Tuesday, March 2, A.D. 2010

Coexist?

Jake from Wiser Time has a funny take on the “Coexist” bumper sticker of which self avowed tolerant and enlightened Americans are so fond. Here is the bumper sticker, the proceeds of which go to “help fight hunger, fascism, and social injustice.”

Jake observes:

You’ve seen these, right? They make me mad. Why? Because they don’t really mean what they say.

Let’s break it down. We’ll call each worldview by the letter it’s supposed to represent. So:

» C = Islam
» O = Pacifism
» E = “Gender equality” (=the LGBT agenda)
» X = Judaism
» I = Wicca / Pagan / Bah’ai
» S =Taoism / Confucianism
» T = Christianity

And let’s assume a very broad definition of “coexist”: living together without calling for the destruction of each other. Here are the problems with that:

» C wants to kill E, X, T, and (by implication) O. If they achieved the world they wanted, I and S would also no longer exist.

» O doesn’t allow for effective resistance or defeat of C.

» E stands in direct opposition to C, X, and T, and accuses those who speak against them of hate speech. Also, they’re trying to edge X and T out of public schools in favor of their own agenda. (They’re afraid C will be offended, so they get less trouble.) E is actually very, very intolerant.

» X’s existence is threatened not only by C but also by O, who invariably supports C over X.

» I and S are statistically insignificant and are mainly on there to complete the bumper sticker.

» T is who the bumper sticker is really arguing against, but poses no physical threat to any of the others.

Historically, T has brought about more tolerance– “coexistence” if you will– than any other movement. But the kind of “coexistence” the people who make this sticker envision is one where at least X and T are completely marginalized.

Do Leftists really find the courteous manners taught by school marms in elementary school the veritable apex of morality and insight into the human condition—facts and good sense be damned? Is it really true that they learnt all that they really know in Kindergarten?

They are either fools, cowards, or traitorous misanthropes—or at least the vast majority of them deserve such categorization.

Posted by Joseph on Tuesday, March 2, A.D. 2010
Orthodoxy • Ecumenism • Muhammadanism • Non-Chalcedonianism • Paganism • Protestantism • Rabbinical Judaism • Roman Catholicism • (0) Comments • Permalink

Saturday, January 23, A.D. 2010

March Recap and Rome’s Return

The March for Life went well. I checked Weather.com in the morning before I walked to the march, and it listed an 80% chance of rain or snow for every hour except in the early afternoon, where it had a 100% chance of precipitation. So, I expected a dreary day. However, the day was dry, much warmer than the forecast predicted, and the sun even came out later in the afternoon. Providence at work, one might say.

I spent the morning and rally with the Orthodox group, and then I found my brother and his students for the march proper. Unfortunately, I was not able to escort my brother and his boys around the Capitol before the march this year because his school insisted on their attending the youth mass and rally beforehand. I am sure that the young men found their time well spent, regardless.

I have been pretty impressed with his boys over the last two marches. Granted, they are West Side Roman Catholic boys from Cincinnati from predominantly Bavarian and Rhinelander backgrounds. I mean, what else would you expect? Still, in this day and age, I found them remarkably well behaved. Furthermore, the high school’s new priest came along this year, and he exemplifies well the change in Roman clergy that has occurred in the last two decades. This fellow is a young man, fresh out of the seminary, who wears a cassock, participates in the Latin mass community, and, according to my father, defends the Roman tradition. My papist sources tell me that this is the new standard. The Protestantized, hippy neurosis of the sixties generation has pased, and the men who are becoming priests now in the Roman Church in America are traditional papists.

However, I do not think that there has been the same sort of metanoia among the Roman laity. In a recent survey of Orthodox laity in the Greek Archdiocese and in the O.C.A. (to which I shall dedicate a later post), Alexei Krindatch explores possible generational gaps among Orthodox priests and laymen. He uses research on the American Roman Catholic community as precedent.

