationships of human beings with one another and with their God.
- January 8, 2021 Psalm Eight and the Mystery of the IncarnationAs we continue—or for those of us observing the Old Calendar Feast, as we begin—to meditate on the Incarnation of Christ, following our celebration of His Nativity, we can find a luminous source of insight in the typology and prophetic power of Psalm Eight. Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon’s classic work, “Christ in the Psalms,” shows us how not only this psalm, but the entire Book of Psalms needs to be understood “through the lens of Christ,” precisely because “the voice in the Psalms is Christ’s own voice.” Fr Patrick’s commentary on this psalm, then, follows our rendering of the text itself.
- December 22, 2020 St. Ephrem the Syrian: Hymn of the NativitySt. Ephrem's "Hymns on the Nativity" are like a dazzling display of Christmas lights -- or better yet, like the brightly shining stars shimmering over the fields of Bethlehem. St Ephrem believes that God reveals Himself through "raze" (symbols, mysteries, hidden meanings) found not only throughout Holy Scripture, but everywhere in nature as well. However, they can be truly apprehended not by the merely inquisitive, but only by those who approach them with humility, with love, with wonder, and above all with faith. Perceiving God as revealed in these mystical symbols, we are elevated to an eternal dimension that nevertheless remains linked (through the "raze") with historical time and everyday space. Here, Adam and Eve are co-eternal with Noah and Moses and King David, the staff of Moses (itself transformed from a serpent) is united with the staffs of shepherds outside Bethlehem and then the staff of the Good Shepherd Who has just been born there. Poetic imagery of birth and fertility, of virginity and marriage, of sacrifice and death and rebirth, swirl together with pastoral imagery of sheep and lions and predatory wolves. Angels and animals and townspeople of all ages and conditions come together here to worship the Newborn Babe, who restores to those who understand (along with Adam and Eve) their youth and innocence. This is not just a hymn, but theology of the highest sort done poetically, as St Ephrem believes the symbolic character of God's revelations in nature and scripture requires.
- December 14, 2020 St. Paisios: Too Many Worries Will Distance Us From GodLike Jesus’ friend Martha in the Gospel of St Luke, we “are worried and troubled about many things.” But as we prepare ourselves for the Nativity of Christ — as we look ahead toward His birth not in a royal chamber, but in the rustic and unpretentious cradle of an animal trough — and as we anticipate his quiet but earth-shaking Incarnation into a distracted and wayward world, which nevertheless yearns for him, we seek to simplify our lives from worries and distractions. Appropriately, this set of dialogues with St Paisios itself mirrors this theme in a simple and unassuming manner. Indeed, it is for this very reason that we find it so deep and so compelling.
- November 27, 2020 Analyzing the “New Totalitarianism” of TodayItalian philosopher Augusto Del Noce (1910–1989) argued prophetically more than half a century ago, that modern technology was being used to implement a “quiet totalitarianism,” one that by avoiding the overt violence of the Nazi and Soviet regimes, could quietly exercise the same absolute control within society. Totalitarian systems, he explained, monopolize power by identifying their own ideological narrative with rational discourse itself and thereby exclude beforehand any kind of criticism. Critics (such as those objecting to the ongoing “sexual revolution”) can therefore be branded as “irrational,” — dismissed and demonized as pathological or immoral, as exhibiting “repressed psychology,” “bigotry,” “hatred,” “prejudice,” and so forth. This stealthy totalitarianism operates by discrediting and undermining any source of resistance that transcends technological control (such as philosophical rationality, the great traditions of Western culture and local identity, the family as a source of values, and especially religious transcendence), making the individual completely dependent on society. It is precisely in the re-affirmation of transcendent realities, and above all religious transcendence, that Del Noce finds the only ground for resistance to technological domination and ideological manipulation.
- November 14, 2020 St. Porphyrios On Prophecy and Repentance in Times of PerilWhen we sense that our sins are leading us toward a dark and perilous outcome, individual Christians know to stop and pray and repent. But when we hear that our "collective" actions are leading us into darkness, too often our tendency is to look for conspiracies and cast out nets of collective blame. But neither collective subjects nor collective objects actually exist: only individuals can take upon themselves the onus of action. What kind of action? St Porphyrios explains that it is only the prayers and repentance of those individuals who walk in the light, however haltingly and uncertainly, that can avert the peril to which prophecy awakens us. For authentic prophecy, he explains, consists not in deterministic pronouncements of imminent doom, but in urgent warnings meant to alert us and avert the danger—to wake up precisely those individuals who know better than to react by casting blame on chosen enemies, but know instead to cast their prayers heavenward for the sake of our brothers and sisters and own selves as well. Although this article comes to us from the year 2012, it is surely even more timely now, as the harrowing year that is now concluding raises apprehensions of even darker times to come.
- October 31, 2020 Dostoevsky And Memory Eternal: An Eastern Orthodox Approach to the Brothers KaramazovWhy do Orthodox memorial litanies melodically reiterate "memory eternal” with such feeling and such energy? And why did Orthodoxy’s greatest novelist end his last great work so triumphantly with these same words? By going very deeply into a single passage in Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, "The Brothers Karamazov," Donald Sheehan leads us not only into the the center of the novel, but into the heart of the Orthodox faith as well.
- October 17, 2020 Orthodox Responses to the Nihilism of Cultural Revolution, Self-Destruction, and Social Division“Another City” has striven to set aside partisan politics in its editorial policy, and this commitment remains. But sometimes cultural and politics issues substantially overlap, as is the case with certain dark forces that are now manifest in Western culture and American society and which are important to understand deeply rather than in a partisan manner. Deacon Paul Siewers’ fine review article addresses these issues in a balanced and insightful way that many of our readers will find helpful.
- October 9, 2020 Are You Drowning in Your Own Stream of Consciousness? Logismoi and How to Cope with ThemBefore the Fall, our consciousness (nous) was clear and undivided, focused on God and transparent to Him, without distractions from within or from without. But now we are perpetually distracted by logismoi (low-giz-mee)—not merely “thoughts” in the narrow sense, but also images and ideas running through our awareness tempting and beguiling us.
- September 23, 2020 How to Read the Bible and Why"The Bible is a biography of God in this world. In it the Indescribable One has described Himself." So declares St Justin Popovich, not only a saint of the Orthodox Church, but one of its greatest theologians of the twentieth century.
- September 7, 2020 How To Read The Holy PsalterThe Psalms of David are the Prayer Book of the Bible, not only for the ancient Jewish people, but even more for Christians, who discovered that these elusively simple poems contained far more than their Hebrew predecessors had realized, for Christ Himself appears everywhere throughout them. As Fr Patrick Henry Reardon points out in his fine book Christ in the Psalms, it is the Old Testament book that is most often cited in the New Testament.
- August 31, 2020 Not Merely Islam: C.S. Lewis Assesses the Religion of MohammedUntil relatively recently writes Jacob Fareed Imam, what we call Islam today was most often called Mohammedanism. Islam was understood for centuries as a Christian heresy, a definition that began with St. John of Damascus (d.749) in his work Heresies and continued well into modernity. "All great heresies are known by their founders (e.g., Marcionism, Arianism, Nestorianism, etc.) and therefore Islam, for as long as it was still considered a Christian heresy, was generally known as Mohammedanism," writes Imam.
- August 22, 2020 Twenty-six Patterns of Living to Enhance the Glory of Your Marriage“Marriage is a revelation and a mystery. We see in it the complete transformation of a human being, the expansion of his personality, fresh vision, a new perception of life, and through it a rebirth into the world in a new plenitude," writes Fr. Alexander Elchaninov. That certainly is far from the knowledge of most people today, and those who have an intution that marriage is meant to be something more than cohabitation might not dare even hope that they might ever experience what Fr. Elchaninov describes.
- August 17, 2020 The Cross as a Means of Sanctification and Transformation of the WorldIn one month's time we celebrate the Feast of the Elevation of the Cross. The cross, writes Orthodox theologian Fr. Dumitru Staniloae, is the means -- if we adopt it -- by which paradise is restored. This paradise is not only that which which will be experienced at the end of the Christian's earthly life, but "...may also be an evolving paradise here on earth, a restitution of the original paradise."
- August 4, 2020 The Perpetual Adolescent“At a certain point in American life, the young ceased to be viewed as a transient class and youth as a phase of life through which everyone soon passed. Instead, youthfulness was vaunted and carried a special moral status. Adolescence triumphed, becoming a permanent condition.”
