Odds and Ends, Curiosities and Creative Works

Suggested starting points include The Angelic Letters, The Best Things in Life Are Free, The Most Politically Incorrect Sermon in History: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, and Technonomicon: Technology, Nature, Ascesis.

The Angelic Letters (medium)

A collection of letters from a senior angel to guide a guardian angel watching over a man, as envisioned by an Orthodox Christian. Inspired by C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters.

Apprentice gods (short)

A look at this life as an apprenticeship of becoming gods and time as the womb of eternal life.

Apps and mobile websites for the Orthodox Christian smartphone and tablet: best iPhone, iPad, Droid, Samsung, Android, Kindle, and Blackberry mobile websites and apps (short)

A look at the best that's available for Orthodox Christian app seekers with iPhone and Android smartphones and tablets.

The Arena (short)

A work of mystical theology that looks at life as a great spiritual arena and training ground.

Athanasius: On Creative Fidelity (short)

Ever hear a broken record talking about how Orthodoxy has always been a matter of creative fidelity and never a matter of parrot-like repetition?

The Best Things in Life Are Free (short)

An exploration, connected with the chalice, of what it means that the best things in life are free.

Blessed Are Those Who Repent

A look at what exact blessedness corresponds to what repentance, and really and truly blessed are those who repent.

A Comparison

A simple word substitution comparison.

To a Friend

Originally written to an audience of one.

Here I Bow

Some minor tweaks on Martin Luther's most famous declaration.

That Hideous Impotence

A not-so-light parody of C.S. Lewis, That Hideous Strength.

The Magic Stone

When you're living life sucked into your phone, it seems like there is "nothing to do" when you do not return to the maternal breast of your phone. This is a list of activities intended to partly remediate that.

The Most Politically Incorrect Sermon in History: A Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount (medium)

A commentary on the Sermon on the Mount intended to unfold just how it appears to be the most politically incorrect sermon ever.

A Note on Reading St. John Chrysostom

St. John Chrysostom is well worth reading. Here is a note about how to get the best out of reading him.

Orthodox Affirmations

Some very basic admonitions worth repeating.

An Orthodox Bookshelf (medium)

An Orthodox Bookshelf covering The Orthodox* Study Bible, some of the Fathers, Neo-Platonism, and one or two works today.

Papers and Paychecks (short)

A role-playing game for characters in fantasy worlds, or something like that.

"Physics" (short)

An Orthodox 'Physics', or study of the nature of things, designed to respond to Aristotle's 'Physics.'

Prayers (short)

A collection of short prayers for different occasions and purposes, offered to and for the Orthodox Church.

Public Portions of the Divine Liturgy, in Russian and in English

This is not something I've written (besides a preface), but something I put together from The Divine Lutirgy to help me understand the public parts of the Russian Liturgy. I offer it in the hope it may help others.

Refutatio Omnium Hæresium

The Refutation of All Heresies.

Resurrection

A look at how every day is Pascha.

The Royal Letters (short)

Three intimate letters from a father to a son about God, kings, and men.

From Russia, With Love: A Spiritual Guide to Surviving Political and Economic Disaster (long)

The Russian Orthodox Church has a lot of experience living with hard times. This piece talks about not only survival lessons but the spiritual beauty that can come in political and economic difficulties.

The Sum of Popular Religions

Sometimes the rumor mill gets things half-right.

St. John the Much-Suffering

As the text accompanying this beautiful icon begins, "St. John the Much-Suffering is a saint who fought industrial-strength sexual temptation for decades and WON in every sense of the term."

Technonomicon: Technology, Nature, Ascesis (medium)

We are entranced by technology, and yearn for harmony with nature. But there is more to life than getting technology or taking walks in the woods.

Twelve Quotes on Orthodoxy, Ecumenism, and Catholicism (short)

Twelve quotes to explain in particular why Orthodoxy seems to have such a cold response to Catholic ecumenical advances.