TRT3913-2 – Trinity Orthodox Theological Foundation

Orthodox Life I

Eastern Christian understanding of ethics and the person

See weeks 1 to 6 for course syllabus and other details.

Week 7: Image and Worth: Wholeness, Ableness and Disability

Topics

Wholeness, personhood, and flourishing (theosis)
Disabilities — physical and mental
Image of God misconstrued as human capacity
Human value as God’s loving gift
Case study: ableism and disability rights

Reading

St Gregory the Theologian, Oration 14, On Love for the Poor

Case Study: Ableism and Disability Rights

Ableism 101
The Bible for Normal People podcast episode 205 with guest Amy Kenny, “My Body Is Not a Prayer Request”
Amy Kenny, selections from My Body Is Not a Prayer Request (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2022)
Amy Kenny, Top-Ten Lists from My Body Is Not a Prayer Request
SCOBA statement on “Disability and Communion”
Fr Stephen Plumlee, “The Handicapped and Orthodox Worship”
Chantal Hunink, “Ableism in the Church: Jesus Is Not Ableist”
Hilla Kauppinen, “Don’t Pray for Me: Disabilities and the Christian Church”
Allyson Howell (Todd), “Intellectual Disabilities and the Church”

Week 8: Constituents of Personal Identity: Race, Ethnicity, Trauma, Socio-economic Class

Topics

Personhood and “identity”
Baptism and Christian identity
Race and self-identity
Ethnicity, culture, history, and the construction of the self
Trauma (both conscious and unconscious) and the disruption of identity
Class, power, and inequality: social status and personhood
Case study: racism and anti-racism

Readings

The Martyrdom of Polycarp
Henri Nouwen, Life of the Beloved: Spiritual Living in a Secular World (New York: Crossroad, 2002)
(Yes, most of the book, but it’s a short book and a quick read — if you lack for time, read pages 14-20 then 45-48)

Case Study: Racism and Anti-Racism

Joseph Graves and Alan H. Goodman, “Everything You Wanted to Know about Racism,” chapter 3 of Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions (New York: Columbia University Press, 2022)
Susannah Heschel, “The Slippery Yet Tenacious Nature of Racism: New Developments in Critical Race Theory and Their Implications for the Study of Religion and Ethics,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 35.1 (2015):3-27
James S. Spiegel, “Celebration and Betrayal: Martin Luther King’s Case for Racial Justice and Our Current Dilemma,” Themelios 45.2 (2020):260-76

Thomas and Michael have also shared the following addition resources.

Living God’s Future Now Conversation No 11 with Revd Dr Sam Wells and Dr Jonathan Tran

Fr Steven Ritter, “Orthodoxy and Racism” from The Life of the Church Today podcast
[warning: not an easy listen: clear example of the church “blocking” anti-racism]

Mother Katherine on “Racial Identities and Racism”

Orthodox Christian Leadership Initiative, “Orthodox Conversations on Racism – Galatians 6

Optional Lecture - Complex Post Traumatic Stress and the Orthodox Moral Tradition

In this lecture, scholar Kate McCray offers a critique from the perspective of trauma theory of the typical (North) American reading of Elder Thaddeus’s Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, a recent but already classic work in Orthodox spirituality.

Kate McCray is a PhD candidate studying Christian Ethics at the University of Toronto, University of St. Michael’s College. She holds an MDiv from Princeton Theological Seminary and a ThM from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in New York. Her research examines the mythologies of the disabled body, offering alternative theological constructions of personhood. She specializes in areas of critical theory, hermeneutics, and moral theology, specifically questions moral agency in disability ethics. She can be contacted at kate.mccray@mail.utoronto.ca

Kate has two book chapters under contract as well as several articles expected for publication this year, including ethical examinations of Orthodox funeral practices for suicidal parishioners and a reexamination of Balthasar’s aesthetics to include disabled bodies as images of God’s beauty.

“Complex-PTSD and the Orthodox Moral Tradition: Critiques of Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives from Trauma Theory,” in Philip Mamalakis (ed), Isolation, Violence, Hope, and Communion Orthodox, Christian Association of Medicine, Psychology, and Religion. Sebastian Press (Spring, 2020)
“The Dying Church: Hierarchy as Self-Sacrifice in Pseudo-Dionysius,” in John A. McGuckin (ed), Orthodox Monasticism Past and Present (Sophia Studies in Orthodox Theology vol 8). Theotokos Press. New York. 2014.
“Imaging the Family: Gregory the Theologian on Family in Oration 14,” in N. Ermolaeva (ed), Family in the Orthodox Tradition. (Sophia Studies in Orthodox Theology vol 7). Theotokos Press. New York. 2013.
Orthodox Christian Discussion Guide, “Ending U.S.-sponsored Torture Forever,” The National Religious Campaign Against Torture. Summer 2010.