- July 27, 2020 Closer Than My Own Father: Elder Paisios and His Spiritual Children, Parts I & IICan we faithfully and with any confidence transpose the life of St Anthony the Great, of St John Chrysostom, of St Gregory Palamas onto a subway car in Manhattan, or a park bench in Cedar Rapids? What would it be like to live a fully Christian life, here and now, in the twenty-first century? What would a truly Christian life look like in our time—the life of an authentic disciple of our Lord?
- July 12, 2020 Blocking Puberty in Transgendered Children UnethicalPostmodern theory propounds that reality is a social construct, and thus that we are men or women according not to our bodies but our beliefs. Worse yet, many think that reality sometimes needs more than a little coercion to conform to the social construction. It is becoming increasingly common for the bodies of children to be drugged and mutilated to force them to adapt to the beliefs of parents, school counselors, and sometimes the children themselves who are suffering from gender dysphoria. Orthodox bioethicist Wesley Smith documents here this violence against our children and discusses the harm caused by these errant ideologies.
- July 4, 2020 The Great Homecoming: The Life Of The World To ComeIn the darkness of our contemporary world, God has provided us with abundant illumination cast from from the lives and works of many holy saints of the Orthodox Church. St Nicholai of Žica and Ohrid, who along with St Justin Popovich was one of the brightest lights shining in Serbia, ended his life in the United States at St Sava’s Seminary, St Tikhon’s Seminary, and St Vladimir’s Seminary, reposing in 1956. The text below, the final section of his catechistic elucidation of the Nicene Creed, “The Faith of the Saints,” makes it radiantly clear why he has been called The New Chrysostom. It can be read independently, for it stands on its own as a luminous summary of the Orthodox Faith.
- June 21, 2020 “Pray for Our Loved Ones who Are Beyond!”: Canon of Supplication to St VarusThe Orthodox Church considers prayers for the dead to be of the greatest importance. As stated by St Theophen the Recluse: “The lot of the departed is not considered decided until the general Last Judgment. Until then, we cannot consider anyone as finally judged; and on the basis of this we pray, convinced in our hope in God’s immeasurable mercy!” But what about those who have died outside of the Orthodox faith—beyond its boundaries? One of the most treasured Orthodox prayers for the reposed answers this question with the splendid affirmation that even though our loved ones are beyond our terrestrial realm, they are by no means beyond the merciful love of God. It is this prayer that is reprinted below: the poignant and hopeful Canon to St Varus.
- June 4, 2020 Fr. Seraphim Rose and the Signs of the Times Part IIIn these times of global pestilence, it is easy to engage in speculations about whether the Last Days are upon us, seizing upon things uncommon or extraordinary as signs of Apocalypse. Anything from the arrival or locusts in East Africa to corona shaped hailstones in Mexico may be taken as coded messages from God. It is, then, perhaps a good time to reflect soberly upon Orthodox teachings about how to recognize the End Times when they do arrive; and we can find no better guide for this than Fr Seraphim Rose, who in Part Two of his lecture, helps us to “read” a number of perplexing “signs of the times” and understand them in relation to Orthodox teachings.
- May 23, 2020 Fr. Seraphim Rose and the Signs of the Times Part IIn these times of global pestilence, it is easy to engage in speculations about whether the Last Days are upon us, seizing upon things uncommon or extraordinary as signs of Apocalypse. Anything from the arrival or locusts in East Africa to corona shaped hailstones in Mexico may be taken as coded messages from God. It is, then, perhaps a good time to reflect soberly upon Orthodox teachings about how to recognize the End Times when they do arrive; and we can find no better guide for this than Fr Seraphim Rose, who unlike many moderns takes prophecy quite seriously, while always holding up its interpretation to the light of patristic teachings.
- May 10, 2020 Grandma’s IconsWhen Communist theorist Antonio Gramsci fled Rome for Russia, he was disappointed to discover that Bolshevism was not going to succeed. He concluded that it was the deeply ingrained Orthodox Christian culture of the Russian people that stood in the way. And as many of our readers can attest, it was the babushkas, those mothers of all mothers and fathers, that most of all kept the flame of Orthodox faith and culture alive. On this Mothers’ Day, the simple, loving remembrance in this story can help us understand how the light and warmth of Orthodox culture was preserved through those many dark years and passed on to future generations.
- May 2, 2020 Fr Georges Massouh on the Myrrh-Bearing WomenThe true disciple of Jesus, whether a man or a woman, is not the one who carries a Christian identity on account of having been baptized, but the one who imitates the courageousness of Joseph of Aramathea, the Myrrh-Bearing Women, and the martyrs who offered themselves up in order to hold fast to their faith... only the courageous deserve to be beloved of Jesus.
- April 27, 2020 The Stubborn ApostleThe Apostle Thomas, writes Fr. Daniel Sisoyev, was by nature skeptical and stubborn. He demanded to see Christ in his body after the resurrection before he would believe the apostolic testimony that Christ rose from the dead. "Christ acquiesced to the demand by appearing to Thomas, and in so doing affirmed that His rising was indeed a resurrection of the body as well as the soul.
- April 17, 2020 St. Porphyrios Elucidates the Meaning of PaschaUnlike the English term Easter, which evokes the Teutonic spring-goddess Ostara or Eastra, the Greek word Pascha is a direct transliteration of the Aramaic pascha, which in turn renders the Hebrew pesach, meaning Passover. St Porphyrios explains here in simple, but compelling language how Christ Himself has become our true Passover from darkness into light, from sin and death into life—how His Resurrection has accomplished “the most important thing in [our] life and in the life of the entire universe.” And in this way, he tells us why, like kid-goats in the exuberance of spring, we should leap and frolic with joy as the light of this incomparable event dawns upon us!
- April 10, 2020 The Sign of the Prophet Jonah in Our DaysThis Holy Week and Pascha, the Covid-19 pandemic has given the faithful a hard saying. They will be deprived of celebrating these high and holy days in their parishes. They will be deprived of receiving holy communion. Nevertheless, they need not, now or ever, be deprived of Christ, for nothing, neither death nor life, neither things present nor things to come, can ever “separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
- March 31, 2020 Prayers for a Time of Devastating Pestilence“Are any among you suffering? Let them pray. Are any cheerful? Let them sing praises! Are any among you sick? Let them call for the presbyters of the Church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the Name of the Lord. The prayer of faith will heal those who are sick and the Lord will raise them up. If they have committed sins, they will be forgiven. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective!” (James 5: 13-16)
- March 25, 2020 First Discourse on the Annunciation by St. Gregory the Wonderworker (Part I)Truth first enters the world through a word and the more sublime a truth, the more sublime is the language that expresses it. In the essay below written in the third century, St. Gregory the Wonder Worker writes of the Annunciation of the Theotokos, where the angel Gabriel converses with the Virgin Mary in preparation of the coming of the Son of God as man.
- March 21, 2020 Word of Consolation for the PandemicDon't be confused, don't fear, don't panic over the Coronavirus pandemic counsels Archimandrite Zacharias of St. John the Baptist Monastery in Essex, England. Nothing that happens to us falls outside the purview of God, and God does everything in love.
- March 16, 2020 St. Patrick of Ireland: A Saint for Dark TimesIn this talk, given to monks and pilgrims at the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1977, Fr Seraphim Rose shows how St Patrick must be regarded not just as a romantic figure from a bygone era, but also as our own contemporary, enlightening not just the ancient Celts but ourselves as well, who are surrounded by a very different kind of darkness from that of pre-Christian Ireland.
- March 7, 2020 How Not To Be An Accidental IconoclastThe Triumph of Orthodoxy, which we celebrate on the first Sunday of Lent, entails both an affirmation and a negation. It commemorates the restoration, in the year 787, of icons to Orthodox temples and homes, and at the same time it commends what the Seventh Ecumenical Council called their “veneration and honor (timitiki proskynisis)” while reserving their "real worship (latreia)” for God alone.
- March 3, 2020 The Threshold to Lent: Remembering our Explusion from ParadiseFirst we must remember what we have lost. Indeed, "all mankind weeps and sighs over the first Adam, over the now elusive phantom of happiness.” But we don’t realize that it is paradise itself from which we have been expelled and that this is why we live as exiles. "The whole world, harassed and weary, weeps because of its waywardness, because of its naked soul; because life is aimless and joyless. Nothing can fill our life so that we might unconditionally feel the fullness of true—not phantom—happiness; for this fullness is only in God.”
