A blessed Lent to those already in it and observing it more or less attentively. Full Lent in Orthodoxy doesn’t start this year until March 11.
Where St. Paul and Nietzsche agree
Like Paul, Nietzsche knew it to be a scandal. Unlike Paul, he found it repellent. The spectacle of Christ being tortured to death had been bait for the powerful. It had persuaded them—the strong and the healthy, the beautiful and the brave, the powerful and the self-assured—that it was their natural inferiors, the hungry and the humble, who deserved to inherit the earth.
Tom Holland, Dominion
What is “religion”?
Another book, less exhaustive but both more enjoyable and more useful to me, is Before Religion: A History of a Modern Concept by Brent Nongbri. He begins by recounting a conversation with his father in India, asking what word in their own Khasi language corresponded to the English word “religion.” The answer was a loan-word from Bengali, meaning simply “customs.” They had no word of their own for the category of action English-speakers thought of as religion.
Fr Silouan Thompson, Why I’m Religious, and Not Spiritual
Yes, “God is in control,” but that may not mean what you think
“It will all work out.” Don’t be so sure. We prefer to view prosperity, economic opportunity, political freedom, and religious liberty as facts of nature, like air and gravity. In fact they are delicate achievements which will be lost in an instant if the cultural consensus which supports them disappears. Already this consensus has gravely eroded. In fact, it is under assault, and too often, those who recognize the fact are afraid to speak for fear of being called “partisan,” “polarizing,” on “on the wrong side of history.”
People of a certain kind of faith sometimes ask me, “But don’t you believe God is in control?” Yes, but this doesn’t mean that He will preserve our civilization. What it means is that He can save souls and preserve His Church, and that in the end, none of our civilization’s wickedness and insanity will be able to defeat His purposes. If we cannot or refuse to be reformed, we may be swept away — or allowed to destroy ourselves – or, most likely, both.
J Budziszewski, The Next Burning
I emphatically agree with that second paragraph.
Who among us is not living in “negative world”?
I am thinking of a Black Southern Baptist–trained pastor who could not stomach taking his kids to church within his denomination anymore because of his fellow church members’ reluctance to talk about racism. A longtime staffer at a major American archdiocese who feels daily rage at the Catholic Church’s inability to address the clergy sexual-abuse crisis. A young woman fired from her job at a conservative Christian advocacy organization because she spoke out against President Trump. A Catholic professor who bitterly wishes the Democratic Party had room for his pro-life views. These are all examples from the world of religion and politics, but they speak to a deep and expansive truth: In many parts of American life, people feel the institutions that were supposed to guide their lives have failed, and that there is no space for people like them.
Emma Green, The American ‘Way of Life’ Is Unsustainable for So Many. Is It Time to Build Radical Forms of Community?
Read this as a companion to last Sunday’s critical comments on problems with Aaron Renn’s neat positive world, neutral word, negative world narrative.
Purity
Given the hypersexualized nature of today’s culture, when we think of purity, we usually think of sexual purity. And thinking of sexual purity, we typically focus on abstinence. So purity somehow transforms into not experiencing a thing we want to experience. This is a distortion. Purity is about wholeness or integrity. It means that the body, mind, heart, and soul are rightly ordered toward God. Every element of who we are is doing its part to bring us to union with God, which is our ultimate happiness. Given the strength of the sexual desires we all feel, rightly acting on those desires is a key part of maintaining purity. For single people and celibates, as we noted earlier in these pages, it means offering those desires up to God and seeking to channel them in our love and service for others.
Charles J. Chaput, Strangers in a Strange Land
How the Queen of Sciences differs from her subjects
Ultimately, theology is not a set of definitions or theories. Theology is mystery since it transcends the rational mind and attempts to express the inexpressible. In schools of theology and seminaries, theology is indeed an academic subject and, as such, it requires accuracy and embraces a certain “intellectual rigour,” as Met. Kallistos remarks. This does not conflict with Orthodoxy, since “we do not serve the Kingdom of God through vagueness, muddle and lazy thinking.” But he also notes that in other sciences or areas of investigation, the personal sanctity of the scientist or inquirer is irrelevant. This is not the case with theology, which requires metanoia (repentance), catharsis (purification), and askesis (spiritual struggle).
Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou, Thinking Orthodox
… that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height — to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19 (NKJV)
You can read most of my more impromptu stuff here and here (both of them cathartic venting, especially political) and here (the only social medium I frequent, because people there are quirky, pleasant and real). All should work in your RSS aggregator, like Feedly or Reeder, should you want to make a habit of it.
Tipsy Teetotaler ن 