We paid particular attention to the differences in opinions and attitudes of the various generations of American Orthodox faithful. The major question was “Are there any strong and consistent lines of separation dividing generations of “grandparents” (those 65 years and older), “parents” (45-64 years old) and “children” (younger than 45)?” To a large extent, this crucial question was inspired by the numerous recent studies of the US Roman Catholics. It has become commonplace to acknowledge the gap and clear distinctions between pre-Vatican II Catholics (those born in 1940 or earlier), Vatican II Catholics (born 1940-1961) and post Vatican II Catholics (born after 1961). Most recent Catholic studies also divide the last category (post Vatican II Catholics) in two separate groups: generation “X” (born 1961-1980) and generation “Y” (born 1980 and later) (D’Antonio 2007, Hayes 2007). These generations of US Roman Catholics are clearly different in many important ways.

Further, in his influential book “Evolving Visions of Priesthood,” Dean Hoge pointed to a fact that the younger (post Vatican II generation) Roman Catholic priests are in many ways more conservative than the clergy who belong to Vatican II generation and that the attitudes of the younger Catholic priests resemble more those of their “grandparents” – the priests from pre-Vatican II Council generation. However, there is no such trend among US Roman Catholic laity. Hoge arrived to a conclusion that “young laity and young priests are moving in different directions” and that “in the future, the gap can be expected to widen” (Hoge 2003: 133).

Is this pattern true for American Orthodox Christianity? The general answer to this question is “No.” First, in our earlier study of American Orthodox clergy (Krindatch 2006), we found that the generational divides among American Orthodox clergy are much less pronounced and cover fewer subjects and areas of Church life than this is the case among US Roman Catholic clergy. Second, the data from the current study lead us to the same conclusion: the generational differences among American Orthodox laity occurred only on certain topics and issues.

Even though the differences are “much less pronounced,” both the Orthodox clergy and laity in those two jurisdictions (which happen to be arguably the most “modernist” jurisdictions in the Orthodox world) are becoming more traditional. The report’s summary states:

Finally and most importantly, the differences between “grandparents,” “parents” and “children” are not consistent. In some cases, the “children” seem to be more conservative in their attitudes and approaches than their “parents” and “grandparents,” while in other cases the pattern is opposite.

However, after having read the report, I do not see where the pattern is opposite except that younger Orthodox people tend to have more friends who are not Orthodox, which is not at all surprising. When the survey asked how does one categorize his approach to the Church’s teachings, the post-boomer lay respondents were significantly less “liberal” (“I am willing to initiate and promote new developments in Church”) and “moderate” (“I accept new developments and changes in Church depending on local circumstances”) and more “traditional” (“Any changes in the Church should be evolutionary”) and “conservative” (“Orthodox Church should avoid changes in its life and theology”) than boomers—3% versus 5% liberal, 23% versus 29% moderate, 45% versus 28% traditional, and 29% versus 27% conservative. Of course, what such change means in the Orthodox context, even for the “radicals,” is not what change means in the Western confessions. For example, even among the Orthodox “Leftists” in the most modernist Orthodox jurisdictions in the world, only 20% favor the ordination of women to the priesthood. So, change for these folks is not quite the same as change for the heterodox.

Getting back to the Latins, I wonder if the attitudes of the Roman Catholic laity in America will begin to follow the change in the clergy over time. Consider how poorly catechized American Roman Catholics have been for the last several decades. They do not know their faith, and they have largely absorbed their values from the contemporary godless culture. With an invigorated priesthood, the Latin church will be able to educate the masses at masses. Eventually, the younger priests will take over Roman educational establishments, which have basically become Leftist indoctrination camps with social justice lip service to the gospel. I have noticed that even among the Jesuits, the younger priests are traditional, pious men. The long suffering Latins may actually see an end to their current time of troubles. I hope so.

Before the march, I was talking with one of my march buddies about my generous feelings toward Rome. I admitted my agnosticism concerning whether I think Rome is part of the Church, albeit as a sickened member with many problems. A priest (and a R.O.C.O.R. priest, at that) overheard me, and he asked me to repeat what I had just said. “Oh no,” I thought, “I am going to be reprimanded by a priest for entertaining heretical ecclesiological thoughts.” Instead, the priest said that he found it interesting that the East never established an Orthodox episcopate for Rome. Moreover, he said that the Church has not made clear the ecclesiological standing of Rome after the schism. Regardless, the Latins have many issues, and outright heresy (rather than significant theological problems, such as the West’s filioque theology) has spread throughout the Roman communion for the last several decades. Yet, I stated that such might be coming to an end, and I wondered if the contemporary Latin spasm of heresy might parallel the East’s experience during the iconoclast controversy. The chaos of iconoclasm lasted for several generations. Nonetheless, the Church prevailed as the Orthodox continued to hold fast to the faith while their political and religious leaders and countrymen often went astray. After a long struggle, order returned. Might not the Roman Catholic tribulation of the last century be the same sort of disorder? Indeed, it looks like the fever is passing. Even the pope has stopped kissing Korans . . .

