Two new podcasts on Energeia!
Good morning, and happy Monday to you.
If Monday isn’t happy for you, then maybe you have the wrong job. Just a thought 😉
At any rate, I just released two brand new episodes on the Energeia.LIVE podcast feed this past weekend.
They both feature Orthodox Christian scholar Frederica Mathewes-Green. As you probably know if you read my newsletters, I’ve been inquiring into the Orthodox Church for some time – and in fact will be baptized into the Orthodox Church very soon.
I’ll share more about that in the future.
But this email is to announce the two podcasts, so let me give you some background on both of them.
The first was recorded in May 2023 when I was brand new to Orthodoxy; in fact, I had not even attended a service at an Orthodox congregation at that point. That would come about a month later as I was committed to singing in the choir at the local Presbyterian church until a certain date.
So I approached that first interview as someone who knew next to nothing about Orthodoxy, aside from what I had read in Frederica’s wonderful book, Two Views of the Cross: Orthodoxy And the West. The interview ended up being a bit of a primer on Orthodoxy, and some of its primary differences from Protestant and even Roman Catholic traditions.
The second interview was recorded in January 2024, after a bit of time had passed from the first one. At this point, I’d been attending Orthodox churches for awhile, and had even gone through the process of becoming a member of the Orthodox Church. (I’m not officially a member as of the date of this writing, but a date has been set for the “marriage ceremony”.)
So in spite of a relatively short period of time in between the interviews, you understand quite a bit has happened in my own life and spiritual walk between the two.
In the second one, we talk specifically about Energeia as it was used and understood by the men who wrote the New Testament. It turns out there are subtle yet profound differences between how those men understood the concept of divine energy from the men and women who translated their Greek words into Western languages such as English.
If you’ve ever heard the analogy of the airplane’s coordinates being set 1 degree off, by the time you’ve flown for 3 hours you’re way off course.
That’s not an inaccurate description of these language and translation differences.
I will leave it at that and let you listen and interpret the content as you will.
At the very least, it makes for good radio – and we even share a few miracle stories. Energeia in action in modern times!
Here are the links for you to listen and partake of the interviews: