Pilgimages, Pascha, and an Orthodox Political Economy

OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 21 March 2010 Note: be sure to subscribe to the podcast An Exhortation to Prepare for Pascha The Prologue of The Canterbury Tales, by Goefrey Chaucer Whan that Aprill, with his shoures sooteThe droghte of March hath perced to the roote And bathed every veyne in swich licour, Of which vertu engendred is […]

Feasting, Equilibria, and Afghanistan

OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 13 September 2009 Note: be sure to subscribe to the podcast. 2 Corinthians 1: 21-2:4 & St. Matthew 22: 1 – 14 Stories are one of the ways that we preserve our culture; they help remind us of who we are, where we came from, and what the world is like. Sometimes these […]

Believing in Vain, Movies, Vestigial Communitarianism

OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 30 August 2009 Note: be sure to subscribe to the podcast. 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11 St. Matthew 19: 16-26 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word […]

Principles and Nostalgia

OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 23 August 2009 Note: be sure to subscribe to the podcast. 1 Corinthians 9: 2-12; St. Matthew 18: 23-35 If I am not an apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord. My defense to those who examine me is this: […]

Bishops, Health Care, and a Missionary

OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 16 August 2009 Note: be sure to subscribe to the podcast. Homily1 Corinthians 4: 9-16 ; St. Matthew 17: 14 – 23 For I think that God has displayed us, the apostles, last, as men condemned to death; for we have been made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to […]

Temples, the Three Little Pigs, and Birthers

OrthoAnalyika Shownotes: 09 August 2009 Note: be sure to subscribe to the podcast. For the last few weeks, St. Paul has been using the image of the Body to help us understand our relationship with Christ and one another. When we imagine the Church as a body, we understand that working together with those around […]

Top Ten Books for Understanding Political, Cultural, & Religious Dynamics

Intelligence analysts should read quite broadly (not just outside their own message feeds, but also well beyond the boundaries of political science, sociology, security studies, & anthropology). Still, they also need to have a solid grounding in how things work. This list is my first attempt to suggest books that will help set the foundation […]

Of Mother Earth and the Invisible Hand

It’s been a real blessing to teach a course at seminary this semester. It’s not just that I love teaching no matter what the context (I do); it is just much more satisfying to work with people who share the same assumptions and goals I do, and to do so in a forum where we […]

Soviet atheism and American secularism

Introduction: thinking about the radical atheism of the Soviet Communists The Soviet Communists were atheist totalitarians. They tried to create a system that would make both faith and the religious institutions that foster it seem silly and superfluous. Given the strength of Orthodoxy in the pre-revolutionary Russian Empire, they had to be very intentional about […]

How many cars do we need?

Our economy continues to “correct” itself after decades of being artificially inflated by easy credit, poor saving habits, and superfluous spending. The government is attempting to ease the effects of this correction by replacing the suddenly prudent (i.e. risk-averse) credit market with its own. In this way, it forces more money into a system in […]