Thank you for responding to me. I am humbled and honoured that you did so, since you are a much more prolific and talented writer than myself.
Your treatment of Orthodoxy I find to be fair and impartial. I would just observe that many of the "negatives" you list are in fact strengths. For example, the fact that Orthodoxy seems to be losing, in a worldly sense, accords with our eschatology: in the last days, as per the Book of Revelation, there will be very few true Christians left. I also do not believe that the rejection of Aristotelian logic within the religion means that Orthodox are proscribed from using it in non-religious fields like science and finance.
I agree that Orthodoxy's static way of viewing things may inhibit personal growth, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. To give you an extreme example: suppose that you have a choice between staying in your small town to take care of your dying uncle, or moving to NYC to make millions of dollars. Clearly, your personal growth is inhibited in the former choice, but it would be the correct choice.
Finally, I would correct you in one regard: I did not come to Orthodoxy via marriage, though I can understand how my Substack article gave that impression. My wife and I converted to Orthodoxy in 2019, though my wife is of immigrant stock.
Once again, thank you for an extraordinarily insightful and well-written response, as well as a review of His Grace Kallistos's book!
I don't read those biblical passages as advocating equality or egalitarianism. There is still a "first" and "last;" the hierarchy is simply based on spiritual as opposed to worldly categories. Paul used athletic and monarchical imagery that presupposed a Christian community as a kind of divine glory-seeking assembly of spiritual aristocrats, not recognized by the world but known to God and one another. I would say that the overall thrust of Pauline theology is that the Way represents a narrow path for those who seek a higher purpose than the world offers, and that those people in turn belong to a community of the elect superior to all earthly bonds. Nothing in Pauling theology presupposes an overthrow of existing political institutions and when the existing system embraced his theology no such change occurred. Egalitarianism is a modern ideology that stems from the Enlightenment which stems from largely from Calvinism.
As an Orthodox living in Greece I will add that the reason behind the popularity of ultra-proressive views is the fact that a large part of the youth is supportive of communism and socialism, especially in the universities where they claim the resistance to the nationalist dictatorship between 1967-1974. When I see Americans complaining about the spread of communism in their country online I laugh because it’s not even close to the extent here, they protest every 2-3 days, shut down streets, clash with the police in universities, it’s a menace. If we were in the Warsaw Pact I doubt it would be the same. By the way I enjoyed the review, in my opinion if someone wants to convert to Orthodoxy he should find a local church and after getting familiar he may start learning the related language (if there is no liturgy in his language of course). Also about your last point I don’t think religion is the only force to defeat the globohomo, real pious people share a lot in common among themselves independent of affiliation so we should overcome these obstacles.
I would add that monotheism with an all-power and omniscient and all-good makes no sense metaphysically. Evil cannot be adequately explained. You need a foil. Dualism makes more sense. It is at least logically consistent.
In the news today, the biggest religious conflict is of course between Jews and Muslims in Israel and Palestine. But underlying that is the leftist claim that supporting the Muslims is "decolonization".
If the leftists want to decolonize something, they should start with Constantinople. It was the first Christian city in the world. Muslims conquered it by force, enslaved the people, and colonized it.
If the leftists oppose colonialism, why don't they demand that Constantinople (which the colonizers call "Istanbul") be freed from Muslim rule and returned to Eastern Orthodox control, and the Turkish colonizers wiped out?
I recently started attending a Russian Orthodox Church. My husband and I went out of curiosity and I was taken a back by how much reverence there was during the Divine Liturgy. I grew up Catholic but never felt at ease there, especially seeing how they treated the Eucharist, with lay people without consecrated hands handing out the Body of Christ like Halloween candy.
I pray for AB Vigano and all the priests, bishops and nuns persecuted by the corrupt leaders in the Vatican.
I have a lot to learn about Eastern Orthodox Christianity but I strongly believe I have finally found where I am supposed to be. And finding out that my new priest never closed the Church during the lockdowns was especially important for us. Faith not fear.
Thank you for this article. I look forward to reading everything you linked. God bless!
TBH I’ve never really seen statistics of homosexuality meaning much since it always feels like the data is all over the place and you can synthesize just about any conclusions from it.
The better indicators are always going to marriage, abortion, family and STDs.
No one would call the Middle-East anything but homophobic, but yet nevertheless they are plagued by their own host of degeneracies and social maladies, even if they do have their redeeming qualities.
For Russia in particular simply look at the rate of abortions, STDs and divorce. That to me is a lot more telling.
