The Christian faith is meant to lived, not just studied or spoken about. We must make sure our faith is a living faith, not a dead one. We must not assume that knowledge about the faith, and acceptance of what one has been told, is enough; we must do much more than see Christianity is good in theory; we must put it into practice. And yet, until we put do so, all that it is for us is merely a... Read more
As our faith matures, we often come to realize that our faith, as we first understood it, needs to be examined, and indeed, deconstructed, so that we can rid of it all kinds of errors which we have appropriated to it. Hopefully then we will be able to see our faith in a new light, understand it better, and allow it to grow into a new, purer but yet greater version of what we once held. What we need to... Read more
No matter how corrupted it has become, no matter how defiled it has become, everything which exists will always possess some good within it. This is not to say it will be easy for us to find that good, for obviously, more often than not, it can be extremely difficult. This is because that good is buried deep within, hidden from view, encased in all kinds of defilement. And yet, as existence itself is good, we know that nothing which... Read more
Things are not always as they seem. Jesus, to so many, seemed one to be merely a man; while he might have been one who did and said surprising things, in the end, all the thought of him was that he was just a man. This is how many see him today. They might consider him to be an odd man, one who might have said and did many extraordinary things, especially for the time and place from which he... Read more
August 6, 1945 should always be remembered because, the United States on that day used the atomic bomb, unleashing a great evil upon the world. The mass, indiscriminate destruction of a civilian populace which ensued should never be celebrated, even if some (wrongly) think it was necessary. By availing itself of the atomic bomb, the United States changed the world for the worse. It showed that it was willing to engage and embrace mass murder for the sake of its... Read more
The kingdom of God is at hand, indeed, it is within us. This is because we are made in the image and likeness of God. Where God’s image is found, God’s presence can also be found, for God’s image cannot be found separated from God. And so, within us, at the core of our being, we find ourselves partaking of the divine nature itself, as Sergius Bulgakov understood: “Man’s capacity for participating in the divine is the divine image, which... Read more
The church is catholic, and that catholicity means it will engage the world, embracing the diversity found in the world, finding a place for all of it in its unity. Christians can and should take the good from the various cultures of the world, and use it in their personal philosophical, theological, and spiritual reflections, but also, they can and should use what the learn in what they actually do. For example, they can enculturate themselves and so employ a... Read more
No matter how independent, how individualistic, someone would like to be, no one is an island all unto themselves. Everyone has a past, a past which goes beyond their own individual lives, a past which connects them to their ancestors, even as everyone has a future which will go beyond their temporal lives. We have inherited much from our ancestors and we will give over what we have made of ourselves and the world around us to those who come... Read more
Both youth and recent converts to a new faith often show a lot of zeal for what they believe. While Christians should recognize the value of such zeal, they should also understand its dangers. Those who are zealous in their youth, or in their inexperience, do not have the wisdom and knowledge to back them up, and so they seek to do what they believe God wants them to do, but they do so without prudence. Worse yet, they end... Read more
Everything which exists, insofar as it exists, is good. Everything receives its goodness from the first and greatest good, God. Thus, apart from God, everything exists is good, not in an absolute sense, coming from itself, but in a derivative sense, given to it from God. This is why the relative good of any existing thing differs from the goodness of God. Because of this, Boethius explained, the goodness of any contingent being not only can find itself reduced from... Read more
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