It is, I suppose, a sign of how strange and ubiquitous the internet is that I often receive questions from new inquirers into Orthodoxy about toll-houses. Note: not the divinity of Jesus, or the Eucharist, or baptism, or the love and...
When the psalmist wanted to declare the power of Yahweh in Psalm 89 to emphasize the security of David’s throne, he literally searched high and low for images. The high heavens praised the wonders He had done for Israel, and God’s divine...
Jezebel was not a nice lady. She had many faults—she was an idolater, a tyrant, a schemer, a murderer. Oddly enough, however, perhaps the one fault she did not have was the one with which her name was to become synonymous—that of being a...
As some may know, I have been the pastor of St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church since it began under the OCA in 1987. It is only because of the congregation’s support that I have been able to also work at my ministry of writing and...
If any thinking person today were asked to name “the Queen of the sciences”, odds are they would name biology, since it offers the promise of long and healthy life. Or perhaps they would name physics, as the science likely to find the...
The Mother of Jesus is without dispute or serious rival the most famous woman in human history. This being so, it seems odd to speak of the need to re-discover her. Surely the most famous woman in history could hardly get lost? But that,...
Every once in a while a detractor of the Christian faith objects that Christianity is ethically bankrupt because Christians worship a deity who ordered a genocide of all the inhabitants of Canaan when the Israelites entered the land...
Lately when listening to that old 1960s anthem “The Times They Are A-Changin’” by Bob Dylan, I couldn’t help but think of (believe it or not) Eusebius of Caesarea. In particular I thought that this was exactly the sort of song he was...
If ever a Biblical story cried out to be made into a Hollywood movie, it would be the story of Esther. The story has everything that Hollywood values in a movie: rags-to-riches, gorgeous scenery, sex, intrigue, a creepy villain,...
The Book of Ruth, a little tale of only four chapters, is arguably the sweetest book of the Bible and perhaps in all literature. Its sweetness is accentuated by its position within order of the books of the Septuagint and of the...
When the spies that Joshua sent out to reconnoitre the land returned to camp, they came with bad news: “The people who live in the land are strong and the cities are fortified and very large; and moreover we saw the descendants of Anak...
I was told once that it is possible when flying an airplane to lose track of whether you are flying rightside-up or upside-down—presumably because when you can’t see the ground or are flying through clouds or fog, you lose track of...
Rahab has the distinction of being one of the few Biblical figures who was the object of an attempted moral make-over—or, more bluntly, of a well-intentioned white-wash. In Hebrews 11:31 and James 2:25 she is referred to as “Rahab the...
One of my favourite hymns from my old Anglican days is Be Thou My Vision. Based on a sixth century Irish poem attributed to St. Dallan Forgaill, it was translated by Mary Byrne in 1905, and versified by Eleanor Hull in 1912. I was...
It is fair to say that many people react negatively to the word “hierarchy”. The allergic reaction to the word has deep roots, going back to the Reformation and the secularism of the Enlightenment. Protestants of the sixteenth century...
