Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind
For me, ‘Thinking Orthodox’ was a page turner … answering questions I have about Orthodox Christianity and answering many questions I didn’t know I should be asking. In short, this book represents a feast of new breakthroughs and understandings for me personally. Until recently, I thought the Christian world consisted of the Roman Catholics and their rebellious stepchildren, the Protestants. I was unaware that Orthodoxy was and is the root of both: the Catholics spun off from their Orthodox foundations in 1054, later the Protestants separated from the Catholics in 1517. The result of these departures –from the consistent and unbroken tradition of Orthodoxy– created thousands of Protestant denominations and a Church in Rome whose Pope claims universal jurisdiction. In sum, Rome added to Orthodoxy’s unbroken tradition and Protestants subtracted from Orthodoxy in their earnest efforts to correct the many missteps of Rome after Rome’s break with Orthodoxy in 1054. Both the Protestants and the Roman Catholics, however, are left without the full context or the full gospel of their faith, and like me, most are unaware of what they are missing.
In ‘Thinking Orthodox‘, Dr. Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou introduced me to a new and useful word called the ‘phronema‘ (mindset or outlook). She describes the Protestant and the Roman Catholic phronema and then shows how the Orthodox phronema differs. I was left with a much clearer understanding of what it means to be Orthodox and the impact Western philosophy has had on both Rome and the Protestants. In this regard, Protestants and Roman Catholics are more alike in their Western thought processes than Orthodox.
What does it mean to “think Orthodox”? What are the unspoken and unexplored premises and presumptions underlying what Christians believe? Orthodox Christianity is based on preserving the mind of the early Church, its phronema. Dr. Jeannie Constantinou brings her more than forty years’ experience as a professor, Bible teacher, and speaker to bear in explaining what the Orthodox phronema is, how it can be acquired, and how that phronema is expressed in true Orthodox theology – as practiced by those who are properly qualified by both training and a deep relationship with Christ.
About the Author: Dr. Eugenia Constantinou hosts the popular podcast Search the Scriptures Live! on Ancient Faith Radio. She has been a professor and visiting lecturer on the Bible, patristic interpretation of Scripture, and early Christianity at Orthodox and non-Orthodox universities and schools of theology. She holds master’s degrees in theology from the University of San Diego, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, and Harvard Divinity School; a juris doctorate from Pepperdine University School of Law; and a Ph.D. from Université Laval in Quebec City in the history of biblical interpretation. She is married to Fr. Costas, a Greek Orthodox priest.
In geology, catastrophism theorizes that the Earth has largely been shaped by sudden, short-lived, violent events, possibly worldwide in scope.[1] This contrasts with uniformitarianism (sometimes called gradualism), according to which slow incremental changes, such as erosion, brought about all the Earth’s geological features. The proponents of uniformitarianism held that the present was “the key to the past”, and that all geological processes (such as erosion) throughout the past resembled those that can be observed today. Since the 19th-century disputes between catastrophists and uniformitarians, a more inclusive and integrated view of geologic events has developed, in which the scientific consensus accepts that some catastrophic events occurred in the geologic past, but regards these as explicable as extreme examples of natural processes which can occur.
A geomagnetic excursion, like a geomagnetic reversal, is a significant change in the Earth’s magnetic field. Unlike reversals, an excursion is not a “permanent” re-orientation of the large-scale field, but rather represents a dramatic, typically a (geologically) short-lived change in field intensity, with a variation in pole orientation of up to 45° from the previous position.[1]
Excursion events typically only last a few thousand to a few tens of thousands of years, and often involve declines in field strength to between 0 and 20% of normal. Unlike full reversals, excursions are generally not recorded around the entire globe. This is certainly due in part to them not registering well in the sedimentary record, but it also seems likely that excursions may not typically extend through the entire global geomagnetic field.[1] There are significant exceptions, however.[a]
The cataclysmic pole shift hypothesis suggests that there have been geologically rapid shifts in the relative positions of the modern-day geographic locations of the poles and the axis of rotation of Earth, causing calamities such as floods and tectonic events.[1]
There is evidence of precession and changes in axial tilt, but this change is on much longer time-scales and does not involve relative motion of the spin axis with respect to the planet. However, in what is known as true polar wander, the solid Earth can rotate with respect to a fixed spin axis. Research shows that during the last 200 million years a total true polar wander of some 30° has occurred, but that no super-rapid shifts in Earth’s pole were found during this period.[2] A characteristic rate of true polar wander is 1° or less per million years.[3] Between approximately 790 and 810 million years ago, when the supercontinent Rodinia existed, two geologically-rapid phases of true polar wander may have occurred. In each of these, the magnetic poles of Earth shifted by approximately 55° – from a large shift in the crust.[4]
A geomagnetic reversal is a change in a planet’s magnetic field such that the positions of magnetic north and magnetic south are interchanged (not to be confused with geographic north and geographic south). The Earth’s field has alternated between periods of normal polarity, in which the predominant direction of the field was the same as the present direction, and reverse polarity, in which it was the opposite. These periods are called chrons.
