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.

The Humility of Divinization

We tend to grow pale and tremble when we come to recognize that the Eternal Spirit of Love is gradually removing all sense of self-importance from us; but how quickly we forget that it is self-importance that's being removed – not our actual importance. For this self-conception is as

Yannaras

Realism and Utopia in Politics (by Christos Yannaras)

"That singularity is empirically and immediately accessible to us, while remaining objectively indeterminate, utopian."

Steinbeck, Divine Stupidity, and Finding God in the Darkness

In the opening chapter of East of Eden, John Steinbeck artfully (and rather wistfully) reports his take on the spiritual consciousness of American pioneers in the late 19th-century – many of them first- and second-generation immigrants, and therefore migrants twice over. Writing specifically about those families who settled in the Salinas

The once and future tense

Why has the future tense come to displace the present in certain renditions of the Words of Institution? “This is my body which will be given up for you”? Weak tea, I say. Count me firmly in the camp of “This is my body which is given up (or, better,

Where Did This World Come From and What is Happening Here?

This world of ours is obviously a strange mix of good and evil. There is astonishing and inspiring balance, harmony, vision, and beauty on display alongside devastating and utterly irrational suffering, loss, blindness, and incompletion. So much is left unseen and unfinished in every moment, and yet every moment also

In Anticipation of Pascha

This reflection is a fool’s mission, but it seems absurd not to make an attempt at describing this season of Holy Week. Our priest reminds us to keep silent this Holy Saturday as Christ is in the tomb, but these thoughts reach for nothing and contain no conclusions. They

Why did Jesus die?

Note: this was taken from an informal, online share by David Armstrong and posted with his permission. The charge nailed above Jesus’s head was “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Jesus was crucified, a Roman method of execution reserved for seditionists and insurrectionists. Jesus is remembered in all

Hart’s Laughing Witch Hazel Tree

David Bentley Hart tells the story of a tree that he saw shaking with laughter and that sent him running away in fear as a boy of about seventeen. This is from “A Conversation Between Salley Vickers and David Bentley Hart” posted to Leaves in the Wind on November 7,

Animal Suffering and What Christopher Southgate Missed

I’m only responding fifteen years late, but Christopher Southgate’s book The Groaning of Creation: God, Evolution, and the Problem of Evil (Westminster John Knox Press, 2008) was moving to me with its rare level of concern for animal suffering. It is a profoundly thoughtful book with many insights