TEMPORARY (PARTIAL) SUSPENSION OF ACTIVITY

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oldmanBeloved Masters, Fathers, Mothers, Brothers, Sisters, and Friends in Christ our Saviour:

Starting today I need to devote the next six weeks to nonstop reading for my doctoral exams, the penultimate step before I dive into writing my dissertation.

There are three exams: the specialist exam on August 3, on the topic of my dissertation (Father Pavel Florensky’s “Friendship” as his intentional theology of same-sex love); the cognate (“related”) exam on August 17, on modern Orthodox theology from the late 19th century to the present; and the oral exam on August 31, a kind of oral defense of the two written exams.

For each written exam I have 24 hours (at home) to answer three essay questions for the specialist and two questions for the cognate. I’m expected to type about seven pages in response to each question—which is harder than you might think in that time span when you need to make every word count and not natter on to fill pages.

This means that Orthodoxy in Dialogue will go mostly (but not entirely) silent until mid-August. Keep reading us, and keep sharing your favourite articles with your friends!

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HAGIA SOPHIA: SOME PERSONAL REFLECTIONS by Phil Dorroll

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mosaic of Constantine IX, detail

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About a year ago, someone asked me why I, an Orthodox Christian, decided to pursue a career in Islamic Studies—focusing in particular on Islam in Turkey. I couldn’t answer the question at the time. But a few days ago, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning and couldn’t get back to sleep. I had been following stories in Turkish news over the past few weeks about a hearing at the Turkish high court that would occur that day, where the current Turkish administration was requesting that Hagia Sophia—currently a museum—be turned back into a mosque. I realized, when I got up later that morning and scanned Turkish news, that Hagia Sophia might already have become a mosque again. (At the time of writing, the court has not yet issued its decision.) I couldn’t get back to sleep until I began to write the words below. I also finally had the answer to the question posed to me the previous year. Read More

EDITORIAL: ROD DREHER HATES BLACK PEOPLE…AGAIN

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Colin Kaepernick

Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers will recall our chronicle of Rod Dreher’s hatred of Africans and African-Americans. 

He has done it again, this time by celebrating the 4th of July with an article bearing the libelous, violence-inciting title, Colin Kaepernick Hates America. In response to Kaepernick’s tweet, Read More

BRITISH COUNCIL: EASTERN ORTHODOXY AND SEXUAL DIVERSITY

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Although the organizers of Bridging Voices determined that neither Orthodoxy in Dialogue nor editor Giacomo Sanfilippo had anything to contribute to this conversation, we share it with our readers in order to ensure your inclusion in it. Check our Bridging Voices: Call for Responses if you would like to respond to this report or to any portion of it, or consider writing a letter to the editors.

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Drawing on the perspectives of twenty-one participants, in ten essays, the Exeter-Fordham consortium’s report begins a nuanced and respectful conversation around sexual diversity and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

This report provides a diverse set of perspectives in the debate around sexual diversity in the Eastern Orthodox Church. It is a step towards articulating and clarifying the theology and discipline of the Eastern Orthodox Church on matters of sex, gender, and sexuality. This report serves as a point of reference and departure for ongoing conversations about Orthodoxy and sexuality in terms familiar to the Orthodox Church. It re-articulates and explores the topic of Orthodox identity and sexual diversity within the context of secular and pluralist political frameworks. The report includes ten summary arguments presented by participants at the project’s first digital workshop, which involved 21 participants in total.

Read the report now.

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