I have been away too long, but hope from now on to post at least every Monday morning, if not more so. Below is a text I talk about in my most recent podcast (out on Ancient Faith on 4/11/2024) which treats of St. Augustine and the Doctrine of predestination.
This Monday may be auspicious for reinvigorating the blog, as we are expecting a total eclipse in my part of the world. Where I am the sun will be blocked about 90%. But favorable for this undertaking more so as I have been able to clear my decks over the past few weeks of a number of items (some of which were cleared by the grace and kindness of God) that have precluded me from getting to back this. So, several items in my immediate future:
First off, I have several items I am working on: an article for Touchstone on a particular ecclesastical matter (all I’m saying); a brief article for Christian History on the dramatic in worship and the Church calendar; an essay to be given at this years Paideia conference on Origen and the persistence of some of his less-than-happy opinions; and finally my monthly “from the editor’s desk” piece for the next issue of Rule of Faith which will be on Tradition.
Second, besides the Paideia conference, I am taking off for a week with my family to the Poconos and the Delaware Water Gap for some hiking and relaxation. We’ve had a stressful winter and spring, so are looking forward to it.
Third, I am once again running the Summer Scholars Program at the Templeton Honors College at EU, again treating Tolkien. I’ll be joined again by Dr. Bill Tighe, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick, Dr. Fred Putnam, and this year by Dr. Joshua Moritz as well.
Fourth, two conferences from the St. Basil Society in the fall, Doxamoot in September on Labor Day weekend, with Richard Rohlin as the main speaker (I will be as well), and then the Orthodoxy and Education Conference in October.
Look here for Doxamoot: https://tinyurl.com/Doxamoot24
And here for Orthodoxy and Education: https://tinyurl.com/OrthodoxEducation
I should also note, for those who at times follow this blog but don’t listen to my podcast, that I have a new book out, A Perilous Realm: Confronting Dragons, Angels, & Saints in the Ordering of the Soul.
I am looking for people who have read to leave a short review, as this helps with sales, and as I am the head of Basilian Media & Publishing, I have to be my own biggest self-promoter.
Below is the reading I discuss in this week’s podcast on Light Through the Past.
Sections 55 and 56 from St. Maximos the Confessor’s Two Hundred Texts on Theology and the Incarnate Dispensation of the Son of God
55. The sixth day of creation is the complete fulfillment, on the part of those practicing the ascetic life, of the natural activities which lead to virtue.
The seventh day is the conclusion and cessation, in those leading the contemplative life, of all natural thoughts about inexpressible spiritual knowledge.
The eighth day {the day of eternal rest} is the transposition and transmutation of those found worthy into a state of deification.
The Lord, perhaps giving a mysterious hint of the seventh and the eighth days, spoke of a day and an hour of consummation which encompasses the mysteries and the inner essences of all things.
Apart from their Creator, the blessed Divinity Himself, there is no power whatsoever in heaven or on earth that can know that day and hour before the actual experience of them (cf. Matt. 24:36).
56. The sixth day betokens the inner essence of the being of created things. The seventh signifies the quality of the well-being of created things. The eighth denotes the inexpressible mystery of the eternal well-being of created things.
If there are topics you’d like me to talk about on the blog, please let me know, and I will see what I can do.
Lastly (for this post) I will have a new website I hope by the end of the summer. There will be lots there, just saying.
Lux Christi 