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Talks on the Beatitudes: Blessed Are the Merciful; Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

by Alexander Schmemann

We live in the era of ideologies which in their attempt to be all-encompassing exist in continuous strife, and this strife fills the world with fear and hatred. We live in the world from which mercy and charity are exiled, and that is perhaps the most frightening thing about it, the sign of its dehumanization. It is possible to read all the thick tomes interpreting every word, every comma of those who are considered the creators of those ideologies, teachers, and prophets of “the new world.”

Alexander Schmemann

The Rt. Rev. Alexander Schmemann was an Orthodox theologian who played a central role in founding the Orthodox Church in America. He was a graduate of St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris. He was Dean of St. Vladimir’s Seminary from 1962 to 1983, and also taught at Columbia University, New York University, and Union Theological Seminary.

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