Father Bill's Orthodox Blog – Orthodoxy from the Third Coast
A Variety of Topics: Saints, Seasons, Society, the Moral Life, plus Travels mostly to Greece, and more, by Father Bill Olnhausen
Years ago an Episcopalian professor friend of mine was considering Orthodoxy. * He told me the defining “test issue” for him would be: What does the Orthodox Church officially teach about the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary? Was she taken bodily into Heaven or was she not? I responded: “Well, … …” which […]
Read More »Please pray for the suffering people of Ukraine and the Palestinian people of Gaza and the West Bank. ____________ The Dormition of the Theotokos August 15 “What’s happened to Mary?” “I don’t know… We hadn’t thought about it.” That was the general Protestant approach – my approach – when I was young, even in […]
Read More »So Jesus’ birth was the result of Mary’s being raped by a Roman soldier?! That is the suggestion of Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion at Princeton, University. * The evidence for this is… You’re right. There isn’t any. As for the Christmas stories? They, she says, are only “metaphors”. Metaphors for what? That’s not clear. […]
Read More »Notice above: In iconography for this Feast, the Virgin Mary is always depicted symbolically as a three year old “adult”, already full-grown spiritually. Before we talk about this lovely celebration, first let’s demolish a couple of objections to it. 1 It’s not Scriptural. This is the big Protestant objection. It troubled me before I became […]
Read More »During August, we’re doing reruns of a few of the more popular Posts from years past – very slightly revised. Last week we saw how often the Virgin Mary is mentioned in the New Testament. Nobody except her Son comes close. Then… well, go back and read it for yourself. We stopped in the middle […]
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