Fr. 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. Fr. Seraphim was a child of the West who knew its riches along with its soul-destroying pitfalls and marshaled this knowledge … [Read more...] about Orthodoxy in the USA: Its Historical Past and Present
Social Crisis
Our Society Needs Stoic Values More Than Ever: A Response to the New APA Guidelines
The 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 … [Read more...] about Our Society Needs Stoic Values More Than Ever: A Response to the New APA Guidelines
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.” And if the Christian understanding of sexuality places it within the mystery of … [Read more...] about The End of Identity: Charles Williams, Sex Robots, and Hell
Why We Are So Lonely
Many 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 … [Read more...] about Why We Are So Lonely
The Abolition of Man
At a time when radical changes in human nature are being enthusiastically proposed and even demanded in many quarters, envisioning designs to reconfigure humanity in often aberrant ways that are unprecedented in any society, it is wise to listen to an earlier voice. This essay is an abridged edition of a lecture presented by C. S. Lewis on February 26, 1943 at the University of … [Read more...] about The Abolition of Man