Posted by Joseph on Saturday, January 23, A.D. 2010
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Tuesday, January 19, A.D. 2010

Theophany, A.D. 2010

I wish everyone on the old calendar a blessed Theophany.

Here is RussiaToday‘s segment on the feast in Siberia:

There is much work to do in post-Soviet Russia, but much hope, as well.

I found a blurb today in the Toronto Sun about the Russian Orthodox version of the “polar bear plunge” on Theophany, “Russians plunge into chilling holy water.” The short story features eight pictures of those crazy Russkies, who, we have just learnt, have finally turned around their fourteen year long population decline. Here is another article on Ethiopian Review:  “Russian Orthodox take icy plunges to celebrate Epiphany.” From their dress, you would think that they were American Roman Catholics at mass in the summertime.

The Washington Post‘s Eye on the World photography site also features a picture of Serbs’ jumping in water to retrieve the cross. You may wish to see my post last year on Theophany, which includes a video of the Greek American boys’ famous contest in Tarpon Springs, Florida.

In other news, the Russian Church will soon get back the lovely Novodevichy Convent and the people of Massachusetts will get back one of their senatorial seats.

Posted by Joseph on Tuesday, January 19, A.D. 2010
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Monday, December 21, A.D. 2009

Did Christianity Cause the Crash?

Last week, I read Hanna Rosin’s article in The Atlantic, “Did Christianity Cause the Crash?” In it, Rosin explores the “prosperity gospel” movement so prevalant in certain Protestant circles. Oddly, Oral Roberts, one of the prosperity gospel’s popularizers, died the next day.

I am just shy of being solipsistically self-absorbed enough to believe that all of cosmic history revolves around my awareness of the world. However, it does seem that way much of the time. I suppose that if great texts can speak to people on different levels, addressing them where they are, the greatest author may do the same with the text of creation. It’s just a passing thought.

Rosin covers the prosperity gospel phenomenon and asks if the doctrine played a part in the recent housing bubble. If God blesses with material riches those who pray to him, shouldn’t we expect green manna to fall from heaven so we can afford that new, big home? Or, maybe, I am thinking of mammon. Those Protestant preachers on television get me confused between the two. Perhaps, their followers share the same confusion.

Posted by Joseph on Monday, December 21, A.D. 2009
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Saturday, October 31, A.D. 2009

All Hallows’ Eve

Happy Halloween to you Western Christians who remember all the saints tomorrow and to you descendants of the pagan Celts who celebrated the autumn feast of Samhain.

There are aspects of the American celebration of Halloween that I really like. The holiday period preceding Halloween until the American feast of Thanksgiving marks our own cultural harvest festivities, and many Halloween customs feature this generic celebration of autumn and the harvest.

As a good Ohioan, I delight in everything pumpkin—actual pumpkins and all the goodies that are made from pumpkins. What Cincinnatian doesn’t relish the taste of Frisch’s pumpkin pie? Servatii’s pumpkin cookies do not even contain pumpkins, but their lemony goodness brings back memories. When I was home a couple of weeks ago, I made sure to buy some of these treats. United Dairy Farmers even had pumpkin ice cream as a seasonal flavor. Long live the commercialization of homey cultural tastes!

I also enjoy some of the traditional pagan practices that have survived. After extinguishing all the fires in their community, the Celts would build a large communal bonfire that burnt harvest offerings to their gods. The Celts carved gourds to transport this fire back to their hearths, which they would maintain for the entire year. The Christian Greeks and Arabs have a similar practice today with the holy fire of Pascha. The symbolism of new life and rebirth is quite powerful. Our tradition of jack o’ lanterns seems to have originated in this ancient pagan practice. I make sure to carve a pumpkin every year, preferably while watching the Peanuts’ It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown and munching on candy corn. It’s my own Halloween season ritual.

