Articles

That the Church requires us to prepare to receive the Holy Mysteries of the Body and Blood of Christ, prior to the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, by saying the Pre-Communion Prayers, is a given. The Church also requires us to fast from midnight on, abstaining from either food or drink, until after we have

Abbot Tryphon December 23, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors, Theology

Communion, Divine Liturgy, Holy Gifts, Holy Mysteries

Merry Christmas from All Merciful Savior Monastery on Vashon Island. I have to tell you that this season, everywhere I go I hear "Happy Holidays". And sometimes I'm just so tempted to scream out "It's not holidays! It's Christmas! It's the season that we rejoice in the birth of the Savior!" And so all I

Abbot Tryphon December 22, 2021 Christian Lifestyle, Senior Contributors

Christmas, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, Nativity, Political Correctness, Video

Our Orthodox Christian theology views evil not as a primeval essence that is coeternal and equal to God, but rather a falling away from good. Evil does not exist in and of itself, and was not created by God. Our Orthodox Church rejects the Gnostic teaching that the entirety of being is made up of

Abbot Tryphon December 22, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors, Theology

Evil

The Brotherhood of St. Paisios is a fraternal order of Orthodox Christian men established to recover authentic manhood. The Brotherhood exists so that we can learn how to become men. Our Lord needs men to be men. Real men will be able to withstand the assaults of the enemy and reveal Truth to the world. Focus on

Patristic Faith December 21, 2021 Christian Lifestyle

Christian Masculinity

Psychologists have often made the observation that the one thing they lack, when it comes to their profession as psychological healers, is the ability to pronounce absolution. Yet many Orthodox Christians, making a good confession and receiving absolution, remain in a state as though they were still needing forgiveness. This is because, even though they

Abbot Tryphon December 21, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Spirituality

Absolution, Confession, Forgiveness

An Eastern Orthodox Understanding of the Dangers of Modernity and Technology

This paper attempts to identify certain dangers of modernity by arguing that the ideologies motivating the modern technological movement are anti-Christian and lead to demoralized practices, social domination, and dehumanization. I first describe how we arrived at these problems by outlining the various Enlightenment ideas commonly associated with modernity...

Fr. Deacon Ananias December 21, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors

Enlightenment Project, Essay, Modernity, Nature, Secular Humanism, Technology

In the video below I discussed some philosophical and theological topics relating to apologetics, debate, atheism, the Divine Mind, The Transcendental Argument for God in Russ Manion’s essay “The Contingency of Knowledge and Revelatory Theism”, revelation and the texts and much more. We also had an open forum debate and Q&A.

Jay Dyer December 20, 2021 Apologetics, Orthodox Christianity, Philosophy, Senior Contributors

Atheism, Debate, Divine Mind, Russ Manion, Video

Parish priests feel pressures that are found in no other profession. The type of man that generally is drawn to the holy priesthood is one who has a heart for serving others. Bishops and priests are often expected to do far more than is humanly possible. Bishops, as fathers to their people, are expected to

Abbot Tryphon December 20, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors

Clergy, Featured, Priest

This presentation discusses an Orthodox theory of knowledge, examining the spiritual use of apophaticism, asceticism, and humility to show that the only valid justification for the possibility of knowledge is for man to presuppose what has been revealed to the Orthodox Christian Church. By practicing what is contained in this divine revelation man can unite

Fr. Deacon Ananias December 20, 2021 Apologetics, Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors

Apophaticism, Asceticism, Humility, Knowledge

Today I’ve read St. Theophilus of Antioch’s “Ad Autolycum”, which is his apology of Christianity against the errors of paganism. His approach and the questions that he deals with in his “Ad Autolycum” are very critical to understand how Christians in the 2nd Century dealt with pagan objections and what doctrines they defend..