- February 25, 2020 The Prophetic Role of Mount Athos in the Contemporary WorldMount Athos, the center of Orthodox Monasticism located on an autonomous peninsula in Northern Greece, has what Dr. Jean Claude Larchet calls a "prophetic role" in the modern world. This is true not only for Orthodox Christians, but believers in other religions and even atheists, Larchet writes.
- February 16, 2020 How The Great Truth DawnedA lingering vestige of the Cold War between the United States and Russia includes what could be called a 'reflexive bi-polarism,' a simplistic and crude reduction that caricatures not only Russia's political role in the world today, but its history, culture, and people. It's an unfortunate and impoverishing state of affairs.
- February 4, 2020 The Three Principles of Orthodox Spirituality: The Path to PrayerIn this lucid and accessible talk, Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) takes us to the heart of Orthodox spirituality. His approach here is emphatically practical, rather than theoretical or technical.
- January 27, 2020 Freeing the Soul: Reflections on Thirty Years as an Orthodox Confessor Part II of IIThis article is no longer available.
- January 21, 2020 Freeing the Soul: Reflections on Thirty Years as an Orthodox Confessor Part I of IIThis article is no longer available.
- January 18, 2020 Why Beauty MattersThe world lost one of its finest, most original, and most independent thinkers with the repose of Sir Roger Scruton last weekend. Sir Roger was also a friend of Another City; we featured several of his articles, and we were proud to have him as an early subscriber to this journal.
- January 13, 2020 The Death of the Lion and the Dream of the Jersey Shore: Maturity Seasoned In TimeIn this enchanting tale, Fr Stephen takes us back to his Fishtown neighborhood in Philadelphia, where Kusheri’s and Fr Naum’s fantasy of soaring in the summer sky over the Jersey Shore is interrupted by a young couple in love and the recollection of childhood questions about the relation of God, man, and animals — about the relation of the childlike and the mature — and about questions of death and resurrection.
- January 6, 2020 Theophany and River Gods: What Are the Strange Figures on the Theophany Icon?Pagan antiquity, writes Fr. Stephen De Young, often portrayed a world in chaos. Ancient gods were viewed as fighting monstrous creatures of chaos, a kind of primordial being represented by natural forces — the "elemental spirits of the world" as St. Paul put it — against which the battle for order had to be won.
- December 30, 2019 Mother and ChildSometimes what seem like simple, everyday reflections can run deep. That is, they can be radical in the original sense or returning us to the radix or root of the matter, taking us not to exotic locales but bringing us back to a home we had almost forgotten. It seems to us that this short contemplative reflection by Another City Contributing Editor Frederica Mathewes-Green possesses precisely this quality.
- December 23, 2019 We Have Come from Afar: A Christmas OrationWe have come from afar to venerate the infant Christ -- not from the land of the wise men but out of the darkness of our own souls, out of the murk of sinfulness. We have been guided by the miraculous star that has risen within us, obeying its mysterious and powerful call.
- December 16, 2019 Calculating the Date of Christmas: Why We Celebrate the Nativity Feast on December 25It is sometimes believed that we celebrate Christ’s birth on December 25th because the Church Fathers appropriated the date of a pagan festival. But in fact, just the opposite is true. The choice of December 25th was based not on pagan festivities, but on a careful chronology of sacred events concerning the Incarnation of our Lord.
- December 9, 2019 Memory Eternal: Elder Ephraim of Philotheou and ArizonaAt 10 PM (MT) on December 7, 2019 Elder Ephraim (Moraitis) reposed at the age of 92. Another City wishes to celebrate his life and legacy by publishing one of his lectures along with several links to articles concerning him and his work.
- November 29, 2019 Body Mutilation, Biopunk, and Transgressive Individualism: Is Society Now Adopting the Values of ‘Blade Runner’?Ominous tattoos, bizarre body piercing, and transsexual mutilations are only the beginning, argues Orthodox bioethicist Wesley J. Smith. “Transhumanists” are true believers who envision a point in time—known in movement parlance as “the Singularity” — when the crescendo of technological advances becomes unstoppable, culminating in attaining the age-old dream of material immortality via uploading minds into AI computers, merged with robotic technologies, to create blended beings with the intellectual and physical powers of the cyborgs depicted in “Blade Runner.”
- November 21, 2019 How Not to Perish EternallyA merciful heart is the likeness of God. And if we reject such a heart, then we of necessity reject God Himself. And how then can we be saved, how then can we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven?
- November 11, 2019 How to Pray in the Event of Civil War: The Unusual Story of the Prayer of Patriarch Hermogenes“How have we arrived,” asks Stanford University historian Victor David Hanson, “at the brink of a veritable civil war?” And a recent "Washington Post" headline reads: “In America, talk turns to something not spoken of for 150 years: Civil War.” Surely the political and cultural polarization of America has now reached levels comparable to that most terrible national conflict of the nineteenth century.
- November 2, 2019 Sex Reassignment Doesn’t Work. Here Is the Evidence.Did you know that ten to 15 years after surgical reassignment, the suicide rate of those who had undergone sex-reassignment surgery rose to 20 times that of comparable peers?
- October 26, 2019 The Bishop — A Short Story by Fr. Stephen SiniariWe tried to get his old shoes and coat ta' throw 'em in the trash. Carol said not even the rummage sale at Front and Girard would take his worn-down shoes and screen-thin overcoat. He stuffed 'em in his paper shopping-bag suitcase he carted all his bishop stuff around in and said he knew somebody who needed 'em.
- October 18, 2019 Theologies as Alternative Histories: John Romanides and Chrestos YannarasDuring the twentieth century, the self-understanding of Greek identity, especially in relation to Western Christendom, became focused on finding a cultural continuity between Ancient Greece, Byzantium, and the modern Greek nation. Nicolas Prevelakis argues that this issue was successfully resolved through an interweaving of history and theology in the writings of Fr John Romanides and philosopher Christos Yannaras.
- October 11, 2019 Hidden Fire: Orthodox Perspectives on YogaThe practice of yoga is becoming normalized in our society as a religiously-neutral, “holistic” exercise program that will promote mental and physical health.
- October 8, 2019 An American Experience of Romanian Hesychasm [VIDEO]Sometimes the simple and heartfelt introductions to people and places different than our own reveals to us the important things that that press of events in our own lives keeps hidden from our view.
- September 30, 2019 Literature, Culture and the Western SoulIn his his splendid biography of Fr Seraphim Rose, Fr Damascene Christensen tells the story of a young monastic aspirant seeking the esoteric spirituality of Orthodox Christianity on Mt Athos. But once he finally arrives at his destination, the Abbot hands him a copy of Dickens’ novel, “David Copperfield” to read.
- September 21, 2019 How To Love Christ: Learning From the Beloved DiscipleAs Christ has taught us, nothing is more important for us than learning how to love (Matt. 22: 36-40). But how can we truly love others until we have learned to love Christ Himself who has loved us first, before any other, and far more greatly than any other? St Theophan shows us how St John, the Beloved Disciple, can help us learn to love Christ our God, with all our heart and soul and mind:
- September 15, 2019 ‘The Great Scattering’: How Identity Panic Took Root in the Void Once Occupied by Family LifeMuch of our political debate today centers upon issues concerning "identity," so much so that many political affiliations are now labeled as "identity politics."
- September 9, 2019 On Salvation — From the Elders of Optina MonasteryBeginning in the nineteenth century, a remarkable succession of illumined elders residing in Optina Pustyn Monastery helped bring about a spiritual renewal in Russia. Figures from Dostoevsky and Soloviev to Khomiakov and Kireyevsky to Gogol, Tchaikovsky, Turgenev, and even Tolstoy sought their advice.
- August 31, 2019 The Problem with Self-Justification: Or, How to Keep Rowing UpstreamIf our salvation requires repentance, and if we desire salvation, why do we find it so difficult to repent? St Basil the Hesychast, spiritual father of St Paisius Velichkovsky, explains that the difficulty lies not simply in our commission of sins, for there is no man without sin (John14:4-5), but in our chronic justification of these sins, and hence our blaming others for them—just as Eve blamed the serpent, and Adam blamed Eve.
