Today I’m focusing on, working with and writing about, Orthodox content. I realized over the weekend that I want one of my ongoing projects (or category of a group of projects) to be about the Orthodox Christian faith. Specifically I want to look at the intersection of faith and living life. How does a Christian live out his or her morality and ethics? How is and should the Christian faith be communicated, expressed, prayed? This one is especially significant for aspiring writers and, really, anybody who loves and cares about words and language. Finally how does the Eastern Christian faith differ from the Western version and how has either influenced, if not altered, the other? Concerning this last point, I think Eastern Christians living in the West, especially in the United States, have a unique challenge recognizing what is part of the Orthodox Christian faith, and what is part of the Protestant Christian heritage, and over the centuries become part of the culture, of this country. Some elements of both will agree; others will differ. As a student of both I intend to write about this question.
Last week I wrote a sermon on Luke 5: 1-11, a week ago Sunday’s text. This week, I’m looking at the use of archaic versus modern English in liturgical texts and trying to discern if the use of one or the other reveals a particular theological understanding.
I’m guessing that letters I wrote from places I’ve lived abroad such as Jerusalem and India, or the children’s book I’m working on, “The Glue Lagoon,” will be interesting to more people than theology. But I love and enjoy theology, the subject of my Master’s degree, which is why I want to add it to my writing.
