I get the distinct impression that many Orthodox Christians think they are supposed to have an emperor. This is only a feeling. It is hard to quantify. I get it when Facebook friends seem to do everything they can to put a halo on Putin, I overhear it in conversations at coffee hour, and sometimes I see it in a blog’s subtext, like this post Fr. Stephen Freeman wrote back in December. Continue reading “Orthodoxy and Democracy: A Response to Fr. Stephen Freeman”
Category: Theology
Why I am Not a Sophiologist
I like Sergei Bulgakov, but that doesn’t mean I always agree with him. Let me put it this way: I also like Ke$ha.
The Kingdoms of God and Constantine
So now I am going to sum up Part II of Orthodoxy without Empire. Last time I talked about the church-culture limen and two inadequate ways of relating to it. In Part II, I argue that a more coherent account of this limen can actually be found in the rubble of the Byzantine Empire. I know that sounds counterintuitive when you consider that one of the options I criticize is a kind of neo-imperialism, but hear me out, because I think what I am working toward is actually an anti-imperialistic. It’s this socio-political ideal called symphonia.
Why Church Has Been Hard for Me
About a year ago, the Supreme Court struck down DOMA. That was the week when I started getting dozens more Twitter followers, and I didn’t know why. A little Internet sleuthing told me that the Huffington Post was rerunning the first, and probably most infamous, article I had written for them, “An Eastern Orthodox Defense of Gay Marriage.” That was July of 2011, when church became a hard(er) place to be in sometimes.
My alienation was subtle but sudden. Only a couple of my fellow parishioners wrote me condescending and/or threatening emails, but I quickly noticed how people stopped making eye-contact with me. It was not universal because not everyone knew what I had written, but those whom I knew had read my piece treated me rather coolly. I don’t blame them for this. It was the best they could do. The fact that the response was not more outrageous is a credit to the wonderful people in my parish. But I’ve always felt a bit out of sorts there. That’s not their fault. It’s just the way it is. Let me explain… Continue reading “Why Church Has Been Hard for Me”
The Funny Thing About Limens…
This post started with me trying to sum up Part 2, but then it turned into one great big digression, which made me realize that I needed to spend a bit more time talking about why I feel the need to criticize Milbank and Hauerwas, and why I really don’t want to.
Here is the thing about Milbank and Hauerwas: I like them! I want to agree with them! The trouble is that, when it comes to Hauerwas, the communities he describes don’t actually seem to exist. The narrative power of the tradition does not work the way he says it does, even granting the imperfections inherent in a fallen world. As for Milbank, I actually find his theology a bit too liberal. This is an insight I owe to Paul DeHart’s book Trial of the Witnesses. (Full disclosure: Prof. DeHart was on my dissertation committee, he is a hardass of a teacher in the best way, and one of the most capable readers I have ever met.) The book is more or less about how everybody is misreading Lindbeck. One takeaway is that Lindbeck is actually pretty liberal because what is “real” is less important than what we believe is real. (His point is much more nuanced than that, but what do you expect? This is a blog.) That is what I get from Milbank. Everything seems to boil down to the stories that you tell, which to me seems just a step to the right of somebody like Paul Tillich, who subordinates the truth of narratives to the meaning we find in them. Continue reading “The Funny Thing About Limens…”
Fixing Matthew Heimbach
Why did Matthew Heimbach happen, and what can we do to make sure this sort of thing never happens again?
Let me sum up the situation for those who do not know it. Matthew Heimbach is a white nationalist with his own profile page at the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was also recently received into the All Saints (Antiochian) Orthodox Church in Bloomington. He was almost as quickly excommunicated once this photo of him (holding the cross) drew widespread attention to his views.