Even though I practice in a Buddha school these days, I grew up in Eastern Orthodoxy and I still maintain an interest. In fact, I hold the view that Christianity is, in a larger sense, a Buddha school (not Shakyamuni’s Buddhism as it’s known today) but that’s another discussion (Greek Buddha by Beckwith barely scratches the surface). This summation of the Orthodox faith in your article is about as good as can be. There are some things that could be mentioned but probably beyond the scope of this essay. Things of a more metaphysical nature, like the uniquely Orthodox experience of God/Christ as Light (the Tabor Light), which also has parallels in Buddhism. In any case, having just finished reading Father George Calciu’s book (Interviews, Homilies and Talks), here’s a couple of (meta)quotes from the book that stood out for me. On the meaning of suffering Calciu quotes Paul Claudel, who writes that “Christ did not come into the world to eliminate suffering... he came to fill human suffering with His presence,” so here you have an Orthodox agreeing with a Catholic. Then on the nature of Communion he quotes Staniloae (another giant figure in modern Orthodoxy) who used to say that “If I walk on the street after the Holy Liturgy and I see a priest and an angel coming out of the church, I bow before the priest, not before the angel”. Interesting to dig into Calciu’s (and Staniloae’s) political background/affiliations (rarely mentioned in their books for obvious reasons)... Again, these are just a couple random notes. Great article, as usual!
Interesting essay, packed with info which needs to be digested. But right off the bat, this:
"This was initially intended on a spiritual level to undermine the Roman Emperor’s claim to divinity, but in recent centuries evolved to mean on the physical plane as well."
The reminds me of what some "conservative" writers say about the Declaration's "All men are created equal" : that it's really just a piece of rhetoric intended to undermine the divine right of kings to rulership (and thus allowing George III to be rightfully dismissed). The idea was that there would be no kings among us, rather than the obvious falsehood that "everyone is equal" in everyway, but the latter interpretation has come to be standard, even among "Straussian" conservatives.
For example, the Anglican church in the US evolved into the Episcopal Church, which is "episcopal" in the sense that there are only bishops, no archbishops, cardinals and no Pope. But of course, there ARE bishops. Interestingly, Judaism and Islam work the same way, no Popes, everyone is simply a believer, but they do have rabbis, imams, etc. recognized as having some kind of authority.
Some elements from your strengths contradict each other. For example one of the strengths you list is "The potential for revolutionary change" rather contradicting the rest of your article which emphasizes Orthodoxy's stability.
Consider that the Orthodox also call him Saint and yet he does not appear to have any deviation doctrinally with what later became considered controversial when expressed in the Filioque.
Haven't read the post yet. It has been my impression that Russia is to Europe is what Galicia is to Russia - its schizo, parochial, redneck, idiot part. The real Europe was England and Germany - Germany went pagan, and was killed by its sister England who proceeded to do... what is going on now.
There is little point trying to put one's hopes in Poland or Russia aside from their arguably European genetic heritage. Intellectually, they are brain-damaged and hopeless. They were never alive. And even genetics-wise, they are no Nordic barbarians that preserved Roman heritage in whatever mangled by Christianity form it was continued.
...And to anyone acting autistically-surprised why I mentioned Russia - it's because the Orthodox religion does not exist outside the bounds of Russia in anything approaching the European level of sophistication. Pardon me, Syrian cave-dwellers do not count. Westerners seem somewhat autistic talking about "Orthodoxy" when it's a religion bound to certain blood and soil - no matter how mutt in this case. Of course, this tendency is reinforced by the rootless cosmopolitan nature of America - with random Hindu temples popping up in New Jersey, and nobody pulling out the pitch-forks.
César Tort, no matter how delusional, at least admonishes White Nationalists for not creating a political party. And I talk of "White Juche" partially to underline how fantastical Aryan revival looks like at this point under these circumstances.
Orthodox Russia has given us anarchism, Bolshevism, and a castration movement (skoptsy). I'll pass.
On another note, I've had an idea that I have no clue as to whether to voice it, so maybe you might ponder it. - What is going to be the fate of modern woke-ass astronomical nomenclature? I have randomly obeyed the YouTube algorithm, and what do I see? A crater on Mercury named in honour of a Haitian Negro toilet! Right next to a Mexican black fæces sink.
Am I the only one on the planet wondering how the future Sino-Korean civilisation changes it all to comprehensible-to-a-healthy-person hanzi in a post-Christian future? They may also feel free to rename that abominable name ʻOumuamua to Rama... unless tensions with India prevent it, haha.
The fall and decline of the Roosh forum serves as a reminder that right now Christians only cry about free speech because they're the ones being censored, same as the Progressives and Jews crying about free speech back when they were censored. Given the opportunity, true believers always become totalitarian.
Thank you for responding to me. I am humbled and honoured that you did so, since you are a much more prolific and talented writer than myself.
