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Does anyone give credence any longer to the idea that God is Lord of heaven and earth? Heaven perhaps. But the earth appears to be wholly autonomous, on its own, devoid of any transcendent presence, power or value. Among the peoples of the earth, none have special status, none seem chosen or elect. None are exempt from conflict, tragedy and ultimate…
In his letter to the Galatians, the apostle Paul declares that Christ has set us free for the sake of freedom itself (5:1). Our life in Christ is characterized by freedom, eleutheria, meaning essentially freedom from the constraints of Mosaic law. It is a freedom in the Holy Spirit, which enables us, by grace alone, to live not “according to the…
The Book of Exodus is a story of liberation and salvation accomplished through God’s “mighty acts” on behalf of His people Israel. Beginning with the Lord’s self-revelation to Moses, it constitutes a remarkable epic, not merely of “deliverance,” the meaning of the Book’s title, but of oppression, faith, covenant fidelity between God and His people,…
Some five hundred years before the coming of Christ, the people of Israel found themselves scattered among the nations of the ancient Near East. Their exile into Babylon had come to an end, yet many remained in the diaspora, the great dispersion of God’s elect flock. What united them above all was their longing to return to their homeland, to…
In the prologue to his Gospel, the evangelist John takes up the account of creation given in the first chapter of Genesis, in order to illustrate the story of redemption accomplished by Jesus Christ, the eternal Son and Word of God. “In the beginning,” out of His infinite otherness, with God and as God, the Word comes forth, to create the world and…
In the very beginning, there was nothing. Nothing at all.
There was neither time nor space, neither matter nor energy, neither life nor death. There were no galaxies, no stars or planets; nor were there molecules, atoms, or any of the vast array of subatomic particles that constitute physical reality as we know it. There was nothing.
The concept…
Back in the early 60s I had to catch the subway each morning on the east side of Manhattan, to get to my seminary intern position. From our tiny 6th floor walk-up apartment on York Avenue, I passed by a run down tenement building not far from the mouth of the station. Two or three times a week two guys were huddled against the stoop of the building,…
Often
in our spiritual life we experience a strong and at times overwhelming tension between evil and good, temptation and grace.From at least the time of Zoroaster (6th century B.C.), down through the Qumran community (1QS) and into the early Church (1 John 4:6), these forces have been identified as warring spirits that dwell within the human heart…
Thanksgiving is over and we are moving toward what one of our wise and dedicated priests refers to as “Getmas.” He is as frustrated and dismayed at what exuberant commercialism and American popular religion have done to Christmas as I am with the relentless efforts to transform our national feast of Thanksgiving into “Turkey Day.” These campaigns…
According to the polls, most Americans seem reasonably content with their lives. They are both proud and relieved to live in what many proclaim to be “the greatest nation in the world,” although immigrants aside, most have never lived anywhere else. They take it for granted that free-market capitalism is fundamental to true democracy, and that the…
Any doubts that Mother Teresa of Calcutta was a true saint, a genuinely holy person, have been amply, if ironically, dispelled by revelations of her self-professed doubt and near life-long journey through “the darkness.” Even before her personal journal and letters were published under the title, “Come Be My Light,” a large number of articles on her…
When the syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker writes about religion and society, she tends to be right on the mark. It must cost her dearly in the present atmosphere of myopic “tolerance” and abusive PC. As she and a few other brave souls have pointed out, Western culture today embraces any and every form of religious persuasion, as long as it is…
Best-selling, easy-to-read novels can provide welcome distraction when we’re feeling too tired or cooped-up to concentrate on serious literature. Those potboilers, the kind we find in airport bookstores or on the “For Sale” cart of the local library, serve a useful purpose—at least until they begin to play havoc with basic truths of Christian…
When William Lobdell was assigned to the religion beat at his paper, the Los Angeles Times, he was delighted. A born-again Christian, he was preparing to convert to his wife’s faith, Roman Catholicism. As a reporter, he dedicated himself to “report objectively and respectfully about how belief shapes people’s lives.” His obviously sincere quest,…
When he wrote his various letters to churches around the Mediterranean and throughout Asia Minor, the apostle Paul used a literary convention widespread in the Hellenistic world. He began with a personal identification and blessing, followed by a word of thanksgiving for all that God had accomplished through his ministry in the life of that…
Will God soon have competition from the laboratory? It’s a question increasing numbers of people are asking, given the spate of articles showing up in everything from serious scientific journals (Science, Nature) to Internet blogs. What exactly is going on?
I’m not a scientist, so all I can do is summarize a little of what has appeared recently in…
The center or heart of the Orthodox Divine Liturgy is made up of a triptych that includes the Words of Institution, the Anamnesis or Memorial, and the Epiklesis or invocation of the Holy Spirit. These elements of the Anaphora or Eucharistic Prayer of Consecration express the mystery of divine activity accomplished for the life and salvation of all…
To Orthodox Christians the Eucharist or Holy Communion is the very culmination of our life in Christ. It gives direction and meaning to our entire cycle of liturgical services, all of which ultimately serve to prepare us to receive the life-giving Body and Blood of our risen and glorified Lord. The Eucharist is Christ Himself, “the Bread that came…
A few months ago someone sent me a posting from an Internet site that spoke to the issue of communion among various Christian confessions. In answer to the question why a Protestant believer was refused the sacrament at Easter in her boyfriend’s Catholic parish, the writer declared that non-Catholics do not believe in “the presence of God’s body in…
The so-called Gospel of Judas burst on the popular scene over a year ago. Although scholars had long known of its existence, its presentation by the National Geographic society[1] created a predictable stir, largely because of its apparent challenge to the image of Jesus’ disciple Judas furnished by the canonical Gospels of the New Testament. Those…