Icons are an essential part of the Orthodox life, and so are found in all Orthodox Churches. Some churches have just a few icons on the icon screen up front, while other churches have every inch of wall space covered with icons, but all...
Having looked at the development of angelology in the Scriptures and the figure of the Angel of the Lord, we conclude this series by talking about the role of angels in the life of the Christian. Their importance can be gauged by their...
In our last post we looked at the long process whereby angelology developed in the Bible. Now we will look at one particular aspect of this: the mal’ak Yahweh, “Yahweh’s messenger”, usually translated “the Angel of the Lord”.We have...
In order to fully understand angels in the Bible it helps to embrace a bit of temporary amnesia and forget most of what we know about angels. That is because angelology has undergone a long development from its ancient Near Eastern...
A Greek note: the English word “erotic” is derived from the Greek word ἔρως/ eros, defined by the Arndt-Gingrich lexicon as “passionate love”. In Proverbs 7:18 LXX it is used for the adulteress’ forbidden “embrace in eros”; in Proverbs...
At the recent March for Life in Washington, D.C. one person gave a speech. In it he said, “We affirm the gift and sanctity of life—all life, born and unborn. As Christians we confess that every human being is made in the image and...
With the possible literary exception of Tarzan, real men do not climb trees. At least they didn’t in the Middle East in the time of Jesus. Neither did they run. Running was for children, and professional messengers, and soldiers. ...
I have just finished reading a very important and immensely depressing book about the autocephaly of the OCA entitled, The Time Has Come: Debates over the OCA Autocephaly Reflected in St. Vladimir’s Quarterly. It is an important book...
As the Covid pandemic drags on into its third wearying year, the debate regarding the legitimacy of certain government restrictions grows ever more shrill, and people ever more divided. For Christians for whom their primary allegiance...
I begin with a quote from an article that is almost 60 years old, but which has lost none of its timeliness: “Since the Byzantine era, Orthodoxy was always brought to and accepted by whole nations. The only familiar pattern of the...
The Great Prokeimenon, sometimes chanted at Vespers in the Orthodox liturgical tradition, asks the rhetorical question, “Who is so great a God as our God?” I often think that by “great” one might also mean “gutsy”.The gods of other...
Each year one of my favourite Christmas songs is an old novelty song called Snoopy’s Christmas, released in 1967 by the Royal Guardsmen as a follow-up to their previous hit Snoopy vs. the Red Baron. (Those who are too young to have heard...
One sometimes hears the assertion that the Orthodox Church has what has been called “a woman problem”. Usually the assertion comes from people (most often women) from other churches who cannot understand Orthodoxy’s refusal to ordain...
Thirty-eight years ago last Monday, Fr. Alexander Schmemann reposed in the Lord on the feast day of St. Herman of Alaska. His family lost a beloved husband, father, and brother; his Seminary lost a revered teacher, and all the Orthodox...
Second Temple Judaism was a many-splendoured thing. That is, it included many different elements—so many elements in fact that some people talk not just of Judaism, but Judaisms (in the plural). While the use of the plural might be a...
