Love and Liturgy

For two millennia Christians have assembled on the “day of the sun” to celebrate the liturgy together. But why do it? Why structure one's life in such a way that participation in ritualized religious activity is a fixed point in the weekly rhythm of one's comings and goings? The project of this essay is to identify reasons to engage in such activity that emanate from the Christian ethical vision. Fundamental to this vision is a contrast between an ethic of proximity, which enjoins us to attend to the needs of those near and dear, and an ethic of outwardness, which enjoins us to both attend to and open ourselves up to the needs of those who belong to various out‐groups. The Christian ethical vision enjoins an ethic of outwardness. A close look at the liturgies of the Eastern Christian tradition reveals the ways in which they express this ethic.     

Theology and Politics in Contemporary Greece

This article examines the interaction between theology and politics in the case of the “theology of the 1960s,” a theological renewal movement that emerged in Greece in the 1960s, accompanied by the call for a “return to the Fathers.” The first part of the paper seeks to describe the position of the theology of the 1960s toward politics, while the second considered the position of politics after 1974 toward the theology of the 1960s. It concludes that there was a partial instrumentalization of the theology of the 1960s for tactical political ends. This was a missed opportunity leading to politics becoming devoid of all spiritual content, while theology lost its feedback from social experience and its penetration into society. The article concludes by making several suggestions for the tasks that lie ahead, including the need to cultivate a critical history of the political intervention and the social role of Orthodox theology, and to expand the issues that concern Orthodox theology, such as anthropology or cosmology, to embrace questions of the role of the meaning of history and progressive change in human society.     

Judaism and the Dialogue of Religion and Science: A Personal Journey

ABSTRACT

Through a personal narrative about my own entry into the field of science and religion, the essay reflects on the interplay of religion and science in Judaism. In addition to documenting my involvement with the dialogue of religion and science, the essay provides a brief historical overview of the interplay of the relationship between science and religion in the case of Judaism and considers diverse approaches toward technoscience among the main strands of Judaism today. The essay ends by recognizing the importance of science in Jewish intellectual history and the potential contribution of Judaism to the field of religion and science.     

Conjunctions and/or Disjunctions： Radical Empiricism in the History of Philosophy

William James challenged the traditions of British Empiricism （Hume） on one hand and German Idealism （Kant and Hegel） on the other. James＇ ＂Radical Empiricism＂ is a via media （＂middle road＂） between these divergent positions. His central points of contention are the ontological status of relationships and the correct analysis of experience. British Empiricism leaves us with a world of separate, particular facts, based on atomic sense impressions. Idealists, on the other hand, claim that all worldly phenomena are conjoined by one rational principle. According to James＇ account, neither side recognizes that both conjunctive and disjunctive relations are integral to experience. Furthermore, James＇ critique proved to influence A. N. Whitehead＇s philosophy of experience and orientation toward Hume and Kant. This essay situates James＇ philosophy in this polemical and historical context.     

Pondering “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today's World”: A Protestant Missiological Reflection

The article explores “The Mission of the Orthodox Church in Today's World” (MOCT), one of the six official documents issued by the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church that took place on the island of Crete in 2016. It is the first official Orthodox statement on mission ever published. The aim of the present article is to offer a reflection of MOCT from a Protestant missiological perspective. The article argues that MOCT interprets mission as the service of the church to the world, motivated by love. It goes on to discuss six major thematic areas of the statement, namely, the dignity of the human person; freedom and responsibility; peace and justice; peace and the aversion of war; the attitude of the church toward discrimination; and the mission of the Orthodox Church as a witness of love through service. The article seeks to provide a constructive critique of MOCT, assessing both its weaknesses and its assets. It concludes by saying that despite certain theological question marks, the new Orthodox mission document represents an invaluable contribution to the ecumenical discussion on mission and evangelism.     

An Orthodox Perspective on the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification

In 1999, the Roman Catholic Church and the Lutheran World Federation signed the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification, one of the main points at issue at the time of the 16th‐century Reformation. This article seeks to offer an Orthodox perspective on the Joint Declaration, through presenting an “Orthodox” approach to the doctrine of justification as the doctrine is set out in the text of the Joint Declaration. The article then discusses how this approach is reflected in the three international and regional dialogues between the Orthodox Church and the churches of the Reformation that took place almost simultaneously with the dialogue leading to the Lutheran–Catholic Joint Declaration.     

Orthodoxy revisited: the postsecular classroom

As is the case with many new intellectual concepts, the definitional parameters of the term ‘postsecular’ are in flux and ultimately will shape its critical usefulness. This article represents an effort to participate in this discussion with a particular emphasis on the pedagogical importance of the tenets of religious orthodoxy when discussing spiritual matters in the university-level liberal arts classroom. The analysis is contextualized by reflection on the place of religion in the public sphere by various scholars, including Jürgen Habermas and Rowan Williams. This analysis establishes that the study of traditional religious positions in the university classroom can enrich the discourse of the liberal arts; however, neither proselytization nor an emotion-based spiritual paradigm bereft of intellectual rigor will serve these ends. I argue that the re-introduction of religion into analytical discourse in the humanities classroom will be successful if the discussion of religion is complemented by the recognition of the serious study of religious thought and scholarship. The argument is then developed through a pedagogical case study of Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited that illustrates how the discussion of orthodox positions can enhance discussion of the novel in the postsecular classroom.     

AN EASTERN ORTHODOX CRITIQUE OF THE SCIENCE–THEOLOGY DIALOGUE

On the basis of both philosophical arguments and the theological perspectives of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, a critique of two beliefs that are common within the mainstream science–theology dialogue is outlined. These relate to critical realism in understanding language usage and to naturalistic perspectives in relation to divine action. While the naturalistic perspectives on the history of the cosmos that are predominant within the dialogue are seen as generally acceptable from an Orthodox perspective, it is argued that they require theological expansion. This expansion suggests an understanding other than the “causal joint” model commonly adopted in relation to “special” divine action. This alternative model renders the distinction between “special” and “general” divine action redundant, and is based on what has been called a “teleological‐Christological” understanding of the cosmos, rooted in the fourth gospel's notion of the divine Logos. The relevance of this critique to scholars outside of the Orthodox community is urged.     

Pseudosex in Pseudotheology

John Beaumont has attempted to revitalize the official RomanCatholic position against the use of artificial contraceptionby reinvigorating the argument against such from natural law.Maintaining that sexual acts are essentially reproductive acts,he holds that the use of contraceptives by married couples reducesintercourse to the same moral level as homosexual acts. He furtherargues that acceptance of birth control has directly led tothe legitimization of homosexual acts in American society. However,his analysis fails to distinguish between historical connectionsbetween the various elements of the sexual revolution and deepmoral relationships. His dependency on the natural law traditionalso results in an impoverished theological vision, which failsto relate human sexuality and the unitive drive to the divineimage in mankind. Only an anthropology which takes account ofthe Holy Trinity as the paradigm for human being can adequatelyground sexuality. This theological context, which is suppliedin the Eastern Orthodox tradition, grounds human sexuality ininterpersonal communion in love. It finds in the unitive drivethe need to realize the fullness of humanity in this experienceof communion, which directly reflects the Trinitarian natureof God. From such a perspective, the moral equation of maritalacts to homosexual indulgences is revealed as a gross distortion.Furthermore, the moral gulf that Beaumont seeks to establishbetween natural family planning and the use of contraceptivescollapses, as does the usefulness of natural law tradition ingeneral to combat the secularization of human sexuality.