There are, however, elements of the American celebration of Halloween that make me uneasy. I am fine with the cultural remnants of a superseded paganism, but the glorification of the occult and an aesthetic suggestive of satanism make the condemnations of Halloween by Christians pretty understandable. There might be something cathartic about the gore and horror of Halloween, where children overcome their fear of monsters and ghosts. In this, Halloween might serve some of the same psychological purposes as the day of the dead traditions in Latin America—though the secular power of American Protestantism has largely removed the religious dimension from a fundamentally religious holiday. Still, I find the proliferation of haunted houses and the celebration of witchcraft and demons a bit troubling.

I thus propose a middle way with a purified Halloween, where the focus is on the harvest festival aspects of the feast. Western Christians can focus on the traditional relation of the feast to the feasts of All Saints and of All Souls, as well. Furthermore, as children love to dress up and to receive and to eat goodies, let kids celebrate by dressing up as animals, fantasy characters, or pretend professions—and leave the goblins, witches, and monsters to the heathen. Take what is good from Egypt, and leave what is rotten.

Posted by Joseph on Saturday, October 31, A.D. 2009
Paganism • Roman Catholicism • (1) Comments • Permalink

Monday, October 5, A.D. 2009

Paul on Mars Hill

Dr. Reynolds from Biola University wrote a fine post on the occasion of his class trip to Athens’ Areopagus in “What does Athens have to do with Jerusalem?” In it, he discusses the philosophical controversy into which Saint Paul entered with his sermon to the Athenians. He points out how close the Platonists were to the gospel. Of all the intellectual currents in the Greco-Roman world, Platonism made the most receptive audience for Christianity. It is customary to hear Platonism contrasted with the earthy goodness of creation Christianity, but even our terrestrial doctrines exist within a celestial framework. The ancient Platonists were some of the few pagans who realized that God transcends the world and that the world is God’s creation. The ancient Platonists understood that God is good, eternal, and the source of all being. The ancient Platonists conceived of all being as an image of the beyond being. Given such, Porphyry rather than Origen becomes the philosophical mystery. What explains a man such as Porphyry, other than ancestral loyalty and cultural conservatism?

As my friend Andrew said, religion—or at least Christianity—only makes sense within a Platonic understanding of reality. I fully agree. I suspect that many of the intellectual ruptures of the modern West only became possible by its rejection of Platonism. When God becomes a being among beings, one must give up either his faith or his science. For God’s presence in the world will always be seen as a nullification of the world’s own order, integrity, and intelligibility. To assert such a God is to deny the possibility of scientific knowledge. To embrace philosophy likewise involves a rejection of the divine as superfluous superstition. Only ignorant regressives cling to religion to fill gaps in their ignorance, as the being God has no place in a scientifically understood cosmos. One must make this choice or cultivate bizarre confusions that attempt to carve a place for the divine and for science in the husk of our ignorance. Reason suffers terribly when forced to accept false choices. So does the human soul.

Posted by Joseph on Monday, October 5, A.D. 2009
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Sunday, September 27, A.D. 2009

Elevation of the Cross

Today on the old calendar, we celebrate the Elevation of the Cross, a “fast day” feast on which we remember the cross of Christ. We also celebrate the finding and raising of the cross by Empress Helen—wife of Constantius and mother of Constantine—who traveled to the Holy Land to dedicate churches on sites of Christian significance after her son legalized Christianity and stopped the persecutions. Christians went from a persecuted underground sect to the favored imperial religion, with the emperor’s mother piously devoted to replacing pagan temples with Christian ones.

The feast functioned as the civil holiday for the Christian empires of Rome and, later, Russia. The troparion of the feast was the imperial anthem.

The Lord is king, let the peoples rage;
He sitteth on the cherubim,
Let the earth be shaken.

(Troparion:)

O Lord, save Thy people,
And bless Thine inheritance.
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians
Over their adversaries;
And by the virtue of Thy Cross,
Preserve Thy commonwealth.

The Lord is great in Sion, and He is high above all peoples.

O Lord, save Thy people,
And bless Thine inheritance.
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians
Over their adversaries;
And by the virtue of Thy Cross,
Preserve Thy commonwealth.

Let them confess Thy great name, for it is terrible and holy; and the king’s honour loveth judgment.

