Like many others, encountering the radiant love of the Elder Zosima in Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov was a formative early event in my being drawn to the Orthodox Church. Similarly revelatory was my first exposure to the great 7th century Saint Isaac of Syria, whose feast day is today, January 28. Like the fictional elder, Saint … Continue reading The Elder Zosima and St Isaac the Syrian
In Wild Thyme
Guest Author: We are delighted to share this fairytale by Shelley K. Davenport. She lives and writes in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She can be found at shelleykdavenport.com. Once upon a time, there was a handsome dog named Hank. A purebred Rottweiler, he had velvety ears, a barrel chest, and large, competent paws. Hank was proud of … Continue reading In Wild Thyme
ChatGPT: Art Without a Place or an Artist
Today, over lunch at work, I chatted briefly with a few friends who knew a good bit about the Microsoft investment in ChatGPT. We didn’t have a lot of time, but my friends made a case for ChatGPT as a tool that can serve and enrich human creativity. I was arguing that ChatGPT would dilute … Continue reading ChatGPT: Art Without a Place or an Artist
Transcendent Meaning, Platonism, and Wittgenstein
We are grateful for this essay from guest contributor S. Chase McCumber (a graduate student in the University of Oklahoma Department of Philosophy). I recently had the opportunity to read a selected transcription of a talk given by Fr. Andrew Louth last year titled ‘The Necessity of Platonism for Christian Theology’ (2021 Robert Crouse Memorial … Continue reading Transcendent Meaning, Platonism, and Wittgenstein
Contenders for the Weltgeist
Hegel famously referred to Napoleon as the world soul on horseback. Sufi Muslims say more or less the same about Muhammad whereas Christians say it is Christ in the Church. Jews say it is instantiated within the line of God's prophets all together, based in part on Judah Halevi's transformation of Ismaili Shi'a doctrine on … Continue reading Contenders for the Weltgeist
Skimming Through a Difficult Book: Angels, Archons, & Aliens by Ambrose Andreano
Book Cover (downloaded from Amazon.com) My friend Ambrose Andreano has published a difficult book called Angels, Archons, & Aliens: An Assessment of the Theological Implications and Psychological Impact of the Close Encounters Phenomenon that is now available as both a paperback and a Kindle ebook. I’ve enjoyed and appreciated Andreano’s thoughts on a wide variety … Continue reading Skimming Through a Difficult Book: Angels, Archons, & Aliens by Ambrose Andreano
What’s the Point of Being Christian?
My online friend, Maurice Mo Hagar II, recently passed a question along to me and several others. He first pointed to this example: If universal salvation is true, what’s the point of being Christian, of believing in Christ, getting baptized, belonging to the church… preaching the gospel, teaching the Bible, sending missionaries, and planting the … Continue reading What’s the Point of Being Christian?
A Wise Care of Piety
We're oddly ambivalent now about not whether a man is permitted to kill himself but the manner and place of it. Tobacco, no; euthanasia, yes. He must do it through rationalized institutions at the hands of an expert and not his own passions; out of sight unless he be a wild man we can use … Continue reading A Wise Care of Piety
Joy and Transfiguring Sorrow on this Feast of the Holy Innocents
The poet Christian Wiman notes, in Joy: 100 Poems, that “literature distinguishing between [happiness and joy] is extensive” and that “writers from Aristotle to C. S. Lewis have tended to draw a stark line.” With joy, Wiman says, “there is always an element of having been seized” by an outside force. Putting it into slightly … Continue reading Joy and Transfiguring Sorrow on this Feast of the Holy Innocents
Christmas as Homecoming: Recommending Seasonal Readings of The Wind in the Willows
Those of us in the contemporary world have very few things left for which we spend several days in celebrations. In all pre-modern cultures, many high feast days and other events such as weddings required days of preparation and then almost as many days of festivity and feasting. I can’t think of anything in the … Continue reading Christmas as Homecoming: Recommending Seasonal Readings of The Wind in the Willows
Jesus and the Ancient Paths 