Your treatment of Orthodoxy I find to be fair and impartial. I would just observe that many of the "negatives" you list are in fact strengths. For example, the fact that Orthodoxy seems to be losing, in a worldly sense, accords with our eschatology: in the last days, as per the Book of Revelation, there will be very few true Christians left. I also do not believe that the rejection of Aristotelian logic within the religion means that Orthodox are proscribed from using it in non-religious fields like science and finance.
I agree that Orthodoxy's static way of viewing things may inhibit personal growth, but that is not necessarily a bad thing. To give you an extreme example: suppose that you have a choice between staying in your small town to take care of your dying uncle, or moving to NYC to make millions of dollars. Clearly, your personal growth is inhibited in the former choice, but it would be the correct choice.
Finally, I would correct you in one regard: I did not come to Orthodoxy via marriage, though I can understand how my Substack article gave that impression. My wife and I converted to Orthodoxy in 2019, though my wife is of immigrant stock.
Once again, thank you for an extraordinarily insightful and well-written response, as well as a review of His Grace Kallistos's book!
I don't read those biblical passages as advocating equality or egalitarianism. There is still a "first" and "last;" the hierarchy is simply based on spiritual as opposed to worldly categories. Paul used athletic and monarchical imagery that presupposed a Christian community as a kind of divine glory-seeking assembly of spiritual aristocrats, not recognized by the world but known to God and one another. I would say that the overall thrust of Pauline theology is that the Way represents a narrow path for those who seek a higher purpose than the world offers, and that those people in turn belong to a community of the elect superior to all earthly bonds. Nothing in Pauling theology presupposes an overthrow of existing political institutions and when the existing system embraced his theology no such change occurred. Egalitarianism is a modern ideology that stems from the Enlightenment which stems from largely from Calvinism.
As an Orthodox living in Greece I will add that the reason behind the popularity of ultra-proressive views is the fact that a large part of the youth is supportive of communism and socialism, especially in the universities where they claim the resistance to the nationalist dictatorship between 1967-1974. When I see Americans complaining about the spread of communism in their country online I laugh because it’s not even close to the extent here, they protest every 2-3 days, shut down streets, clash with the police in universities, it’s a menace. If we were in the Warsaw Pact I doubt it would be the same. By the way I enjoyed the review, in my opinion if someone wants to convert to Orthodoxy he should find a local church and after getting familiar he may start learning the related language (if there is no liturgy in his language of course). Also about your last point I don’t think religion is the only force to defeat the globohomo, real pious people share a lot in common among themselves independent of affiliation so we should overcome these obstacles.
I would add that monotheism with an all-power and omniscient and all-good makes no sense metaphysically. Evil cannot be adequately explained. You need a foil. Dualism makes more sense. It is at least logically consistent.
In the news today, the biggest religious conflict is of course between Jews and Muslims in Israel and Palestine. But underlying that is the leftist claim that supporting the Muslims is "decolonization".
If the leftists want to decolonize something, they should start with Constantinople. It was the first Christian city in the world. Muslims conquered it by force, enslaved the people, and colonized it.
If the leftists oppose colonialism, why don't they demand that Constantinople (which the colonizers call "Istanbul") be freed from Muslim rule and returned to Eastern Orthodox control, and the Turkish colonizers wiped out?
I recently started attending a Russian Orthodox Church. My husband and I went out of curiosity and I was taken a back by how much reverence there was during the Divine Liturgy. I grew up Catholic but never felt at ease there, especially seeing how they treated the Eucharist, with lay people without consecrated hands handing out the Body of Christ like Halloween candy.
I pray for AB Vigano and all the priests, bishops and nuns persecuted by the corrupt leaders in the Vatican.
I have a lot to learn about Eastern Orthodox Christianity but I strongly believe I have finally found where I am supposed to be. And finding out that my new priest never closed the Church during the lockdowns was especially important for us. Faith not fear.
Thank you for this article. I look forward to reading everything you linked. God bless!
TBH I’ve never really seen statistics of homosexuality meaning much since it always feels like the data is all over the place and you can synthesize just about any conclusions from it.
The better indicators are always going to marriage, abortion, family and STDs.
No one would call the Middle-East anything but homophobic, but yet nevertheless they are plagued by their own host of degeneracies and social maladies, even if they do have their redeeming qualities.
For Russia in particular simply look at the rate of abortions, STDs and divorce. That to me is a lot more telling.
