conditions

You can fool all of the people some of the time

I mentioned yesterday that a philosopher named Kuhn came up with the terminology “paradigm shift.” And, I mentioned that what he conclusively showed was how even scientists are influenced by some of their preconceptions. Let me put it another way. If any of you have read the original Sherlock Holmes novels–not the movies, please, the novels–you know that he was an obssessive... [Read more]

search

God forgive him, but not me, because I could not beware

For who deceives me once, God forgive him; if twice, God forgive him; but if thrice, God forgive him, but not me, because I could not beware. — 1611 Tarlton’s Jests [English "modernized" to make it readable] Yesterday I pointed out that several events had led to the loss of the concept of truth in our society, among them were philosophical ideas, the realization that some viewpoints had... [Read more]

Fool me once . . . read a good book

One of the answers to being fooled by inappropriate theology or by other religions is to read a good book that gives you a quick grounding and compares Orthodoxy to other religious systems. I was actually planning a different post for today, but this book deserves a strong recommendation. Best of all, for those who hate long or difficult reads, it is paperback; it is cheap; it is written in understandable... [Read more]

Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice …

Just yesterday I posted, with permission, an article that documented some of the origins of pre-tribulation rapture theology. I wish the Jesuits had not been mentioned, as they are the whipping boys for every possible Christian conspiracy theory that exists. But, what interests me is one of the answers that I received. The person who made a comment was passing on some of the counter-arguments that... [Read more]

21 May 2011, The Rapture did not come — again

[Ed. Note: As of 24 June 2011, the article below has been found to be unreliable. Therefore, I have removed identifying information. Should you wish to read the correction, please go to a later post in my blot. You can find it here.] Well, the time set by Mr. Camping has passed by, and yet again another end-times prediction has come and gone. Perhaps it might be good to review how the end-times rapture... [Read more]

Phronema and American Orthodoxy

Yesterday I mentioned that there are two great streams of Orthodoxy currently, the Russian and the Byzantine. But, even those streams of Orthodoxy have some variation in different countries. Thus, Romanian Orthodoxy has a different but very similar phronema to Russian Orthodoxy. And, potentially, in the future there could be additional great streams that make up Orthodoxy. For instance, should the... [Read more]

Missions and Phronema

What does the Greek term “phronema” mean? According to the Wikipedia, “Phronema is a transliteration of [a] Greek word, . . . which has the meanings of ‘mind’, ‘spirit’, ‘thought’, ‘purpose’, ‘will’, and can have either a positive meaning (‘high spirit’, ‘resolution’, ‘pride’) or a bad... [Read more]

contact

Missions and difficult transitions

One of the most difficult transitions for a mission to a new area to make is the transition from being a church that looks like a transplant to being a church that culturally fits into the country into which it was planted. What do I mean? Well, you can see the struggle in Scripture and you can even see the struggle in Orthodox history. The issue has spilled reams of paper and gallons of ink, not only... [Read more]

Modern American thought patterns

Recently there was a news article that garnered some attention because it allowed for much hilarity from late-night comedians. Sadly it was an article summarizing a study that found that people who were regular attenders at church were fatter than others in this already quite fat country: Young, religiously active people are more likely than their non-religious counterparts to become obese in middle... [Read more]

More on pride during Lent

Well, Father Orthoduck thought that he and Father Ernesto were done posting on pride and Lent. However, the above comic was too good to pass off. As Father Ernesto commented in his previous post, he knows how easy it is for priests to fall into pride. But, the comic above nicely illustrates the false spirituality that can so easily hide beneath the spiritual practices of Lent. Let Father Orthoduck... [Read more]