Halloween

So every year we have to debate whether or not Halloween is a “pagan” holiday.  My usual practice is to ignore the protesters and dress up like a literary or film character because it is fun.  But, for some reason this year I devoted a bit of time to looking up some sources, and it [...]

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Leithart’s Qualified Church as Polis

Some of my friends thought that Against Christianity was a tad too Anabaptist.  At first I had trouble seeing this, but the more I studied the differences between Reformed and Anabaptist, particularly through reading Yoder’s Anabaptism and Reformation in Switzerland, I began to see where those critiques were coming from.  The first generation of Anabaptists [...]

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So I Check Facebook…

And on my sidebar it says:

Thomas H. only has 14 friends.
Help him find more friends.

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More John of Damascus on Divine Unity

Continuing with John’s Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, we read about the unity of the Godhead.  Now it must be understood that our contemporary manner of speaking, with clear and easy references to “the essence” and “the persons” is not the positive methodology of John.  He certainly distinguishes between ousia and hypostasis, but he also [...]

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A Few Thoughts on Public Schools

Here are a few of my tentative thoughts regarding public education:
1. One cannot make a Biblical case to forbid all Public Schools.
    a. Deuteronomy 6 does speak to fathers, but the speaker of the Lord’s words is Moses, the civil leader.
    b. Supposing a believing-state, the fathers could come together and delegate their teaching authority to [...]

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Orthodox Folks I Really Like

To remind myself that I’m not crazy, I wanted to think out loud for a minute.  I really appreciate and have learned from the following authors:
Alexander Schmemann
John Meyendorff
David Bentley Hart
Andrew Louth
Veselin Kesich
Aristotle Papanikolaou
George Demacopoulos
Alexander Golitzin
Of course, I have points of disagreement with each of these authors, but whenever one of them makes a statement, I [...]

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Books on the Stack

This should give you a glimpse into the current status of my brain-
Currently Reading:
A Secular Age by Charles Taylor
Calvin by Bruce Gordon
Just Arrived (and soon-to-be atop the stack):
Jewish Christianity by Hans-Joachim Schoeps
Eucharist and Institution Narrative: A Study in the Roman and Anglican traditions of the Consecration of the Eucharist from the Eighth to the Twentieth [...]

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John of Damascus on the Divine Unity

John of Damascus definitely “starts with” the unity of the divine nature.  In his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, under the chapter heading of “Concerning the Holy Trinity,” John writes:
We believe, then, in One God, one beginning, having no beginning, uncreate, unbegotten, imperishable and immortal, everlasting, infinite, uncircumscribed, boundless, of infinite power, simple, uncompound, incorporeal, [...]

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