There is little doubt that our self-esteem as a species has benefited greatly from the fact that we are from an extended family that is quickly dying off. We are the last surviving members of our genus Homo and one of only eight surviving species of the family Hominidae (colloquially known as the “Great Apes”)[…..]
Section: Looking Ahead
Animal Immortality and Philosophical Externalism.
The idea that there are going to be animals in heaven is widely accepted, following the prophet Isaiah’s vision that involves animals, as well as an altered relationship between prey and predator species, “The wolf also shall dwell wit the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the[…..]
Nonhuman Animals in Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Culture.
Early Christian writers have left us no detailed treatment of the relationship of human beings to nonhuman animal beings. There is no Christian equivalent to the pagan Porphyry’s “On Abstinence From Animal Foods” (third century CE). So is it possible to create a compassionate Christian guide to our treatment of animals from a combination of[…..]
The Orthodox Church Facing Up to Its Own Challenges
I come to you from the far north of Europe, from the shores of the Baltic that were until very recently “beyond the iron curtain,” in order to share some ideas with you on the theme: “The Orthodox Church facing up to its own challenges” in today’s world.
Meetings About Meetings
When Orthodox scholars get together, we rarely talk directly about the future. But occasionally the pressing needs of our time demand such a conversation. The near future is an exciting time for Orthodoxy: His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch has called a representative council of bishops to convene in Istanbul next spring, and many hope that[…..]
Father Alexander Schmemann, The Virgin Mary, and the Ordination of Women
The reader who engages with Father Alexander Schmemann’s mariological thought—as articulated primarily in The Virgin Mary, the third volume of his Celebration of Faith trilogy—encounters a challenge. The challenge is to reconcile Father Schmemann’s treatment of the issue of women’s clerical ordination with his theological reflection on the place of the Theotokos within Orthodox theology[…..]
Reviving the Liturgical Enterprise of Alexander Schmemann
Thirty-five years have elapsed since the untimely passing of Father Alexander Schmemann, but there seems to be a consensus that his legacy remains alive and well in both the Church and the academy. Since church leaders and scholars generally take Schmemann’s influence for granted, rare is the attempt to review the impact of his thought[…..]