Books I'm selling:

Here is a list of books I'm selling. DM me if you are interested. I can also send pics if you want to see the condition or Table of Contents

@ISeeClownPeople on Twitter

C.S. LEWIS BOOKS:

Condition: Good (hardly any creases, none major; bindings all perfect, one exception but intact; no tears; adhesive tape on many cover's corners to prevent peeling; two or three have gift message on opening the book.)

- Mere Christianity, old paperback
- The Pilgrim's Regress
- The Abolition of Man
- A Preface to Paradise Lost
- Reflections on the Psalms
- God in the Dock
- Christian Reflections
- Of Other Worlds
- Present Concerns
- Studies in Words
- George MacDonald
- Narrative Poems
- The Allegory of Love
- The Weight of Glory
- The Dark Tower
- Surprised by Joy
- The Problem of Pain
- The Four Loves
- Miracles
- A Grief Observed
- Letters to Malcom
- The Business of Heaven (daily excerpted readings)
- (biography) C.S. Lewis: Christian and Storyteller (Beatrice Gormley)

ORTHODOX BOOKS:
- Rock and Sand, 1st ed. (Fr. Josiah)
- Way of the Pilgrim
- A night in the desert on the Holy Mountain (Met. Hierotheos)
- Abba Dorotheos Discourses (Scouteris)
- The Precious Pearl (St. John of Damascus)
- Homilies ("pseudo" Macarios, but really St. Macarios)
- Discovering the Rich Heritage of Orthodoxy (Bell)
- Thirsting for God (Gallatin)
- The Mountain of Silence (Markides)
- Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy, 2nd ed. (Damick)
- Orthodox House of Worship (Bp. Augoustinos of Florina)
- Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology (Louth)
- Marriage and Virginity according to St. John Chrysostom (Fr. Josiah)
- God, History, and Dialectic, 4 vols. (Joseph P. Farrell)
- Atheist Delusions (Hart)
- Orthodox Christian Beliefs about the Bible (Harakas)
- Return (Arch. Nektarios Antonopoulos)

My letter to the Governor to open the churches despite the Wuhan coronavirus

The Honorable
   Jay Inslee
      Governor of the State of Washington
         Office of the Governor
            PO Box 40002
            Olympia, WA 98504-0002

Governor Inslee,

I am an Orthodox Christian. This is my primary identity and an identity I received from heaven. I am also an American. This is my secondary identity which I received from this land in which I was born and raised. I am writing to formally communicate my disapproval on current policy regarding the current plague.

You are probably beginning to receive an increased number of letters from Orthodox Christians demanding you to OPEN THE CHURCHES. I offer my letter as an explanation to you and as a reference on why we express our concern. Below, you can find the supporting beliefs and 2000 years of global experience that bring about our outcry. If things continue on this path, you may find my letter helpful in explaining a worsening situation.

The Holy and Sacred Tradition of Orthodox Christianity has been in this land many generations. Its followers are refugees fleeing totalitarian regimes. In recent years, another source of Orthodox Christians are Americans who refuse to live in the despair, nihilism, and hopelessness that is offered by contemporary society from both the ideologies of the left and the right.

Unlike the more familiar Western Christian denominations of Papism and Protestantism and unlike popular notions of science put forward today or the abilities of proper science, our Orthodox Faith offers a psychosomatic treatment for all diseases for mankind. That is right: all diseases. Whether the disease is psychological, spiritual, or even physical, our Church possess the cure to life for all things.

Since the concern for you is this physical disease, let me explain that when our cure does not miraculously cure the physical condition (and many times it does), it gives psychological / spiritual strength from heaven to endure the illness and offer the victim a road to Paradise as a result. It can take away our weaknesses and can build up virtue and perfection by the grace and power of God. Our pursuit of heavenly truth and beauty while here on the earth (most significantly in our own lives) affords this land many blessings (seen and unseen). It is for this reason the Roman Emperors of old saw the value offered by Christianity and favored it for many generations and centuries. Surely such a momentous historic shift was due to some underlying momentous historic catalyst; this cure was it.

The Church offers this sacred medicine to us Orthodox Christians in the Divine Liturgy. This happens at least on Sunday mornings but at many other times too. For Orthodox Christians to be separate from this Liturgy literally prevents heaven from entering the earth and makes a way for hell to creep in. Heaven and Hell are not merely post-mortem realities. Our life is to bring into existence one of these realities which affects the surrounding society and moves each of us into eternity in either of those directions. This is the purpose of life. For us, the Liturgy is not optional. Therefore, we cry: OPEN THE CHURCHES!

