Fr. Stephen Freeman

Рейтинг: 8.1|Голосов: 10

A Fast of Righteousness

Fr. Stephen Freeman

This, I think, points to a proper (and rather simple) meaning of the term. It is not just some form of “social justice.” There is something more cosmic and eschatological about it. Wherever the Kingdom comes, its “righteousness” is made manifest. What does that look like?

Рейтинг: 9.7|Голосов: 34

How to Strengthen Your Lenten Prayer Life

Fr. Stephen Freeman

If you want to strengthen your prayers, make friends of the poor. This story is a great illustration...

Рейтинг: 9.5|Голосов: 29

Put the Dickens Back in Christmas

Fr. Stephen Freeman

American Christmas demonstrates the amazing influence of literature on a culture.

Рейтинг: 9|Голосов: 65

God’s Un-American View of the Poor and Why It Matters

Fr. Stephen Freeman

America has an odd view of the poor. It is a view that reveals much about the underlying theological assumptions that create and support our culture.

Рейтинг: 7.5|Голосов: 19

Getting Saved on Star Trek

Fr. Stephen Freeman

We imagine ourselves to be the stars in our own drama (we do not wear the red shirt). But we live in a culture where everyone is somebody else’s Red Shirt.

Рейтинг: 9.8|Голосов: 15

Before the Judgment Seat of Christ

Fr. Stephen Freeman

From my childhood, I have memories of the phrase, “Great White Throne of Judgment.” It comes complete with an abundance of frightening images and threats. It is the last possible moment before all hell breaks loose and the preachers at long last get one right.

Рейтинг: 9.9|Голосов: 13

Humble and Meek and Middle-Class Morality

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Morality (good behavior) has a way of self-justification. The morally competent all-too-frequently see themselves as the products of their own self-discipline and inner character. They fail to see that they are doing little more than conforming to the social morality of their class.

Рейтинг: 8.9|Голосов: 24

The Spiritual Life in Depression and Anxiety

Fr. Stephen Freeman

A very poignant question was sent privately to me after my last post. It asked how I was able to go about my parish work when I was battling with depression and anxiety.

Рейтинг: 9.6|Голосов: 116

A Priest’s Thoughts on Depression, Anxiety, the Soul, Your Body and Your Brain

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Somewhat problematic, I think, is the not infrequent distinction made between anxiety and depression as physical/medical problems and as so-called “spiritual” problems. There is no such distinction. We do not have “spiritual” problems that are not also physical problems, simply because we do not exist as some sort of divisible creatures.

Рейтинг: 9|Голосов: 3

Entering Hell on Pentecost – With Prayer

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The cycle of prayers assaulting Hades reaches a climax on the day of Pentecost. On the evening of that Sunday, the faithful gather for Vespers. During that service, they kneel for the first time since Pascha. And in that kneeling, the Church teaches them the boldness of prayer, the cry of human hearts for God’s solace and relief.

Рейтинг: 6|Голосов: 2

The Bridegroom and Judgment

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The first three days of Holy Week are collectively known as the End. And it is this End that forms the character of judgment. The end of something always reveals the truth of a thing.

Рейтинг: 8.2|Голосов: 5

Getting to the Point

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The English vocabulary exceeds 200,000 words. Thus, it is interesting when English doesn’t quite have a word for something. This is the case with the language of worship.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 9

The Danger and Shame of Forgiveness

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The teaching of the Orthodox spiritual fathers is that we should forgive everyone for everything. Only in this can we be “like our Father in heaven.” But make no mistake: it is scary, hard, and without promise of safety or reward.

Рейтинг: 5.5|Голосов: 6

Honor, Subversion and the Kingdom of God

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Many who read the New Testament see it as advocating for and supporting the oppressive structures of its time. They argue that it is patriarchal and pro-slavery.

Рейтинг: 9.9|Голосов: 18

Democratic Madness

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Each person is his own authority. And I will add, that if every person is his own authority, then there is no authority.

Рейтинг: 8.9|Голосов: 10

Politics and the Kingdom of God

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The modern project holds that the world can be improved and made better. It also holds that human beings can be improved and made better. And finally, it holds that the means of that improvement and betterment are political.

