A Gilded Manger is No Longer Christ's

Persecution and poverty of spirit do not run counter to the spirit of Christmas. In fact, such conditions are at the heart of incarnation itself.

A Heartfelt Rejoinder to Eugenia Constantinou: Discovering the Orthodox Phronema in Universalism

Tradition differs from an apostolic deposit, as the Nicene Trinity isn't explicitly taught in the New Testament and reflects varied early Christologies.

On the Uses and Abuses of "Realized Eschatology"

Insofar as we persist in using the word eschatology, it cannot by definition, for us here and now, ever be fully "realized."

John Betz on Eternity's Marian Bearer

In a Christian theology of time, according to John Betz, time has more than just analogical value vis-à-vis eternity. It is, rather, eternity's "Marian bearer."

Sketching a Christo-Centric Perennialism: A Speculative Reading of Some Scriptures

The Perennial Philosophy, Sophia Perennis, is a school of thought within the field of Comparative Religion which aims to understand the plurality of religions as stemming from a singular Source. In the West we call this Beginning Point, God. Perennial Philosophy is also described as: "[an] underlying basic shared

Fathers, Sages and the Book of Creation: Reading Genesis with Nahmanides

Nahmanides had success salvaging certain pre-Maimonidean currents of Jewish exegesis while seeking to set them on a new comparatively more systematic basis.

Alchemy, Archaic, and Industrial: A Spirituality of Metallurgy

Alchemy is an industrial spirituality. It embraces Nature as the materia of spiritual transformation and the metals as ripe for transformation.

All Longing Leads Us Back to God

The essential structure of all conscious mental agency is a relation to God as mind's only proper end, says David Bentley Hart.

Book Review: Spiritual Eldership, Confession and Charisms in Wounded by Love

It is as though the flame of divine eros burning brightly within Dimas made Porphyrios's own heart and soul ignite.

The Heart's Reasons: Philokalic Revival from Athos to the Anglosphere

From a fall into neglect even among the monks of Mt. Athos, the texts of the Philokalia have enjoyed a remarkable success in the modern era.

Personhood and Individuation in the Philosophical Anthropology of Henry Corbin

For Corbin, the Person is the first and final reality. This is not idealism, nor realism, nor materialism, and certainly not historicism, but rather 'personalism.'

Children of the Eschaton

If the disciples are to expect some kind of biological or spiritual progeny, then whence apocalypse?

Rumi

A note on Rumi's cosmology

Rumi's approach to metaphysics is fundamentally essential. He prescinds from dry and technical phrases, and penetrates into the heart of his subject in the simplest manner.

time

Profane Duration and Sacred Time

Religious man lives in two kinds of time, of which the more important, sacred time, appears under the paradoxical aspect of a circular time – a sort of eternal mythical present periodically reintegrated by means of rites.

Mary

Toward a Hegelian Mariology: The Marian Concept

Mary's status as the Mother of All is neither a metaphor nor a figure of speech nor merely granting an obvious occurrence of Biblical typology.

Jesus

Deity and Dismemberment: Dionysus' Death and Christ's Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

Christ's act of the feeding of the multitude is the sole miracle referenced in all four canonical gospels. The Apostle John calls the phenomenon a sēmeion—a "sign"— indicating to his reader the parabolic, symbolic nature of this particular scripture. Relying primarily on Olympiodorus’ allegorization of

Rumi

Rumi and the Ocean of Nonexistence

Rumi's most cardinal doctrine is the invitation of his disciples to a nonexistence which, not only is above any form of being, but constitutes our final end and teleology.

metaphysics

God as One, Two, Three, and Zero: A Rational Defense of the Metaphysics of Christian Doctrine

While it is incomprehensible to our limited minds, it is rationally possible for God to be at once one and two, one and three, alive and dead in the grave.

Genesis

On the Height of Adam's Fence

A careful reading of Genesis reveals a curious discrepancy between Yahweh's injunction and how Eve relates it whilst conversing with the Serpent.

Theophanic Imagination in the Sufism of Muhyiddin Ibn Al-ʿArabi

To God belong the East and the West; withersoever you turn, there is the Face of God; God is All-embracing, All-knowing. (The Holy Quran, translated by A.J. Arberry, Surah Al-Baqarah Verse 115) Beauty is the word that shall be our first. Beauty is the last thing which the thinking

Leviathan: A Chaotic Monstrosity of the Sea

One of the most darling and devastating creatures of the Old Testament is Leviathan. He is mentioned more than six times by different names and a number of times without a name. Leviathan is depicted as an ultra powerful sea serpent of some sort. The creature is often almost mentioned

Ersatz Israel

Only that which we can never possess can we never lose.

The Treachery of Images and the Unity of Existence

In a riddle whose answer is chess, what is the only word that is prohibited? —Jorge Luis Borges, “the Garden of the Forking Paths”1 The Japanese philosopher and professor of Islamic studies Toshihiko Izutsu delivered a riveting public lecture at the Fifth East-West Philosophers’ Conference in Hawaii in June

Whence Virtue in Light of Apocalypse?

Whatever is virtuous in light of our divine life in Christ must ever expect, with no exception or suspense, what is imminent.