‘Happiness is … ” begins Professor Richard Layard. He pauses. I sit forward in my seat expectantly. Which definition will the government’s happiness tsar pick? “A warm gun” (Lennon)?; “The greatest good” (Bentham)?; “The meaning and the purpose of life” (Aristotle)?; “The motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves” (Pascal)?; “The greatest gift that I possess” (Dodd)? Continue reading “Professor Lord Richard Layard: ‘Money is not the only thing affecting people’s happiness’”
How to Kill the Ego
Many modern psychologists tell us that we must feel good about ourselves, and they instruct us to reject the idea of guilt and sin. Sin is seen by some of these psychologists as religion’s instrument for keeping people in line, making them dependent on an institution that should be relegated to the Dark Ages. In an age where man is elevated to being his own god, religion is seen as a sort of enslavement. Up with self! Down with guilt! Continue reading “How to Kill the Ego”
Capitalism and the Spirit of the Church Fathers
by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Saint Vlassios
Deification of money, hedonism and easy living are the things that prevail in the age we are living in. The utilization and exploitation of money came to be developed within Protestant circles, within a morality that presumed money to be God’s blessing and the rich as those blessed by God. This topic has been expounded in detail by Max Weber in his widely-known classic, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. In it, he maintains that Capitalism, the rationalized utilization of money and life, are the result of all the principles that were developed by the various Protestant groups in Europe.
Continue reading “Capitalism and the Spirit of the Church Fathers”
‘Free man’ is the responsible man
Saint Gregory the Theologian wrote: ‘God that created man, since the very beginning let him free and self-governing. He honoured man with self-government, so that good belongs to whom that he choses it not less than to the one who gave him the seeds of good. So that with self-government, i.e. with freedom, man becomes complete and his actions are not irresponsible. Each one of our actions obtains moral value because the involuntary is unstable, tyrannical and alien to the spirit of Christ.’ Continue reading “‘Free man’ is the responsible man”
The Disappointment of Religion
Our feelings and desires are trained by our culture to seek satisfaction. In our spiritual life, we often need to learn how to be disappointed. Fr. Stephen looks at the “disappointment of religion.” Fr. Stephen Freeman is an Orthodox (OCA) priest in USA. Continue reading “The Disappointment of Religion”
Orthodoxy: The hope of the people of Europe
(Our awareness of ourselves as Orthodox Christians does not permit us to overlook the fact that Orthodoxy and Western Christianity cannot share a single ‘Christian identity’. On the contrary, it compels us to stress the fact that Orthodoxy is Europe’s long-forgotten original Christian faith, which at some point should once again serve as the basis of its Christian identity)
By Archimandrite George († 2014, June 8), Abbot of the Holy Monastery of St. Gregorios, Mount Athos Continue reading “Orthodoxy: The hope of the people of Europe”
Novo Scriptorium 