Editor’s Note: Even though IOCC remains strictly apolitical and nonpartisan in its messaging—and rightly so—Orthodoxy in Dialogue has no hesitation in condemning the White House’s green-lighting of Turkey to escalate the violence in Syria by clearing the way to attack our Kurdish allies.

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International Orthodox Christian Charities Launches Campaign for
Children’s Programs in Syria
Dream Centers offer Children, Families Safe Spaces, Support Overcoming Trauma 

International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) is launching a new fundraising campaign, aiming to raise $250,000 for programming that supports children and families who have survived trauma and tragedy in Syria. Read More

If you post a paper of interest to a mainly Orthodox audience on academia.edu, Orthodoxy in Dialogue may help draw new readers to your work.

You need not be Orthodox to participate so long as your paper has significant relevance to Orthodox Christianity.

Of course, your paper need not agree with anything that Orthodoxy in Dialogue has already published. Read More

The New Atheism, Myth, and History: The Black Legends of Contemporary Anti-Religion
Nathan Johnstone
Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

My interest in Nathan Johnstone’s book comes from my lifelong experience of a diversity of religious thought. I was born and raised in Indonesia, a majority Islamic nation. My global studies and travels have exposed me to a plethora of philosophies, beliefs, and arguments. Having nearly become an atheist myself in my early 20s, and having read many of the New Atheist publications as well as the writings of their detractors, I consider myself  well versed in the arguments of both sides. I enjoy and respect my discussions with atheists.

The self-described “New Atheist” movement began arguably in 2004 with the publication of The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason by Sam Harris. This was the first book to be associated with New Atheists, although the term “New Atheist” itself was not born until 2006. Since then there have been a plethora of books, articles, and other media posts written by atheists in support of the new atheism and by theists criticising and countering the moment.

Nathan Johnstone may not be the first author to join in the fray, but his book is the first to approach the issue from a historical perspective as opposed to a philosophical or theological  perspective. What is distinctive about this book and its author’s approach is that he is not arguing for or against atheism or theism. In fact, the author freely criticises both atheist and theist arguments where he deems it necessary.  Read More

Cover photo on Father Samuel Davis‘ Twitter profile

My Orthodoxy, Sissies, and the Performance of Masculinity of March 3, 2018 ranks number ten among Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s 670 articles published since we launched in August 2017, and number three among those with my name in the byline.

Our readers will therefore be interested to learn that the newly ordained Father Samuel Davis of the Orthodox Church in America and recent graduate of St. Tikhon’s Seminary — where it is apparently acceptable to call for my drowning and being fed to sharks (see here and here) — has taken up Father John Guy Winfrey’s clarion call that only “real men” need apply for membership in the Orthodox Church. Yesterday Father Davis tweeted on his Twitter account: 

While Contemporary Christianity has become feminized. Men are still men in the Orthodox Church and that is what is enticing/attractive to men. Read More

There were these two guys in a lunatic asylum… and one night they decide they don’t like living in an asylum any more. They decide they’re going to escape! So they get up onto the roof, and there, just across this narrow gap, they see the rooftops of the town, stretching away in the moon light… stretching away to freedom. Now, the first guy, he jumps right across with no problem. But his friend didn’t dare make the leap. Y’see, he’s afraid of falling. So then, the first guy has an idea… He says “Hey! I have my flashlight with me! I’ll shine it across the gap between the buildings. You can walk along the beam and join me!” But the second guy just shakes his head. He says “What do you think I am? Crazy? You’d turn it off when I was halfway across!” (The Joker in Batman: The Killing Joke by Alan Moore and Brian Bolland)

Joker is nominally an origin story of Batman’s arch-nemesis, the Clown Prince of Crime. But it wasn’t originally conceived as such, and it shows. The names of Gotham City, Arkham Hospital, and the Wayne family feel shoehorned in, and the scene near the end showing the fateful moment that turned young Bruce Wayne into Batman could easily be removed without making an iota of difference to the plot. Read More

As Public Orthodoxy releases summaries of the papers presented at the recent Bridging Voices conference at Oxford, Orthodoxy in Dialogue wishes to offer a space where hierarchs, clergy, monastics, academics, non-academics, laypersons, and youth can publish their thoughts on the questions and issues raised.

You may wish to address one or more of the articles, the conference itself, the selection of invitees, or any other aspect of the proceedings and presentations.

If you take a position contrary to what Orthodoxy in Dialogue normally represents, you must do so in a fraternal manner which does no emotional or spiritual harm to LGBTQI persons.  Imagine yourself on the receiving end of your words. Read More

Eric J. Iliff

October 11, 1981 ~ March 13, 2007

✠

Orthodoxy in Dialogue and “A Bed Undefiled” are dedicated to Eric’s memory. We will not let our beloved brother and friend be forgotten.

His untimely death by his own hand remains an unhealed wound in the conscience of the Orthodox Church in America and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. Read More