- August 24, 2019 Should St. Paul Have Been More Tolerant? What Modern Churches Are MissingCommon misconceptions about common words can lead to common errors writes Hieromonk Gabriel, but when those errors force a reading of scripture not in accord with the meaning of the Apostle they will end up driving people away from the Church. We see this in our day with words like “mercy,” “compassion,” “tolerance” and others that are thrown about to justify almost any idea or behavior.
- August 16, 2019 Is There No Repentance after Death?The Church Fathers maintain consistently that there is no repentance after death. This claim bears upon both the great question of how we shall fare after our departure from this life, as well as the more immediate question of how we ought to live now. But if the soul retains consciousness after our earthly repose, precisely what is it that makes postmortem repentance impossible?
- August 11, 2019 The Virtue of Irrelevance: An Essay on EducationIn a world where it is becoming increasingly unwise to entrust the education of our children to teachers who promote trendy, “relevant” curricula, the question arises “What, then, should we teach them?” British philosopher and public intellectual St Roger Scruton argues eloquently that the supposedly “irrelevant” traditional curriculum of great books, ancient languages, and classical music turns out to be in fact the most practical schooling of all, for it has proven its value in cultivating character and preparing students for challenges that are "new and unforeseeable,” and which “relevant” curricula bound up with current preoccupations cannot envisage.
- August 6, 2019 A Light So Shining Before Men: A Discourse on the Great Feast of the Transfiguration of the LordArchpriest Artemy Vladimirov speaks on the spiritual meaning of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord, on our ascent following after Christ, about the event of the feast and about why namely Moses and Elijah appeared to the Savior, and about how to prepare ourselves for the feast and how to pass the day.
- July 30, 2019 Frederica: Annual Dormition Fast Prayer Vigil to End AbortionOccasions of joy sometimes elicit occasions of sorrow. This is so because the world is fallen, shorn from the full beauty and majesty of God. The world however, is not without hope because of the promise of the restoration of all things through the work of the Son of God, Jesus Christ the Righteous. The fallen world can be made new.
- July 30, 2019 Annual Dormition Fast Prayer Vigil to End Abortion [PRINT COPY]For private use download this .pdf and print on your computer.
- July 25, 2019 Marriage: Instructions from a Manual That Does Not Yet ExistThere are two ways to experience He who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. One is the asceticism of the monastic who forsakes all for the Kingdom. The other is the asceticism of the married, the widowed, and the single person who live in the day to day world and actively seek the Kingdom by embracing the Eucharistic heartbeat of creation and so find their being in in the life and the suffering of the other.
- July 22, 2019 Perceiving the Sanctity of Saints: A Review of Konstantin Kapkov’s “The Spiritual World of Emperor Nicholas II and his Family”The author of this essay, Andrei Manovtsev, is one of the foremost scholars of the lives of the Tsar Nicholas II and his family. He has contributed greatly to the current research on what are for now being called the “Ekaterinburg remains”—bone fragments unearthed near Ekaterinburg that are believed by some to belong to the Royal Family.
- July 14, 2019 Dostoevsky or Nietzsche? God-Man or Man-God?“What is man?” This question shapes all of Dostoevsky’s thought and writing. And perhaps his most important insight is that humanity today is faced with a great choice: between the God-man (Christ) and the Man-God (most visible in Nietzsche’s Übermensch or Overman). Sadly, key figures of Western culture have been increasingly pursuing the second alternative for several centuries, seeking to become divine on their own terms and by their own efforts—striving to re-create the world and human nature itself according to their own will.
- July 9, 2019 The Little Things in Life are More Important than the Bigger ThingsDo you think that to live according to the faith and to fulfill the will of God is very difficult? Think again, says St. John Maximovitch. Fulfilling the will of God is very easy if we first pay attention to the little things. St. John tells us how.
- June 30, 2019 How to Read the Holy ScripturesBecause Orthodox worship is replete with scriptural references, the Orthodox tend to take them for granted, says Fr. Seraphim Rose in this lecture given in 1979. Instead, we should read them more often and with greater diligence because they have great benefit in the spiritual life. St. Seraphim of Sarov for example, used to read the entire New Testament once a week.
- June 23, 2019 Time and Place in the Healing of the ParalyticFr. Alexander Webster, Dean of Holy Trinity Seminary, masterfully compares chronological time and sacred time in the biblical story of the Healing of the Paralytic to reveal that both culminate in the healing work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The paralytic waited for the stirring of the waters every year in order to be healed. One day the Messiah came and asked the paralytic if he indeed wanted to be healed. When the paralytic responds in the affirmative, Jesus heals him by the power of His Word.
- June 15, 2019 Met. Hierotheos of Nafpaktos (and Fr. John Romanides) – On The Mystery of PentecostIn two volumes of Empirical Dogmatics, Metropolitan Hierotheos offers us a once-hidden treasure: the unwritten teachings of Fr John Romanides, one of the greatest Orthodox theologians of the last century. These “spoken teachings” (recorded from lectures at the University of Thessaloniki, as well as more informal venues) convey Fr John’s theological views in a vivid and engaging manner, explaining the Orthodox Way as leading, by means of purification (askesis) of the soul, through illumination (theoria) to the experience of glorification (theosis) or participation in the uncreated grace of God.
- June 12, 2019 Orthodox Spirituality and the Technological RevolutionTechnology has led us into a dangerous new arena. As Fr Aimilianos puts it, whereas in industrial society people were ccnsumers enslaved to the products they had made, in post-industrial society they are “ becoming consumers and slaves to [the] images and information which fill their lives.” Contrary to the technocrats with blind faith that technology will somehow itself offer the solution to how it should be regulated, the Orthodox Church looks to monastic tradition and practice for a model of how technical applications can be used to help us meet our needs in a way that is friendly to beauty and that frees us to worship the Creator.
- June 6, 2019 Why Does God Allow Evil? A Parable by Elder CleopaIn this simple parable, Elder Cleopa explains how events that appear random, arbitrary, and even evil may in fact serve a higher purpose.
- May 23, 2019 The Diabolist: Remembering a Youthful Encounter with Evil1In this recollection of his youth, the noted English writer G. K. Chesterton reflects on the terrifying and lingering impact of an encounter with evil in the person of one of his companions. The narrative is made unusually powerful by the skill with which Chesterton reveals the invisible concealed within the visible, the supernatural cloaked within the natural and mundane, deep metaphysical realities emerging from within what could easily be taken as a banal and everyday encounter. Along the way, he dramatizes the ancient insight (forming the great, underlying claim of Plato’s “Republic”) that evil corrodes and ultimately devastates the soul of the evildoer himself.
- May 15, 2019 How to Establish a Prayer RuleEstablishing and maintaining a prayer rule does not have to be an onerous experience, one that is more likely to fail than succeed, writes St. Theophan the Recluse. We need a prayer rule because we need discipline, but that discipline has to be doable, one that delivers the fruits of prayer and not one that drives us to frustration, or worse, despair, because we don't have the strength to maintain it.
- May 4, 2019 Understanding OrthodoxyDogma, Fr. John Romanides taught, exists to guide the faithful and to safeguard against false teaching. Dogmas don't contain the substance of the encounter with God, they describe and direct it. Dogma itself must be experienced, lit with the fire of Divine Life to effect salvation -- the healing, redemption, and restoration -- of the believer. Theology, in other words, must be living, and a living theology is exemplified by a life in and with Christ as the Apostles experienced it in the early centuries of the Church.
- May 2, 2019 Christ Has Risen Within Your Heart!In 1978, Fr George Calciu delivered seven courageous homilies, one on each Wednesday of Lent, addressing the youth of Romania, knowing that his defiance would earn him even more long years of communist imprisonment. These became monuments of resistance to the tyranny of communism, and stirred the heart of a nation with the words: “What do you know of Christ, young man? If all you know is what they have taught you in atheism classes, you have been deprived [of] the only truth that can set you free.”
- April 24, 2019 It’s Pascha, Not Easter!The right word can make the meaning of something clear, and the wrong word can obscure or even hide its real meaning. The right word for the celebration of the resurrection of Christ is the Greek word "Pascha" which means "Passover" in English. It opens up the rich and necessary association of Christ as the "Pashal Lamb" with the paschal lamb of Exodus and the flight of the children of Abraham from the tyranny of Pharoah.
