Category Archives: Liturgy & Worship

Some Questions (and Answers) on the Text and Canon of Scripture

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Codex SinaiticusA friend of mine recently forwarded an email with a few questions on the canon and the textual tradition of the Church my way, and I was happy to attempt a satisfactory answer to said questions.

These are fairly “off the cuff” and high-level responses, but hopefully they serve as a helpful starting point for anyone interested in a more Orthodox viewpoint on these matters. If I have erred within, please don’t hold it against the Orthodox Church. I am but a simpleton.

I first recommended familiarizing one’s self with the following previous articles (based on a lecture given to college students here locally):

Beyond that, the questions and answers go something like this …

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In a Foreign Land

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Icon of the TransfigurationToday is actually Palm Sunday.

If you’ve been an Orthodox Christian for less than three years, then you were probably taken by surprise when you realized that we celebrated Pascha a week later than the rest of America this year. But don’t worry, it gets even more awkward next year, when the celebrations are five weeks apart (March 31st and May 5th, respectively).

It is at times like these that Orthodox Christians living in “the west” have that realization and reminder that we are not quite “at home” here in America and that we are very much pilgrims in a foreign land.

This differentiation goes far beyond the celebration of Easter/Pascha, however. There is a completely different understanding of the most basic of ideas and experiences, such as “salvation,” prayer, worship, grace, the scriptures and much, much more. While it is certainly true that we must adapt to the culture we are living in — to a certain extent — in order to minister and be “salt” to others, we must also realize that there are times when we have to draw a line in the proverbial sand and make our differences known.

In our culture, we know that it is common to promote things like “pride” and the idea of “selling” one’s self in the workplace, while in the Church, we are called to humility, suffering, chastisement and servanthood. Our culture says that “whatever is true to you” should be one’s guide for things like morality and ethics, while Jesus Christ said I am the Way, the Truth and the Life — there are not competing, mutually exclusive claims to truth (as if truth is floating around “up there” somewhere or merely in our heads), but the reality that Truth is Incarnate in the Person of Jesus Christ (and maintained in His Body, the one, true Church). Our culture says that you are free to live as you please, so long as you don’t bother or hurt anyone else. However, the Church tells us to fast for over half of the year, to do almsgiving, to help the poor and needy and to crucify our passions and desires — in other words, to emphatically not do a lot of the things that we’d “like” to do, and that our culture encourages us to do (even within the western Christian sub-culture).

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Time Doesn’t Heal All Wounds

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Orthodox Icon of the Prodigal SonYou’ve probably heard it said that “time heals all wounds.” This is one of those quotes that gets repeated over and over again, but no one really knows where it came from. It is very similar to what the Greek dramatist Menander (circa 4th century BC) once said: “Time is the healer of all necessary evils” (Fragments), so perhaps it is derived from him.

Regardless, my personal feeling is that this philosophy is not only absurd but also completely incorrect. I had a stronger thing to say there, but I’ll spare my more sensitive readers. The healing of “wounds” and the healing of “evils” cannot be done in a vacuum. And yet, so many in our culture today believe this to be the case.

There are very few people willing to “own up” to their mistakes, swallow their pride, and be reconciled with one another through confession, repentance and a true restoration of fellowship/communion. In fact, “pride” is one of those things that our backwards and post-Christian culture esteems as a virtue. No, true healing is only possible through these very means – confession, repentance and communion; and this is only possible through the Church.

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Theology as Archaeology

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"Grace to You" logoWhen a Protestant approaches the scriptures in order to rightly interpret them and apply them to their lives, the approach is typically that of a scientist and a historian – they are attempting to abstract and be removed from the context of today’s western world and be found within the culture, language and context of the original authors of divine literature. There is rooted in this approach not only a reliance upon Nominalism (as with all things Western and/or Protestant) but also the fundamental belief that we are “separate from” both these original authors and from God Himself (He is the “Man upstairs” and Protestant worship focuses on asking God to be present or “show up”). As such, Protestant hermeneutics, if you will, is an exercise in textual archaeology.

There are various strains of Protestant thought, obviously, and they are too numerous to do every sect justice (and the number of variants grows by the hour). While there are some groups today who approach the study of scripture with less of a “scientific” lens and with more of a catholic, Orthodox approach (for example, utilizing analogy, catholicity, patristics, narrative and so forth), they are such a tremendous minority that it would serve little purpose to devote a great deal of time on their efforts. Indeed, the tragic reality is that their sects or movements will be dead before many of their adherents have returned to dust. The reality of Protestantism in America (at present) is that of fundamentalist evangelicalism, and it is to them that the Orthodox Christian in America should pay closest attention.