Your Honor, we recognize that you have been placed in your esteemed office by the will of God. I do not intend to waste your time with the American political theory which we all know. The constitutional protection of religious freedom is unquestionable, and the courts will protect it (indeed they already are!). The separation of Church and State goes both ways. You know these things. This is why I join my voice with many to OPEN THE CHURCHES!

Regarding the executive order to close churches: we did not have to obey. You do not dictate how we run our Orthodox parishes. Our church order is accomplished by a specific legislative process through the Spirit of God for the last 2000 years (viz. our canons). However, we obeyed as a temporary measure out of respect to your authority and with the agreement on the importance to “flatten the curve” and avoid overwhelming our healthcare system. However, enough time has passed since then and we have been patient. Our people now suffer under policies worse than the disease. We formally ask you to OPEN THE CHURCHES in the sincere hope that we Orthodox Christians may avoid deciding between the laws of God and the laws of the current government.

Our history shows us Orthodox Christians persecuted under one mighty empire after another. We not only come through such persecutions but even outlive all these rulers! America is no different. Anyone who has the arrogance to meddle in spiritual realities they know far too little about, brings history to a head, and we prevail. Sometimes we barely survive such times, but the grace of God sees us through beyond the pathetic ambitions of mortal men. Is this the direction you wish to go?

As recent weeks have shown, we the people have been subject to a scam. This virus is real and is ugly, but there have been worse medical crises in our history (even recent history). Are you trying to protect lives? There are things much worse than physical death, we can assure you. Anyway, economists may point out we are only trading some lives for others at this point. If our democracy has deprived us of our heavenly food and involuntary imprisonment in our houses, then you can keep it. We would rather die from this virus or be legitimately imprisoned in an attempt the obey our Jesus. Then, on the fearful Day of the Lord’s Judgement (which is coming, have no doubt), we can say: “O Merciful One, we tried.” How much more fearful are we of His rebuke than the petty whims of this democracy!

We pray that God (the Creator and Sustainer of all the Universe and each of us) will give you faith and wisdom in this heavy burden of responsibility. We Orthodox Christians do not fear death nor suffering; at the same time, we do not intend to spread disease. We have faith in God’s omniscience and goodness to unfold His actions in all human lives regarding this virus. Be assured, we will carefully take all necessary precautions and cares to protect the weak and vulnerable. I may point out that the Orthodox Church actually invented the hospital! Having said all this I inform you we are taking formal steps in airing our grievances: OPEN THE CHURCHES! The sorrows you give us and the danger which you are bringing to society must be relieved.

In Christ,

N.

When we express Trinitarian theology: some axioms.

On some recent Trinitarian confusion:

Recently, OrthoTwitter got into a heated debate on some Trinitarian theology. Many statements were erroneous. For those frustrated at the episode, I'm simply going to outline principles, from the Holy Fathers, on how to speak about the Trinity, without being heretical or implying heresy (the latter occurred in the recent spat). A friend once told me, if you want to know Orthodox theology, learn Greek. Now I know why. First, we present Greek terms and how they are defined. Second, we look at how they historically developed to become our dogmatic language. Lastly, we set forth the critical axioms to know on Trinitarian expression. FIRST: Greek terms.
Note: The prefix "α-" on a Greek word indicates its negation.

> γενητός - "generated", sometimes as begotten or originated. Its negation:
  > ἀγένητος - "ungenerated" (or unoriginate)
> κτιστοῦ - "created". Its negation:
  > ἀκτίστου - "uncreated" > γεννηθέντα - "begotten" (in the form as used in the Creed, meaning like "having become begotten"). Its negation:
> ἀγέννητος - also "unbegotten" or ungenerated (spelled with an additional 'ν'), see below
> μονογενῆ - "only-begotten" (as used in the Creed) > ἐκπορεύω - to go forth or out, as in a march: "procession".
> ἐκπορευόμενον - "proceeds" (as used in the Creed: meaning like "is continually proceeding")
> ἴδιος - "property" or characteristic
> αρχή - source or beginning (where we get mono-archy).

> ὑπόστασις - hypostasis (synonymous with "person")
> οὐσία - "essence" (sometimes translated substance)
> φύσις - "nature" (for all intents and purposes οὐσία and φύσις are synonymous)
> ἐνέργεια - "energy"
> "ex nihilo" - from nothing (Latin, referring to Creation) PARENTHESIS: Review of Trinitarian dogma.
The words quoted above are what I will use in English but remain strictly according to the Greek word as the Fathers defined them.
> God is one in essence.
> God is three (Trinity) in persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. > The Father begets the Son.
> The Father processes the Holy Spirit.
> The Persons share their the essence but uniquely hold their personhood and those personal properties. > God the Father has the unique personal property of unbegottenness.
> God the Son has the unique personal property of begottenness from the Father.
> God the Holy Spirit has the unique personal property of procession from the Father.

