Free online articles. These articles range over a number of topics, from business communication to unexpected reasons to study mathematics. As well as these, there's another section of miscellaneous nonfiction works. If you're looking for a place to start, I suggest AI as an arena of magical thinking for skeptics: Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Sciece, and Eastern Orthodox Views on Personhood.
The Administrator Who Cried, "Important!" (medium)
You probably know the story of the boy who cried, "Wolf!" Here's an updated version, with a lesson for business communication.
AI as an arena of magical thinking for skeptics: Artificial Intelligence, Cognitive Sciece, and Eastern Orthodox Views on Personhood (long)
My second master's thesis, from Cambridge. It's theology (or what is considered academic theology at a University, which isn't really theology at all), and touches on a number of interesting areas.
Animals (medium)
Some of us spend a lot of time thinking about what it means to be human. It's also worth thinking a little about animals.
Belabored Inclusive Language and Naturally Inclusive Language
Feminists have been meticulously picky about sexist language, but they do not apply their principle across age. It is anathema for "men" to include women, but unquestioned for "women" to include "girls" in the sense of female children..
In Celebration of Tribbles (and FurReal Pets, and Joy for All) (short)
A look at cruelty-free pet keeping and an unlikely candidate for a pet where one's living conditions would otherwise be cruel to something furry.
The Blacksmith's Forge: An Extension to Euclidean Geometric Construction as a Model of Computation (short)
There were a few ideas that stayed with me from what I did while exploring and working for my master's (or my first masters, at least). My masters appeared to provide a novel and rigorous approach to infinitesmals, as one benefit to using distances as numbers in something like a metric space.
Calvinism vs. Orthodoxy: An Orthodox Looks at a Calvinist Looking at Orthodoxy (Medium)
One Presbyterian minister took the time to earn a doctorate from an Orthodox seminary... and wrote some reflections which left me wondering what he'd missed. I think his impressions may be a lot of people's impressions, and I think he's given a pretty candid take.
Blessed are the Peacemakers: Real Peace Through Real Strength (medium)
Most people—pacifist or not—would agree to the claim that violence should be avoided, and that people should study alternatives to violence. Here's a chance to do just that.
A Conservative Soliloquy
A political meditation.
Could We Pursue a Profoundly Gifted Humility?
We have not only gay pride but disability pride (I'm disabled), and an open-ended list of other prides. I ask: "Could we pursue a profoundly gifted humility?"
A Cycle Unfolds
A look at a cycle outlined in Zeitgeist and Giftedness.
A Disruptive Take on Unbranding
An article challenging something in the business world that is not brought forth for questioning nearly as often as it should be.
Everyday Carry
A look at what I have found useful for everyday carry.
The Evolution of a Perspective on Creation and Origins (medium)
I wrote this for a mailing list where I felt attacked for my beliefs—by people who didn't understand them. This post helped other list members to see why I thought certain ideas should be considered and not dismissed out of hand.
Examples of "Forms of Life"
Wittgenstein's "forms of life" are a slippery concept, or at very least slippery to give good examples of. (An example is something preferably easy to understand, and the nature of "forms of life" is that it is difficult to see your own as "forms of life.
Frankincense, Gold, and Myrrh: A Look at Profound Giftedness Through Orthodox Anthropology (medium)
To be human is to have a profound gift in the first place, and one that far overshadows what psychology refers to as "profound giftedness". But that "profound giftedness" is both human and interesting. Here's an article looking at it from a theological perspective.
Friendly, win-win negotiations in business: Interest-based negotiation and "Getting to Yes" (short)
A look that takes 'Getting to Yes' interest-based negotiation from hostile settings to win-win negotiations in a friendly setting. Examples are included.
Of Frozen Fish and Philosophy
A brief suggestion about the enterprise of philosophy.
The Fulfillment of Feminism (medium)
An essay following The Patriarchy We Object To which talks about how feminism might find its home.
A Glimpse into Eastern Orthodoxy (medium)
Eastern Orthodoxy is both Christian and Eastern. and sometimes other Christians, and the West in general, don't pick up on what exactly this means. A Glimpse into Eastern Orthodoxy is written in the hope of creating a spark of connection.
The Hayward Nonstandard Test: An Interesting Failure (medium)
This was an attempt to think outside of the box. It failed, but there may be something very interesting in how it failed.
He Created Them Male and Female, Masculine and Feminine (short)
An essay I wrote in college about how masculinity and femininity are real, good, and part of how we are meant to flourish.
How One Friend Avoids an Elephant in the Room and Others Walking on Eggshells
One friend is blind, and she denies her disability the status of an elephant in the room that has everyone uncomfortably walking on eggshells and terribly afraid of hurting her.
The Incarnation: Orthodoxy, Islam, and the Reformation (medium)
A look at what the Incarnation means for practical, lived life, and how it may be present or absent in Orthodoxy, Islam, and Protestant Christianity.
"Inclusive" Language and Other Debates: An Orthodox Alumnus Responds to his Advisor (medium)
A conservative alumnus answers questions posed by his egalitarian thesis advisor from a minor degree.