The Despised God

Fr. Stephen Freeman

That Christ is the precise image of the Father is put forth in the book of Hebrews (1:3). This is refined in Nicaea’s language of “homoousios” (“same substance”). But while that language speaks of “being” or “substance,” we easily lose sight of what is being put forward.

Рейтинг: 2|Голосов: 1

A Deadly Communion

Fr. Stephen Freeman

In our voluntary union with Christ and His Cross, we bear a little shame, and bring the cycle of shame and violence into the silence and healing of paradise.

To See Him Face to Face

Fr. Stephen Freeman

In both Latin and Greek, the word translated as “person,” actually refers to the face, or a mask (as a depiction of the face). The face is not only our primary presentation to the world, and our primary means of relationship, it is also, somehow, that which is most definitively identified with our existence as persons.

Рейтинг: 1.8|Голосов: 4

The Holy Name

Fr. Stephen Freeman

It is easy to say, without fear of contradiction, that no group within Christianity holds greater reverence for the name of Jesus, in word and in practice than Orthodox Christianity.

Rest For Your Soul

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Among the greatest difficulties faced by Orthodoxy in the New World has been the relative prosperity of an immigrant Church. Prosperity makes for a Church that is nicely comparable to denominational America, but it does not produce saints.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

I’ll Be Small for Christmas

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The adherents of modernity not only feel certain of the correctness of their worldview; they believe that it should be utterly obvious to any reasonable person. Resistance is reactionary, the product of ignorance or evil intent. But from within classical Christianity, this is pure heresy, and perhaps the most dangerous threat that humanity has ever faced.

Keeping Christmas

Fr. Stephen Freeman

We keep the feast of Christmas, not by consuming or affirming our place within the world of consumption—we keep the feast by entering more deeply into the life of communion—with God and with others.

World Story – the News and the Good News

Fr. Stephen Freeman

I once had a conversation with a friend about monastic hermits in the desert. He dismissed them as of no relevance. “Who even knows that they’re there?” He asked.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 5

A Terrible Knowledge

Fr. Stephen Freeman

We humans are a curious lot. We want to know everything about our business and much about what is not our business. In a world that has deeply internalized the notion that everything is a democracy, we cannot bear hearing that not all knowledge is meant for us.

Рейтинг: 9|Голосов: 1

The Material God

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Most of the actions and rituals of the Orthodox life are quite simple. It requires approaching “things” as gifts from God. Everything in all of creation is icon and sacrament, a gift that bears the revelation of Christ, through Whom all things were made.

Beneath Her Compassion

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Among the greater mysteries of the New Testament are those surrounding the Mother of God. A large segment of modern Christianity has become tone deaf in this regard, a result of centuries of antagonism towards certain aspects of older tradition.

Thanksgiving Communion

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The prominent place of thanksgiving within the life of the Old Testament seems strangely obscured by most Christian treatments. The system of sacrifice is often misunderstood.

Hiding in Plain Sight and The False Accusation

Fr. Stephen Freeman

All of us stand falsely accused. Our lives are a strange mix of virtue and vice.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

A Virtuous Man

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Virtue is not a common word in our culture. It sounds somewhat “antique.” For some, it has very little meaning, or a meaning far removed from its original.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 2

Slow Learning

Fr. Stephen Freeman

I think it is possible to speak of the “soul” of a culture, its inner sense of itself and reason for being. How does it judge success? What does it mark as a hero?

An Audience of None

Fr. Stephen Freeman

We are always “watching” from somewhere else, always engaging the false self with its criteria of judging, weighing, deciding. The world becomes a beauty contest but never a wedding.

To Sing Like a River

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The Fathers often point towards human rationality as an excellence that sets us above the rest of creation. In modern thought, however, we seem to think that we are somehow distinct from the rest of creation, with little in common.

Рейтинг: 6|Голосов: 2

Interceding for Sodom—The Sins of a Nation

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Can a nation ever sin? If so, how can it be forgiven?

Рейтинг: 8|Голосов: 3

The Slow Work of Grace

Fr. Stephen Freeman

We live in a culture of fast food, and tend to want grace to operate on the same speed track. Some versions of Christianity make grace as “quick” as walking the aisle. This, of course, is misleading.

