Spoiled
Once Emma knew someone who thought it funny that she had no brothers or sisters. Having grown up with many siblings herself, the woman liked to say that Emma must have been awfully spoiled when she was little. Because to be an only child meant to be spoiled. It was inevitable. Somehow she never realized…
Convenient Forgetting and the Jerusalem Declaration
“Forgetting pain is convenient, remembering it; agonizing. But uncovering the truth is worth all the suffering.” ~Lewis Carroll Convenient forgetting. Over thirteen years have passed since the Jerusalem Declaration was released in 2008. At the time, I was a 28 year old priest, and the recipient of a young leader invitation to this pivotal conference….
Secular Stories Part 4: Aristotle or Nietzsche?
This article is part of the series “Secular Stories.” Click below to read other installments: SECULAR STORIES: AN INTRODUCTION SECULAR STORIES PART 1: MACINTYRE’S ‘SUGGESTION’ AND EMOTIVISM SECULAR STORIES PART 2: THE FAILED ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT SECULAR STORIES PART 3: THE PROBLEM WITH SOCIAL SCIENCES At the beginning of this series, I proposed that the first…
Catholicam Fidem: An Open Letter on the Consecration of Female Bishops in GAFCON
To the Primates and Bishops of the Holy Catholic Church in the Global Anglican Future Conference: Every Trinity Sunday, we confess that “Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic faith.” This faith has been passed down to us from our Fathers. It is the faith by which…
Book Review: “Orthodox Anglican Identity”
Orthodox Anglican Identity: The Quest for Unity in a Diverse Religious Tradition. By Charles Erlandson. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2020. 224 pp. $47.00 (cloth), $27.00 (paper). This book is a useful exploration of ecclesial identity through the lens of the Anglican tradition. As the title makes clear, Erlandson explores both the diversity of Anglicanism and…
Secular Stories Part 3: The Problem with Social Sciences
This article is part of the series “Secular Stories.” Click below to read other installments: SECULAR STORIES: AN INTRODUCTION SECULAR STORIES PART 1: MACINTYRE’S ‘SUGGESTION’ AND EMOTIVISM SECULAR STORIES PART 2: THE FAILED ENLIGHTENMENT PROJECT At the beginning of this series, I proposed that the first step toward understanding this “secular” age would be exploring…
Book Review: “A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology”
A Basic Guide to Eastern Orthodox Theology: Introducing Beliefs and Practices. By Eve Tibbs. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021. 224 pp. $26.99 (paper). In a book designed to educate readers about a particular Christian denomination—or “tradition,” as many are now fond of saying—one can reasonably expect such a work to discuss the denomination’s distinctive character,…
A Critique of Transubstantiation
Introduction In my freshman year of college, as a newly minted theology student, I began to think through the question of “Why do we reject Transubstantiation?” I was blessed to have a Systematics professor who assigned the Reformed Orthodox,[1] so, naturally, I picked up my copy of Francis Turretin’s Institutes and scoured the section on…
A Homily for Good Friday Part II
The Second Homily Concerning the Death and Passion of our Saviour Christ That we may the better conceive the great mercy and goodness of our Saviour Christ in suffering death universally for all men, it behoveth us to descend into the bottom of our conscience, and deeply to consider the first and principal cause wherefore…
The Abolition of Man and the Need for Christian Humanism
“It would be no exaggeration to say that the more progress ‘humanity’ as an abstraction makes towards the mastery of nature, the more actual individual men tend to become slaves of this very conquest.” (Gabriel Marcel, Man Against Mass Society) Just before the first English lockdown began last year, I read Alan Jacobs’ book The…