Friday has become the best day of my week. I’m finally self-employed again, which means I can schedule a half-day of work followed by a half-day of reflection over cigars and Guinness whenever I want. I look forward to it like a 7-year-old looks forward to Disneyland, only I don’t wind up screaming and crying…
Anyone with a penchant for Greek mythology has undoubtedly encountered the bit about Hercules donning women’s clothing for a three-year period while in servitude to Omphale, daughter of the queen of Lydia. The legend recounts how Hercules—yes Hercules, slayer of giants, decapitator of the Hydra, destroyer of the hounds of hell—became “voluptuous and effeminate” sporting…
Transitioning from Protestantism to the Orthodox Church a bit over a decade ago was for me a fairly seamless one. I was already well versed in the different theological positions and met the cultural surprises through research prior to my first visit to an actual church; however, I definitely got hung up on the Church’s…
I grew up in churches that preached victory in everything, at every moment. There was no room for the tragic passing of a loved one; no room for financial devastation; no room for psychological illness; no room for difficulties in marriage; no room for real life. Most of my friends that grew up in the…
This morning I opened to a passage from St. Palamas which seemed eerily perfect for this first day of Great Lent. He writes of God’s “incomparable grandeur of compassion,” in that He promises to give us the reward of eternal life for us simply “toiling on our own behalf.” Using a well worn Christian analogy, we…
The following piece was written a little over a year ago, but for some reason never made it to my blog. Reading it over again brought back some insights that I wanted to share with my readers. My hope is that it finds its way to people working through similar issues who might need a…
In a previous article I vented many of my pent-up frustrations with the attack on men in our culture. The article wrestled with the recently invented social category, “toxic masculinity,” and how the phrase not only fails to capture the real problem with men, but adds to the confusion. With this article I want to…
I stumbled across an untitled “hymn of praise” in St. Nikolai’s Prologue of Ohrid,* last week which pulled me out of a funk, the type of funk I get into only when I pay too much attention to the news. I’ve never been into religious hymns, per se, even Orthodox Christian ones, but this one…
“What do you seek?” (John 1:37). These are the first words from Christ to those who would become disciples; a question as simple as they come, and no less profound. I often ask my clients in therapy, “what do you want?” And I leave the question there, hanging in ambiguity. The usual reply is,…
The primordial man says of his wife, “This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh.” (Gen 2:23) St. Nikolai of Ohrid on this verse repeats a familiar consensus of the church saying, “this is the foundation and reason for the mysterious attraction and unity of husband and wife.” As with…
I’ve loved Kierkegaard for 2 decades and have managed to read nearly everything he wrote, many two or three times. Yesterday during my second run through of The Concept of Anxiety I was struck by a passage that spells out the task of psychology in a way I’ve never heard it; something that I apparently…
Originally posted on Eric Hyde Counseling:
Something I’ve been thinking about lately is the notion of what I call the “Noble Line,” i.e. the psychology of ancestry. It used to be that growing up a person had a sense of family roots – roots not limited to one’s immediate parents or grandparents, but roots extending…
“Partisanship,” writes Aldous Huxley, “is a complex passion which permits those who indulge in it to make the best of both worlds. Because they do these things for the sake of a group which is, by definition, good and even sacred, they can admire themselves and loathe their neighbors, they can seek power and money,…
“Believe in something. Even if it means sacrificing everything.” This is the new fun phrase from Nike’s new ad campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick circulating social media. I have no interest in getting involved with the NFL kneeling thing or the time-wasting delirium of debating Nike’s intentions with the ad, but I feel a need to…
Why do some people hear the wisdom of God – the “word of the kingdom of heaven” – and change their lives forever, while others are either unaffected or take interest only for a period and then turn away? In short, why are some saved and some lost? The 13th chapter of the Gospel of…
We’ve all known those people who cannot be pleased no matter what we do. They provide true ‘damned if I do, damned if I don’t’ situations. If you’re like me you tend to believe there exists some magic phrase, some perfect logic, argument, deed, expression that can be said or done that will bring the…
"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced" -Kierkegaard
Doctrine Matters
Neither polemic nor compromise, but engagement