O Lord, save Thy people,
And bless Thine inheritance.
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians
Over their adversaries;
And by the virtue of Thy Cross,
Preserve Thy commonwealth.

Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship the footstool of His feet; for He is holy.

O Lord, save Thy people,
And bless Thine inheritance.
Grant victories to the Orthodox Christians
Over their adversaries;
And by the virtue of Thy Cross,
Preserve Thy commonwealth.

Kontakion:

As Thou was mercifully crucified for our sake,
Grant mercy to those who are called by Thy name;
Make all Orthodox Christians glad by Thy power,
Granting them victories over their adversaries,
By bestowing on them the invincible trophy,
Thy weapon of peace.

Posted by Joseph on Sunday, September 27, A.D. 2009
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Thursday, September 24, A.D. 2009

Icons among the Romans

I have noticed over the course of my life increased Roman Catholic usage of Orthodox style icons. Of course, the West also once had traditional Christian iconography. A trip to the early Italian Renaissance section of your local art museum will show you just how late such iconographic tendencies survived in the West, with one last sudden blossoming after Greeks fleeing Turks settled in Italy’s cities in the fifteenth century.

I have a quirky theory that accounts for the increased interest in icons among the papists. The common explanation, I believe, is that the use of icons is an ecumenical overture to the East—a gesture of cultural and spiritual goodwill. “See, we recognize the beauty and majesty of your ancient traditions, and we are happy to celebrate it ourselves.” I suspect that such ecclesial multiculturalism may have been the origin of the renewed interest in icons, but I think that Roman Catholics’ intra-ecclesial culture war has turned the ecumenical gesture into a matter of domestic tranquility.

After the Second Vatican Council, Rome’s people experienced a turbulent ride. Odd forces were unleashed, from sources not entirely known, that sought to transform the Roman Catholic religion into something that it was not before. Modernist, Protestant, iconoclast, and even pagan influences became mainstream currents in the Tiber, at least as it flows in America. Not everyone took these changes easily, and, hence, there began the Roman Catholic culture war, which is still being waged. The controversies resulting from this war are legion, but some of them involve religious—and specifically liturgical—art and architecture.

In this divisive climate, I propose that Orthodox style iconography has become an acceptable common ground for both parties, though for different reasons. The Roman renovationists, for lack of a better word, harbor deep hostility for their own tradition. They speak disparagingly of the dark times before the council (and they only talk about one council). Everything else is regressive, oppressive, and simply a perverse desire to live in the past (of dead white men, clericalism, moral self flagellation, catechetical fideism, empty ritualism, the Index, gaudy statues, and beaten house wives). However, the renovationists crave the new, and they tend to be, politically and culturally, of the multiculturalist Left. What is alien is familiar and dear; they find redemption in the “otherness” of foreign traditions. They also support ecumenism enthusiastically. After all, why should their own religion claim special status? That is so absolutist and anti-egalitarian.

The Roman traditionalists, however, do not think that their religion popped into existence in the 1960’s. For them, the continuity of Roman Catholicism with the past is one of the things that they most value. For such continuity links them back to Christ himself and to the Hebrews before the Incarnation. Having a revulsion against modernity, they take solace that their faith predates the time of errors and confusion that they find in the secular world. They retain the classical sense of truth—for it is eternal and does not change. Why, then, should they be eager to see their religion change, as religion is a matter of truth?

Given these two parties and their commitments, I ask you to see how Orthodox icons meet the needs and desires of both factions. The renovationists like icons because they find them foreign and exotic. Such modern, multiculturalists can glory in their broadmindedness and cosmopolitan tastes by admiring and adopting a religious art style that they find to be alien. Besides, the stylized aspect of iconography must appeal to their primitivist tastes. The man who likes African and Polynesian art is prone to like Byzantine iconography, as he has developed an aesthetic appreciation for the symbolic. The traditionalists like icons because they acknowledge their antiquity and the spiritual patrimony that comes with them. Having seen what secularized religious art has become in the West, they may have concluded that it would be better to go back to the source.

Icons, therefore, are acceptable to both competing groups, and such explains their prevalence in Roman Catholic churches, hospitals, schools and monasteries.

