You will say to me, “Infallible and imperfect, you have to be kidding!” Is it not a contradiction to say that the Church is imperfect and infallible? Well, not necessarily, but, let’s back up a minute an approach the subject from different direction. I will argue that all of Christianity is actually aware that something […]
St. Cyprian on traditions
I have to travel unexpectedly today, so for those of you waiting for the follow-up post on the Church, I leave you with the following. I am quite well aware that not all traditions are equal. In fact, so were the Early Church Fathers. St. Cyprian said: “Custom is often only the antiquity of error.” […]
Wait, so the Church is not perfect?
No, as I pointed out in my previous post, the neither Jesus nor the Apostles claimed the Church was already perfect. In fact, they were overwhelmingly aware of her lack of perfection. But, if you would permit me to use two theological terms, I think they would see the Church as indefectible and infallible. While […]
Who are we, really?
Too many of our discussions about the Church suffer from a failing that I pointed out in an earlier post about heroes. We tend to lionize the Early Church far beyond what the Bible itself, nay Jesus Himself, says about the Church. Mind you, as an Eastern Orthodox priest, I am sold on the Church. […]
Link spasm
I learned a new term today, “Link Spam.” The title of this post is a deliberate misspelling so that people searching for information on the subject would not accidentally link here expecting something else. It started this way, I have a very handy WordPress plug-in called Akismet. It is also available free for other platforms, […]
Playing gotcha
We have been hearing a lot about Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. He has been a regular on the late night talk show joke circuit as well as on all the editorial cartoon pages. I must admit that my favorite is the one above because I am a Lord of the Rings fan. (If you click […]
On requesting intercessory prayers from the saints
Are there any Biblical and historical quotes that appear to demonstrate that both the Apostles and the Early Church Fathers expected that the saints and angels would be aware of what we are doing and would intercede for us? And is there anything that says that we should revere them and remember them with special […]
Remember Real Life
None of us spend full-time blogging. We all relate to the world outside our house, outside our windows. Sometimes, however, in the midst of our blogging, in the midst of our disputes, we tend to forget that most of the people with whom we are involved neither know nor care about the things that seem […]
I miss Advent
I miss Advent. Yes, the Orthodox have Advent, but it did not develop the multitude of rich traditions that the West did. In every culture into which Christianity has travelled, local traditions have developed that enrich the local Christian culture. To put it another way, there is no such thing as a “culture-less” Christianity. That […]
What do Eastern Orthodox believe about free will?
I have very obviously not done a good job explaining what Eastern Orthodox believe about free will. So, rather than using my own words, let me quote a couple of excerpts from The Confession of Dositheus. This confession was approved by the Synod of Jerusalem of 1672. It is not considered an Ecumenical Council by […]
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