Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
People who read the Qur'an find pairs of ayat (verses) like this: Surely, those who believe and the Jews and the Christians and the Sabians - whichever party from among these truly believes in ALLAH and the Last Day and does good deeds, shall have their reward with their Lord, and no fear shall come …
Continue reading "The Bible, the Qur’an, and the Abrogations"
This from Art Rhodes: During the initial third of the debate on the economy, my scorecard showed a draw. Obama was very well prepared and stuck to his short, succinct answers that his debate coaches had instructed him to give. While his responses were very general, he easily held his own with McCain. In the …
Continue reading "The First Presidential Debate: “No Knock-Out; But a Win”"
Both Fr. Greg and Abu Daoud have weighed in on this post, itself a follow-up to my reflections on the Orthodox view of the Eucharist. Let me respond to both and, in doing so, make some observations about these two important subjects. To start with the end of Fr. Greg's response: on a practical level, …
Continue reading "Thoughts on Infant Baptism and the Nature of the Church"
My four-part series on this subject got a few comments, which will enable me to expand on some things that obviously weren't clear in the first part. First thing to note: I got no responses from my Pentecostal bretheren on this subject, after the considerable back and forth on this subject here. Sooner or later …
Continue reading "Response to the Comments on “Reflections on an Orthodox View of the Eucharist”"
I wanted to ignore this but couldn't: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, was today branded a ‘papal puppet’ after he became the first leader of the Church of England to accept visions of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes as historical fact. He asserted that 18 visions of Our Lady allegedly experienced by Bernadette …
Leave it to a liberal publication like the Village Voice to put its finger on the core of the problem with our financial system: It all starts, as the headlines of recent weeks do, with these two giant banks. But in the hubbub about their bailout, few have noticed that the only federal agency with …
Continue reading "The Financial Crisis: A Generational Curse, or Just Curse a Generation?"
Looks like Memphis, Tennessee, Democrats are leading the fight against Sarah Palin. First, we had the cheap shot that U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen made about Jesus being a community organiser (which he wasn't) while Pontius Pilate was a governor (which he was, but so is Steve's fellow Democrat, Phil Bredesen.) Now we have this, from …
Continue reading "Memphis Democrats Lead the Fight Against Sarah Palin"
Continuing from before with John of Damascus' The Orthodox Faith, 4, 13: The bread and the wine are not merely figures of the body and blood of Christ (God forbid!) but the deified body of the Lord itself: for the Lord has said, "This is My body," not, this is a figure of My body: …
Continue reading "Reflections on an Orthodox View of the Eucharist: Part IV"
Continuing in this series, we get to the heart of the matter: The body which is born of the holy Virgin is in truth body united with divinity, not that the body which was received up into the heavens descends, but that the bread itself and the wine are changed into God's body and blood. …
Continue reading "Reflections on an Orthodox View of the Eucharist: Part III"
Positive Infinity 