Public Orthodoxy
1,656 FOLLOWERS
Public Orthodoxy is a peer-reviewed blog produced by the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University. Our goal is to feature insightful, provocative op-ed style pieces from scholars of Orthodox Christianity. Public Orthodoxy seeks to promote conversation by providing a forum for diverse perspectives on contemporary issues related to Orthodox Christianity.
Public Orthodoxy
1w ago
One morning not long ago I sat down at a table in a Midwestern university’s special collections library, eager to spend several days working through a cart packed with anniversary books and commemorative pamphlets published by Orthodox parishes and dioceses across North America. These kinds of booklets are invaluable in my work as a historian, and I’ve read hundreds of them. Packed with metrical statistics, personal reminiscences, photographs, and tidbits of information one cannot find most anywhere else, they offer wide-ranging, and often unexpected insights into the lived experiences of Ort ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
2w ago
The Orthodox Church of Georgia (OCG) is one of the oldest churches in the world, with an interesting and important history. In 1921, the Russian Red Army occupied Georgia, and soon after, Georgia was forced to become a member of the Soviet Union. The seventy years spent in the Soviet Union also had a significant impact on the OCG. Even more than thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, discussions about the post-Soviet heritage and Russian influences on the OCG remain relevant.
Those who discuss Russian influence in the OCG sometimes cite concrete examples to support their positio ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
2w ago
When You, O God, shall come to earth with glory, / all things shall tremble / and the river of fire shall flow before Your judgment seat; / the books shall be opened and the hidden things disclosed! / Then deliver me from the unquenchable fire, / and make me worthy to stand at Your right hand, Most Righteous Judge!—Kontakion, Tone 1
As we approach the awesome Divine Liturgy of the Sunday of the Last Judgement, with its proclamation of the Gospel from Matthew about the Sheep and the Goats, it is sometimes difficult to fathom that we are actually commemorating the unimaginable Sunday of Go ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
3w ago
From the Editors: We offer this piece in commemoration of the 150th birthday of Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (O.S. March 6, N.S. March 18).
In her remarkable essay on the religious-philosophical scene in the Russian Silver Age, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal describes Berdyaev’s humanism as inhumane.[1] The emblems of this “inhumanity” are represented, among other things, by his approval of Russia’s entry to the Great War, his praise of the Catholic Middle Ages, and his rejection of the idea of “the eternal bourgeois peace.”[2] But is it possible that Berdyaev’s radical emphasis ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
1M ago
Image: Apostle Paul in Monreale Cathedral, Italy. Credit: iStock.com/wirestock
How many persons—indeed, how many Christians—know that Paul spoke of “equality” and stipulated, moreover, that equality is both the ground and the goal of relations between Christ believers, between those who enjoy abundance and those who suffer lack? Is it not astonishing that, throughout two thousand years, and with only a few exceptions, Paul’s word about “equality” has been, so to speak, an oracle of silence?
“For the purpose [of the collection] is not that there [should be] relief for others and affliction for ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
1M ago
On Friday, February 16, 2024, Russian Penitentiary Service (FSIN) that is responsible for the thriving GULAG system informed the world that Russia’s “Prisoner no. 1,” Alexey Navalny, collapsed during the daily walk in the camp and died shortly thereafter.
While everyone who cared about Navalny had feared for his life every day since January 17, 2021, when he returned to Russia after recovering in Germany from an assassination attempt by the Kremlin, the news still came as a gut-punching shock. Despite three years of imprisonment in inhuman, torturous conditions, despite knowing that Putin hat ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
1M ago
Editorial Note: As the world marks the second anniversary of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, numerous open letters have surfaced, revealing deep disappointment among Orthodox Christians regarding the actions of the Church hierarchy. Many seek answers to lingering questions that remain shrouded in silence. Despite this outcry, the episcopate chooses to remain silent, feigning normalcy in church affairs. The hypocrisy of the Church hierarchy is most evident within the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). Once a staunch opponent of falsehoods and crimes committed by communis ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
1M ago
Image Credit: iStock.com/Mykola Churpita
One of the temptations invariably plaguing priests and preachers as they proffer declarations and proclamations is the tendency to offer solutions to non-existent dilemmas, providing answers to questions nobody is asking or addressing the wrong audience. Which is why it is hardly surprising that various Orthodox hierarchs and circles feel the need to express disproportionate fervor and excessive alarm on the current debate around the same-sex marriage bill that just passed in the Greek parliament.
With the legalization of same-sex marriage, Greece ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
1M ago
Historical imagery has always fascinated me for the significant value it holds for research and inquiry. In my research attempts to explore photographs depicting historical moments, I came across the December 1959 edition of the official magazine of the Armenian Catholicosate of the Holy See of Cilicia, “Hasg,” through which a striking photograph of two spiritual leaders—His Holiness Zareh I Catholicos Payasilian of the Armenian Catholicosate of the Holy See of Cilicia and His Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, united in a gesture of solidarity, holding hands—caught my attention. Patr ..read more
Public Orthodoxy
1M ago
Image Credit: iStock.com/imemei
On Thursday, Greece’s parliament will vote on whether to legalize same-sex marriage and adoption. Perhaps surprisingly, the initiative is led by the Center-Right Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who faces opposition most forcefully from the Church of Greece’s Holy Synod of bishops.
Although the Synod acknowledges that the State, not the Church, legislates, it insists that legislation should align with its view of Christian morality despite Greece’s being a pluralistic democracy. For those of us who live in such settings, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew righ ..read more