Question to ponder:

How have modern ideals of self-reliance and independence affected our understanding of Orthodox theology and life? How can we recover a spirit of interdependence on one another?

Week 9: Constituents of Personal Identity: Sex, Gender, and Gender Roles

Topics

Classical framing of male and female sexual identity
Development of gender
Gender roles and stereotypes
Sexual / gender essentialism
Feminism, women’s emancipation and equality of the sexes
Case study: the role and ministry of women in the church

Readings

John Behr, “From Adam to Christ: From Male and Female to Being Human” in Orthodox Tradition and Human Sexuality, Thomas Arentzen, Ashley Purpura, and Aristotle Papanikolaou, eds. (New York: Fordham University Press, 2022), pp303-319
Hans Boersma, “Gendered Body,” chapter 3 of Embodiment and Virtue in Gregory of Nyssa: An Anagogical Approach (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013), pp85-116

Mindful that these are some heavy readings (particularly at this stage of the semester), here are two video alternatives. In the first Behr himself largely reprises his article above; the second, by eminent patristic theologian Sarah Coakley, picks up many of the same themes as Boersma’s chapter on St Gregory of Nyssa.

Fr John Behr: “From Adam to Christ: From Male and Female to Being Human”

Dr Sarah Coakley: “The Developed Patristic Doctrine of the Trinity: The ‘East/West’ Story vs the Story of the Trinity and Gender”

Case Study: Role and Ministry of Women in the Church

Edith Humphrey, “The Mystery of Male and Female, Masculine and Feminine: Whys, Wherefores, and Warnings,” in Healing Humanity: Confronting Our Moral Crisis, David Ford, Kentigern Siewers, and Alexander Webster eds. (Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Seminary Press, 2020)
Fr Kenneth Paul Wesche, “Man and Woman in Orthodox Tradition: The Mystery of Gender,” St Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 37 no 2-3 (1993), pp 213-251
Paul Ladouceur, “The Ordination of Women to the Priesthood: A Pastoral or Theological Matter?” in Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church: Explorations in Faith and Practice (Eugene, Oregon: Cascade Books, 2020), pp166-186

Initial Assessment Template

Preliminary document for assessing an offer according to different perspectives

Download “Initial Assessment” Word document >

Additional resources (from which patristic quotes were drawn in the class, and which may be read along with rereading this week’s other materials before next week):

Valerie Karras, “Patristic Views on the Ontology of Gender” in John T Chirban, ed. Personhood: Orthodox Christianity and the Connection between Body, Mind, and Soul (Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 1996), pp 113-119
Verna Harrison, “Male and Female in Cappadocian Theology,” The Journal of Theological Studies, New Series, Vol. 41, No. 2 (October 1990), pp 441-471
Bishop Maxim Vasiljevic, “Does Gender Have a Future?” in Theology as Surprise: Patristic and Pastoral Insights (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018), pp 103-113

Week 10: Constituents of Personal Identity: Sex, Gender, and Gender Roles

Topics

Biological sex versus gender as identification
Gender expressions
Multiplicity / spectrum of gender identity and expression
Feminism and transgender theory
Case study: transgenderism

Readings

As this week is an extension of week 9’s discussion, you are invited to revisit the readings and videos delving into patristic theology of sex and gender, and how they are necessarily transcended as we grow towards the life of the kingdom. The following additional readings given after the week 9 class supplement the selections from Behr and Boersma, and the video with Coakley.

Valerie Karras, “Patristic Views on the Ontology of Gender” in John T Chirban, ed. Personhood: Orthodox Christianity and the Connection between Body, Mind, and Soul (Westport: Bergin & Garvey, 1996), pp 113-119
Verna Harrison, “Male and Female in Cappadocian Theology,” The Journal of Theological Studies, New Series, Vol. 41, No. 2 (October 1990), pp 441-471
Bishop Maxim Vasiljevic, “Does Gender Have a Future?” in Theology as Surprise: Patristic and Pastoral Insights (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018), pp 103-113

As you review these materials, consider the further dimensions of gender identity and expression that we will be discussing in week 10.

