• Will Cohen

    Professor of Theology at the University of Scranton

    Will Cohen is a professor of Theology at the University of Scranton, a Peace and Justice Studies Program Director. He is also a former president of the Orthodox Theological Society in America.
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Fr. Alexander Schmemann
Public Life

The End of “Conservative Ecumenism”

Not all critiques of secular liberalism over the past fifty years have involved flirtations with fascism, but in the apocalypse (literally, the unveiling) that Putin’s war on Ukraine has been, we can see more than ever the horrific consequences of not clearly separating the two.  In January 1975, Fr. Alexander Schmemann, dean of St. Vladimir’s...

More posts by the author

Book Reviews, Religion and Politics

Whose Lies? Which Subjugation?
A Review of Rod Dreher's "Live Not by Lies"

From the opening pages of Rod Dreher’s Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents (Sentinel, 2020), the assumption is that the lies which most threaten to engulf Christians today are those coming from the cultural and political Left. Political correctness, cancel culture, anti-racist kin... Read more.
Also available in: Ελληνικά | Русский | Српски | ქართული | български
Church Life and Pastoral Care, Liturgical Life

Coronavirus and Communion

by Will Cohen | Ελληνικά | ру́сский | српски In a moment of unprecedented closings and cancellations, how should the Orthodox Church and her members faithfully navigate the risks and complexities of the COVID-19 pandemic?  For many Orthodox jurisdictions and individuals, t... Read more.
Also available in: Ελληνικά | Русский | Српски
Gender and Sexuality, Orthodoxy and Modernity

Dialogue, Church Teaching, and the German Orthodox Bishops’ Letter on Love, Sexuality, and Marriage

by Will Cohen In a 2015 address at the University of Munich, Metropolitan John Zizioulas observed that “he agenda of Theology is set by history.”  By “history” he meant the concerns and questions particular to a given age, as he underscores in adding, “This was known t... Read more.
Public Life, Religion and Politics

Political Polarization and Christian Unity

by Will Cohen When politics is as toxic as it’s become today in North America, Church unity would seem more than ever to require quarantining the life of faith from current political and social questions. Broader society’s most polarizing issues do get taken up eagerly, it’s true, ... Read more.
Global Orthodoxy, Holy and Great Council

The Orthodox “Diaspora”: Mother Churches, Mission, and the Future

by Rev. Dr. Radu Bordeianu, Will Cohen, Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko, Brandon Gallaher, Rev. Dr. D. Oliver Herbel, and Kerry San Chirico Among the issues to be heard by the Orthodox Churches at the June 2016 Great and Holy Council in Crete is the situation of the Orthodox diaspora. The Council will b... Read more.
Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Holy and Great Council

Orthodoxy and Ecumenism in View of the Upcoming Great and Holy Council

by Will Cohen Some members of the Orthodox Church, who regard ecumenism as a heresy, have been predictably critical of the preconciliar document “Relations of the Orthodox Church with the Rest of the Christian World” since it was approved by the Orthodox primates at Chambèsy in October 2015.  ... Read more.
Ecclesiology

Decision-Making in the Church

by Will Cohen (This essay was originally delivered as a public talk at the June 2015 Fordham/OTSA conference on the upcoming Great and Holy Council of the Orthodox Church. It was part of a panel on ecumenical relations.) For Orthodoxy’s ecumenical relations as for all ecumenical relations in th... Read more.