Notes on Creation and Evolution
As part of an ongoing series of lectures at my church here in Cleveland, I was asked to give a talk this past Sunday; I chose to do so on the topic of Creation and Evolution. Aside from certain initial...
View ArticleDon’t curse Plato
From time to time I had heard about this story from the desert fathers, but it is only today that I came across the actual passage. It is found in a work by St. Anastasius of Sinai, a seventh-century...
View ArticleJohn Bekkos: Apology
I know that I have neglected this blog for a long time: for that, I apologize. There are many reasons for this neglect, perhaps the main one being that my work as a teacher takes precedence. But I...
View ArticleDictionnaire de Théologie Catholique
The Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique is a massive and invaluable theological reference work, which was begun in 1898 under the editorial direction of Jean Michel Alfred Vacant and continued to...
View ArticlePope Benedict XVI on creationism and evolution
This story is ten years old, and the current pope has said similar things; but the text is relevant for an ongoing debate at the school where I teach. From the Ancient Hebrew Poetry blog: I notice that...
View ArticleHegel on “the prevalent indifference to definite dogmas”
I began rereading Hegel this afternoon, after coming across a note in the book Geist oder Energie by Dorothea Wendebourg (Münich 1980). Wendebourg (p. 7) says that the point stressed as an axiom by...
View ArticleJugie: On the notion of divine mission
Because I am trying to put together an article on Bekkos and George Moschabar, I have of late been reading Martin Jugie again; he seems to have read virtually everything in Byzantine theological...
View ArticleOrigen on Adam and Eve
Origen, De Principiis, iv. 16 = Philocalia Origenis, p. 24. (Translation, with original text on facing side, in H. M. Gwatkin, Selections from Early Christian Writers, London 1897, pp. 136-139.) What...
View ArticleRejoice in the Lord always
Every Sunday is the Lord’s day, the day of the resurrection; but today, Sunday, April 8, 2018, is, for millions of Orthodox Christians throughout the world, the day of the resurrection par excellence,...
View ArticleHow to Speak About God
In images we speak of God correctly Because some things cannot be said directly. How can a Name unspeakable be said Without it rendering the speaker dead At least as to the intellect and heart Which,...
View ArticleOn Falling and Getting Up Again
I was asked today by my church’s youth director to give a talk on Zoom to some youth. Not knowing what to say, I put together some thoughts. Here are the thoughts that occurred to me. In your lives, if...
View ArticleJohn Bekkos on a text of St. Basil’s
The following is a translation of one of the chapters of John Bekkos’s treatise On the Procession of the Holy Spirit. Bekkos here treats of an important text from Book Two of St. Basil’s early work...
View ArticleDionysius Petavius: Dogmata Theologica
I have on my bookshelves at home a multi-volume work which I purchased many years ago, the Opus de Theologicis Dogmatibus of Dionysius Petavius, S.J. (Denis Pétau, 1583-1652). This monumental work has...
View ArticleJohn Bekkos against Gregory of Cyprus’s view that manifestation does not...
Gregory of Cyprus’s doctrine of an eternal manifestation of the Holy Spirit through or from the Son is viewed by writers like Aristides Papadakis and Michel Stavrou as Orthodoxy’s definitive answer to...
View ArticleSt. Gregory the Theologian on moderation in debates (oration 32)
I made the following translation of St. Gregory the Theologian’s oration On moderation in debates (often referred to by the Latin title, De moderatione in disputando) some 30 years ago, around the time...
View ArticleInterview with Erick Ybarra
I had a discussion yesterday evening with the Catholic blogger and author Erick Ybarra on his YouTube channel, mostly about John Bekkos. The interview can be watched at the link below.
View ArticleNikephoros Blemmydes: Oration I on the Holy Spirit (to Jacob, Archbishop of...
The following translation is a work in progress. I am offering here only the first twelve paragraphs of this oration; later, I will add other sections, and will eventually, for ease of access, publish...
View ArticleOn the Nestorian antecedents of a Photian argument
At Mystagogy §93, Photius writes: “Therefore, in so far as He is man, Christ is anointed by the Spirit; and since the Spirit anoints Christ, He is called the Spirit of Christ. But you say, ‘Because He...
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