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So, brethren, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Gal 4:31

Perhaps no other Christian confession is as well known (or notorious) as Orthodoxy for the centrality of ancient tradition to its life and worship. As most ex-Protestant converts may know, a positive sense of “tradition” (paradosis) has biblical roots and features throughout the early centuries of Christian theological thinking. But the revival of interest in Christianity’s ancient tradition should raise a concern: Is our thinking about tradition as stable as the tradition itself? With more militant expressions of radical traditionalism on the rise in both the US and historically Orthodox countries, this question has never been more pressing.

At least in North America and Europe, it seems that Orthodox Christianity has deeply imbibed the modern idea of tradition as a discourse that constitutes an essential aspect of a person’s identity within a certain community and context in history. The notion that tradition thereby provides a stable grounding for faith and morals represents a kind of “right-wing postmodernism” that is associated (very roughly) with renowned philosopher and ethicist Alasdair MacIntyre and popularized by books like The Benedict Option. Though written some decades prior to MacIntyre’s After Virtue, Vladimir Lossky’s claim that Orthodox tradition is “the life of the Holy Spirit in the Church” offers fertile soil wherein this late 20th-century rediscovery of tradition—which also inspires Roman Catholic and even Protestant Christians—might flourish and take on a distinctive character, but not without a unique set of difficulties. Read More

The present essay responds to Dr. Catherine Sider Hamilton’s Abide with Me: Thoughts on Christian Unity. Inspired by a recent conversation that she had with Dr. Ephraim Radner, it appears online and in hard copy in the January 27, 2020 issue of The Morning Star: The Wycliffe College Community Newsletter. The blurb at the bottom of the last page describes The Morning Star as “a weekly e-newsletter geared specifically towards students and residents [italics mine].” To this target audience I return shortly.

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The ecumenical consortium of colleges known as the Toronto School of Theology, affiliated with and located on the main campus of the University of Toronto, counts among its member institutions of theological learning two Anglican schools directly across the street from each other, belonging to the same diocese of the Anglican Church of Canada and operating under the authority of the same bishop: Trinity College, where I am enrolled for my doctoral program, and Wycliffe College, where I have resided and taken my meals from August 2016 to the present. I have taken one course at Wycliffe, Dr. Radner’s Human Sexuality in a Christian Perspective, during the Winter 2014 term as part of my MA in Theology program. My final paper for his course provided an opportunity for me to begin fleshing out the theological and spiritual insights which culminated a year and a half later in my MA thesis, A Bed Undefiled: Foundations for an Orthodox Theology and Spirituality of Same-Sex Love (to be read in conjunction with A Bed Undefiled: A Partial Retraction). Dr. Radner characterized my paper as “meaty theological fare” in one of his written comments, and offered invaluable suggestions for how to strengthen my arguments in support of the Church’s sanctification of same-sex love in her sacramental economy. An eyewitness related to me that, at a theological conference some two months after reading my paper, Dr. Radner stated within hearing of numerous interlocutors and onlookers that his views on same-sex marriage were moving in a more affirmative direction. This differed notably from his widespread reputation on the subject and from what he had taught during the entire preceding semester. Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue shares this pearl of Orthodox theology and spirituality with gratitude to an aging Russian hierodeacon who looks on in silent horror at what his Church has become.

Antiochian Orthodox priest Joseph Gleason and family cosplaying as 19th-century Russian peasants 

American Priest, Editor of ‘Russian Faith’, Blocked from Facebook for Posting Article Critical of Sodomy

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What our most extreme, name-calling, hell-invoking-on-our-heads revilers cannot do may be accomplished by the imminent death of our 9-year old computer.

To replace it adequately will run to about $1400, funds which we simply do not have.

If you would like to make a contribution toward our new computer—whether substantial or small—kindly send it via PayPal using editors@orthodoxyindialogue.com as the recipient. (If you reside in Canada and prefer to use inter e-Transfer, contact us for the correct email address.)

Contributors to our computer fund will be added to our Patrons page if you’re not already listed there. You may choose to be listed anonymously or in memory of loved ones fallen asleep before us. Read More