The ancient Hebrew language can be notoriously difficult to translate. It was a dead language (in the sense that Latin is a dead language) from the time of the Babylonian exile, and the intended meaning of certain words and phrases is unclear, given the passage of time. This is not a major problem. For the …
Christos Anesti! I’m quite fond of "Greek Easter," as Mr. Panos called it fifteen years ago. Even though we’ve never been part of the local Greek parish, over the years, we’ve come to call Pascha “Greek Easter” (in contrast to “American Easter”) in our household in honor of Mr. Panos. There is a sense in …
I heard an interview with Marvin Olasky this week in which he mentioned his religious transition from the Communist Party to the Conservative Baptist Church. His description of the first couple of Sundays, ending with the long and insistent altar call, and all the old folks turning around and looking at him because he was …
I had a strange three-way conversation on Feb 14 (Ash Wednesday) that was strange because all three of us thought about Lent in a different manner. One person had ashes on their forehead that they had received at an early morning worship service. This person was still trying to decide what to give up for …
There has been a slowly dawning awareness for me that the “bleak midwinter,” when “earth stood hard as iron, water like a stone” is fading into light. It was Monday, Jan 29, that this dawning awareness was fully formed in my mind. Coming home from my morning walk around the lake, I realized I had …
Paul Evdokimov defined asceticism as a practice of self-discipline which heals the effects of the Fall and inaugurates a new relationship of the human person with the material creation: “[t]he word ‘asceticism’ comes from the Greek askesis and means exercise, effort, exploit. One can speak of athletic asceticism when it seeks to render the body …
Theophany (Jan 6) has become one of my favorite feasts of the church. It’sthe feast of water, the baptism of Jesus by John in the Jordan. TheBible text is quite mundane (if a heavenly voice can be consideredmundane). Jesus demands that John baptize him “to fulfill allrighteousness.” After the baptism a voice from heaven says, …
Today (Dec 4) is the commemoration of Hieromartyr Alexander Hotovitsky, someone I am particularly thankful for this year. After seminary he was appointed to be a missionary in the Aleutians where he served as a deacon. Little is known of that period, but in 1896 he was called to the cathedral in San Francisco, was …
This week I listened to a round table discussion about the Ten Commandments. Jonathan Pageau was at the table and talking about the commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me.” He was explaining how the ancient gods manifest themselves in today’s world, and the fact that we no longer believe that the gods …
In last week’s essay I talked about a mini pastor’s conference I attended that focused on a discipleship model of being church. As I said in that essay, it made my heart glad because that is the Tradition of Evangelicalism in which I was nurtured and it was a joy to listen to “the kids” …
Just Another Jim 