Orthodoxy in Dialogue is pleased to introduce Jacob McNair of Toronto to our readers around the world. He is a young Orthodox Christian in the final stage of his Master of Journalism.

Jacob McNair

Mary Hynes sits with a cup of tea in a cozy, burgundy-walled studio at CBC’s Toronto offices. She’s interviewing Paul Bramadat, a professor at the University of Victoria, about his study of the spiritual demographics of Cascadia, the Pacific Northwest region encompassing British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. It’s a segment for her radio show Tapestry, where she talks to Canadians about religion, spirituality, philosophy, psychology, and all other aspects of the “messy business of being human.” Even though Bramadat is phoning in from across the continent, Hynes keeps the tone personal—as if he’s sitting right there with her. While Bramadat’s initial answers revolve around mechanics and data, Hynes’s informal, caring tone and questions pry him away from his prepared answers. When asked about the area’s distinctive spiritual trends, he notes, “the influence of what I call ‘reverential naturalism,’ which is to say, that being out in nature is not just a place where one does a spirituality or religion, but it is a medium through which [spirituality or religion] is done.”

Hynes asks for an example, commenting, “I guess the image that’s coming to my mind is, you have everything! You have the ocean, you have the mountains. You know, this part of the world is pretty spectacular in terms of natural beauty. So how does that shape a sense of spirituality?”

“I moved here about 10 years ago, and most professors teach, and were taught, that everything is a social construction—”

“Sorry, where did you move from?” interrupts Hynes.

“I moved from Winnipeg, where I spent about 30 years of my life, but I’ve lived also in Quebec, and in the Hamilton area.” Bramadat goes on to describe how, on moving to B.C., he noticed a number of drivers unironically using a B.C. licence plate with the motto, “The Best Place on Earth,” which was offered by the government from 2007 to 2011. He believes it “does really capture the way in which people think about this place, and so it just led me to think, ‘Well, is there anything about this place which might be distinctive from the various other places I’ve lived?’ I love the prairies, I love that landscape, but it’s a place of horizontal and somewhat elusive beauty. It requires your attention. In Cascadia, the beauty doesn’t really require your attention—it reaches in and kind of grabs it.” Read More

Orthodox “pastors” and “theologians” who spew a never-ending stream of homophobia and transphobia from the comfort of their laptops consistently deny any complicity in the suicide and murder of our LGBTQ brothers and sisters. “We are simply speaking the truth!” “We love the sinner, but hate his sin!” “Aw, those poor, fragile, suicidal teenagers!”

Orthodoxy in Dialogue goes on record to assert: If your “truth” and your “love” provide the discursive incentive for even one suicide, even one case of infanticide, it is neither true nor loving, nor is your “gospel” good news. Your “theology” is poison. In your pornographic obsession with techniques of “gay sex” you cover your eyes and stop your ears to the indisputable fact that children start to become aware of their orientation from their earliest memories, long before they have any idea of what “sex” is — “gay” or otherwise.

Do not run for shelter under the fact that this sweet child was abused long before his coming out: no one ever murdered a little boy for saying he likes girls.

If you think Orthodoxy in Dialogue has an “agenda,” we wear it as a badge of honour. We would rather have an “agenda” than blood on our hands.

Grant rest eternal in blessed repose, O Lord, to the soul of Thy child Anthony who has fallen asleep, and may his memory be eternal.

Memory eternal. Memory eternal. Memory eternal.

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This article and the one following will attempt to outline in brief a framework for the systematic comparison of Orthodox and Islamic theology. I hope to develop this framework in future writings in a much fuller fashion, given the importance that I believe it could have for future Orthodox-Islamic relationships. These relations are deeply historically grounded, but also deeply politicized by reductive nationalisms in the modern period. 

Scope and Method

Comparing all of Islam to Orthodox Christianity would be difficult and imprecise, since Islam is as internally diverse as Christianity. It thus makes more sense to compare one particular Islamic tradition with one particular Christian tradition. I will therefore compare the theological history of Orthodox Christianity with that of Sunni Islam in the Eastern Mediterranean—roughly contemporary Turkey, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, and Palestine. Sunni Islam in the Eastern Mediterranean comprises most of the former Ottoman Empire, which gives it a shared intellectual and cultural heritage in much the same way that the Orthodox world has.

Secondly, I will restrict my comparison to dogmatic theology, or theology that represents core beliefs about God and the spiritual life in each tradition. I will argue in this piece that Orthodox and Sunni Islam in the Eastern Mediterranean exhibit a strikingly similar pattern of theological history, but in fact come to almost diametrically opposed conclusions about theological epistemology, i.e., how to know and approach God. Read More

Over the past several months Orthodoxy in Dialogue has issued a number of calls for articles on different topics. Some have generated responses, others have not. We repost the links here for our new readers who might like to write for us and as a reminder to our older readers. You need not be Orthodox to write for us so long as your article has some relevance to Orthodox Christianity.

Book Summaries and Reviews

Dialogical Articles

Faith and the Arts

 Interviews

Monastic Life

Ordination of Women

Voices of Orthodox Youth

Western Captivity of Orthodoxy?

The Wheel 13/14 Read More