Reversal occurrences are statistically random. There have been 183 reversals over the last 83 million years (on average once every ~450,000 years). The latest, the Brunhes–Matuyama reversal, occurred 780,000 years ago,[1] with widely varying estimates of how quickly it happened. Other sources estimate that the time that it takes for a reversal to complete is on average around 7,000 years for the four most recent reversals.[2] Clement (2004) suggests that this duration is dependent on latitude, with shorter durations at low latitudes, and longer durations at mid and high latitudes.[2] Although variable, the duration of a full reversal is typically between 2,000 and 12,000 years.[3]
Although there have been periods in which the field reversed globally (such as the Laschamp excursion) for several hundred years,[4] these events are classified as excursions rather than full geomagnetic reversals. Stable polarity chrons often show large, rapid directional excursions, which occur more often than reversals, and could be seen as failed reversals. During such an excursion, the field reverses in the liquid outer core, but not in the solid inner core. Diffusion in the liquid outer core is on timescales of 500 years or less, while that of the solid inner core is longer, around 3,000 years.[5]
The Laschamp or Laschamps event[note 1] was a geomagnetic excursion (a short reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field). It occurred between 42,200 and 41,500 years ago, during the end of the Last Glacial Period. It was discovered from geomagnetic anomalies found in the Laschamps lava flows in Clermont-Ferrand, France in the 1960s.[1]
The Laschamp event was the first known geomagnetic excursion and remains the most thoroughly studied among the known geomagnetic excursions.[2]
Background and effects: Since its discovery, the magnetic excursion has been demonstrated in geological archives from many parts of the world.[2] The transition from the normal field to the reversed field lasted approximately 250 years, while the magnetic field remained reversed for approximately 440 years. During the transition, Earth’s magnetic field reached a minimum of 5% of its current strength, and was at about 25% of its current strength when fully reversed. This reduction in geomagnetic field strength resulted in more cosmic rays reaching the Earth, causing greater production of the cosmogenic isotopes beryllium-10 and carbon-14, a decrease in atmospheric ozone, and changes in atmospheric circulation.[3][4]
This loss of the geomagnetic shield is claimed to have contributed to the extinction of Australian megafauna, the extinction of the Neanderthals and the appearance of cave art.[5][6][7] However, the lack of corroborating evidence of a causal link between the Laschamp event and population bottlenecks of many megafauna species, and the relatively moderate radio-isotopic changes during the event, have cast significant doubt on the real impact of the Laschamp event on global environmental changes.[8]
Because it occurred approximately 42,000 years ago, the period has been termed the Adams Event or Adams Transitional Geomagnetic Event, a tribute to science fiction writer Douglas Adams, who wrote in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy that “42” was the answer to life, the universe and everything.[9][10]
Marshall McLuhan told us in 1964 ‘The Medium is the message’. The medium may be important, but today we are discovering the ‘Narrative is the message’ and the medium is just a much more efficient and effective delivery system for weaponized information bombs dropped non-stop on our non-critical thinkers — which today is most of us. The power of narrative has been used to convince people across the globe to take a demonstrably dangerous injection that simply does not work: “He who controls the narrative controls the world”. The power of narrative and story telling has been thoroughly examined –and proven to my satisfaction– by the late, great educator and researcher Joseph Campbell in his ‘The Power of Myth’ series.
What are some of the narratives the ‘Powers that shouldn’t be’ sell using their influence over media, experts, captured governments and our WOKE education systems?
Man is destroying mother earth (Gaia) by pollution; therefore man is bad ..
Man is destroying mother earth (Gaia) by over population; therefore we need to reduce the population ..
Man is destroying the climate by carbon emissions; therefore we need to eliminate all fossil fuels and charge a carbon tax ..
Man is consuming all the limited resources of mother earth (Gaia); therefore, we must learn to live with less ..
Nations are bad because they cause wars, therefore, we must eliminate the notion of the nation-state and replace it with a global governance which can prevent war ..
Religions are bad because they are a major source of conflicts and wars; therefore we must replace traditional religions with a new, blended version that is more tolerant and includes mother earth (Gaia) ..
White man is particularly bad because his stewardship of the modern world has led to all the bad things listed above; therefore, we must reduce the white race and promote others ..
Traditions, social norms and cultures are bad because they stand in the way of changes required to fix these global problems; therefore, we must promote those things which will destroy the family, religion, virtue and wholesomeness ..
