Archives for Eastern Orthodoxy

Bridging Voices Project Links

A collection of links related to the Bridging Voices: Contemporary Eastern Orthodox Identity and the Challenges of Pluralism and Sexual Diversity in a Secular Age project.
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Marriage, Family, and Scripture

A piece originally published on the Public Orthodoxy blog of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University and subsequently reprinted in Toward the Holy and Great Council: Theological Reflections.
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Strange Bedfellows Scapegoat Russia’s Gays

It's been a busy few months for anyone paying attention to issues affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Russia. This summer the Russian parliament passed a bill prohibiting the so-called "promotion of nontraditional sexual relations" in the presence of minors, a euphemistic expression replacing language in the initial bill which more explicitly prohibited "the promotion of homosexual relations." The new law gives no explicit definition of "promotion," resulting in an environment where Russia's mass media has curtailed any reporting that might portray LGBT people or their relationships in a positive light.
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Eucharistic Reflections: Denys the Areopagite, Bonaventure, Hadewijch, and Meister Eckhart

In the final chapter of The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism, Denys Turner asserts that our contemporary ideas of what constitutes "mysticism" have tended to focus on a kind of experientialism that would seem very foreign to the historical authors we classify as mystical theologians.  Rather, beginning with observations offered by Andrew Louth on the mystical theology of Denys the Areopagite, Turner suggests that what the modern reader has collapsed to an experience of the presence of God is actually a phenomenon deeply rooted in worship, liturgical practice, sacrament, and private prayer.[1] Rather than ends unto themselves, these
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