- April 17, 2019 The Symbolism of Palm SundayAlthough it was an historical event that took place at a particular time and place, Our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem has other dimensions as well. For example, it fulfills in a remarkable way the clear and precise prophecy of the Prophet Zacharias. But beyond this, it also has a mystical, symbolical meaning addressing the salvation of each of us. St Nikolai Velimirovich explicates here the rich symbolism of Christ’s mystical entry into the “spiritual Jerusalem" of the soul.
- April 12, 2019 The Life of Our Venerable Mother Mary of EgyptThis Life of Our Venerable Mother Mary of Egypt was written down in the seventh century by Saint Sophronios, Patriarch of Jerusalem, some hundred years after the repose of the holy Mary, who fell asleep in the Lord April 1, 522.
- April 1, 2019 An Independent OperatorThe Leo Ray Miller he had sown that night at the reception sprouted and spread like an ugly weed. It grew up through the cracks of whatever lies he told himself. It choked every intention, it poisoned every relationship and turned every so-called good deed into a self-serving con. He wanted to believe. There had to be some relief beyond his short-term capacity to fool himself. He wanted hope.
- March 25, 2019 The Teaching of St Gregory Palamas: Theosis is Possible Through the Uncreated Energies Of GodA central Christian teaching lost to Western Christianity is that man can partake in the energies of God, the direct life of God Himself manifested through His Holy Spirit. Salvation here is understood, expressed, and experienced as something much more than moral improvement.
- March 19, 2019 What is Orthodox the Orthodox Church? A Two Minute Crash Course [VIDEO]As someone who grew up the son of Evangelicals, Fr. Andrew has firsthand experience with discovering the Orthodox faith. In this short video Fr. Andrew relates a lot of what needs to be said.
- March 12, 2019 Getting Serious For 40 Days: An introduction to the Great Canon of St. AndrewThe Canon of St. Andrew, the nine ode prayer of repentance written by St. Andrew of Crete in the early 700's, is the customary way Orthodox Christians around the world enter the penitential season of Lent.
- March 5, 2019 Is Music Sacred?If there is no pre-existing, intelligible order to go out to and apprehend, and to search through for what lies beyond it – which is the Creator – what then is music supposed to express? If external order does not exist, then music collapses in on itself and degenerates into an obsession with techniques. Any ordering of things, musical or otherwise, becomes purely arbitrary.
- March 3, 2019 Voyage of the Prodigal: A Poem by Mary LowellAnd the young man came to himself and said "I will return to my father's house."
- March 3, 2019 Never Too Late: A Homily for the Sunday of the Prodigal SonThe parable of the prodigal son is one of the most remarkable stories in all of world literature and rich with multiple meanings. But perhaps the most powerful, encouraging message may be summarized in just four words: “It’s never too late!”
- February 22, 2019 St. John Chrysostom: Turn Your Home Into HeavenSt. John Chrysostom wrote, “Turn your home into heaven; you will do this not when you change the walls or rebuild the foundation, but when you invite the Almighty Lord to your repast. God never disregards any kind of supper. Where there is spiritual science, there is humility, sincerity and modesty. Where the husband, and the wife, and the children are in accord and united by the bonds of virtue, there is Christ among them.”
- February 16, 2019 Journey to Pascha 2019Hats off to Byantine TX for publishing this handy guide for Lent and Holy Week and a special thank you to Fr. Jonathan Bannon of Christ The Savior Orthodox in Rockford Illinois who created it. The guide outlines this penitential period in ways easy to comprehend and digest! The "How to Participate" section is especially valuable for inculcating simple practices into our daily life that bring Christ to mind.
- February 11, 2019 Orthodoxy in the USA: Its Historical Past and PresentFr. Seraphim Rose (1934-1982), a convert to Orthodoxy and whose story mirrors that of many Americans looking for a way out of the superficiality that characterizes much of the American religious landscape, left writings that guide pilgrims even today.
- February 1, 2019 How Western Urban Planning Fueled War in the Middle EastThe 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 Mideast began to change. Modernist buildings and the mania for vehicles, roads and motion eroded the native traditions of custom and creed that guided the growth of the Eastern cities for centuries.
- January 22, 2019 God’s Commandments as Divine EnergiesDrawing upon the Patristic distinction between God’s transcendent and hidden essence (ousia), and His energies (energeia,) which are operative and manifest throughout creation, we can understand God’s commandments not as formal dictates but as His own energies addressing us personally and inviting us to be “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4) The commandments, then, are not merely or even primarily moral but transformative and ontological, concerning our very being.
- January 16, 2019 Our Society Needs Stoic Values More Than Ever: A Response to the New APA GuidelinesThe Early Fathers of the Church drew upon the philosophy of Stoicism, not only by appropriating certain elements of its philosophical lexicon, but also in shaping the Church’s articulation of moral virtues. Questioning from a secular perspective recent criticisms of “traditional masculinity” for its “stoic” restraint of the passions, this essay effectually defends the moral vision of ancient Christianity against detractors in professional psychology and other behavioral sciences.
- January 5, 2019 The Christmas Oratorio Finale by Metropolitan Hilarion AlfeyevThe finale of the Christmas Oratorio composed by Met. Hilarion Alfeyev, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church and performed by the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra in 2007. One might ask where he finds that time to compose music given his busy schedule. Met. Hilarion responds that much of his writing occurs during layovers in airports because of his frequent international travels.
- December 30, 2018 Grace Flows into the ValleysChrist's entry into the world, particularly in the way He entered us, reveals how humility overthrows all worldly presumption and the contrivances of the powerful so that grace might fill the world.
- December 24, 2018 The New South Wales Christmas Bush: Indigenizing Orthodoxy to AustraliaAs Orthodoxy becomes rooted in areas far from its Mediterranean homelands, it is important to keep seeking ways to articulate the eternal truths of faith in the languages and imagery of these new lands.
- December 18, 2018 Reverent Wonder: Two Poems on the Nativity of ChristIt is no accident that most of the language used in the Orthodox services is poetic. Good poetry has the ability to take us into the depths of things much more powerfully than prose. These two Nativity poems by Mary Lowell penetrate a mother's reverent wonder at the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
- December 9, 2018 Loud Storms Surround Me, But My Heart is Tranquil: Selected Sayings of the Hieroconfessor Roman MedvedSometimes the trials and irritations of everyday life seem almost impossible to bear gracefully, and at such times we may wonder how it would be possible to endure a far more harsh and hostile environment, such as a Soviet Gulag.
- December 1, 2018 What is the Difference Between Orthodoxy and the Western Confessions?The irreducible difference between Orthodox Christianity and the Western Confessions (Roman Catholicism and Protestantism) writes Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky) is that the former understands Christianity as first ascetic effort and the latter perceives it as moral perfection. Orthodoxy sees it differently.
- November 24, 2018 The End of Identity: Charles Williams, Sex Robots, and Hell“What is hell?” Elder Zosima asks in Dosteovsky’s "The Brothers Karamazov." His answer draws from St Isaac the Syrian’s “Ascetic Homilies,” a book that Dostoevsky kept by his bedside: Hell is “the suffering of being no longer able to love.”
- November 19, 2018 St. Paisios of Mt. Athos on Love and Kindness“He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is love” (I John 4:8). So explains St John, Beloved of Christ. Love is at the center of our Orthodox faith, and indeed as the epistle reminds us, at the center of being itself. Assembled here is a selection of short sayings or aphorism from St Paisios of Mt Athos, whose love for God, for his fellow humanity, and for creation itself is unsurpassed in modern times.
- November 7, 2018 Holy Tradition is a Living Voice of Revelation: An Interview with Elder Cleopa of RomaniaGod speaks to man writes Elder Cleopa and His living voice is the means of His self-revelation to man. God’s word was first passed on orally and constitutes what we call Holy Tradition and only later written as scripture, both Old and New Testaments.
- October 28, 2018 Why We Are So LonelyMany are familiar with the celebrated “boiled frog” fable (real frogs are smarter than this) in which the amphibian is placed in a beaker of water that is gradually heated until the animal is boiled alive. Even though it could easily leap to freedom, the progressive hostility of its environment is so gradual that it never quite notices. Hieromonk Gabriel helps us in this article to see just how abnormal the environment is that we inhabit, along with a brief history of how this came to pass, noting such ills as the decline of the family and the disintegration of social bonds, along with the rise of secularism and the privatization of religion.