Рейтинг: 8|Голосов: 4

To Have More—Pleonexia

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Within the list of sins that come up in the Scriptures, “drunkenness” has its honorable mentions. However, there is a deeper addiction, far more pervasive, that plays a greater role, both in Scripture and in our own lives: greed.

Passionately Drunk

Fr. Stephen Freeman

We live in an age where the passions are carefully studied and used as the objects of marketing. Those things that are sold to us (even those that supposedly appeal to our intellect) are marketed to our passions. Apple computer famously researches the “feel” of its packaging, presenting a sensual experience that is associated with quality, precision and value. It is a successful strategy across the whole of our culture.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

The Seat of Mercy and the End of the Legal View

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Among the more problematic words in the New Testament is the Greek hilasterion. It is translated as “propitiation” in some of the older English Bibles, and “expiation,” in newer ones. It’s actual meaning is neither.

Рейтинг: 2|Голосов: 1

Remembering the End

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Understanding the true nature of the “end of things,” or, in theological terms, “eschatology,” is a difficult task at first. It breaks many rules of space and time, and requires a certain shift in perspective.

The Divine Compass

Fr. Stephen Freeman

A Christian must say that there is a natural spiritual compass within every human being, inasmuch as we are created in the image of God. Some would say that the spiritual compass is distorted by the world and its many noises. I think this is mistaken. What is missing in any human life is not the compass itself, but the willingness of drawing near to read it.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 4

The Disenchanted World

Fr. Stephen Freeman

A very apt word for the world we live in is: disenchanted. It was first used by Max Weber and a number of others to describe a certain aspect of the modern world – the absence of the sacred.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

The Secular Mind versus the Whole Heart

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Thinking is among the most misleading things in the modern world, or, to be more precise, thinking about thinking is misleading.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

The Hand in the Gospel

Fr. Stephen Freeman

A modern or contemporary Christian would generally see this as a quaint ceremony, perhaps going so far as to think that the Gospel book is being used to “symbolize” the hand of God (meaning nothing more than a psychological notion). But in no way would a contemporary believer think that God’s hand is actually in the Gospel Book.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

Sin Is Not A Legal Problem—Athanasius and the Atonement

Fr. Stephen Freeman

I often struggle when people speak of their “sins.” Indeed, it is not unusual to be asked, “Is ___ a sin?” The question always makes me feel like a lawyer.

The Greatness of a Lesser World

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Tolkien and Solzhenitsyn (and others) gave great attention to the “littleness” of our lives. Our spiritual lives are surely no less specific. Our salvation is found in the little things, as is the truth of our existence.

Рейтинг: 1|Голосов: 1

A Truly Rational Faith

Fr. Stephen Freeman

St. Paul notes that “faith works through love”. This describes the very heart of the ascetic life.

Рейтинг: 4.9|Голосов: 10

The Renunciation of Reason

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Our exchanges point to an inescapable aspect of reality: it is filled with contradictions or at least something that we perceive as contradictions. Reason, as it is commonly used, is quite abstract. Syllogisms step back from reality and speak in terms that are actually quite removed.

Everywhere Present

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Everything you do, all your work, can contribute towards your salvation. It depends on you, on the way you do it. History is replete with monks who became great saints while working in the kitchen or washing sheets. The way of salvation consists in working without passion, in prayer….

The Holy and Great Council and the Hidden Work of God

Fr. Stephen Freeman

If there is a true normal, it is deeply spiritual. It moves between transcendent good and a frightful evil. And the movement is not between people or classes or political persuasions, but within each human heart. We should not ignore what is going on around us. However, when we ignore the inner life of the heart, we remain unhealed and in the darkness.

Рейтинг: 6.5|Голосов: 2

A Simple, Great Soul

Fr. Stephen Freeman

For a variety of reasons, I have been spending a fair amount of time with A.I. Solzhenitsyn, the great Russian writer who died in 2008.

A Bunch of Stuff We Don’t Know

Fr. Stephen Freeman

At every turn, the source of our hope is simply what we have seen accomplished in Christ. We have His promises: I go to prepare a place for you, and if I prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. (Joh 14:3) The fullness of the life of the Church teaches us how to hope and how to pray. It does not teach us what has not been given us to know.

