“Life in Christ”

Liturgy is in essence worship: praise and glorification of the Holy Trinity. It also serves to glorify the saints and to convey to us the significance of their lives within the Church of their time and ours. This includes important aspects of their teaching. Liturgical services dedicated to the saints provide us with theological understanding, just…

In a remarkable little book entitled Body of Death and of Glory, the French Orthodox theologian and historian, Olivier Clément speaks of the fundamental reason for Christian asceticism.

“Asceticism can only be understood in the perspective of the resurrected, liturgical body. Asceticism signifies the effort to strip away our masks, those neurotic…

Six years ago, the world said “hello” to Dolly, the first mammal to be a-sexually produced through a process of cloning. On February 14, scientists at the Scottish Roslin Institute, where Dolly was created and lived, announced that they had to euthanize Dolly, because she had acquired a progressive and fatal lung disease.

In its report on Dolly’s…

It is a moral and spiritual imperative for Orthodox Christians to consecrate all of their wealth and possessions to God, for His purpose and to His glory. This imperative was given concrete expression by the Old Testament commandment to offer tithes: one tenth of produce and livestock was consecrated to the Lord in imitation of Abram’s offering of a…

Silence is not just the absence of ambient noise.
Nor does it mean the lack of laughter or music or shared reflection.

Silence is a state of mind and heart, a condition of the soul. It is inner stillness.

Silence in heaven reigns amidst joyous song and ceaseless celebration.
It is awe in the presence of the Divine.

Silence in this world leads us…

At the end of each January we commemorate “Sanctity of Life” Sunday and focus our attention on the tragic number of abortions in the United States and elsewhere throughout the world. It’s a time when we again recoil from the realization that the highest abortion rates, as far as we know, occur in “Orthodox” countries. It seems appropriate, then, to…

A defining characteristic of Orthodox Christianity is the intimate and inseparable relationship it preserves between Bible and Liturgy, between divine revelation as the canonical or normative source of our faith, and celebration of that faith in the worship of the Church. Faith, grounded in Scripture, determines the content of our worship; worship…

The mystery of Christ’s Nativity is above all a paschal mystery. Pascha, in our Orthodox tradition, refers first of all to Easter, the feast of Christ’s resurrection from the dead. Yet it refers as well to every image of sacrifice that was revealed during Jesus’ earthly ministry, from His birth, through His baptism and transfiguration, to His…

Prior to the two great fasting periods that prepare Christ’s Nativity (Christmas) and His Resurrection (Pascha), the Sunday lectionary invites us to read the familiar parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37). This passage offers one of the best examples of the way the early Church Fathers moved from a literal to a spiritual reading of the text,…

There is a troubling and fascinating debate going on right now that we should all be at least somewhat familiar with. It concerns our most fundamental vision of God, the world and ourselves. And it has divided Christian against Christian, and Christians against the secular, “post-modern” culture in which we live.

The debate has been expressed in…

Patristic tradition made a distinction between “theology” and other forms of discourse. Theology spoke of God: the being, interpersonal relationships and saving purpose of the Holy Trinity. Other matters fell outside the realm of genuine theology: anthropology, worship, mission, and so forth. Gradually the term “theology” came to embrace all aspects…

How far we have come from that understanding of the purpose of “theology” in the life of the Church! The term implies a divine word, one that derives from and speaks with awesome wonder of the God who is beyond all language because He is beyond all human comprehension. Yet God reveals Himself to us and makes possible our understanding and…

A very active and faithful member of our parish came by the other day and we talked for a while. As she left, she asked a familiar and awfully difficult question: “What translation of the Bible should I read?” In reply, I began as I usually do: “It’s a shame there’s not an Orthodox English translation….”

Although several Orthodox scholars in this…

Orthodox Christians have always known theirs to be a “biblical Church.” The Bible play a key role in virtually every aspect of our life, from personal meditation to the public Liturgy and mission outreach.

Yet it is true that we more often venerate the Bible than read it. We hear it in church, we encourage our children to peruse and even memorize…

Last night I read an article by a well-known Anglican theologian that pointed up the radical difference in world-view that separates him, and people who think as he does, from the Orthodoxy that I treasure.

Well crafted and articulate, the article lays out reasons why the author cannot accept traditional dogmatic statements that speak of God,…

The previous column in this space arose out of a concern for balance in our preaching and teaching of the Gospel, whether from the ambon of our churches, in Bible study groups, or at our children’s (and grandchildren’s) bedsides. In a stress-filled and often threatening world like ours, there is a temptation on the part of many of us to lay…

In a world marked by such things as childhood trauma, terrorist attacks and a collapsing economy, the anxiety level is understandably high.

We have structured our lives in such a way as to shield ourselves as much as possible from the violence, corruption, sickness and death that provoke that anxiety. Yet most of us still live with uncomfortable…

Orthodox Christian life is filled with paradoxes, what the Holy Fathers referred to as antinomies: conflicts between two principles, laws or truths that seem equally valid. An example would be “bondage to sin” and “freedom in the Spirit,” both of which accurately describe the Christian person (Luther’s simul iustus et peccator). Another would be the…

There is an extraordinary beauty in Orthodox trinitarian theology. I all too easily lose sight of that beauty, but it came back to me again the other day after a conversation I had with a non-Orthodox friend.

To his mind, God is beyond any formulation we can make of Him. He is the “wholly Other,” taken literally: a God beyond all creation and all…

I don’t have nightmares very often, but when I do, I wish I hadn’t.

Waking up in a cold sweat, heart pounding away, feeling totally vulnerable—but to what? Often I can’t even remember what I was dreaming about, or if I do, it seems insignificant, silly or absurd.

Sometimes, though, it’s terrifying.

Some nightmares recur frequently enough that…