Of course these same narratives –and more—have been carefully crafted and then injected into our culture, education systems and media with predetermined endpoints for each; designed to nudge us in a certain direction. With enough repetition and assurances from trusted authority figures and sophistry, the ‘fact-claims’ above become ‘well-established’ facts indelibly lodged in our collective subconscious. They become the stories and the myths that are immune to logic; that can not to be questioned, and thus escape any examination of the assumptions on which they were formed.
I can, and have, refuted to my satisfaction most of these narratives with logic and evidence, but few listen or take the time to understand. Logic and evidence does not sell. Stories sell.
All these proscribed endpoints or solutions to these narratives are merely the bricks and bars of a mental jail being constructed to create a bleak dystopia for all but the very special few, and a permanent loss of individual freedom for everyone else. It is time we start writing our own narratives.
Below are three excellent videos directly addressing the power of these narratives and what we can do to counter this most powerful art of story telling; which, when wielded in the wrong hands will bring about George Orwell’s prediction from Nineteen Eighty-Four:
“If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.”
The first video is from the prolific and fertile mind of James Corbett who takes on this topic from a secular view; and the second video from the truly Amazing Polly who brings it all home in a much simpler treatment with her amazingly deep, nuanced analysis which provides all of us a happy and prosperous pathway out of this nightmare trap set by those tricksters who would be our masters. The third video provides fascinating insights into the psychological mechanics of ‘Mass Formation’. Enjoy.
I’m going to file this report under solutions. Why? Because the JBS has a long history of successes and has a well-oiled and established national organization to help us fight against the enslavement our current set of globalist tyrants have planned for us. The JBS has been fighting the NWO long before most of us were born. Let’s see what they have learned.
If we turn to the heavily compromised Wikipedia we are not surprised to find the familiar echo chamber echoing the corporate media narrative. This is still instructive, since we must have a fulcrum from which to view this topic. But we soon find terms like fringe, far-rightand conspiracy theorists embellishing Wiki’s JBS page; this sophistry is designed to stop thought dead in its tracks; and to deflect any additional analysis away from the topic at hand … thus, these prejudicial terms become “well-established facts” within the walled-garden of permitted discourse allowed by the existing power structure. To conclude before we have the facts may save some time initially, but does not advance our understanding of the topic.
“The John Birch Society (JBS) is an American political advocacy group supporting anti-communism and limited government. It has been described as a radical right or far-right organization.
Businessman and founder Robert W. Welch Jr. (1899–1985) developed an organizational infrastructure of nationwide chapters in December 1958. After an early increase in membership and influence, efforts by critics of the JBS, such as conservative William F. Buckley Jr. and National Review, pushed for the organization to be identified as a fringe element of the conservative movement, mostly out of fear of the radicalization of the American right. More recently Jeet Heer has argued in The New Republic that while the organization’s influence peaked in the 1970s, “Bircherism” and its legacy of conspiracy theories have become the dominant strain in the conservative movement. Politico has asserted that the JBS began making a resurgence in the mid-2010s, while the JBS has argued that it shaped the modern conservative movement and especially the Trump administration. Writing in The Huffington Post, Andrew Reinbach called the JBS “the intellectual seed bank of the right.”
Originally based in Belmont, Massachusetts, the John Birch Society is now headquartered in Grand Chute, Wisconsin a suburb of Appleton, Wisconsin, with local chapters throughout the United States. The organization owns American Opinion Publishing, which publishes the magazine The New American.”
Memo to Wikipedia:“Hang on there just a minute, Skippy!”
Now, just because Wikipedia, the MSM, the Southern Poverty Law Center and other marketers of propaganda choose to smear the John Birch Society with fuzzy, inexact, emotionally-charged “well-established” presumptive fact-claims that magically mesh so well with the current globalist agenda, is no reason for us to think highly or lowly of the JBS. Why? Because we have our own brains and do not need to rent a brain from known prevaricators; AND, we also know how to think critically and objectively. After all, many of these smear-merchants are the same ones who have lied us into every major war of the 20th century and continue to lie to us about JFK, 9/11 and the recent “fair and honest” election giving Biden more votes than any other human in American history. These folks are merchants of BS (smearing it everywhere) and purveyors of lies and deceptions we politely call spin or propaganda; and so, any of their fact-claims deserve to be thoroughly examined.
I would invite you to thoroughly investigate and register your email with the JBS.org web site to see what great work JBS is doing and how well organized they are. James Perloff use to write for their New American magazine and G. Edward Griffin provides a great introduction to the JBS below. Also see Alex Newman Senior Editor of the New American.
This is The John Birch Society 1969 by G. Edward Griffin
The John Birch Society vs. The Communists: (circa 1965) John Birch Society founder Robert Welch lists the stark differences in operating principles between the JBS and the communists (now called Neocons and liberal Democrats).
