Anyone who has tried to incorporate both faith and reason in their practical life has run into this temptation. It usually goes something like: God is my plan A, but if at some point he doesn’t act I’ll be forced to go with plan B. This is totally what Abraham did when raising the knife…
Study the literature long enough and you will discover something curious about most discussions of environmentalism—there is a strange lack of effort to define human nature. I believe this is why most attempts at solving our massive ecological problems are going nowhere fast. Without a shared paradigm concerning what a human is, the whole environmentalist…
For me the role of philosophy in Christian faith has always been something like Anselm’s famous motto: “faith seeking understanding.” When applied to the faith, Philosophy is just faith seeking understanding, useful for synthesizing with reason those things initially accepted by faith. Philosophy offers the chance to know those things which the faith preaches. Didn’t…
I was surprised when I first heard that our local Antiochian Orthodox Church decided to close all services for the remainder of Lent. I was even more surprised to learn moments later that all Antiochian Orthodox Churches in the United States were to be closed by order of our archbishop. Soon after that I was…
After church a few Sundays ago I found myself once again roaming around our little church library. I go up there from time to time to see what’s new. There’s never anything new. We’ve had the same books for years; I just like being in the presence of books, so alas, I roam. My typical…
Driving on the freeway in Tulsa a few years back, I saw a billboard advertising a wildly popular church in the area. The ad featured a photo taken from behind the pastor who was looking out on the congregation. The pastor had both fists in the air as if celebrating a touchdown. The caption read:…
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…
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…
Religion has earned a bad name. There was a time when the word simply referred to all things pertaining to a faith. Now it seems to refer exclusively to all the bad things pertaining to a faith. The ever popular “I’m spiritual, not religious” thinking cannot conceive of religion as anything but toxic, dangerous, or,…
It felt strange typing this title. If I didn’t have personal experience with Christians who believe that because they’re Christians they have no need for counseling I would have never thought to write such an article. Many believers seem to view counseling as ‘church’ for unbelievers. Now, the possibility for Christians to have mental illnesses is conceivable,…
Sam Harris has seen immense growth in popularity after starting his latest project – Waking Up with Sam Harris podcast. This project has expanded his repertoire to include far more subjects in his talks than his traditional mainstay of New Atheist apologetics. As part of the project Harris has released several memes as well. A…
I love New Year’s. There’s something about the calendar on my wall flipping over that gives me the feeling of a new beginning. It’s a completely made up new beginning, yet still completely real. Bono from U2 had it right when he said that “Nothing changes on New Year’s Day,” however, for me psychologically almost…
Many Christians today believe the practice of praying to the saints is as bizarre as it is blasphemous; at the very least something condemned in Scripture. However, it would shock many to know that prayers to the saints, in particular Mary, has always been a standard practice in the Christian faith. I only assume this…
So many Christians want to increase their faith, and why wouldn’t they? It seems only natural. But have they never read where Christ nearly rebuked his disciples for asking him to increase their faith? It’s the passage where he tells them that faith the size of a mustard seed is enough (small faith is enough),…
"Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced" -Kierkegaard
Doctrine Matters
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