Notes on Continuation: the “Jesus’ Wife” Saga and Parish Studies

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Rev. D. O. Herbel

In this post, I’m combining two posts into one, both having “continuation” as a theme. It’s simply easier than posting twice. So, if you like one topic but not the other, I ask for your patience.

Although it seems quite likely, at this point, that the fragment is a forgery (see my previous posts to some good, scholarly assessments), the saga continues. The hype had been so intense initially, that a documentary has been delayed and now Dr. Karen King has agreed to allow testing on the fragment. If you’re interested in this topic, please continue to follow it here:

http://ntweblog.blogspot.com/2012/10/gospel-of-jesus-wife-fragment.html

I’m impressed with the press this is getting and glad to see good, steady scholarship at work.

On another topic of continuation, we have the book The Orthodox Christian World, which I reviewed very briefly on this site and which we are now using in our adult education meetings on Wednesday evenings (first and third Wednesdays of he month @ Caribou Coffee). Dr. Adam DeVille has offered a preliminary assessment here:

http://www.easternchristianbooks.blogspot.com/2012/10/the-orthodox-christian-world-i.html

In full disclosure, I am mentioned (with overly kind words), but I highlight this book not to highlight my own chapter but rather because I think it will be of interest and enlightenment to us to follow Adam’s assessments as we choose and discuss chapters for our own edification and education.

Fr. Boris Burden and Orthodox Unity in America

Posted on October 7, 2012 by Rev. D. O. Herbel

One of the most dominating features of American Orthodoxy has been our jurisdictional plurality–whereby there are parishes labeled according to certain ethnicities, such as Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Romanian, Greek, “Antiochian” (for Syro-Lebanese), Carpatho-Rusyn, etc. Many factors were at play in this development, but the simplest, shortest way to explain it is to note that immigrant groups arrived in America too quickly for any one group to place all the others under one umbrella in a manner that would have allowed all the members under the umbrella to feel like their heritage was truly and honestly being respected and upheld.

In the middle of the 20th century, a convert priest named Fr. Boris Burden was a key player in two serious attempts at jurisdictional unity, the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church of America (HEOCACNA) and the Federation of Orthodox Greek Catholic Primary Jurisdictions in America. The first was in the very late 1920s and early 1930s and the latter in 1942-1943, though it lasted longer on paper. The latter movement proved important as it led to the Selective Service declaring to the NY selective service board that “EO” for “Eastern Orthodox” should be stamped on Orthodox dog tags and that Orthodoxy (and Orthodox chaplains) should be recognized officially. It also helped stimulate and produce the Fourth Major Faith movement amongst Orthodox later in the 20th century. For those interested in the Federation, you may go to a timeline I wrote for an Orthodox history website some time ago:

http://orthodoxhistory.org/2009/12/02/federated-orthodox-greek-catholic-primary-jurisdictions-in-america/

I raise our attention to Fr. Boris Burden and these two events to highlight the publication of an article I wrote on this for the St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, which has just published it in issue 56:317-334. Those who wish to read it in full should consult this issue. For those wanting the “gist” of it, it is rather easy to summarize. My main point is simply that one of the central reasons both attempts failed had to do with disagreements over how Orthodox should relate to the non-Orthodox. This was certainly not the only issue, but it was one important one. In HEOCACNA, Burden edited the journal they produced and had articles that were overly critical of the Anglican Communion, which angered some Orthodox, including Metropolitan Platon, because the Orthodox were dependent upon support and help from the Anglicans and, in America, the Protestant Episcopal Church. The Russian Revolution had cut off funding from Russia. The Federation divided over whether to punish the leading laymember, organizer, and lawyer, George Phillies, who had been taking communion at in the Orthodox Church but also in Episcopalian parishes. To be sure there are interesting details to all of this but I think it can be a healthy reminder that how we Orthodox relate to the non-Orthodox can affect how we relate to each other.

In a future post, I’ll highlight an article by Fr. John H. Erickson (professor of church history and dean emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Seminary) in the same issue. I’ll then highlight a couple of others. This issue nearly turned out to be an all-American-Orthodox issue of SVTQ!

The Orthodox Christian World, Edited by Augustine Casiday

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Rev. D. O. Herbel

Today is the Dormition (“falling asleep,” or repose) of Mary, the Mother of God, ending a short August fast. The fast comes to a very nice ending for me, but also, hopefully, others, not only for spiritual reasons, but also because The Orthodox Christian World, edited by Augustine Casiday, is now available in print.

http://www.amazon.com/Orthodox-Christian-World-Routledge-Worlds/dp/0415455162/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344542507&sr=1-1&keywords=Orthodox+Christian+World

This project ran a little late, but I’m hoping people will find it worth the wait. I say this not only because I happened to author chapter 13 on Orthodoxy in America (yay!) but also because this should prove to be a helpful resource to many. I would suggest parishes (including non-Orthodox ones that want to be up-to-speed on world Christianity) purchase copies in addition to libraries.

