One of the most important, if not the most important, artistic representations of the Holy Trinity is St. Andrew Rublev’s icon of the Hospitality of Abraham. [The Greek φιλοξενία means the love of strangers, love of foreigners.] Just as Tradition suggests that the three angels who visited Abraham are understood to represent the Trinity, so that Abraham is said to have met with God at Mamre, Rublev’s icon allows us to having a meeting with God. In the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius, he explains to us how symbols of God in Scripture point to and reveal God to us, so that through symbols we can meditate upon and experience the Kingdom of God. This is why Rublev’s icon, representing an important symbol of God in Scripture, directs us to an encounter with God.

We experience the glory of the Trinity through Rublev’s depiction of the three angels: the first, holding his hand over a chalice, his face looking upon the second; the second, looking upon the third; and the third, facing the first. The circle which can be observed being formed by the way that the angels interact with each other demonstrates the loving communion found between the Persons of the Trinity, where they are distinct and yet work together and are united as one. Nonetheless, the circle is not closed; it is welcoming, as the first angel holding his hand out over the chalice can be seen to be welcoming us in to partake with him and share with him the communion of love which the divine Persons have with each other. Read More

Some Protestant churches, where it is now common to have pastors that identify as gay or rewrite prayers to insert ‘gender-neutral pronouns’ are gradually losing all semblance of traditional Christianity

As is well known, the position of the Russian church on homosexuality is unwaveringly traditional (read here for a detailed account of the Russian Church’s answers to typical pro-gay arguments). 

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Like many of us who have closely followed the increasingly depressing saga of white supremacists co-opting the Orthodox Church in recent years, I processed the news a while back about Matthew Heimbach’s arrest and the presumed downfall of his neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker Party with some skepticism. Heimbach might have been the guy in the room who yelled the loudest, but there are a host of others just like him, and some of them will be standing next to you during Liturgy this Sunday. That fact should concern you. There is absolutely no good reason why it shouldn’t concern you.

Orthodoxy in Dialogue has played a constructive role in raising awareness of the neo-Nazi/white supremacist/“alt-right” problem by posting articles, news stories, and open letters to Church hierarchs and seminaries over the past several months. This has not been enough, unfortunately. The problem is too great now, the inaction too widespread, for these kinds of solutions. Even still there are those within the Church who refuse to admit that we have this issue in the first place. We’ve waited far too long to be able to swiftly stem this tide. Parishes across the country are being affected. Social media is overrun with a brand of Orthodoxy that sees zero contradiction in posting Paschal greetings alongside racist tirades and clickbait links praising Putin or Assad. Where do we go from here? What can be done? Read More

After conducting a poll of Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s Facebook group, and taking our members’ questions and comments into consideration, we’re excited to issue a call for articles for our new Faith & the Arts series.

For our purposes we understand “the arts” as broadly as possible: short and long fiction, poetry, films, music, television, theatre, photography, painting, sculpture, architecture, fashion, et al. The parameters are almost limitless.

We seek articles reflective of a thoughtful engagement with their subject from the perspective of Christian faith. You may choose to write on a recently produced or older work. As always, you need not be Orthodox to write for us. Articles on a work of visual art should include one or more photos of the piece in question.

Contributions to this series will be catalogued both under its own category and under the respective authors’ names on our Archives by Author page.

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