A World of Speculation

Dumb as fish

I’ve got a lot of stuff to do today, but I want to report my favorite line from the Akathist Hymn last evening: “Eloquent orators we see dumb as the fishes in thy presence, O Theotokos, . . . .” It goes on to make profound theological points, but I...

Lena’s back

Lena, the Chernobyl ghost town biker, has brought up her site again with more pictures, sharper design, and the same eerie and compelling story. The photo shown here is cropped down from one of hers. I picked this up from The Politburo Diktat.

Shameless plug for The Blackbird’s Nest

My friend Jenny Schroedel’s new book is out from St Vladmir’s Seminary Press. The Blackbird’s Nest is the story of St. Kevin, who spent Lent like a tree, holding up a blackbird’s nest. I’ve read earlier versions of the...

Fellowship of St. Caedmon

Andrew Stephen Damick tells why I became Orthodox in “Notes towards a Definition of Orthodox Christian English Literature,” for the Fellowship of St. Caedmon. It sounds weird, maybe heretical, even to me, converting on the basis of a literary...