Religion & Beliefs

Prot. Victor Harakas29.01.2025

To my knowledge, no formal statement on nuclear proliferation has been issued as yet by any official body of the Orthodox Church. Without a doubt, it will become an issue. In my book, “Contemporary Moral Issues”, I address the “arms race.” I believe that it is the Church’s general teaching that war is not good, […]

Alexander Palladin25.01.2025

Ever since 1821, my ancestors, the Palladins, used to live in the village of Dyutkovo not far from Moscow. Some of them served in the local Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, founded in the 16th century. A few years ago, while collecting materials about my family tree, I came across an […]

Yuri Chekalin13.12.2024

Einstein once said in an interview in G.S. Viereck’s book “Glimpses of the Great”, in response to a question about whether or not he believed in God. “Your question [about God] is the most difficult in the world. It is not a question I can answer simply with yes or no. I am not an […]

Vladimir Grigoryan24.09.2024

I had a friend who was convinced that if you launch an Orthodox satellite and broadcast something Orthodox on all TVs, the country will very quickly return to faith, become a churchgoer in a matter of years. I remember when I hear from priests again that most teenagers who grew up in Christian families completely […]

Natalia Tanshina20.09.2024

The West loves (and loved) to declare its tolerance and to accuse others, those who disagree, of lacking it. And tolerance — only in relation to itself. Let’s take the religious issue, in relation to which this term is often used. As is known, in 1054 the previously united Christian Church split into the Western, […]

Yuri Chekalin08.04.2024

Since ancient times, in Japanese mythology they have been portrayed as jokers, shapeshifters — they can transform into people: commoners, monks, samurai, etc. If in Chinese fairy tales raccoon dogs are evil and treacherous, then in Japanese they are more likely to be pranksters, lovers of a good life. Since these tanuki are everywhere looking […]

Pavel Begichev12.09.2022

Who are the Old Catholics? Most people have never even heard of them. Today we have the opportunity to ask a few questions to Archbishop Metropolitan Pavel Begichev, General Secretary of the World Council of National Catholic Churches, the largest conservative Old Catholic association in Europe. — Monsignor Pavel, can you briefly tell us who […]

Serg Levine27.05.2022

“Do not look at what is against the rules, do not listen to what is against them, do not say what is against them” – Confucius (孔子 Kung Tzu), “Conversations and Judgments” (論語 Lun Yu). In many countries of the world, today it is customary to give friends and relatives as a sign of a […]

Yuri Chekalin10.03.2022

During the period of transition from this world to Yukai, the hidden world of subtle energy, the spirit-soul is at its most vulnerable. It can be likened to a delicate butterfly, at the moment of emergence from its chrysalis. Therefore, there are spirits entrusted with the task of protecting the spirit-soul from danger at this […]

Yuri Chekalin19.07.2020

Many Japanese visit Shinto shrines for devotional purposes and yet have their funerals held at Buddhist temples. In recent years, Christian-style weddings have become fashionable, making the situation even more complicated. Many Western observers find Japanese spiritual practices hard to disentangle and so are tempted to dismiss Japanese spirituality as convoluted and confused. In their […]

Nuclear War

Eugene de Beauharnais’s Fate for Him Was Fair

The Question of Science and God

How I became Orthodox

On the Issue of Tolerance of the West

Tanuki is Japanese for Raccoon Dog

Western Rite Orthodox or Catholics without a Pope

See no evil, hear no evil, and speak no evil

The Spirits of Kami Protect the Dead During the Transition to the Other World

Why Do Kannushi Not Perform the Funeral at the Shinto Shrine?

The Michael Jackson Biopic is Missing its Most Controversial Story

Madama Butterfly and the Japan of the Western Imagination

The Spanish Civil War at 90: the Republic’s Response

Terminator Is about 80 Years Old