Posted by Joseph on Thursday, September 24, A.D. 2009
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Tuesday, September 22, A.D. 2009

Joachim and Anna

On days following major feasts, the Church often celebrates people who are connected with the feast on what is called synaxes. The day after the nativity of the Theotokos, we observe the the synaxis of the holy and righteous ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna.

As I stated in my post on “The Nativity of the Theotokos,” Joachim and Anna are iconic grandparents for Christians. Their life is an image of their ancestors Abraham and Sarah’s story. For as Abraham and Sarah waited until old age to experience the miraculous conception, pregnancy, and birth of Isaac, thus orginating the Hebrews as a distinct lineage from Abraham, Joachim and Anna had the Mother of God in their advanced years—another miracle that announced a new birth—a new race—into the world. Yet, this time, the lineage would not be biological but spiritual—the kinship of Christ in the Christian Church.

You may wish to read more about Joachim and Anna as well as to see some more wonderful icons on the Full of Grace and Truth web site. I especially like the first icon with the young Mary standing on the tree, which I assume is the tree of Jesse.

Troparion:

Since you were righteous under the law of grace, O Joachim and Anna,
For our sake you gave birth to the God-given Infant.
The divine Church today therefore feasts radiantly,
Joyfully celebrating your honorable memory and giving glory to God
Who has raised up a horn of salvation
From the house of David!

Kontakion:

Now Anna is no longer barren and nurses the All-Pure One!
She rejoices and calls us to sing a hymn of praise to Christ,
Who gave mankind the only Ever-Virgin Mother!

Posted by Joseph on Tuesday, September 22, A.D. 2009
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Monday, September 21, A.D. 2009

Nativity of the Theotokos

On the old calendar, today is the feast of the nativity of the Theotokos (September 8 / 21).

Why do we celebrate the birth of the Virgin Mary to Joachim and Anna? Do you celebrate your mother’s birthday? Do you celebrate your friend’s mother’s birthday? Ought you not to celebrate your Lord’s mother’s birthday, who extends her maternal care to us all?

I always like it when the priest ends his blessing at the end of the liturgy by invoking the intercessions “of the holy and righteous ancestors of God, Joachim and Anna and of all the Saints.” They are Jesus’ grandparents. Along with Abraham and the patriarchs, they are the iconic grandparents, though Abraham seems to me far more like a clan chief and a pater familias than a grandfather figure. Such is perhaps ironic, in that I am a descendant of “Father Abraham” but not of Joachim and Anna. Yet, spiritual descent has a vivacious presence in the mind of Christians, and Joachim and Anna seem so grandfatherly and grandmotherly.

Some may find such sentiments sacrilegious, but I develop certain feelings for religious and other historical figures about whom I learn. I wonder what such men and women would have been like on a personal level. For example, for some reason, it always seemed obvious to me that Peter would be someone with whom I would feel comfortable. You would think that the preeminent apostle would conjure some sense of royal deference, but I have never felt that way. He just seems like such a man—a good man, a noble man—but very much a guy . . . like the perfect Boy Scout leader. He is the ultimate masculine friend . . . God’s wingman, to speak vulgarly but sincerely. In this, I do not wish to minimize the veneration that I have for Peter. I do not wish to sound like an egalitarian Protestant who causally speaks of the greatest heroes of the Christian faith like they were simply ordinary fellows. Nonetheless, I think that Peter’s leadership quality would be very much the type where you forget to feel conscientious and nervous in his presence. I think that he would have a disarming warmth rather than an icy majesty. Of course, these are emotional rather than intellectual observations about my own psyche, but I find it interesting. I wonder if anyone else feels that way.

Troparion:

Thy nativity, O Virgin, has proclaimed joy to the whole universe!
The Sun of Righteousness, Christ our God,
Has shone on thee, O Theotokos!
By annulling the curse, He bestowed a blessing.
By destroying death, He has granted us Eternal Life.

Kontakion:

By thy nativity, O Most-Pure Virgin,
Joachim and Anna are freed from barrenness,
And Adam and Eve, from the corruption of death.
And we, Thy people, freed from the guilt of sin,
Celebrate and sing to Thee:
The barren woman gives birth to the Theotokos,
The Nourisher of our life.

Posted by Joseph on Monday, September 21, A.D. 2009
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