If you were to ask me the most significant characteristic of modern life as compared to all previous ages I would point to the fact that we hardly ever sing. Or, to state the matter differently, that all modern life is secretly...
An old proverb informs us “History repeats itself”—or, as one wag paraphrased it, “If there is one thing we learn from history is that no one learns anything from history.” Sadly, this is especially true in religious matters.The bit of...
I just learned the day before yesterday through the grapevine that Ancient Faith will be discontinuing its blogs (such as this one) on October 1. The late date of this discovery has not allowed me time to create another blog format for...
Psalm 82, though brief, has attracted much contemporary attention and functions as a kind of lynch pin for a larger narrative about the role of angels. We have looked at the psalm before, but the puzzles and complications of many...
The practice of baptism is a complicated one, with questions being asked about the legitimacy of infant baptism, about what is accomplished in baptism, and about how converts to Orthodoxy should be received—i.e. must all be received by...
The difficulty in understanding the words and life of Moses is that we have a literary embarrassment of riches. There is almost too much material to absorb—or varying the image, the mountain is almost too big to bring within focus. How...
Authentic Orthodox Christianity is opposed to anti-Semitism. That said, the Orthodox Church throughout the world is a far-flung family, not a centrally-controlled cult, so that it cannot police or control every utterance made by its...
Eventually every pastor will be faced with the question of what to do about the theological issue of suicide, either because he will be asked to preside at the funeral of someone who has taken his or her own life, or because he will be...
Our society is not accustomed to hear a word from God; we are unfamiliar with oracles. Instead, we are awash with the words of men—usually fairly worthless words—coming at us from all sides, like incoming missiles in a war zone: texts...
There is a decided dearth of Biblical material on the early life of Abraham (or “Abram” as he was first known). We know that he was with his father Terah when Terah left Ur of the Chaldeans, and that his wife Sarai, and his nephew Lot...
The Orthodox liturgical tradition is very, very old, and still retains vestiges that reflect much older circumstances. For example, immediately prior to the Eucharist proper the deacon cries out to the doorkeeper, “The doors! The...
Lately I have been strolling down memory lane, a favourite haunt of old men. And there I found a group of young children, boisterous boys, preparing to play a game. The game required a leader, and so they engaged in a ritual to...
What is the essence of Orthodoxy?For some it is doctrinal rigour and its partisans are keen to sniff out any hint or whiff of possible heresy. Like modern Byzantine heirs of the Spanish Inquisition (now sadly expected by everyone...
I am happy to pass along a new online learning opportunity offered by St. Athanasius College. They have asked me to teach several courses on the historical books of the Old Testament, as well as the wisdom literature, and the prophets,...
The differences separating Orthodoxy from the many Baptist churches are too numerous to address in a blog post—or perhaps even in a large door-stopper of a book. Here I would like to examine but one of those differences—viz. the Baptist...