Killing a Culture
Killing a culture kills a lot of things.
Knights and Ladies (medium)
A more recent treatment of masculinity and femininity which tries to go deeper, and voice something important that has been unspoken.
Looking at "Stranger in a Strange Land" as a Modern Christological Heresy(medium)
An Orthodox Christian reader looks at Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land, originally titled The Heretic, as a Christological heresy.
Learning a Language Like Russian
I am familiar with several language and wanted to write down my own experience and technique in learning languages.
Meat (medium)
A look at ethical issues connected with icons, Theophany, Creation, animals, and meat from an Eastern Orthodox Christian perspective.
Microaggression, Bullies, and Microkindnesses
A look at current trends.
Orthodox Africa is Totally Legit!
The Nigerian scam has people concerned about "money + Africa." However, Orthodox Africa is an entirely legitimate Orthodox charity.
A Note to Single Evangelical Women
Evangelicalism has more women than men and there are not enough eligible bachelors to quite go around. Here is one reason why Evangelical women might consider pursuing Orthodoxy.
Orthodox at Fordham
A very helpful work for Orthodox who want to know what Rome's embrace to us really means.
This note quotes the original reflections (with permission), and posts my reply to what seemed like getting a lot of details right but missing how they fit together in the big picture.
Orthodoxy, contraception, and spin doctoring: A Look at an Influential and Disturbing Article (long)
This article was occasioned by the discovery of some of what programmers ironically call, buried treasure: in this case, current Orthodox positions on contraception often are built on top of the buried treasure. Maybe this buried treasure is, as the definition in the jargon file says, "something that needs to be dug up and removed."
The Patriarchy We Object To (medium)
A talk about some of what Orthodoxy can say to feminism.
Privilege, Pure The Post-Scientific Theory of Post-Darwinian Evolution
Mainstream biology speaks of "neo-Darwinian evolution."
In fact all theories of evolution, including Darwin's, have been dead in the academy for so long that they no longer even small bad!
Privilege—Extreme Privilege (medium)
This meditation looks at privilege—the privilege of celebrities, which the author does not have and has no desire for, and then other forms of privilege which make the concrete fabric of the author's life.
Attention is paid to childhood literary heroes, and moves on to looking at what can be found in the lives of the saints.
Profound Giftedness, Conservatism, and "Crank Magnetism"
A brief meditation about the conservatism that can be associated with profound giftedness.
Risk Management for Orthodox Parishes with Church Mutual
A seminary paper.
A Salute to Native Americans
A salute to the peoples of a long-neglected constellation of cultures.
Some Thoughts about Heaven (short)
Heaven is meant to be important to earth.
A Standard Assertion about Who Has it Rough
Academic articles in identity politics make a standard, boilerplate, footnoteless assertion that nobody else in the whole wide world could have it as rough as the author's demographic.
The only exception I've seen to this is an article by a privileged, white, woman professor who wrote about (various kinds of) dirt and dirty jobs and said that the worst jobs with dirt coming from the human body are usually done by poor women of color. And this article did not make the case that poor women of color are the worst-off victims and no one could possibly have life rougher; it just made the point that this demographic does much of the most disgusting work.
Here is a slightly closer look about that assertion.
The Surprising Rationality of the Lie
Scott Peck, in People of the Lie missed some important things in his own data, some of which are drawn out here.
Theology of Play (short)
It sometimes seems easier to think about why work is important, than why play is important. This is an essay on why play is important.
A Treatise on Touch (medium)
Fearfully and Wonderfully Made is written by the doctor who found out that leprosy ravages the body by destroying the sense of touch. He recounts a story about getting sick, letting his foot fall asleep, thinking he had leprosy, realizing his error, and living a life alive to touch as he had never done before. This is part of that story's impact on me.
Un-man's tales: C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, fairy tales, and feminism(medium)
A study of two of the greatest scholar's works that looks at the Un-man's tales in C.S. Lewis's Perelandra, with eyes wide shut.
What the West Doesn't Get about Islam (short)
The West doesn't get Islam...
...and Western efforts to just understand Islam leave us further, not closer, to understanding Islam and Muslims.
Why Study Mathematics? (short)
Have you ever felt like mathematics was a secret game that everybody but you understood? Here's the secret.
Why Young Earthers Aren't Completely Crazy (short)
A look at why some people insist on a young earth creation in the face of scientists' constant claims that evolution is the only game in town—and why they're not completely wrong.
Zeitgeist and Giftedness
Those gifted enough interact with the Zeitgeist in an interesting way. A quote: "It is my general experience that gifted and profoundly gifted people are not, in fact, unaffected by the Zeitgeist. Often they may want to challenge the Zeitgeist, but it is not characteristic to rise above it, and the more common pattern is to concentrate the Zeitgeist and to run ahead of it, perhaps getting into the game when it is greeted with hostility. In this case, I was disappointed when I realized the topic of the holy kiss had reached the status of being more or less fashionable. I felt, if anything, violated that I had channelled the Zeitgeist, a Zeitgeist that had spoken through my mouth."