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Dating the Apocalypse

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An Orthodox Icon of St John the Theologian and the Deacon Prochorus on the island of Patmos

There is an assumption among a lot of scholars today that the new testament book of Revelation was written near the end of the first century or the beginning of the second (by the apostle John of Zebedee). However, I believe that this assumption is faulty and based upon a lot of conjecture and speculation. The “late date” belief is based upon the writing of Saint Irenaeus of Lyons, and wrongly asserts that he says it was written during the reign of Domitian (reigned AD 81-96), when in actuality the publication and distribution of the writing is in view. On the other hand, there is good reason to believe that John’s three catholic/universal epistles (1-3 John) were composed near the end of the first century. Given this, that would mean the Antichrist/Antichrists and the “beast from out of the earth” of the Apocalypse or the “Man of Sin” in Saint Paul’s 2nd Epistle to the Thessalonians are likely not the same figures, since he was writing so long after the Romans had destroyed the Temple and the “abomination of desolation” was committed (yet again) in the Temple’s Holy of Holies.

On the other end of the spectrum is the “earlier date” view, which asserts that John died at the hands of Jews before AD 58. While this is not very likely, Saint Epiphanius of Salamis (reposed AD 403) claims that the apostle John “prophesied in the time of Claudius” (AD 41-54). While I believe that this date is too early (and I question the idea that John died as a martyr, and not peacefully in Ephesus where he had cared for the Theotokos), it nevertheless places the composition of Revelation (or at least the vision upon which it was based) prior to the destruction of Jerusalem.

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Origin of the Bible – The New Testament

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Ethiopian BibleAnd now, we shall turn our attention to the shorter of the testaments, composed in the Greek language during the apostolic age. The “new testament,” as Christians call it, is a collection of 27 books that was gradually recognized over the first 600-700 years of the Church.

In other words, this didn’t happen overnight, and the Church went on without a “complete Bible” for almost a millennium. This is simply a matter of historical fact. However, for the Traditional Christian – the Orthodox Christian – this does not pose a problem at all, for we know that the Church has been guided and preserved by the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the apostles and their successors (bishops and presbyters/priests), just as Christ promised. He has never left us.

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Liturgy for Mankind

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Beeswax Candles“The Pharisees asked Jesus, ‘Behold, why do they do what is not lawful during the Divine LIturgy?’

Jesus replied, ‘Have you never read what David and those with him did, when he had run out of candles for the Temple? How he entered into the house of Walmart and purchased some tea lights for the Holy Place?’

Jesus said to them, ‘The Divine Liturgy was made for mankind, not mankind for the Divine Liturgy! Therefore, the Son of Man is lord even of the Divine Liturgy.”

Lent, Have Mercy

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Giving up TV for LentWell, it is that time of year again: the time of year when a great number of people in the world – for seemingly no particular reason at all – “give up something” for Lent. Buddhist, Methodist, Roman Catholic, Agnostic, Baptist … they’re all in, it seems.

For many, it is nothing more than an attempt at “discipline.” We can liken this to “new year’s resolutions” – those pesky ideals that help drive retail sales of vitamins, energy bars and exercise equipment around the first two weeks of January. I say “an attempt at discipline,” because – for the most part – no one really follows through or makes it out of January alive. This is not because the ambitions are beyond one’s potential reach, necessarily, but because we live in a culture of excess, self-satisfaction and pleasure, and are simply ill-equipped (most of us having a “will” that is in bondage to sin and not wholly “free”) to handle the prospect of extended discipline.

In these cases, it doesn’t really matter what “faith tradition” one comes from, and the “fad” of “giving up stuff for Lent” is neither spiritual nor inherently Christian. It is empty, bare, legalistic, pseudo-asceticism practiced by those without any experience of the true asceticism of the Church. Like most things in America today, it is a trend that will eventually go by the wayside. One can only hope, honestly.

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Clerical Dress and American Worship

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An Eastern Orthodox priest.This might not be a very popular post …

Schmemann began his book For the Life of the World with the phrase “Man is what he eats,” quoting the German philosopher Feuerbach. In a similar fashion (wait for the pun), I believe that “man is what he wears.”

Yes, friends, the way we dress matters. It shapes and transforms the way we think, the way we work, the way we act and – most importantly for the Christian – the way we worship. While the rationalism of our Enlightenment culture might deny the effects of “matter” (you know, earthy stuff), simply denying the reality of something doesn’t make it true. Everyone knows that when you dress professionally, you are more productive and focused at work, and that dressing in a casual manner actually reduces productivity and the mental faculties of the average person – these are widely accepted viewpoints, it seems. In a similar way, surrounding yourself with certain decorations or trappings can affect the way one thinks and acts, as well. Aesthetics matter.

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Tim Tebow and the Saints

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All the SaintsThe recent Tim Tebow fascination and hysteria (among evangelicals, especially) is a reminder of the fact that most Americans (especially American, evangelical Christians) are held captive by Iconoclasm.

As C.S. Lewis once pointed out, when there is no king or monarch to venerate (honor), people will seek out celebrities and even deviants to hold up as worthy of honor. This, of course, explains the American fascination (voyeurism) with regards to celebrities (TMZ, Entertainment Tonight, People magazine, etc.) as well as “reality television” – a most horrendous form of entertainment where literally anyone can be venerated for simply pretending to live their day-to-day lives in front of a television camera.

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