Morality for the materialist (or physicalist) must be a form of subterfuge, a sleight of hand. You have to forget the foundation on which it stands. Once that forgetfulness is in place, then the dialogue can progress as if it were referring to real things rather than contrivances that arise from the neurons of a walking bag of chemicals. Nihilism is compatible with materialism … [Read more...] about Meaning, Behavior, and Upright Apes: Why Materialism Doesn’t Work
Philosophy & Theology
The Origins of Advent
In the Roman Catholic Church and other Christian churches of the West, the several weeks prior to Christmas are known as Advent, a name from a Latin word meaning "coming." It happens that the beginning of Advent always falls on the Sunday closest to November 30, the ancient feast day (in both East and West) of the Apostle Andrew. Among Christians in the West, this preparatory … [Read more...] about The Origins of Advent
How to Read and Study Dostoevsky
I. Difficulties in Reading Dostoevsky Dostoevsky's novels are relatively accessible, and they are usually quite engaging, so most readers are able to plunge right in without preliminaries.1 Two obstacles, however, should be noted at the outset. The first is an obvious one: between the many diminutives and nicknames, as well as the "patronyms" (derived from the father's first … [Read more...] about How to Read and Study Dostoevsky
Original Sin According to St. Paul
Fr John Romanides was one of the last century’s most important Orthodox theologians, and this essay anticipates many of his later formulations. He argues here that we cannot understand the remedy for sin unless we correctly understand sin itself, and to do this we must abandon the narrowly “moral” understanding of sin that has been predominant in the West, … [Read more...] about Original Sin According to St. Paul
The Divine Liturgy as Mystical Experience
Read at a conference on “Philosophy and Mysticism,” Institute of Philosophy, Moscow, Russia, May 2014, and the first annual meeting of the Society of Orthodox Philosophers in Europe, Fulda, Germany, June 2014. Worship as the Repository of the Faith Eastern Orthodoxy holds what may appear to the non-Orthodox to be a remarkably exalted view of the status and … [Read more...] about The Divine Liturgy as Mystical Experience