ANOTHER PARENTHESIS:
Now nuances may begin and careful attention should be paid to the differences between what appears to be similar. SECOND: Development of these terms.
Between the 1st and 4th Ecumenical Councils, lots of defining and redefining occur, generating confusion then and even now in patristic texts. This is why we must not be humanistic and trust the Holy Spirit's guidance in theological expression.

Before the 1st Ecumenical Council among the philosophers and Christians (who were borrowing from them), "ungenerated" and "unbegotten" were seen as synonyms (their spelling is only differentiated by one "ν"). Arians came along and understood "unbegotten" as "ungenerated" and sought to keep the synonyms, following the heathen philosophers. Orthodoxy saw the need to make a distinction of terms, due to the impiety of the Arians' teaching. For this paragraph, the Greek is really important, but I will strictly follow the translations used above. However, understand "begottenness" to be the Orthodox sense, while Arians use the same word but in the sense of generatedness. Arians brought much confusion because they taught the divine essence or nature to be  unbegotten (not personal property of the Father's personhood). Arians also taught, with the Orthodox, unbegottenness refers to the Father only. Thus, Arians are confusing personhood and nature. In doing so, they taught that the Son is begotten from the Father (and so also God's essence), that the Son is begotten from the essence of God and therefore like the rest of creation.

St. Athanasios explains in his day “unbegotteness” or "ungeneratedness" (often today translated as unoriginate or beginningless) had three senses to it, but even so, Christians had to redefine it to include a fourth sense to preserve the integrity of God. It became such a mess, St. Athanasios argues we should keep a simple meaning of these words and restrict our speech to the terms Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, since this is what is revealed to us Christians, not unoriginate, originate, and proceeding. So what happened was creation of our Nicene Creed and victory over many and awful attacks against it and the Orthodox. Eventually, the dogmas (as reviewed above) are expressed in specific ways. In time, "Ungenerated" became more synonymous with "Uncreated." PARENTHESIS: On contemporary English translations.
Ignoring the specific attachment to the Greek on which I insist so far, we need to discuss current English words regarding ἀγένητος and ἀγέννητος: > Unbegotten/begotten is used very specifically, this is  convenient, agreed-upon translation found in the Creed.
> Ungenerated/generated is ambiguous and should be avoided, imo. If used, understood as synonymous with uncreated/created. > Unoriginate/originate (or beginningless/beginning) are the most messy commonly used words in English Trinitarian language.
   - If used in the context of the essence of God: know it is unoriginate, i.e. like uncreated and outside time.    - If unoriginate is used in the context of the Father: understand as either uncreated or unbegotten (whichever the context dictates). Originate should never apply to the Father.    - In the context of the Son: understand unoriginate only as referring to His divine essence.
   - In the context of the Son: understand originate referring to His begotteness in the Father as His unique property OR His human nature's origin.    - The same pattern for the Son follows using unoriginate/originate in the context of the Holy Spirit.

These words using these principles closely follows the Fathers and avoids heresy or the implication of heresy (often seen in OrthoTwitter). Development (cont.)
This is one specific historic episode. Over the centuries, this is how heretics played their game. They confused words and proudly boasted their own teaching against the Orthodox Fathers. Contrariwise, our Holy Fathers mastered humility and recognized the transcendence of God. When combatting the impiety of the heresies, they expressed (as best as men can) their experience of God. The philosophizing of our theology and any tendency to use our theology philosophically caused the Holy Fathers frustration (we can see in their writings). It is reckless to do it today. But this does not stop people today because we are proud and arrogant. When the Fathers find themselves getting deep in philosophy to combat heretics. They rebuke the heretics for daring to pry into the Mysteries of God and not respecting the silence that is due to these great Mysteries and necessary for the experience of God. What was established during this chaos and the times of chaos in subsequent centuries wrought by the heretics and their noise was some common patterns we see in the Fathers and are often now extracted as axioms when expressing theology. THIRD AND FINAL: Axioms to know when expressing Trinitarian theology.

