Orthodox

Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Jewish Bibles, Commentaries, and Cultural Backgrounds
Biblical Interpretation

Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Jewish Bible Translations, Commentaries, and Cultural Backgrounds

10/15/2026 Bruce Strom 0

The eternal spiritual battle is this struggle: Who is going to influence whom? Will the culture influence the church, or will the church influence the culture? If you prefer that the culture would influence your morality, then you can ask Merriam-Webster Dictionary for the cultural definition of Biblical words. If you would rather that the church would influence your morality, then you should ask the Vines Expository Dictionary for the Biblical definition of Biblical words.
Although Vines is a Protestant resource, all Christians can consult its definitions, since it quotes the Scriptures that support their definitions. Another resource is Strong’s Concordance, which tracks where each Greek and Hebrew word appears in the Bible. If necessary, you can discover the Greek word for each word in each verse using an Interlinear Bible.
What is the meaning of the central Christian word for love? Agape and Eros by the Lutheran Theologian Anders Nygren, written between the two World Wars, traces how the Greek words LOVE, agape and eros, evolved from the ancient Greek philosophers and the New Testament until modern days. […]

Biblical Interpretation: How the Ancient World and Modern World Differ
Biblical Interpretation

Biblical Interpretation: How the Ancient World and Modern World Differ

10/15/2026 Bruce Strom 0

St Augustine did not believe that the Bible was always literally true. He teaches: “It is a wretched slavery which takes the figurative expressions of Scripture in a literal sense,” because the Bible exhorts: “the letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” What does St Augustine mean by figurative? When the Word of God in Scripture does not, “when taken literally, refer either to purity of life or soundness of doctrine, it can be seen as figurative.” St Augustine continues, “Purity of life refers to the Love of God and our love for our neighbor, whereas soundness of doctrine refers to the knowledge of God and our neighbor.”
St Augustine agrees with Origen and many other Church Fathers, that whenever the literal reading of Scriptures, particularly the Old Testament, appears to violate the two-fold Love of God and neighbor, then it must be read allegorically. […]

St Neilos the Ascetic, Philokalia
Morality

St Neilos on Ascetic Discourses in the Philokalia

08/16/2023 Bruce Strom 1

St Neilos contrasts the holy men “who live for the soul alone, turning away from the body and its wants,” the holy men who have no need to flatter the wealthy because they live simply, to those of us who, “instead of courageously struggling against our difficulties, come fawning to the wealthy, like puppies wagging their tails in the hope of being tossed a bare bone or some crumbs. To get what we want, we can them benefactors and protectors of Christians, attributing every virtue to them, even though they may be utterly wicked.” […]

St Maximus the Confessor
Morality

St Maximus the Confessor, Commentary on the Lords Prayer

08/09/2023 Bruce Strom 3

We seek deification in the Lord’s Prayer, the model prayer, which starts out, Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy Name, so we are exhorted to Love God, and understand how we stand in His Kingdom, and continues as we pray how we should live our lives, repenting of all, forgiving everyone, no exceptions. Once we understand how we must repent of all our transgressions, no exceptions, and forgive everyone, so God will forgive us, and not withhold forgiveness from anyone, lest God withholds His forgiveness of us[9], then we can better listen to the teachings of St Maximus against self-love, this affections of one’s self that is the root of all evil, the desperate lust to pleasure, often mere moments of pleasure that often leads to years of suffering for us and those around us. This self-love and lust for pleasure to avoid life’s pain instead tyrannizes the lives of those close to us. […]

St Maximus the Confessor
Morality

St Maximus the Confessor, Roman Catholic and Orthodox Saint

08/09/2023 Bruce Strom 3

St Maximus teaches us that if we truly Love God, this love is a great blessing that binds God and man together, and as much as is possible for man, Christ incarnate, the perfect deified man, will manifest Himself in the deified man to God. St. Maximus says this clearer in another writing: “Love makes man god, and reveals and manifests God as man, through the single and identical purpose and activity of the will of both.” […]

Prayer of St Franics and Brother Giles SMALL
Lives of Saints

Who Was the Author of the Prayer of St Francis? Sayings of Brother Giles

05/12/2023 Bruce Strom 3

We can say definitely that the Prayer of St Francis was not actually written by St Francis, it first appeared in the December 1912 issue of the French Catholic publication, La Clochette. Quite likely it was penned by the founding editor, Father Esther Bouquerel. Around 1918, it was printed without attribution on the back side of a holy card with a painting of St Francis. Someone then reprinted it in an English translation in 1927, innocently misattributing it to St Francis. Archbishop Francis Spellman printed millions of copies of the prayer during World War II, and it was read into the Congressional Record. […]

Book Reviews and Miscellaneous

Book and DVD Reviews on the Ten Commandments, or Decalogue

07/08/2022 Bruce Strom 0

These are book reviews on the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments. Our first sources are the Lutheran and Catholic Catechisms, they discuss each of the Ten Commandments. Pope Benedict, aka Cardinal Ratzinger when footnotes for the sources used in the Catechism between the eastern and western church fathers, which means that this is an excellent study program for the writings of the Church Fathers for both the Catholic and Orthodox religious traditions. […]

Morality

St Isaiah the Solitary on Guarding the Intellect

07/14/2018 Bruce Strom 0

St Isaiah the Solitary “On Guarding the Intellect” gives us this advice, “If you find yourself hating your fellow man and resist the hatred, and you see that it grows weak and withdraws, do not rejoice in your heart; for this withdrawal is trick of the evil spirits. They are preparing a second attack worse than the first; they have left behind their troops behind the city and ordered them to remain there. If you go out to attack them, they will flee before you in weakness.” […]

Evagrios the Solitary

Evagrios the Solitary, 153 Texts On Prayer

04/21/2018 Bruce Strom 0

Evagrios compares the persistence of prayer to the seven years of labor by Jacob to gain the hand of Rachel, his gazelle, for Jacob so loved Rachel that the seven years he labored for her hand seemed to him to be but a day. On his wedding night Leah, her sister, was substituted for Rachel, and Jacob labored yet another seven years for the hand of Rachel. […]