by cutsinger | Aug 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
Yes, I can see your problem. It’s so very easy for us to misunderstand or misconstrue the nature of someone else’s experience, what you call their “subjective reality”, based (as our interpretation must be) on the words they use to describe it. I’m in the midst of a...
by cutsinger | Jul 30, 2015 | Uncategorized
“Christianity makes me feel threatened”, you say. Forgive me, but I think this is simply a holdover from your evangelical past. There’s nothing of the sort in Orthodoxy. God doesn’t “threaten” or “punish”, nor does He ever get “angry”; these anthropomorphic...
by cutsinger | Jul 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
Without doubt there were deaconesses in the early Church. What you call the “liturgical and pastoral functions” of these women never included, however—and in an Orthodox context never could include—“leading a service”. An all-male priesthood has always been the norm...
by cutsinger | Jun 13, 2015 | Uncategorized
You are struggling, you say, with belief in an afterlife. There are a variety of reassurances one might provide. How I might address a given interlocutor (including you) depends on what sort of background and what set of assumptions he brings to the conversation. I...
by cutsinger | May 24, 2015 | Uncategorized
The main reason for fasting and other forms of ascesis is, ideally, to break our attachments, or else, when that proves too difficult, at least to make us more keenly aware of them than we ordinarily are. So the first question we have to ask ourselves is: To what am I...
by cutsinger | Apr 24, 2015 | Uncategorized
As I’m sure you know, there have been a number of official statements, issued by various Orthodox jurisdictions, stating that Orthodoxy and Masonry are not compatible. I think we may, and must, treat these as authoritative, and non-negotiable. Even so, I understand...
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