New Skete Monasteries News

Science and the Christian Faith: A Guide for the Perplexed by Christopher C. Knight, PhD (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2021, 232 pages) The subtitle, “A Guide for the Perplexed,” piqued my interest in the ad one morning a few months ago. The author is an Orthodox priest who started out as an astrophysicist. He is a Senior Research Associate of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge, England. The book is part of the Foundations Series put out by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press. While I don’t see myself as perplexed, I do have a lot of questions in view of the world-wide scientific knowledge concerning creation that exists today. What light, if any, could Christopher C. Knight shine on how to understand our views of God’s immanence in our world today? A large thrust of the book is the attempt to understand some of the controversy over miracles. Do they happen now, and did they ever happen? Would science be able to explain them?       ...

By Brother Christopher Given that March 11th has recently passed—the “anniversary” of Covid-19 being called a pandemic—perhaps it is not surprising that my thoughts would be turned toward the topic of death; 530,000 victims over the past year in this country alone will do that. Add to this the arrival of Great Lent, however, and I believe there is much to reflect on about ultimate issues and how we might use the experience of this past year constructively. Might this be an opportunity for growth instead of despair and cynicism, of staying in touch with reality instead of wallowing in distraction? While it is understandable that people instinctively try to change the subject whenever having to face the reality of death, this past year it has been unavoidable: its reality has literally been shoved in our faces every day on TV and in the news. Most of us know people who have died because of Covid, some of us may have even had it, and all of us have had to live with the disruption it has c...