Рейтинг: 8.5|Голосов: 19

On Celtic Orthodoxy

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The monastics in the British Isles, like the monastics across the Christian world of Late Antiquity, became a primary force within the whole of Church life. They were missionaries. They were librarians. They were copyists. They were authors. They were hymnographers. They were a hedge against the power of the state. They were protectors of Orthodox teaching.

Рейтинг: 9.8|Голосов: 6

Knocking Down the Gates of Hell

Fr. Stephen Freeman

In Orthodoxy, this imagery is the coin of the realm in the hymns surrounding Pascha. All of Holy Week is predicated on the notion of Christ descent into hell and radical actions of destroying death and setting free those held in captivity. St. John Chrysostom’s great Paschal Homily, read in every Orthodox Church on the night of Pascha, is an “alley, alley, in come free!” of salvation.

The Pilgrimage of Holy Week

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The apex of the year for Orthodox Christians is easily Holy Week and Pascha. I had the opportunity in 2008 to make a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. To receive communion in the tomb of Christ, or to stand at Golgotha is no little thing. And yet, the services of Holy Week within one’s own parish are a greater thing.

Рейтинг: 6.7|Голосов: 9

The Ladder of Divine Ascent and Moral Improvement

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The path of modernity carries no humility. It breeds pride, and frequently contempt. Failure is its nemesis. We blame ourselves for laziness and sloth, certain that a little more effort will make the difference.

Рейтинг: 7.5|Голосов: 2

Do We Believe in God?

Fr. Stephen Freeman

As a young priest, I fancied myself to be a “problem solver.” A good parish, I thought, was a happy parish. Conflict and crisis were things to be managed. I even took a number of courses in seminary that were focused on “management.” And this, I believe, was the secular option, the breeding ground of despair and unbelief.

Рейтинг: 9.7|Голосов: 6

The True Science of God

Fr. Stephen Freeman

To recognize that the world is wonderful and larger than you know, is to begin to understand your place within it. You do not control it, nor can you ever. It is too frequently the case that people speak of God as though they knew very well what (who) they were talking about.

Рейтинг: 8|Голосов: 4

Why We Forgive

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The directness of Christ’s commandments (“forgive your enemies”) and the consequences of ignoring them (“if you do not forgive others neither will your heavenly Father forgive you”) can easily make forgiveness into a heavy, soul-crushing burden of spiritual failure. Understanding the true nature of forgiveness, however, carries us into the very mystery of our existence and reveals why such importance is given to its practice.

Рейтинг: 8|Голосов: 4

It’s A Crying Shame

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Orthodox Christians make a beginning of their Lenten discipline with the forgiving of everyone for everything (theoretically). The ritual expression of forgiveness can easily and often be little more than a ritual. It reminds us of the need to forgive, but does not, on its own, achieve what it expresses. This should not be surprising – forgiveness is perhaps the most difficult spiritual undertaking.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 3

Judgment with a Mixed Bag

Fr. Stephen Freeman

But the Solzhenitsyn-inspired thought asked, “But what about those who sometimes act like sheep and sometimes act like goats?”

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

Knowing Saints

Fr. Stephen Freeman

I have had occasion to be with a saint on at least three occasions. Mind you, this is my opinion since none of the three are canonized.

Рейтинг: 6.4|Голосов: 5

Feeling Like a Fool

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Since all of this is true, and pretty universal, it is deeply surprising to discover that there are great saints who have chosen to make fools of themselves for the sake of their salvation and the salvation of others.

Рейтинг: 5|Голосов: 1

Unity, the One Cup and the Fire of God

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Ecumenism is back in the news and with it comes a deluge of misunderstanding and theological confusion.

Рейтинг: 2.5|Голосов: 2

The Purpose of Mystery, Paradox and Contradiction

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Christianity is deeply associated with the word “mystery.” Its theological hymns are replete with paradox, repeatedly affirming two things to be true that are seemingly contradictory.

The Act of Veneration

Fr. Stephen Freeman

No spiritual activity permeates Orthodoxy as much as veneration. For the non-Orthodox, veneration is often mistaken for worship. We kiss icons; sing hymns to saints; cry out “Most Holy Theotokos, save us!” And all of this scandalizes the non-Orthodox who think we have fallen into some backwater of paganized Christianity.

Reading Beneath the Words

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The relationship between Old and New Testaments is much less straightforward than most people realize.