Even though I practice in a Buddha school these days, I grew up in Eastern Orthodoxy and I still maintain an interest. In fact, I hold the view that Christianity is, in a larger sense, a Buddha school (not Shakyamuni’s Buddhism as it’s known today) but that’s another discussion (Greek Buddha by Beckwith barely scratches the surface). This summation of the Orthodox faith in your article is about as good as can be. There are some things that could be mentioned but probably beyond the scope of this essay. Things of a more metaphysical nature, like the uniquely Orthodox experience of God/Christ as Light (the Tabor Light), which also has parallels in Buddhism. In any case, having just finished reading Father George Calciu’s book (Interviews, Homilies and Talks), here’s a couple of (meta)quotes from the book that stood out for me. On the meaning of suffering Calciu quotes Paul Claudel, who writes that “Christ did not come into the world to eliminate suffering... he came to fill human suffering with His presence,” so here you have an Orthodox agreeing with a Catholic. Then on the nature of Communion he quotes Staniloae (another giant figure in modern Orthodoxy) who used to say that “If I walk on the street after the Holy Liturgy and I see a priest and an angel coming out of the church, I bow before the priest, not before the angel”. Interesting to dig into Calciu’s (and Staniloae’s) political background/affiliations (rarely mentioned in their books for obvious reasons)... Again, these are just a couple random notes. Great article, as usual!
Isn’t pessimism the antidote to egalitarianism in Russia? This is a land where if you ask someone how they are, they say “Normal.”
Interesting essay, packed with info which needs to be digested. But right off the bat, this:
"This was initially intended on a spiritual level to undermine the Roman Emperor’s claim to divinity, but in recent centuries evolved to mean on the physical plane as well."
The reminds me of what some "conservative" writers say about the Declaration's "All men are created equal" : that it's really just a piece of rhetoric intended to undermine the divine right of kings to rulership (and thus allowing George III to be rightfully dismissed). The idea was that there would be no kings among us, rather than the obvious falsehood that "everyone is equal" in everyway, but the latter interpretation has come to be standard, even among "Straussian" conservatives.
For example, the Anglican church in the US evolved into the Episcopal Church, which is "episcopal" in the sense that there are only bishops, no archbishops, cardinals and no Pope. But of course, there ARE bishops. Interestingly, Judaism and Islam work the same way, no Popes, everyone is simply a believer, but they do have rabbis, imams, etc. recognized as having some kind of authority.
Some elements from your strengths contradict each other. For example one of the strengths you list is "The potential for revolutionary change" rather contradicting the rest of your article which emphasizes Orthodoxy's stability.
It's more than enough when understood and applied properly.
https://substack.com/@stevenberger/note/c-56271052?r=1nm0v2
St. Gregory of Nyssa: On Not Three Gods
Consider that the Orthodox also call him Saint and yet he does not appear to have any deviation doctrinally with what later became considered controversial when expressed in the Filioque.
https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/2905.htm
Haven't read the post yet. It has been my impression that Russia is to Europe is what Galicia is to Russia - its schizo, parochial, redneck, idiot part. The real Europe was England and Germany - Germany went pagan, and was killed by its sister England who proceeded to do... what is going on now.
There is little point trying to put one's hopes in Poland or Russia aside from their arguably European genetic heritage. Intellectually, they are brain-damaged and hopeless. They were never alive. And even genetics-wise, they are no Nordic barbarians that preserved Roman heritage in whatever mangled by Christianity form it was continued.
...And to anyone acting autistically-surprised why I mentioned Russia - it's because the Orthodox religion does not exist outside the bounds of Russia in anything approaching the European level of sophistication. Pardon me, Syrian cave-dwellers do not count. Westerners seem somewhat autistic talking about "Orthodoxy" when it's a religion bound to certain blood and soil - no matter how mutt in this case. Of course, this tendency is reinforced by the rootless cosmopolitan nature of America - with random Hindu temples popping up in New Jersey, and nobody pulling out the pitch-forks.
César Tort, no matter how delusional, at least admonishes White Nationalists for not creating a political party. And I talk of "White Juche" partially to underline how fantastical Aryan revival looks like at this point under these circumstances.
Orthodox Russia has given us anarchism, Bolshevism, and a castration movement (skoptsy). I'll pass.
On another note, I've had an idea that I have no clue as to whether to voice it, so maybe you might ponder it. - What is going to be the fate of modern woke-ass astronomical nomenclature? I have randomly obeyed the YouTube algorithm, and what do I see? A crater on Mercury named in honour of a Haitian Negro toilet! Right next to a Mexican black fæces sink.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manley_(crater)?useskin=vector
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Izquierdo_(crater)?useskin=vector
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sveinsdóttir_(crater)?useskin=vector
Am I the only one on the planet wondering how the future Sino-Korean civilisation changes it all to comprehensible-to-a-healthy-person hanzi in a post-Christian future? They may also feel free to rename that abominable name ʻOumuamua to Rama... unless tensions with India prevent it, haha.
The fall and decline of the Roosh forum serves as a reminder that right now Christians only cry about free speech because they're the ones being censored, same as the Progressives and Jews crying about free speech back when they were censored. Given the opportunity, true believers always become totalitarian.
Sorry for the off topic question
Do you know any good books about the revolutions of 1848 (and the decades after) in Eastern Europe?