No Other Foundation
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No Other Foundation
Reflections on Orthodox Theology and Biblical Studies
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The Accomplishments of the Reformation
On October 31 parts of the western world celebrated Reformation Day, giving thanks for the Protestant Reformation. (I am tempted to observe that on t...
The King of Israel
Tucked well away in the Divine Liturgy in a prayer that the priest says silently for himself we find a significant title of Christ. The priest offers...
A Christian Response to War
As a baby boomer child of the 1950s, I was taught to hate war. For my generation, war was an unmitigated evil (though, happily, this notion did not s...
The Dying of the Light
When I was young, I read a famous poem that I now regard as one of the strangest poems ever written. It is the one entitled “Do not go gentle into th...
Surveying the Old Testament
When I was a child in grade five, I was given a New Testament by the Gideon Society, like everyone else in my grade. Note: the New Testament, not th...
Tithing Mint
I am often asked by catechumens questions of basic liturgical etiquette, such as how to enter the church, how to venerate an icon, and when to make th...
All Kinds of Everything
There are, I suggest, two ways to experience the world. The first is that of the materialist: the world is all that exists. The physical world that...
I Don’t Believe in Christianity
I recently read in Jaroslav Pelikan’s excellent Jesus Through the Centuries a line from American scholar Arthur O. Lovejoy, who asserted, “The term ‘C...
The Focus of the Pharisee
If you Google the term “Pharisees” you find the following: “The Pharisees were a Jewish social movement and school of thought in the Levant during the...
Losing Your Name, Losing Your Soul
It occurred to me recently that it is significant that the invisible enemy of our souls is called “the Evil One” in both the Lord’s Prayer and in such...
Rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem
From the days of Moses when God made a covenant through him with Israel to come and dwell in their midst, Israel has offered sacrifice to Yahweh their...
The Healing of a Broken Heart
Fr. Nicolaie shares the story of Tara, and the hope that comes when a broken heart is changed by God's healing touch.
Baptismal Liturgies
In many Orthodox churches, baptisms are done privately and almost secretly: after the morning Divine Liturgy at which the entire church community was...
“The Salvation of the Christian People”
A number of Evangelical inquirers have asked exactly what we Orthodox mean in our prayer describing the Theotokos as “the salvation of the Christian p...
The God of the Unexpected
Hidden well away in the Greek of the genealogy with which St. Matthew opens his Gospel is a little theological secret—a secret which utterly vanishes...
Our So-Called Galactic Brothers
had thought of entitling this piece “About UFOs”, but then quickly reconsidered, not wanting to blow all my credibility before anyone had begun readin...
What’s So Important about the Nicene Creed?
Much to my surprise, some time ago the Nicene Creed was trending online among the Southern Baptists, America’s largest Baptist organization. They wer...
Where Are Your Saints?
Once when I was a new convert to Anglicanism (a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away) I asked my dear Anglican pastor why our Anglican Church no lo...
Old Testament Prophecies of Christ
I have just finished reading a very 2002 interesting book The Case for Christ, written in Evangelical style by Lee Strobel. One of the chapters was a...
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask the Church)
The whimsical title of this blog post is based on the 1969 book by David Reuben entitled Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Sex* (*But Were Af...
More Bishops, Please
Recently I was re-reading a good but somewhat dated book about the episcopate, entitled The Apostolic Ministry, a collection of essays edited by Bisho...
Icons: Objects for Veneration or Mere Decoration?
Recently I have come across an anti-Orthodox polemic which rejects our veneration of icons on the grounds that venerating an image painted on a board...
Long Haired Men
Recently a minor fracas in the narthex of our church was caused by (I kid you not) my long hair (see inset for a rear view of said hair). Since my ha...
Was Jesus a Zealot?
Thousands of years ago when I was a teenager and a brand-new Christian, I happened to read an article by S.G.F. Brandon about Jesus being a Zealot, in...
Becoming a Christian: Cerebral or Sacramental?
It has been suggested to me that in many (most?) Evangelical circles one becomes a Christian “by accepting the finished work of Christ”—i.e. by believ...
An Assurance of Salvation
I am sometimes asked if an Orthodox Christian can have an assurance that he or she will be saved. The question usually comes from my converts from Ev...
Anaxios: Unworthy and Evil
A story is told of the final temptation of Christ. Satan had been trying to tempt Jesus to sin, to compromise, to abandon His divine mission (see Mat...
Predestination: Trampling the Tulip
In this final episode on this topic, I would like to conclude my extended look at a Reformed view of predestination. There are certain aspects of it...
Predestination and Ephesians 1: What Is It that God Predestines?
In my last episode, I examined Paul’s words in Romans 9 and their bearing upon the classic Reformed teaching about predestination—i.e. the notion that...
Predestination and Romans 9: What Is It that God Chooses?
In his book Reflections on the Psalms, C. S. Lewis wrote a chapter on praising which began with him saying that “It is possible (and it is to be hoped...
Do You See This Woman?
All of the words of the Saviour are important, even the words spoken that were strictly rhetorical. One such utterance is found in the story of the s...
Marian Devotion, Orthodox and Roman Catholic
Protestant critics of Orthodoxy fault us for many things, but one of the foremost of their objections is our devotion to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. H...
Praying for Nero
I have recently come across the teaching that Orthodox Christians should not pray for non-Orthodox. I cannot cite the details of who-where-when, so p...
Receiving Converts into the Orthodox Church
The method by which the Orthodox Church receives converts is a very controversial topic, and one which has provoked much online discussion. Should a...
Finding Comfort in the Ascension
The feast of the Ascension is a feast of comfort and consolation for the people of God. But it can for some people represent a stumbling block. Look...
“To Thine Own Self Be True”
Many people will (hopefully) identify the above quote as coming from the speech of Polonius in Act 1, Scene 3 of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It was part of...
A Bridge to…Where?
I recently spoke with a dear friend who dolefully reported that a distant family member had left his very traditional Protestant church (with its stre...
Prayers to the Saints in the Eighth Day
Thousands of years ago when I was an Evangelical Protestant in the Anglican Church, I never prayed to the saints or asked for their intercession. It...
Sojourning in Bethany
It is a wonderful thing to know the Scriptures well, but there is a drawback: since we know how all the stories end, we can miss the drama inherent i...
A Unified Date for Easter?
As reported in the Byzantine Texas blogsite, the Ecumenical Patriarch is calling for a unified observance of Easter by next year, 2025, to coincide wi...