- October 20, 2018 Amazing Letters of German Princess Who Was Slain By Bolsheviks and Became Russian SaintI have to do things as they do, go through the same troubles. I have to be strong enough to comfort them and inspire by my own example. I’m neither intelligent nor gifted, I have nothing but love for Christ, but I’m weak. We can only express our love for him and our faithfulness by comforting people around us. --Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna.
- October 11, 2018 The Basics of Spiritual Life, Based on the Writings of St. Ignatius (Brianchaninov) Part IThe essence of any religion is contained in the spiritual life, which is its most sacred side. Entry into this life demands not only good intentions, but also knowledge of the laws of spiritual life. But to acquire this knowledge in an age of spiritual confusion requires clear guidance.
- October 1, 2018 The Preaching of ColumnsWe suffer an age of redoubled iconoclasm. It is not the image-smashing of Constantinople, the Reformation’s rage against papist altars in Germany, nor the vandal-piety of Vatican II that plunders its own treasures. It is a militant renovation of the very meaning of beauty which shuns “the aesthetic value of a building” as belonging to an obsolete culture of symbolic frills.
- September 25, 2018 You are as Prone to Love as the Sun is to ShineThomas 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.
- September 16, 2018 The Night that Changed My LifeIn 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 to enforce.
- September 14, 2018 The Abolition of ManC.S. Lewis warns that refashioning man according to newly fabricated norms will result not only in the perpetual tyranny of those elites who have invented the new norms, but in the abolition of humanity itself.
- September 7, 2018 Tips on Prayer from St. Theophan the RecluseSt. Theophan teaches the basics of prayer in ways easy to understand and apply. Those who practice this will soon master the skill of ascending to God in their hearts.
- August 30, 2018 Pray First, Then Mow! Modern Life at the Convent of St. Thecla and the DormitionDespite the abundance of recent news on Russia, much of it false or distorted, little attention has been shown to the remarkable renaissance of Orthodox Christianity in that country. Yet during less than thirty years since the fall of the Soviet Union, the number of churches in Russia has risen from less than 500 to nearly 40,000—about four new or restored churches per day! This moving account of how two faithful Orthodox nuns restored an abandoned church, and helped revitalize the Orthodox faith in a small village along the way, is typical of thousands of wonderful stories that lie behind this resurgence.
- August 22, 2018 Toll Houses: After Death Reality or Heresy?In this interview with Kevin Allen, now newly reposed, Fr. Thomas Hopko offers a balanced and insightful discussion of the doctrine of the aerial tollhouses that the Church has traditionally taught we will encounter after our death. The toll houses have been the theme of recent debates so often assuming extreme positions that some have become skeptical of the issue altogether, setting it aside as undecidable.
- August 18, 2018 Ye Shall Be As Gods: The Nature of LawlessnessLawlessness 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 overthrow of all traditional political, moral, and spiritual authority.
- August 4, 2018 What is Prelest?Prelest (in Greek, “plani”) is the spiritual correlate of high blood pressure: its progression is slow and silent, and it often goes unnoticed until it reaches a deadly stage. From our friends at Orthochristian.com, here are two articles on prelest (or spiritual delusion) that discuss both its dangers and preventatives against it.
- July 26, 2018 Chesterton and the Noble Value of Declaring EnemiesFor the ancient philosopher Heraclitus, πóλεμος (polemos or strife) is “the father of all things,” an aphorism that seeks not to encourage actual warfare, but rather to acknowledge that conflict and struggle in one form or another bring to light what is finer and higher. Lest this be shocking, we should remember that Christ Himself reminds us that He came not “to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34), while urging his followers to sell their garments if need be, in order to buy a sword (Luke 22:36). At the very least, we may conclude that the Kingdom of God is worth fighting for. Addressing our age of “conflict resolution” that seeks to melt everything into a bland aggregation, and that praises accommodation while pursuing annihilation, Jesse Cone discusses G. K. Chesterton’s depiction of how opposing one’s enemy can ennoble both parties, while at the same time revealing the sacred. This insight is sorely lacking in today’s political, ethical, and cultural discussions, he argues, and we would benefit from rediscovering it since it reaffirms the vital importance of the sacred in our lives and safeguards our human dignity.
- July 20, 2018 The Transhumanism Revolution: Oppression Disguised as LiberationTranshumanism 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.
- July 15, 2018 One Hundred Years Since the Murder of the Russian Royal FamilyTuesday, 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.
- July 11, 2018 The Importance and Power of WordsWe 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.
- July 4, 2018 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.
- June 28, 2018 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!
- June 27, 2018 Fr. Patrick Viscuso Commencement Address: Counsels to Seminary GraduatesWhat 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.
- June 24, 2018 The Meaning of Holy Chrism and Holy UnctionThe 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.
- June 18, 2018 The Unbearable Essentializing of Being: Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s Sorrowful Joy of SexSexual 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.
- June 13, 2018 Love is Giving Yourself to Another, That He Might Live By YouReaders 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.
- June 9, 2018 On SuicideOrthodoxy 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.
- June 5, 2018 An Open Letter to a “Gay-Rights” AdvocateFrom 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.
- June 2, 2018 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.
- May 29, 2018 Pastoral Ponderings: The Analogy of FreedomHuman freedom is an experience before it is a concept. Indeed, even as concept, freedom is extremely elusive.
- May 25, 2018 Myth of EnchantmentBy 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 […]
- May 17, 2018 Everlasting Joy: A Sermon by Fr. Pavel FlorenskyThere 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. . .
- May 12, 2018 A Friend is Revealed in Times of TroubleIn 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.
- May 3, 2018 Islam: Through the Heart and Mind of a Convert to Orthodox Christianity – Part 1Part 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.
- May 3, 2018 Islam: Through the Heart and Mind of a Convert to Orthodox Christianity – Part 2Part 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.
- April 25, 2018 An Unpublished Life of Fr. Seraphim Rose, Written By His GodfatherA 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.
- April 21, 2018 The Spirituality of Everyday LifeArchbishop 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.”
- April 18, 2018 Zombies, Monsters and a Dog-Headed SaintEven as we bask in the light of Christ’s Holy Resurrection, we begin to look ahead to Pentecost, to the Fire of the Holy Spirit coming down from above, giving us a new, true center. This is crucial in a darkening era obsessed with monsters, with the strange, with aliens, with the marginal, with things that do not fit. In a nihilistic world that is losing its center, where zombies wander aimlessly, we discover the icon of St Christopher, himself often portrayed monstrously with the head of a dog, yet as carrying Christ Himself. St Christopher reveals a bridge to the very ends of the earth, over which the Light of Christ and the Fire of the Holy Spirit can be carried further into the darkness than we ever thought possible.
- April 12, 2018 On the Essential Identity of Ecumenism and PhyletismFar from being enemies or correctives of each other, ecumenism and phyletism are two sides of the same coin of secularism. Both deny the catholicity of the One Church and both seek to recognize in its place a "divided" Church, whether it be along ethnic or denominational lines. Both reduce the Church to the sociological and historical level. Speaking much of love, each in their own way (for nation or world), both are revealed as bereft of love for his neighbor's salvation, for they leave him in his delusion and error, the one by erecting an ethnic roadblock, the other denying him the narrow path.
- April 8, 2018 Delivered to Immortality: A Paschal Homily of St Justin (Popovich) of ChelijeMan sentenced God to death; but by His Holy Resurrection, God sentenced man to immortality. In return for a beating, He gives an embrace; in return for abuse, a blessing; for death, immortality. Man never showed so much hate for God as when he crucified Him; and God never showed more love for man than when He arose. Man even wanted to reduce God to a mortal, but God by His Resurrection made man immortal. By the Resurrection of the God-Man, human nature has been led irreversibly onto the path of immortality, and has become dreadful to death itself.
- April 6, 2018 A Godly Contemplative Meditation on the Most Holy Sufferings of Our Lord Jesus ChristWith this text, Another City inaugurates a new feature of our journal, in which we offer the reader substantial portions (typically chapters) of books (many of them recently published) that we believe hold a particular importance for Orthodox Christians. Here, thanks to St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, we encounter one of the most important but strangely neglected saints and devotional writers of Russian Orthodoxy, St Dimitri of Rostov.
