This is the second article in our Reformation 500 Series.

Saint Constantine Equal-to-the-Apostles and the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council with the Nicaean Creed

I can claim no more than the generalist knowledge of any reasonably educated Westerner of my generation concerning the Protestant Reformation and the situation of the Roman Catholic Church at the end of the Middle Ages that some say made it inevitable.

Much less can I claim to speak for the Orthodox Church. I offer the personal reflections of one Orthodox Christian.

Yet I hope that my readers will discern some measure of authenticity in my thoughts; that the main outlines of my presentation, if perhaps not every detail, will bear the ring of truth for my Orthodox brothers and sisters; that they will recognize herein, for the most part, the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Faith that we Orthodox hold in common, “traditioned” (παραδοθείσῃ, traditae in the Vulgate) once for all to the saints; and finally, that the truth that I attempt to speak will be heard by those outside of the Orthodox Church as spoken in love. Many of my Protestant and Catholic readers are known to me personally. You enrich my life in ways immeasurable with your presence, your friendship, your deep love for Christ and His Gospel, your patience with my often inelegant and bumbling efforts to articulate this Faith of which I am unworthy to call myself an heir.

The fundamental question, it seems to me, is one of ecclesiology. Our theological understanding of the Church as Church will condition in large part how we view the Reformation. Here we should note that the Reformation eventually introduced categories into Christian discourses about the nature of the Church herself that exist nowhere in the New Testament, and nowhere in 1500 years of the Church’s self-understanding: “denominations,” “confessions,” the “branch theory” of “Christianity.” Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue has launched the Reformation 500 Series, for which a separate category has been created on the Archives by Author page before the alphabetized list of authors.

We invite Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox clergy, bishops, theology students, and theology professors to write a 1000-word reflection on Reformation 500, whether you take a more positive or less positive position. We ask only that you avoid a polemical, confrontational, or triumphalistic tone in your writing. Read More

This article represents the first in our proposed Reformation 500 Series, in which Protestant, Catholic, and Orthodox writers are invited to reflect on the 500th anniversary of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses and the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.

I credit the Orthodox theologian, Father John H. Erickson, for teaching me that ecclesial anniversaries are tricky occasions to prepare. As he noted at the June 1997 Orientale Lumen Conference between Catholics and Orthodox:

What some of those touched by such events remember with joy, others remember with a sense of anguish and pain. Specific incidents which some may have completely forgotten, others take as the key for interpreting the entire occasion.

I think this probably describes pretty much the different ways that Catholics and Lutherans might view the Reformation 500 anniversary.

For many Lutherans, the anniversary may be an occasion for much pride and joy: a touchstone moment to celebrate all that Martin Luther stood for and all that has been accomplished in his name and in the name of Lutheranism over the centuries, and to dream of what may still be possible in the Lutheran Church today. Read More

Sergei Semionovich Troitsky

This is not an essay about sexuality, but about biography and history, and honouring the actual lived experience and wishes of those who have departed this life before us.

On May 2 Public Orthodoxy published my “Conjugal Friendship,” which summarizes and comments upon Father Pavel Florensky’s 1914 “Friendship” and its inspiration, his earlier relationship with the deceased Sergei Troitsky. The explosive reactions that ensued compelled me to write a sequel, “Conjugal Friendship: An Appeal for a Conversation.” This appeared on July 5 on the University of Toronto Press Journals Blog.

None of the respondents who took me to task for my interpretation of “Friendship” produced a single sentence from Florensky’s text to show me where I had gone wrong. They appeared to base their arguments on no more than pious conjecture.

No one who excoriated my portrayal of Florensky’s relationship with Troitsky took into account my dependence on Avril Pyman’s 2010 biography, Pavel Florensky: A Quiet Genius, or her reliance on the letters and diaries of the principal actors in the story.   Read More