Looking like Christmas

Fr. Stephen Freeman

One of the most striking features of the Gospels is the frequent response of the Disciples after the resurrection of Christ: doubt.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 8

Modern Illusions

Fr. Stephen Freeman

There are two thoughts I want to offer in this article. The first addresses the illusion of the better world and making a difference, while the second addresses what it is that we can do.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 4

Brief Notes on the Kingdom – You Are Not Advancing It

Fr. Stephen Freeman

It is solely and completely the gift of God and subject to no human effort.

Рейтинг: 8.3|Голосов: 4

You Barely Make a Difference and It’s a Good Thing

Fr. Stephen Freeman

At a certain point in history, people began to be told that they could take charge of history; they could change the world and make it a better place.

Рейтинг: 8.2|Голосов: 5

Jesus Is Not Your Imaginary Friend

Fr. Stephen Freeman

I want to turn our attention in this article to how our sentimental psychology distorts our concept of God and what it means to be in relationship with Him.

Рейтинг: 7|Голосов: 4

Why We Fast

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The following article offers some thoughts on the purpose of fasting.

Living in the Real World

Fr. Stephen Freeman

We cannot live in the abstract and suddenly attend to the real. We cannot “care” and then turn to love. “To live” is an active verb. The passions of mass experience are something else.

Рейтинг: 5.5|Голосов: 4

The Dangerous Vision of Paradise

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Modern people do not live – they dream. And their dreams sometimes become nightmares.

Рейтинг: 6.8|Голосов: 8

Unavoidable Suffering and Salvation – The Way of Shame

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Shame is the unbearable emotion, according to psychologists. It is also the first recorded human emotion in Scripture.

Bob, His Doctor, and Your Moral Life

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Of course this is fiction – but it is fiction based on how many Christians think of their spiritual lives. Christ is the physician of our souls. The Church, the Fathers say, is a hospital for sinners. So why do we think like Bob and his doctor? Why do we think that who we are and how we are doing can be described by how well we adhere to rules?

Рейтинг: 7.8|Голосов: 4

Care for the Soul

Fr. Stephen Freeman

A deep failure of modernity is its jettisoning of soul stories. Contemporary music is simply insufficient for the soul. The result can be a struggle for the life of the soul – to exist without being swallowed whole by the consumption that surrounds us. “Man shall not live by bread alone.”

About Fairy Tales

Fr. Stephen Freeman

People, including children, make sense of the world through the stories they know. Children without stories are forced to stumble through the world without a clue.This is not only true of children, but of people in general.

Рейтинг: 9.7|Голосов: 7

Excuse Me, You Are Not Rational

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Among the most noble words ever applied to human life, its meaning has been changed and placed in service of the greatest reduction our humanity has ever faced. It is time to take back our rationality.

Unecumenism and the Sins of All

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The concept of the One Church shifted during the Reformation. I offer a case in point as well as a reflection on how it changes our current understanding.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 3

Consequences of the One Church – Unecumenism

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Put yourself in the fourth century. There is only one Church, and that Church is One.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

Un-Ecumenism

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The Church is steadily diminished in the life of the nation, privatized and relativized. Its loyalty becomes subsidiary to the loyalty of the State.

Рейтинг: 9.9|Голосов: 7

The Cross as the Way of Life

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Prayer is directing our hearts outside of ourselves and towards God. Pray. Kindness places the other ahead of ourselves. Be kind. Love God. Love His Cross.

A Law for All Seasons

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Thomas More was martyred by Henry VIII in England for his refusal to approve of the king’s adulterous marriage to Anne Boleyn. Like St. John the Baptist, he preferred God’s law to man’s. He died as a lawyer and a prophet. It is a lesson worth considering.

You Don’t Mean a Thing

Fr. Stephen Freeman

What good is a compass that points to itself? It means nothing. It is a compass for people who are going nowhere.

If It Makes You Happy

Fr. Stephen Freeman

When the gospel becomes an expression of personal desire and happiness, it has been hijacked by a foreign narrative. What do the pleasures of this world have to do with the Cross of Christ? Christ did not die for our self-fulfillment.

Рейтинг: 9.2|Голосов: 10

A Practicing Christian

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Christianity should be seen not just as a set of beliefs, but as a set of practices.