- April 5, 2018 Words to Warm the Heart. A Review of “Jesus Crucified: The Baroque Spirituality of St Dimitri of Rostov”St Vladimir’s Seminary Press has inaugurated its new series, “Treasures of Orthodox Spirituality,” with this sparkling introduction to the very distinctive spirituality of St Dimitri of Rostov (1651-1709), a figure whose eloquence earned him during his lifetime the title “Russia’s Chrysostom.”
- March 29, 2018 Homily on the Entrance of the Lord into JerusalemOur Lord Jesus Christ was met not as a king of earthly glory, but as a spiritual King. They shouted to Him, “Hosanna!”, which means “save us”. They saw in Him a Savior and leader toward higher glory.
- March 29, 2018 The Rising of Lazarus: A Sermon by Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom)Each one of us can be a friend of God, as Lazarus was called, and in each one of us this friend of God once lived. And then in the process of living, as a flower fades, as the forces of life, hope, joy, purity dwindle, so the strength of the Lord’s friend dwindles, and many a time we feel as though he is lying as in a coffin somewhere inside us.
- March 26, 2018 Listen to “Suprasl” — Orthodox Chant Discovered from a Lost 16th Century Illuminated Manuscript [VIDEO]As Holy Week approaches and we prepare ourselves both spiritually and physically for a demanding time of salvific drama and cosmic triumph, we offer a truly heavenly rendition of the “Cherubic Hymn” by Anatoly Grindenko and the Russian Patriarchate Choir, taken from their sublimely beautiful album “Suprasl.”
- March 24, 2018 Homily on the AnnunciationFor the Virgin was not like the earth, which contributed to the creation of man but did not bring it about, for it merely offered itself as matter to the Creator and was only acted upon and did not do anything. But those things which drew the Artificer Himself to earth and which moved His creative hand did she provide from within herself, being the author thereof.
- March 23, 2018 St. Mary of Egypt: Hagiography, Hymn, and ReflectionThe Fifth Sunday of Lent normally commemorates St Mary of Egypt, once a harlot in sixth century Alexandria, but by the grace of God, one of our most endearing and enduring saints.
- March 20, 2018 The Embryo in Orthodox Christian Theology and TraditionAs we approach the Feast of the Annunciation, we may recall the words of the Troparion for the feast: “Today is the beginning of our salvation, the revelation of the eternal mystery! The Son of God becomes the Son of the Virgin.” That is, Christ becomes incarnate as fully man at the time of His conception, and so too did each one of us become fully man at the time of our own conception.
- March 17, 2018 A Sermon of Metropolitan Philaret on the Sunday of St John of the LadderRemember, Christian soul, that the ascent to heaven is indispensable for anyone who wishes to save his soul unto eternity. Our Lord Jesus Christ said: "Strive to enter in through the narrow gate." That is, the Christian ought to be an ascetic. Not only the monastic, but every Christian.
- March 14, 2018 Selections from The Ladder of Divine AscentThe Ladder of Divine Ascent is a powerful and foundational work of Orthodox asceticism and it is one of the few universal classics of world spirituality. It is the inspiration from a renowned icon, pictured along with this article, and it lent its name to its author, St John of Sinai, more commonly known as St John Climacus or St John of the Ladder.
- March 13, 2018 Tending Time in LentSecond and finally, focusing on time helps us remember that repenting—i.e. turning back toward God—begins on a small scale, the scale of moments and minutes.
- March 10, 2018 The Cross as a Means of Sanctification and Transformation of the WorldJust as the body of the Lord was sanctified through the Cross, so our own bodies are sanctified, along with our relationship with the world and the world itself. The Cross is the power of Christ that, if we adopt it, can bring the world to paradise. It is the cleansing force of the universe.
- March 9, 2018 Yucatan Shrimp: A Dish for LentThis dish is extremely easy, takes only a few minutes to prepare, and is so delicious it will make you forget about meat altogether—perfect Lenten fare. It would go well with rice or perhaps vermicelli, but it’s terrific on its own.
- March 8, 2018 Orthodox Spirituality 101: A Primer with BenchmarksLent is that time during the Christian Year when we can all, to some humble degree, emulate the life of monastics — attending numerous services during the week along with the usual Saturday Vespers and the Divine Liturgy on Sunday.not to mention keeping the Great Lenten Fast, all of this together with our Orthodox brothers and sisters.
- March 3, 2018 The Message of the Teachings of Saint Gregory Palamas for our TimeThe second Sunday in Lent honors St Gregory Palamas (a c. 1296—1359), whose life and writings have decisively shaped our understanding of Orthodox Christianity. But despite his influence in defining the Orthodox mindset, the essentials of his thought and spiritual vision are not widely understood.
- March 2, 2018 Saint Seraphim of Sarov on the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit: A Conversation with Motovilov"The Lord has revealed to me," said the great elder Seraphim, "that in your childhood you had a great desire to know the aim of our Christian life, and that you have continually asked many great spiritual persons about it." "But no one," continued St. Seraphim, "has given you a precise answer."
- February 24, 2018 Homily on the Triumph of Orthodoxy by St. Tikhon of Moscow Delivered in San Francisco in 1903This sermon, delivered in 1903 on the Sunday of Orthodoxy (first Sunday of Great Lent) at the Cathedral Church in San Francisco, presents the missionary call to which all are exhorted, which itself is part-and-parcel with the gift of the Church that all Orthodox have received. It is perhaps even more timely today than when it was first delivered.
- February 23, 2018 Akathist Hymn For The Repose Of Those Who Have Fallen AsleepIllumined with the effulgence of the Most High, the venerable Macarius heard a voice issue forth from a skull, saying: “When ye pray for those suffering in hades, even the heathen experience relief.” O the wondrous power of Christian prayers, whereby light doth penetrate even the uttermost depths! Yea, even unbelievers receive consolation with the faithful when we chant for the whole world: Alleluia!
- February 18, 2018 On Fasting: A Stranger’s TaleCollect concrete, living insights and understanding, the priest told the young man, as best you can, drawn upon your vital experience with God and not from books. Read, pray, give to the poor, do labor on behalf of someone who cannot do it, all in secret, if possible...Of all these things, fasting seemed the most puzzling, perhaps because it seemed to have so little connection with morality, with being good and righteous, and he had always heard that religion was about being moral and good. But at the same time, this had always given him a certain disdain for Christianity, which seemed quite unnecessary as an aid to being good and upright (we all have our own “virtuous atheists’ to exhibit).
- February 15, 2018 Time, Eternity, and RedemptionHegel argued that history was at an end, a final culmination. This belief was embraced both by the cultural left (Marx and his successors, promoting “liberation” and revolution to realize this end) and the cultural right (most recently espoused by Neo-conservative Francis Fukuyama, whose End of History promotes a global hegemony of capitalism and liberalism). Both parties are convinced they are “on the right side of history.” Both thereby “immanentize the eschaton,” i.e. both insert the Kingdom of God into history itself.
- February 15, 2018 Beauty and Desecration: We must rescue art from the modern intoxication with uglinessIt is not merely that artists, directors, musicians, and others connected with the arts are in flight from beauty. Wherever beauty lies in wait for us, there arises a desire to preempt its appeal, to smother it with scenes of destruction. Hence the many works of contemporary art that rely on shocks administered to our failing faith in human nature—such as the crucifix pickled in urine by Andres Serrano. Hence the scenes of cannibalism, dismemberment, and meaningless pain with which contemporary cinema abounds, with directors like Quentin Tarantino having little else in their emotional repertories.
- February 11, 2018 Prayer: An Ever-New CreationPrayer is infinite creation, far superior to any form of art or science. Through prayer we enter into communion with Him that was before all worlds. Or, to put it in another way, the life of the Self-existing God flows into us through the channel of prayer. True prayer uniting us with the Most-High is nothing other than light and strength coming down to us from heaven. In its essence it transcends our plane of existence. True prayer to the true God is contact with the Divine Spirit which prays in us.
- February 9, 2018 Our Secular TheodicyThe politics of gender, sexuality, race, and immigration are increasingly eschatological. Their power and appeal depend on the belief that they advance a liberating moral narrative, inspiring a secular Exodus that will lead to a secular Pentecost. To adopt this creed is to join a chosen people, a royal priesthood, and a holy nation It does not bear witness to God, but to the belief that we can be like gods.
- February 6, 2018 Sexual Sin, Powerlessness, and CommunionSexual sins foster isolation and shame. Healing comes through a surrender to reality, a coming to the senses much like the Prodigal Son before his turning back to the Father. Communion with the self, others, and God must can be restored.