Case Study: Transgenderism

Read:

Congregation for Catholic Education, “Male and Female He Created Them: Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education” (Vatican City, 2019)

Watch (focusing on the Q&A at the end) Fr Myroslaw Tataryn: “Gender: But That’s What the Church Has Always Taught!” (response to the above Vatican document by a Ukrainian Catholic priest)

Nicholas Metcalf, “Why We Need Gender Fluidity”

Ma-Nee Chacaby: “Two-Spirit Identities”

Suggested Improvisation Template

Follow-up worksheet/template for proposing the church’s (tentative) response to a given offer

And here’s a link to that chapter on “LGBT Identity” from Sam Wells’s book, How Then Shall We Live? Christian Engagement with Contemporary Issues (Norwich, UK: Canterbury Press, 2016):

Wells, “LGBT Identity”

Note that, in the presentation, the truncated quotation referring symbolically to Egypt and Babylon was perhaps a bit unclear. Here’s the full sentence from the chapter: “After hundreds of years of seeing LGBT people as living in Babylon, in an exile of their own making, the church is finally beginning to realize that they’re not in Babylon — they’re in Egypt, in a captivity imposed upon them by others.”

Week 11: Two Paths to Human Flourishing (Theosis): Monasticism and Marriage

Topics

Two paths, one goal: self-sacrificial love
Monasticism as proleptic eschatological life and model
Marriage as eschatological sign
Divine and human eros
Eros, sexuality, and asceticism
Case study: marriage, sex, and procreation

Reading

Sarah Coakley, The New Asceticism: Sexuality, Gender, and the Quest for God (London: Bloomsbury, 2015)
- Yes, this is the PDF of the whole book (which is also available an eBook online through the U of T library), but do please read selectively
- The introduction together with chapter 1 provides an excellent overview of the fundamental questions of eros (desire) and asceticism, setting contemporary issues of gender and sexuality within an ancient Christian framework
- Chapter 2 would be an excellent addition for those tackling the case study on the ministry of women (week 9)
- For this week’s case study (see below), Yousef and John are recommending chapters 3 and 4
- Chapter 5 brings everything together as Coakley argues for a retrieval of asceticism (“overaccepting”) instead of falling into the Biblicism (“blocking”) and libertine approaches (“accepting”) of modernity vis-à-vis sexuality
- Alternatively, if this is too much to read (even selectively), please have a look at this article: Sarah Coakley, “Prayer as Crucible: How my Mind Has Changed,” Christian Century (22 March 2011): 32-40

Case Study: Marriage, Sex, and Procreation

Excerpts from John Chryssavgis, Love, Sexuality, and the Sacrament of Marriage (Brookline, MA: Holy Cross, 2005)
Chapters 3 and 4 from Coakley, The New Asceticism (see above)

Article referred to:

Sveshnikov, Sergei. “There is No Sex in the Church,” American Theological Inquiry (Online), 4 no 1 January 15, 2011

Week 12: Other Paths to Flourishing (Theosis): Friendship and Diverse Shapes of Family Life

Topics

Alternatives to monasticism and marriage as paths to self-sacrificial love and theosis
Friendship (philia) — its meaning, disappearance, and potential recovery today
Diverse shapes of family life within the church: single, widowed, divorced
Relativisation of family in the church
Sexual orientation and personal identity
Case study: same-sex partnerships and marriage

Readings

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, “Foreword,” The Wheel Issue 13/14 (Spring/Summer 2018): 6-10
Fr Andrew Louth, “Being Human,” The Wheel Issue 13/14 (Spring/Summer 2018): 11-18
Spyridoula Athanasopoulou-Kypriou, “A Desire for All Is the Desire for God: ‘Sexual Orientation’ in Light of Gregory of Nyssa’s Account of Gender, Desire, and the Soul’s Ascent to God,” in Thomas Arentzen, Ashley M. Purpura, and Aristotle Papanikolaou, eds., Orthodox Tradition and Human Sexuality (New York: Fordham University Press, 2022)
Fr Pavel Florensky, “Letter Eleven: Friendship,” from The Pillar and Ground of the Truth : An Essay in Orthodox Theodicy in Twelve Letters (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2018) — NB: we will be going over this together in the first part of the class, so no need to read ahead of time, but if you do, simply skim read, focusing on pp 296 and following

Case Study: Same-Sex Partnerships and Marriage

Vigen Guroian, “Marriage and Family in Brave New America: on Gay and Same-Sex Marriage,” Liturgy 20.3 (2005A): 43-50
Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, “Statement on Same-Sex Relationships and Sexual Identity” (July 2022)
Marjorie Corbman, Steven Payne, and Gregory Tucker, “Jesus and Same-Sex Marriage,” The Wheel Issue 13/14 (Spring/Summer 2018): 106-116
Luke Timothy Johnson, “Fellowship: Homosexuality in the Church,” from Scripture and Discernment: Decision-Making in the Church (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1996)
Brownson, “Conclusions,” chapter 12 of Bible, Gender, and Sexuality: Reframing the Church’s Debate on Same-Sex Relationships (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2013)

Link to Church of England’s Living in Love and Faith online resources