Nicolai Gogol’s mystical, exotic religious views didn’t quite fit any form of orthodox Christianity. Orthodoxy deeply marked him, especially Orthodoxy monasticism. After his first visit to the monastery at Optina, Gogol wrote that he “took a memory away with me that will never fade. Clearly, grace dwells in that place. You can feel it even in the outward signs of worship. Nowhere have I seen monks like those. Through everyone one of them I seemed to converse with heaven.” But... Read more
Partly in reaction to Western trends, partly inspired by them,, nineteenth-century Russian Orthodoxy, writes Orlando Figes ( Natasha’s Dance: A Cultural History of Russia ) retreated into Russianness: “the Russian church grew introspective and withdrawn, more intolerant of other faiths, and more protective of its national rituals. It became a state and national Church. Culturally the roots of this went deep into the history of Byzantium itself. Unlike the Western Church, Byzantium had no papacy to give it supranational cohesion.... Read more
For nineteenth century Russians, France was the model civilization. The model polity too. James Billington ( Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith ) points out that the early revolutionary upheavals in Russia were inspired by a Western revolutionary nationalism that was ultimately of French origin. The connections with France were personal and pervasive: “The original Union of Salvation was formed in 1816 among Russian officers traveling back and forth to France at precisely the time... Read more
We are not a nation of atheists, says Ross Douthat . We are religious, but we prefer a religion (and a God) who is OK with “human appetites and all the varied ways they intertwine. From the sermons of Joel Osteen to the epiphanies of Eat, Pray, Love , our spiritual oracles still urge us to seek the supernatural, the numinous, the divine. They just dismiss the idea that the divine could possibly want anything for us except for what... Read more
When Paul urges the Judaizers who trouble the Galatian churches to “mutilate themselves” (Galatians 5:12), it seems like a crude joke. They like cutting foreskins; might as well go all the way to cut off the whole thing. But it’s not just a vulgar insult. As many commentators have noted, Paul virtually equates circumcision with castration, which, far from being a mark of inclusion in Israel is a reason for exclusion (Deuteronomy 23:1). But a student, Grace Langness, points out... Read more
Rev. Richard Bledsoe explores victimhood and the gospel at the Trinity House site. Read more
INTRODUCTION Zion has been pleading with God to bare His arm and come to her rescue (Isaiah 51:9), and Yahweh has promised to do it in a dramatic public way (52:10). When the arm is revealed, it’s not what Zion expected (53:1). THE TEXT “Who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground. He... Read more
In his contribution to Must Christianity Be Violent?: Reflections on History, Practice, and Theology , Milbank points out that “the monasticization of the whole of society is much more difficult than the monasticization of the celibate few” (197). Any attempt to establish a quasi-monastic way of life for laity has to reckon with sex and conflict in ways that monks don’t have to. And the two are parallel: “the placing of sex outside the purview of the sacred is in... Read more
A typically rich passage from Milbank ( Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason ): “Augustine’s critique of pagan religion concerns also its many gods and the ritual relations of the city to these gods. A diversity of gods, governing different areas of cultural life, implies that these areas may be fundamentally in conflict, and that they require their own deity precisely because their distinctness is at bottom a matter of the self-assertion of power. Thus Augustine says that the... Read more
Writing in the Columbus, Ohio, Dispatch , Rob Portman proves his credentials as a Good Republican. When he found that his son is gay, he questioned his earlier opposition to gay marriage: “I wrestled with how to reconcile my Christian faith with my desire for Will to have the same opportunities to pursue happiness and fulfillment as his brother and sister. Ultimately, it came down to the Bible’s overarching themes of love and compassion and my belief that we are... Read more
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