- February 1, 2018 On The Feast of the PresentationThe Presentation of Christ in the Temple. The Meeting of the Lord. The Purification of the Virgin. Candlemas. Why does this Feast have four names? Fr Andrew Philips tells us why.
- January 30, 2018 Different Light: Youthful Travelers in AmericaTwentieth-century readers knew Kerouac’s On the Road and Jack London’s earlier hobo classic, The Road, but how many of us know what the 21st-century counter-culture is up to, their life-styles and aspirations? We see the tattoos, nose-rings, attitudes, but do we hear the cries of the heart from young people searching for truth?
- January 28, 2018 St. Paisios: How the Jesus Prayer Differs from the Hindu MantraOne of the greatest spiritual gifts that Elder Paisios gave me was his guidance along the mystical path of the Jesus Prayer. This started at the beginning of our acquaintance and continued until his repose twelve years later.
- January 26, 2018 Our Journey to Pascha! A Quick and Easy Guide to Lent and Holy WeekWhen we saw this chart at Byzantine, TX, we couldn’t resist sharing it with our readers, many of whom will have seen it already.
- January 24, 2018 Why Orthodox Men Love ChurchIn a time when churches of every description are faced with Vanishing Male Syndrome, men are showing up at Eastern Orthodox churches in numbers that, if not numerically impressive, are proportionately intriguing. This may be the only church which attracts and holds men in numbers equal to women.
- January 17, 2018 The Orthodox World-ViewOrthodoxy is life. If we don’ t live Orthodoxy, we simply are not Orthodox, no matter what formal beliefs we might hold.
- January 12, 2018 Who’s Mary Magdalene?“I guess it really was all for nothing…” Marina worried. Her daughter had distanced herself from her. Why has her daughter squandered the warmth and comfort the Church offerred; why has she lost her strong, childhood faith?
- January 10, 2018 Meaning, Behavior, and Upright Apes: Why Materialism Doesn’t WorkHuman life within materialism can be described as a moment of consciousness sandwiched between eternal oblivion—it is a flicker of time expended within the ultimate reality of a non-conscious universe. In atheistic materialism, evil is nothing more than the expressed opinion of some upright apes who don’t like the behavior of certain other apes, or some particular aspects of nature.
- January 8, 2018 Kontakion for the Holy TheophanyToday you have appeared to the whole world, and your light, O Lord, has made a sign upon us who, with knowledge, sing your praise, You have come, you have appeared, the unapproachable Light
- January 3, 2018 On the Baptism of ChristWhile John is baptizing, Jesus approaches, perhaps also to sanctify the baptizer, and certainly to bury the old Adam in the water. But before these things and for the sake of these things he comes to sanctify the Jordan [and all creation].
- December 29, 2017 Looking for the Real Jesus? Try the GospelsWould anyone, after reading about the “Real Jesus” in the National Geographic Society magazine, fall upon his knees in worship and adoration? Or would the reader just say, “Huh. Wonder what that was all about?”
- December 27, 2017 On the Mystery of the IncarnationThe divine Logos, who once for all was born in the flesh, out of his love for humanity always desires to be born in the spirit in those who desire Him. He becomes an infant and molds Himself in them through the virtues.
- December 25, 2017 On the Nativity of ChristOnce more the darkness is dispersed; once more the light is created. Let the people that sat in the darkness of ignorance now look upon the light of knowledge. The things of old have passed away; behold, all things are made new. He who has no mother in heaven is now born without a father on earth.
- December 23, 2017 Rod Dreher’s Christmas Toasted Cornbread-Pecan DressingMy favorite part of holiday dinners is not the turkey or the ham, but the cornbread dressing. It's been like that for me since my childhood in the rural South.
- December 22, 2017 Why Early Appalachian Settlers Originally Celebrated Christmas in JanuaryWere the Scots-Irish who settled in the Appalachian mountains America's first Old Calendarists? Until the last century they celebrated Christmas on January 7. Here's why.
- December 19, 2017 The Danger of AngerAnger feels good. Like lust, it feels important and undeniable. Something so strong, we think, ought to be expressed. And once you express it, the emotional thrill is addictive, and you want more and more.
- December 12, 2017 The Poverty of European CivilizationSt. Nikolai: WWI had revealed the poverty of European civilization and brought to shame all those who used to bow before Europe's silken shining mask that hides an inner ugliness.
- December 12, 2017 The Revolutionary Mentality is the Confusion of our TimeThe ideas of the Brazilian philosopher Olavo de Carvalho provide important tools not only to analyze, but to criticize and resist the destructive current cultural currents of our time. Many of these currents spring from the ideologies that oppressed the people of Europe.
- December 12, 2017 Christ and CultureFlorensky maintains here that the whole of modern culture is nothing but a state of chronic rebellion against God, and that without clearly recognizing this it will be impossible to alter this course of civilization.
- December 12, 2017 The TunnelThey call it the tunnel, there in the shadows under the elevated train that runs up above Kensington Avenue. They call the boys and girl who work there tunnel-boys, or tunnel-girls, selling themselves for eight to ten bags a night. . .
- December 12, 2017 The Origins of AdventIn the Eastern Orthodox Church, the penitential season corresponding to Western Advent begins on November 15, the day after the Feast of the Apostle Philip. A simple count of the days between November 15 and December 25 shows that this special period lasts exactly 40 days, the same as Lent.
- December 12, 2017 Patriarch Kirill and Russian Orthodoxy Deserve Respect Not Insults: An Open Letter to George WeigelGeorge Weigel's unfounded, insulting accusations against the senior leaders of the Russian Orthodox Church.
- December 12, 2017 A Miracle by Elder PaissiosIt was as if the weight of the prayers lifted somehow, something I call “calling in the cavalry” – an American term that means that we are joined by fighters on horseback who sit higher and see the battlefield more clearly and make the prospect of victory tangible.
- December 12, 2017 Is “Write” Wrong? A Discussion of Icon TerminologyWhy does the question whether icons are written or painted even arise? The answer lies in the differences between the English and the Russian languages.
- December 12, 2017 Basis of the Social Concept of the Russian Orthodox ChurchTo address the needs of the Russian Church recovering from Communist oppression, this unique manifesto insightfully raises cultural, theological, and ecclesio-social issues that will be of compelling interest to Christians everywhere.
- December 12, 2017 It is Only Possible to Love Individual Persons, not Humanity in General“Mankind” or “the people” does not exist as a person for whom you could do something right now.
- December 12, 2017 How to Read and Study DostoevskyDostoevsky’s novels are relatively accessible, and they are usually quite engaging, so most readers are able to plunge right in without preliminaries. Two obstacles, however, should be noted at the outset.
- December 12, 2017 Orthodox Leadership in a Brave New WorldWhat is philosophical materialism? To use Solzhenitsyn’s definition, it is the belief that man has no transcendent referent. "To such consciousness, man is the touchstone in judging and evaluating everything on earth . . . "
- December 12, 2017 Palestinian HummusHummus bi tahini is an ancient dish characteristic of the Eastern Mediterranean, and when made without olive oil (try grape seed of avocado oil) a classic fasting food. You can now buy it in the store, but it is so much better when made fresh. Suha tells you how.
- December 12, 2017 Impulsivity and Self-Control: The Problem of Being of Two MindsThe Apostle James wrote, “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). Being of two minds, or more literally of two souls (δίψυχος). . . makes overcoming impulsivity especially challenging.
- December 12, 2017 Original Sin According to St. PaulIn 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.
- December 12, 2017 The Divine Liturgy as Mystical ExperienceThere 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.”
- September 17, 2017 Nature and City in the Greek EastThe 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.
- January 2, 2017 Frederica Mathewes-Green: An Overview of the Divine Liturgy [VIDEOS]Frederica Mathewes-Green is perhaps the most lucid expositor of Orthodox Christianity in North America, and she serves as a contributing editor for Another City. This video on the Divine Liturgy answers questsions which are of interest not just to inquirers, but to the cradle Orthodox as well.
- January 1, 2017 Frederica Mathewes-Green: Topics in Orthodox Christianity [VIDEOS]Frederica Mathewes-Green is perhaps the most lucid expositor of Orthodox Christianity in North America, and she serves as a contributing editor for Another City. These videos address a wide range of issues which are of interest not just to inquirers, but to the cradle Orthodox as well.