A Parable of A Kingdom

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Secularism is not the rejection of God, but the assertion that the world exists apart from God and that our task is to do the best we can in this world.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 3

Why the Orthodox Honor Mary

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The most difficult part of my Orthodox experience to discuss with the non-Orthodox is the place and role of the Mother of God in the Church and in my life. It is, on the one hand, deeply theological and even essential to a right understanding of the Orthodox faith, while, on the other hand, being intensely personal beyond the bounds of conversation. I am convinced, as well, that the Orthodox approach to Mary is part of the apostolic deposit, and not a later accretion.

Churchly Humility

Fr. Stephen Freeman

First, the Orthodox Church is not better than some other Church. If you declare such a thing to be true, then you have actually denied the truth of Orthodoxy. We believe the Church to be One. We believe the Church is One because God is One. And, as in the case of God, it is One of which there is not two. If Orthodoxy is The Church, then it’s not the better Church. It is not something that can be compared to anything else.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 3

Have You Lost Your Soul?

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The soul is our life and is the proper anchor of our existence. The consumer-self is ill-equipped for true existence. The loss of choices and its incipient narcissism plunge the consumer-self into despair. People in the modern world often shop in order to treat their depression.But the soul is our true life. It is only in the soul the the inherent suffering of the world makes sense. The consumer-self cannot bear suffering and supports every false hope that promises relief from suffering.

Dostoevsky and the Sins of the Nation

Fr. Stephen Freeman

For many, the idea that we are somehow responsible for the sins of others, or can repent on their behalf is counter-intuitive and deeply troubling. It is distinctly non individualistic. However, it is a cornerstone of Orthodox devotion. Dostoevsky presented a very popular version of this teaching in the words of the fictitious character, the Elder Zosima, in his The Brothers Karamozov.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

Speaking of Reality

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The most essential proposition within this philosophy is that reality itself is a “social construct,” that is, our experience of the world is formed, not by the world itself, but by the social interactions and agreements by which we agree to name and describe the world. The world is what we think it to be.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 17

Weak, Sick, Poor and Tired: A Story for Losers

Fr. Stephen Freeman

It is little wonder that the American Dream is so powerful and popular. The alternative is nothing anyone would choose.And yet, the American Dream may be the greatest obstacle to salvation the world has ever known.

Рейтинг: 5.4|Голосов: 19

Is Hell Real?

Fr. Stephen Freeman

On one of the roads leading into my small city a billboard has recently appeared. It is part of a larger campaign by a nationally known evangelist who is to have a revival in Knoxville. The sign is simple. In very large bright yellow letters (all caps), the sign says: HELL IS REAL. In small letters beneath it, in white, that can be read as your car nears the sign is the statement: so is heaven.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 2

The Hidden Soul and the Weight of Glory

Fr. Stephen Freeman

What do we mean when we speak of the personality? Do we mean a certain set of memories? A collection of experiences and preferences? Is it our set of skills and techniques? How many of these would we have to lose for the personality and personhood to disappear?

Рейтинг: 9.4|Голосов: 15

The Work That Saves

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Do we cooperate in our salvation? Do our efforts make a difference?These questions lie at the heart of a centuries-old religious debate in Christianity.

Рейтинг: 7|Голосов: 3

Our Conciliar Salvation

Fr. Stephen Freeman

I consider it both a strange mystery and a settled matter of the faith that God prefers not to do things alone. Repeatedly, He acts in a manner that involves the actions of others when, it would seem, He could have acted alone.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 4

Saving A Democratic Man

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Can such a man find God, or even be saved? That may sound like a strange question, but it lies at the heart of the modern religious crisis.

Should I Forgive the Unrepentant?

Fr. Stephen Freeman

It has been noted that forgiveness is often directly tied to repentance. This is doubtless true, but also fraught with misunderstanding. It is important to understand what forgiveness is and is not and what repentance is and is not.

Sex and the Moral Imagination

Fr. Stephen Freeman

As the day draws near for the US Supreme Court to insist on nationwide approval for gay marriage, a watershed in modern thought has been reached. For although the Supreme Court is not the arbiter of morality, its decisions generally signal a deep level of cultural acceptance.

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 1

The Moral Path of Being

Fr. Stephen Freeman

If Christian morality is not a legal or forensic matter, how are we to think about moral behavior? Does the word have no use for Orthodox Christians? What do we think about when we confess our sins?

