If we are seeking God, then we desire to experience him. We want to know that he is with us and within us. Not just in a theoretical sense, but by actually discovering in some way that he is present in a transforming way. There are two aspects we can consider which are entirely practical […]
The word dogma has rather a negative connotation attached to it in modern times. If someone is spoken of as being dogmatic this is not usually assumed to be something good and commendable. Rather it means that someone is too sure of themselves, even full of themselves, and wants to impose his opinion on everyone […]
I need to begin by saying that in the most important sense, the right Christmas is when our Church community calls us together to celebrate it. We should never imagine that seeking to be correct in some necessary way means that we should dismiss everything or everyone else. Our interior spiritual life is always what […]
How do we experience the love of God? I think a better question is to ask how we can become aware of the unceasing and unfailing love of God which is always being poured out upon us. It is not that God does not love us and so we do not experience his love rather […]
How do we become Orthodox? How do we become more Orthodox? It might seem that the answer is concerned only with external things such as a familiarity with the forms of worship and prayer used by Orthodox Christians, and a knowledge of the particular doctrines which the Orthodox Churches teach. But in fact, Orthodoxy insists […]
This a draft of the first half of a small book I am working on, once more for visitors, enquirers, youth, and non-Christians. What is the Coptic Orthodox Church? The Coptic Orthodox Church is the ancient Christian Church of Egypt. It is one part of the worldwide Orthodox Church, established by the Apostles in the […]
On the Incarnation – Chapter 4 Text 1. You are wondering, perhaps, for what possible reason, having proposed to speak about the Incarnation of the Word, we are presently considering the origin of mankind. But this, too, properly belongs to the aim of our treatise. 2. For when we speak about the appearance of the […]
On the Incarnation – Chapter 3 Text 1. This is the way they vainly speculate. But the godly teaching and the faith which is according to Christ shows that their foolish language is godlessness. For our teaching knows that the universe did not come about spontaneously, because there is intelligent planning present in it; nor […]
St Athanasius – On the Incarnation – Chapter 2 Text 1. Many people have taken different views about the making of the universe and the creation of all things, and each man has laid down the law just as he pleased. Some say that all things have come into being by themselves, and only through […]
Over the next two months I intend to post a chapter each day, as far as is possible, from the important work by St Athanasius the Apostolic, the 20th Pope of Alexandria – On The Incarnation. This relatively short, but foundational text, describes with authority the Orthodox understanding of salvation in the incarnation of the […]