Four months ago, a UOC (Ukrainian Orthodox Church) Council in the Feofaniya monastery in Kyiv introduced fundamental changes into the Church’s statutes. That Council has already become a historic event—with possible implications for world Orthodoxy. But properly understanding the logic of its decisions means understanding what happened in the UOC after the Russian army’s full-scale…
Continue readingGod’s Controversy with the United States
Rod Dreher and the Orthodox Jeremiad
by Aram G. Sarkisian “Beware, O sinful land, beware;And do not think it strangeThat sorer judgements are at hand,Unless thou quickly change.Or God, or thou, must quickly change;Or else thou art undon:Wrath cannot cease, if sin remain,Where judgement is begun.” -Michael Wigglesworth, “God’s Controversy With New England” (Written in the Time of the Great Drought,…
Continue readingThinking Out Loud: In Response to the OCA’s Curbing of Intellectual Freedom
by Very Rev. Dr. Isaac Skidmore I would like to respond to the Statement on Same-sex Relationships and Sexual Identity, issued by the Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America during the recent All-American Assembly in Baltimore in July. I believe it will be evident I have concerns about the statement’s curtailment of…
Continue readingOrthodox Christianity in Eastern Europe and the Challenge of Self-Colonization
by Ina Merdjanova Discussions on contemporary Orthodox Christianity have often focused on the multiple ways in which historical legacies and political contexts have shaped the trajectories of Orthodoxy’s institutional development, social presence, and theological responses to important issues such as modernity, secularization, globalization, and religious pluralism, among others. Importantly, Orthodoxy’s responses to adverse historical circumstances,…
Continue readingFullness of Faith or Fullness of Fear?
On Prohibiting Open Theological Discussion
by Gregory Tucker At the conclusion of the “Bridging Voices” conference in Oxford in 2019, I thanked the distinguished group of participants for restoring my confidence in the church as a discursive society bound by love of and in Christ. Our meeting was demanding, at times very tense, and inconclusive, but commitment to working through…
Continue readingMethod and Consequence in the Study of U.S. Orthodoxy
by Robert Saler Much of the recent controversy about Sarah Riccardi-Swartz’s book Between Heaven and Russia (as well as the National Public Radio piece that highlighted her work along with that of other scholars investigating the influence of far-right currents within U.S. Orthodoxy) has exhibited some confusion about the epistemology of social science disciplines. Sarah’s…
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