The Unmoral Christian Revisited

Fr. Stephen Freeman

There is an abiding discomfort for many with my assertion that we generally do not see moral progress in our lives. That discomfort comes from many directions. Perhaps the most serious is the question that asks, “Then why bother? If we are not making progress in our battles with the passions, why make the effort?”

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 11

Gifts and Talents and the Road to Hell

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The key in these surveys was to determine precisely what gifts and talents someone had, match them with the right ministry, and fit them all together. The end product would be more effective ministry for the parish and happier parishioners. What priest wouldn’t want such a thing?

Рейтинг: 8|Голосов: 4

The Problem of Goodness

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Though many struggle with the so-called “Problem of Evil,” the greater moral problem is that of goodness. How do we account for goodness in the world – particularly self-sacrificing heroic goodness?

Рейтинг: 10|Голосов: 3

Living with a Calendar

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The human relationship with time is a strange thing. The upright stones of neo-lithic human communities stand as silent reminders of our long interest in seasons and the movement of the heavens. Today our light-polluted skies shield many of us from the brilliant display of the night sky and rob us of the stars.

Рейтинг: 8.2|Голосов: 22

Why Sin Is Not A Moral Problem

Fr. Stephen Freeman

“Sin” is a word that is used frequently in a wrong manner. Thus when someone asks, “Is it a sin to do x,y, z?” what they mean is, “Is it against God’s rules to do x,y, z?” But this is incorrect.

Рейтинг: 8.9|Голосов: 28

What St. Seraphim Meant

Fr. Stephen Freeman

“Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a thousand souls around you will be saved.” This is perhaps the most famous quote of the great Russian saint, Seraphim of Sarov. Many of his icons have this saying on them. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t like it. On the other hand, I think there are many who do not understand it. And understanding what he meant can take you to the very heart of Orthodoxy.

Reading the Real Bible and Notes on the Real Hell

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Modern thought, including modern Protestant thought, tends to think of “reality” as consisting of only one kind of thing. And this is the way the word is used whether it is referring to green dragons, God, heaven, hell, what I ate last week, etc. My goal is to help readers, on a popular level, understand better the Orthodox teaching on the nature of things – on the world as sacrament – on the character of truth and reality – and thus the nature of our salvation.

Рейтинг: 9.7|Голосов: 9

Behind Closed Doors

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The phrase, “behind closed doors,” has become synonymous in English with things being done in secret – generally of an unsavory or nefarious sort. Institutions speak of an “open door policy,” and promise “transparency” to those from the outside. Closed doors have always had a sense of secrecy about them. Sometimes the secrecy hides the darkness of evil, other times it protects us from the wonder of the holy.

The Tree Heals the Tree

Fr. Stephen Freeman

In the feast of the Holy Cross, the hymnography at one point makes the statment, “The Tree heals the Tree.” It is one of the marvelous commentaries on the life of grace and its relationship to the human predicament. It refers to the relationship between the Cross of Christ and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Mystery, Upborne, Fulfilled

Fr. Stephen Freeman

Though we commonly use the word “mystery” (for example), popular speech never uses it in the manner of the Church. I cannot remember using the word “fullness,” or even “fulfilled,” in normal speech. More contemporary words have come to replace these expressions. This doesn’t mean that an English speaker has no idea of what the words mean—but, again, they do not understand these words in the manner of the Church. There is a reality to which words such as mystery and fullness refer—a reality that carries the very heart of the Orthodox understanding of the world and its relation to God.

Рейтинг: 9.5|Голосов: 28

Reflections in Christ. The Apostles’ Fast

Fr. Stephen Freeman

It is a rhythm. Our modern world has lost most of its natural rhythm. The sun rises and sets but causes little fanfare in a world powered and lit by other sources. In America, virtually everything is always in season, even though the chemicals used to preserve this wonderful cornucopia are probably slowly poisoning our bodies.

Even If I Descend into Hell…

Fr. Stephen Freeman

The verse in John implies just the opposite – hell (condemnation) is what it is – only because we want it so. As a priest this portrayal of condemnation has been by far the most helpful approach in dealing pastorally with people. It is not the threat of what someone (God) may do to them, but the existential reality of what you are doing to yourself – even now.