When I announced Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s partial hiatus I let it be known that I would continue to respond to anything sent to our editorial email address. People write to us not only with their ideas for an article, but very often to me personally for spiritual support in their struggles with questions of sexuality and gender. These questions might pertain to themselves, their child, or someone else for whom they care deeply.

The day before yesterday we heard from a woman who’s familiar with the work of Father James Martin, SJ. (See the titles under his name in our Archives by Author.) Over the course of two or three emails she reached a comfort level with me where she asked why I study theology, why my studies focus on sexuality and gender, what makes a person straight or gay, what were the reactions to my article in The Wheel. 

I share my rushed and unpolished answer in the hope that some of our readers might find it helpful. Read More

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To His Beatitude

EPIPHANIUS

Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine

Εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη, Δέσποτα! Іс полла еті, Деспота! Many Years, O Master!

Sunday, February 3, 2019. St. Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv.

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Dr. Ables’ review brings Rev. Dr. Mongeau’s Embracing Wisdom and Thomas Aquinas into direct conversation with modern Orthodox theology. 

Embracing Wisdom: The Summa theologiae as Spiritual Pedagogy
Gilles Mongeau
Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2015

A few years ago in graduate school, I spent months tracking down the origins of a curious little echo chamber in 20th-century trinitarian theology. Starting with Karl Rahner and recurring through many luminaries—Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox—one encounters the same argument repeatedly. The argument was really a story, a story of decline and discovery, as theologian after theologian decried the shortcomings of Western trinitarian theology and found refuge and renewal in the trinitarian thought of Orthodoxy. I eventually traced this narrative to the writings of Vladimir Lossky and the exiled Russian Orthodox community in Paris, emanating from the St. Dionysius Institute and the Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius. It made its way into an essay by Rahner, and the rest was history.

This particular narrative of trinitarian history is not directly relevant to Mongeau’s masterful work; what is significant, however, is how the reception of Parisian Orthodox thought in Germany and France seemed to trade on a deep suspicion of two canonical Catholic figures: Augustine and Aquinas. Indeed, as I dug further into 20th-century Orthodox thought, the allergy to Thomas seemed to be the common denominator among these Orthodox and their Western interpreters. And no wonder. With the promulgation of Aeterni Patris and the Neo-Thomist revival in Catholic seminaries, the fastidious manuals of the schools seemed the very antithesis of the apophatic, mystical, doxological theologies being developed by Lossky, Florovsky, and other Orthodox—and their Western readers. Read More

Metropolitan Tikhon (L) and Patriarch Kirill (R)

Here at Orthodoxy in Dialogue we’ve wondered since mid-December how the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) would respond to ecclesiastical developments in Ukraine, what was taking them so long to make up their minds, and finally if there was any significance to the fact that their “Archpastoral Letter on Ukraine” came out on January 28. 

Lo and behold, while preparing The OCA: Moscow’s Pawns in America & the American Region of “Russkii Mir” for publication a short while ago, we went to the OCA website to get the link for the aforementioned Archpastoral Letter. There we learned that, earlier today—just two days after doing the Kremlin’s bidding in writing—Metropolitan Tikhon and entourage landed in Moscow to pay obeisance in person to their liege lord.

Did the Patriarch threaten to rescind the Metropolitan’s invite to his self-congratulations party if the OCA Synod didn’t get off the pot and issue a Ukraine statement pronto? Did Moscow send Syosset an approved text for the latter’s Archpastoral Letter?

These questions don’t seem entirely beyond the pale of possibility. Read More