First panel session from the event “Seeking Harmony and Compassion: Pastoral Care and LGBTQ+ Orthodox Faithful,” held at Fordham University’s Lincoln Center Campus October 13, 2023. Panelists include Dr. Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Fr. Perry Hamalis, and Dr. Nina Glibetic. Opening introduction by Elena Paraskevas-Thadani. As Orthodox Christians, we are called, first and foremost, to love…
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Theology
Newman, Levering, and Me
“Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.” —Michael Corleone Let me note, before anything else, that I am not concerned in what follows to defend my orthodoxy, which anyone who cares to may impugn without protest from me. I long ago lost the least interest in how others reckon orthodoxy…
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Ecclesiology, Orthodoxy and Modernity
Eastern Orthodoxy and Church Reform
“Church reform” has always been a taboo in the Orthodox Church; it has a negative connotation in some traditionalistic circles. Actually, there are many elements that strengthen stagnation and promote anti-reform tendencies, such as the claim of unity, stability, identity, psychological and spiritual factors, catholicity and universality, synodality, solidarity and collegiality, sameness, traditionalism, and others….
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Theology
Sergei Bulgakov and the Economics of Tradition
by Daniel Nicholas | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски Written in 1912, Sergei Bulgakov’s Philosophy of Economy: The World as Household surprises in its embrace of a certain kind of materialism. Giving credit largely to the heavyweights of the German idealist tradition with an occasional nod to Marx, it…
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Culture and Arts, Orthodoxy and Modernity, Theology
Late Modernity, Time, and Orthodoxy
by Efstathios Kessareas | български | ქართული | Ελληνικά | Русский | Српски The rhythm of the contemporary world is frenetic. The escalator, once a symbol of progress, cannot anymore serve the needs of modern humans, who are always in a hurry. Not only work but also personal life is structured according to the new tenet:…
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Culture and Arts, Theology
George Seferis and the Freedom of Tradition
by Christopher Howell | ελληνικά “I belong to a small country,” said the great Greek poet George Seferis in his Nobel Prize winning speech in 1963. “It is small, but its tradition is immense.” As wrangling over the word “tradition” has become an idle pastime, particularly on that domain of debauchery known as social media,…
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Theology
Between Rigorism and Relativism: The Givenness of Tradition
by Marcus Plested Tradition is the central problematic of modern Orthodox theology. We are a Church that takes tradition seriously. Where disagreements arise these tend to revolve around questions of fidelity to tradition. What does it mean to be faithful to the tradition of the Church? Just how free may we be with relation to…
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Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Holy and Great CouncilInnovation in the Guise of Tradition
Innovation in the Guise of Tradition
Anti-Ecumenist Efforts to Derail the Great and Holy Council
Image: Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus The documents approved by the Primates of the Church for the Great and Holy Council are not particularly controversial. They are the product of consensus, negotiated over decades, that often repeat previous declarations rather than addressing the more challenging questions that face the modern Church. The one possible exception is…
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Public Orthodoxy is a publication of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University