George Weigel on Catholic Social Doctrine

After my blog post on Mattingly and Catholic Social Doctrine, a friend sent a link to an article by George Weigel that was distributed by the Denver Catholic Register, the official newspaper of the Archdiocese of Denver. It is an extremely good article. Below are some quotes from the article, though I urge you to follow the link above and read the article for yourself. The 2012 election seems likely... [Read more]

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C.S. Lewis on theosis

By now regular readers know that I am a fan of C.S. Lewis, and I was a fan of him before becoming Orthodox. In fact, I consider him one of the influences that led me to Orthodoxy, though I would not have thought of it that way before I became Orthodox. You see, it was not until I became Orthodox that I realized just how much of C.S. Lewis’  thinking reflected a more “Eastern” viewpoint,... [Read more]

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]

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Fool me twice . . . rethink your approach to truth

Yesterday I quoted from a book by a priest whom I know. In it he said: Let me submit to you, therefore, that the great spiritual battle of our time is not a struggle between believers and atheists. Rather, it is a struggle between pride and humility. We expect and even demand humility in almost all other areas of life–what really matters is what is objectively true, not what any of us might happen... [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]

research

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 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]

For Want of a Nail

For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of a battle the kingdom was lost. And all for the want of a horseshoe nail. The more the I read the story of the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound, the more that I think of the verse above. The verse above is meant to teach us... [Read more]

Desert Fathers, silence, and wisdom

Compel yourselves in silence, the mother of all godly virtues. Keep silent, in order to say the Prayer [of Jesus]; for, when someone speaks, how is he able to escape idle talk, from which comes every evil word, which weighs the soul down by the responsibility for it. — Elder Ephraim of Philotheou Mount Athos, “Counsels from the Holy Mountain” … silence is the fastest path... [Read more]