I am no fan of original Op-Ed pieces posted on Orthodoxy Today, because in spite of the name of the site, they often betray a mindset (Gk. φρόνημα, “worldview”) utterly at variance with that of the Orthodox Church. Yet every once in a while someone gets an Op-Ed posted there that makes regularly monitoring the [...]
The Kingdom, Power, and Glory of Alexander
Well, folks, it’s finally time for some philological dorkery! Exciting, I know. Our subject today is comparative Slavic phonology.
One of the particularities of the standard Moscow pronunciation of Russian (as opposed to that heard in the North, and perhaps also in other places) is that the letter “o,” when it occurs in unstressed syllables, is [...]
Saturday a’Machen: Laid Upon Sober Fact
I have often commented that few things would be as beneficial in the formation of aspiring historians as reading through the five volumes of Jaroslav Pelikan’s wonderful The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, and jotting down in a notebook each of his frequent one-line definitions of history. And such a notebook [...]
The News You Didn’t Hear
And frankly, I didn’t hear them until today either, and then it was difficult to find anything at all about it in English!
It appears that His Grace, Bishop Chrysostom (Jević), of the much-suffering Diocese of Bihać-Petrovac in Bosnia and Herzegovina, was robbed and rather mercilessly beaten in his residence on the night between Sunday, July [...]
For Even the Queen of Cities Doth Not an Eastern Pope Make
One of the things highlighted by the recent flurry of news concerning the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, about which I blogged just a few days ago, is the general cluelessness of the Press concerning the actual role the Ecumenical Patriarch in the Orthodox Church. It seems many simply consider him an “Eastern Pope” (a false [...]
TNIV Quest, Finis (Or, I Can Quit Any Time I Want)
That’s it. I give up.
No TNIVs are to be found anywhere around here. I’ve called every bookstore in the phone book. No decent, low-priced editions, and not even grossly overpriced ones. This is a travesty, alas―the very bane of my soul!
Listen to me, Borders! You will pay for this. How dare you do away with [...]
TNIV Quest, Pars Secunda
No, I don’t mean that there’s a TNIV edition of Christianity Today’s Quest Study Bible. At least I hope not. Augh.
I’m talking about my quest to find a decent, low-priced edition of the TNIV around here, now that my local Borders has wholly forsaken the Bible market. I called a number of Christian bookstores, but [...]
Pointless Consumer(ist)’s Report
This weekend I have discovered that K-mart stores here in Puerto Rico do not have a book and magazine section. You see, I’m on the market for a low-cost reading/reference edition of a recent Bible translation that shall remain nameless. (No, I don’t already have it. Well, I only have the New Testament. And I [...]
Further Constantinopolitan Thoughts
After news like those reported in my previous post surface, it generally doesn’t take too long for someone (usually in North America) to ask why won’t the Ecumenical Patriarchate just move out of Constantinople. After all (so the reasoning goes) the Patriarchate of Antioch is now exiled in Damascus; why couldn’t the Patriarchate of Constantinople [...]
Constantinople is NOT Istanbul
Today marks the fateful 33rd anniversary of the Turkish invasion and occupation of Cyprus (backed, incidentally, by the United States), a truly sorry and inglorious remembrance.
This anniversary of Turkish aggression occurs within a short few weeks of the latest in a long list of wrongdoings and crimes by the “modern,” “European” Republic of Turkey [...]
Give me books or give me death!
I have now added the Library Thing widget for your viewing pleasure! You will now be treated to five random selections from my library whenever you visit my blog. Lovely, I know!
Well, the random selections won’t be from my whole library, exactly, but from the 201 books that Library Thing allows users to list for [...]
Outrageous, Isn’t It?
You know, someone should really inform Nobel laureate José Saramago that calling for one’s native, independent country to join another in order to form an entirely new state, especially if between the two countries there have been friction and competition throughout the centuries, and if you famously exiled yourself from your country amid controversies and [...]
"Minister Rejects Hell, Loses Congregation"
The tale of how former Pentecostal superstar Carlton Pearson came to believe a bona-fide heresy (namely, that there is no such thing as eternal condemnation), boldly started preaching it, was soundly condemned for teaching said false doctrine (gasp, how dare they!), and thus lost his empire.
I was greatly amused by the fact that Pearson seems [...]
Let’s Try This Once More
So, here’s a little story for you.
It was only in May 2005 that I, owing to the phenomenon I like call “bookworm lag,” first ventured in the unknown world of the BlogosphereTM. In my own brand-spankin’-new blog, I hoped to share with world my more carefully pondered (and by extension, enlightened!) thoughts on a wide [...]