As with any such work, there are always areas that could be improved. Each chapter is really a survey of the topic and cannot highlight every aspect. That said, there are some things missing here and there. For instance, in my own piece, there is no mention of Amy Slagle’s important book on American converts: http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Church-Spiritual-Marketplace-Christianity/dp/0875806708/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1344542552&sr=1-1&keywords=Amy+Slagle. Why not? Well, because I wrote the piece before her book was published and by the time I noticed that I had not followed up with the editors on it, it was too late. Sorry Amy! Sticking with American Orthodoxy, I did not notice Bishop Basil (in his essay on St. Raphael of Brooklyn) make any mention of St. Raphael having possibly been involved in a shooting. St. Raphael was accused of fleeing the scene and shooting at a police officer. He said he simply fled and hid when the shooting started and had never once held a handgun. I honestly do not think he was guilty and he wasn’t found guilty of the accusation back then, but it seems odd to have omitted it entirely, especially since this is an incident that can also serve to highlight how difficult things were back then within the Syro-Lebanese community. BTW, if you’re interested, Matthew Namee, on a church history blog I helped establish a few years ago (though as of this spring, I’ve pulled back from involvement), has a good post on that incident:

http://orthodoxhistory.org/2010/10/05/did-st-raphael-try-to-shoot-a-police-officer/

Also, one might wonder why this person or that person was left out of The Orthodox Christian World. It’s a judgment call, and it’s bound to happen. Indeed, it has to. Neither the entries/chapters, nor the work as a whole, can be comprehensive and decisions must be made by authors and editors alike. Nonetheless, it’s still fair to ask: why include St. Raphael, but not St. Tikhon and/or St. Alexis, for instance?

Another question people might have is why not include a significant woman in addition to the Theotokos? Have there been no significant Orthodox women? Ever? What of St. Macrina? Or St. Melania the Younger? Or the Empress Irene? Or St. Helena or Olga? Anyhow, I do think this was an oversight, and one that I expect will be noted by some.

Those sorts of questions aside, I really do think this is an important resource and I would highly recommend it. Again, this is a collection of essays on various topics. They won’t provide the depth that the culmination of an intense research enterprise can produce (such as in Scott Kenworthy’s The Heart of Russia, which I’d also highly recommend: http://www.amazon.com/The-Heart-Russia-Trinity-Sergius-Monasticism/dp/0199736138/ref=la_B004IZWNS0_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1344542456&sr=1-1). That said, I really hope libraries and parishes will purchase it. The cost (currently in hard cover) will prevent a lot of individuals from purchasing it, but hopefully their parish could throw it into their library holdings.

LOGOS: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies

Posted on August 13, 2012 by Rev. D. O. Herbel

I plan to start the next American Orthodox series on Mondays but for this week, I thought I’d take a break and mention a more personal note. I have written several pieces this spring and summer and one that is about to be published is an article for LOGOS: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies. This is a bi-annual journal that publishes articles, shorter essays, and book reviews, all dedicated to Eastern Christianity. Here is a link that describes the forthcoming issue, mentioning my article and encouraging subscriptions (an encouragement I pass along as well):

http://www.easternchristianbooks.blogspot.com/2012/08/essays-and-books-in-logos-fall-2012.html

As you’ll see, my article examines the cases of four Greek priests who served the Russian Mission to North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is based on my keynote address at the history symposium at Princeton Theological Seminary in October of 2011:

http://www.princeton.edu/~florov/orthodox_history_symposium.html

Christ is Risen! An Upcoming Bright Week Lecture

Posted on April 16, 2012 by Rev. D. O. Herbel

Christ is risen!

As noted in the previous post, yesterday was Pascha for us Orthodox Christians, the day on which we celebrate the triumph of Life over death!

This makes this week “Bright Week,” and makes an upcoming paper of mine at NDSU’s Science and Religion Lunch Seminary on Tuesday all the more important. You may see that listed here:

http://www.tri-college.org/tcu_calendar_of_campus_events/

More information on the SRLS may be found here:

http://www.ndsu.edu/pubweb/~cope/SRLS/

The working title of my paper is: “Neither Inherently Guilty Nor Secular: Eastern Christian Anthropology in Dialogue with Christian and Post-Christian West. “ The title itself needs work, I admit. To clarify, by noting that Orthodoxy is not “secular,” I do not imply that Orthodoxy is against all forms of separation of Church and State. I do clarify in the paper that I am picking up on the term “secular” and “secular humanism” from its past polemical context, in which it is linked to atheism and materialistic evolution. The “inherently guilty,” is a reference to the general Western conception of fallen humanity as guilty for Adam’s fall. Eastern Christian anthropology overlaps with both in some ways while also being distinct in some ways. This paper is a modest attempt to discuss some of this. There may be no better time to discuss humanity’s calling from an Orthodox perspective than on Bright Week. This is a public event and all are welcome to attend.