Note: Again, I return to use English words that strictly follow the specific translations from the Greek above. Axioms (cont.)
> Uncreated - created distinction in natures and essences
   - God is uncreated.
   - Creation is created ex nihilo
   - There is no similarity between them whatsoever and analogy is not appropriate.* Axioms (cont.)
> Essence - energy distinction
   - God’s essence is unknowable and inexpressible
   - God’s energy is participated in and experienced by man. It is not subject to analogy (this rule applies to the λόγοι)*. * PARENTHESIS: Note on analogy.
To use any created word or concept as analogous to God is the heresy of the Papists, specifically Thomism or as we say in the East, Barlaamism. To take an energy of God (including the logoi) out of the realm of the empirical and into the expressible implies Thomism or Barlaamism. God's energy is experiential not discursive. Since energy acts in the world and bridges God and the world, words are necessary. However, these words do not describe God but how He acts in the world (generally meaning His will and providence) leading us to a greater imperfect knowledge of God through divine darkness until (by the grace of God) we experience God, perfectly, as light and hear "inexpressible" (i.e. uncreated) words. This subtlety is lost on many Orthodox today but is the difference between salvation and no salvation. Axioms (cont.)
> Hypostasis = BOTH essence and personal properties
   - Persons ≠ personal properties
   - Hypostasis ≠ Nature (“source of heresies” as one Father said)
   - Hypostasis NOT mode of being for nature (contra Sabellianism)
> Modes of being = hypostatic properties Parenthetical note on the word "enhypostasize":
Enhypostaton =
> being (St. John Damascene) or
> person (St. John Damascene) or
> personal properties (St. Gregory Palamas, et. al.) I'm seeing it used as a verb more instead of a noun. Seems like a departure from the Fathers. Maybe as a verb is okay in context of incarnation. But in Trinitarian expressions, definitely not okay. Implies Thomism. Why erroneous is explained below. Axioms (cont.)
>No essence exists without hypostasis. St. John Damascene:
  - “there is no unhypostatic nature or impersonal essence”
  - “We cannot understand essence apart from the hypostases.”
>Persons don't differ in essence but in “accidents” or properties (contra paganism) Note: this next one is relevant and critically important due to recent discussions
> There is a distinction when explaining relations of the Persons of the Trinity.
   - that which is commonly held (i.e. shared) and
   - that which is individually held (i.e. unique) Concerning the previous axiom and two subpoints: If you know the discussion I am talking about, this was an error made by both parties. It is an error of carelessness, slight deviation from the Fathers (but still innovative nonetheless) and dangerous, heretical implications. I do not want to get involved and will explain in DMs to those who want details. But for those who witnessed that debacle, I hope you can take away a lesson from this after now seeing the ways of the Holy Fathers. Many quotes are thrown around which are used to support each party, but I saw two errors at work. (1) Confusion of terms (hence this thread). (2) The quotes using relevant words but not actually supporting or even concerning the concept being put forward. But this is par for the course in OrthoTwitter quarrels. Axioms (cont.)
> The whole of the divine essence is in each of the three divine persons. And the whole of the divine person in the whole of the divine essence (St. Maximos the Confessor) > The monarchy (αρχή) of the Father means the Son and the Holy Spirit derive their existence from Him. Note: the Fathers only say existence and not how. This would peer to deep into the divine Mystery, which is how they answer the question of "How?" about this. In conclusion: WE MUST NOT CREATE CONFUSION FROM THE TERMS USED BY THE HOLY FATHERS. The Holy Fathers were specific and limited in their language and rejected philosophizing or logical syllogizing. When one does not restrict oneself to the language they gave us when speaking theology, such a one is entertaining demons. Even the knowledge of these terms we cannot understand logically, but are employed from mystical experience in combating the heresies that dishonor God. If anyone sees a variance from the Fathers, feel free to send me the reference (remembering what I mentioned about the frequent problem I see when patristic quotes are used... do a very careful reading). I will end with two quotes I love from St. Gregory the Theologian: “How was He begotten?—I repeat the question in indignation. The Begetting of God must be honoured by silence. It is a great thing for you to learn that He was begotten. But the manner of His generation we will not admit that even Angels can conceive, much less you. Shall I tell you how it was? It was in a manner known to the Father Who begat, and to the Son Who was begotten. Anything more than this is hidden by a cloud, and escapes your dim sight.” Third Theological Oration, VIII. "What then is Procession? Do you tell me what is the Unbegottenness of the Father, and I will explain to you the physiology of the Generation of the Son and the Procession of the Spirit, and we shall both of us be frenzy-stricken for prying into the mystery of God. And who are we to do these things, we who cannot even see what lies at our feet, or number the sand of the sea, or the drops of rain, or the days of Eternity, much less enter into the Depths of God, and supply an account of that Nature which is so unspeakable and transcending all words?" Fifth Theological Oration, VIII.