Apropos to the feast of St. Justinian

We believe that the true and immaculate Christian faith is the first and greatest benefit that men enjoy, that it should be strengthened in every respect, and that all the holy priests throughout all the earth should be strengthened in every respect, and that all the holy priests throughout the earth should unite to preach [...]

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"Royal" authority

The sole head of the Church is Jesus Christ, whose teaching is carefully preserved in its entirety by the Orthodox Church. The Russian emperor, to the extent that he follows this teaching is as much a son of the Church as any other Orthodox Christian. At no time and in no place has the Church [...]

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Pluralities and majorities

…are necessary for parliaments and parties but not for God’s Church, which is the pillar and foundation of faith, independently of the above categories and even in contradiction of them… St. Hilarion (Troitsky)

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Of categories

When intellectual and conventional categories replace ontological truth and revelation in Christian theology, then in the historical life of the Church, too, the problem of salvation is obscured by a shadow that torments mankind, that of a “law” which leads nowhere.Christos Yannaras

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How, then, can we speak of "Western captivity"?

And God has accepted us into His family, the Church of Christ, and in her we can sail over this stormy sea of life as in a safe ship. A ship has everything necessary to protect those sailing in it from the water: it has a strong foundation, a bottom, sides, sails, oars, a rudder. [...]

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The Ark of salvation

Considering all the hubbub concerning the Pope and the recent “revelation” of the Papal claims I thought it opportune to present the recent (that is, in the Orthodox time frame) encyclicals (1848 and 1895) of the patriarch of Constantinople. May this be education to those outside of the Orthodox Church of her timeless beliefs and [...]

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The Apostolic Church

‘Give ye them to eat!’ Did this mean physical food only? No. It meant everything that the God-Man has brought to earth: salvation of the human race, spiritual food, all the sacraments which were established by the Lord, the entire Church of Christ, Catholic and Apostolic. But the Apostles were mortal and the Church is [...]

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The "Christianization" of atheism

Now it is not what is pleasing to God or the Church that is good, but what is ‘progressive,’ ‘liberal,’ revolutionary; that which is ‘right-leaning’ is the concatenation of all evils. ‘It is in agreement with Marx!’ – this is the highest praise for any teaching, for any opinion. Even holy Christian doctrine is assessed [...]

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The true hierarchy

Which hierarchy is the true and lawful one? It is the priesthood which has retained and continues to follow these conditions: 1. In the first place such a hierarchy is true, which has received the grace of the Holy Spirit from the Apostles themselves in an unbroken line of succession from one to another. …In [...]

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The destruction of satan and the "invisible church"

An abstract federation of communities whereby each body is a member of a more general body reduces the Eucharist to a secondary position and makes possible the heretical idea that there is a membership in the body of Christ higher and more profound than the corporate life of local love for real people and thus [...]

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The ark of holy things

Those who know and accept and believe the prophetic visions, as the Divine himself gave them shape and form, which the chorus of prophets behold and explain; and who, strengthened by the written and unwritten tradition of the Apostles, continuing to the Fathers, therefore express holy things in images and honour them:May their memory be [...]

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The principle of Christianity

People who deny the Church constantly speak about ‘evangelical principles,’ about evangelical teaching; but Christianity as life is completely alien to them . . . St. Hilarion (Troitsky)

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On unity

Union is possible with Rome. Unity alone is possible with Orthodoxy.Alexey Khomiakov

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The speech of faith

Separate aspects of faith disintegrate only for scholastic theology, but, in living life, these aspects, each retaining its independence, become so closely interwoven that one idea imperceptibly evokes another. For a scholastic theologian, it is easy to say that the concepts Church, Holy Spirit, and Son of God are different: easy, because in his consciousness [...]

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Don’t fret “Byzantium” was egalitarian

Byzantine architecture, with its interpretation of the Church as the Trinitarian mode of existence, marks out a space which is concrete and yet without bounds, a space continually divided up which yet has its center everywhere. The eucharist is accomplished everywhere, in the place where each Christian is present, bearing in himself Christ and the [...]

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Delivered unto us

Holy Scripture, then, is not an objectified ‘source’ of Christian truth and revelation, like the ‘theoretical’ texts which outline the impersonal and objective principles of an ideology. Nor are their two sources of objective authority, Scripture and Tradition, as Roman Catholic rationalism would have it. Prior to any written formulation, Christian faith and truth is [...]

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The ‘emergent’ question of the 21st century…

In a word, no.

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The sheep fold

Make thou thy fold with the sheep: flee from the wolves: depart not from the Church.St. Cyril of Jerusalem

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In the name of man

The first truth of Orthodoxy is that man does not exist for the sake of man, but for the sake of God or, more fully, for the sake of the God-man. Therefore, we stay with the God-man in the name of man. In Him alone is an understanding of man’s being possible; in Him alone [...]

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Included in the concept of the Church is this:

…the Church is that point at which dogma becomes moral teaching and Christian dogmatics become Christian life. The Church thus comprehended gives life to and provides for the implementation of Christian teaching. Without the Church there is no Christianity; there is only the Christian teaching which, by itself, cannot ‘renew the fallen Adam.’St. Hilarion (Troitsky)

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