David Erhan December 19, 2021 Apologetics, Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors

Early Church, Paganism, St. Theophilus of Antioch

An Orthodox Theory of Knowledge: The Epistemological and Apologetic Methods of the Church Fathers

As we will see, with the West’s embracing of the Hellenistic philosophic project we begin to see the emergence of what is called Natural Theology, where Christianity is cast in a new light, taking on an identity of its own foreign to the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Faith. For the West, the project of Natural Theology (which is

Fr. Deacon Ananias December 18, 2021 Apologetics, Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors

Apologetics, Church Fathers, Early Church

I read online, some very disturbing information. It seems that when polls are taken around the country as to what religious affiliation people have, that for the first time in our nation’s history, the common thread is none no religion. No religious affiliation. No identity with any kind of religion, let alone Christianity. This is

Abbot Tryphon December 18, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors, Spirituality, Theology

Featured, Nihilism, Theosis, Video

The kissing of the hand of the priest is not about the man, but rather about Christ. It is much like the kissing of an icon, which is not about the veneration of paint and wood, but about the archetype represented in the icon. When we kiss the hand of the bishop or priest, we

Abbot Tryphon December 18, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors, Theology

Orthodox 101

In the Christian life there are two paths to salvation and whichever road you choose must be embraced with your whole being. The married state and monasticism both have as their primary means of aiding in your salvation the acquisition of a humble and a contrite heart. Without having attained this, there is no salvation.

Abbot Tryphon December 17, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors, Spirituality

Marriage, Monasticism, Obedience, Salvation

The great divide between the secular state and religion has grown substantially during my lifetime. Gone are the days when our nation was based on Christian values and where religion played an important role in the public life of this country. The notion that we must separate Church and State has gained such momentum as

Abbot Tryphon December 16, 2021 Orthodox Christianity

Government, Politics, Seperation of Church and State

The Holy of Holies in an Orthodox Church

Orthodox temples have kept to the same form and function since ancient times. Using the Old Testament Temple model, Orthodox churches are divided into several courts or spaces peculiar to their function. The Holy Table, upon which is celebrated the Eucharist, is situated at the east end of the building behind the Iconostasis (icon screen).

Abbot Tryphon December 15, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors

Orthodox Temples

Origen’s Revenge - The Greek and Hebrew Roots of Christian Thinking on Male and Female

Is the difference of male and female to be "completely shaken off" so that men and women are no longer men and women but merely human beings? The great seventh-century saint Maximus the Confessor said yes, but such thinking is difficult if not impossible to reconcile with much else in Christian tradition that obliges men

Patristic Faith December 13, 2021 Church History, Early Christian Writings , Orthodox Christianity, Spirituality, Theology

Early Church, Feminism, Gender, Guest Post, Human Sexuality, Origen, Protodeacon Brian Patrick Mitchell

Sexual Appetite in Historical Christianity

This paper will briefly address the notion of human sexuality in Christianity as it came to be understood into the modern era. While the Christian Tradition brought several new ways to address the complexities of human sexuality, the basic concept of sexuality found in the Church represents an ‘evolution’ of earlier theories and narratives.

Patristic Faith December 11, 2021 Church History, Theology

Anthropology, Archpriest George Aquaro, Early Church, Guest Post, Human Sexuality, Passions, Sexual Desires

The whole Church has never had a tradition of having deaconesses, but the whole Church has had a tradition of not having them.” — The Disappearing Deaconess examines not just the history of deaconesses but also patristic teaching on male and female and the evolution of ministries within the early Church to conclude that the

Patristic Faith December 11, 2021 Orthodox Christianity

Deaconess, Early Church, Feminism, Gender, Guest Post, Human Sexuality, Protodeacon Brian Patrick Mitchell

A number of people recently have been asking me why I became orthodox. Why orthodoxy? Now of course, I can talk about my own experience but in reality God reaches out to each of us in a very specific way. Each of us as individuals, God calls and reaches each to us uniquely, our own experience

Father Spyridon December 10, 2021 Orthodox Christianity, Senior Contributors, Theology

Featured, Video