The Journey Continues...

Have been relatively quiet here but highly active in the my real life both with the pen and in activity.

Have progressed further and further into the Eastern Orthodox stream. Much like the Dao was my entry into the Way and was a 'natural' fit I have found that the struggles I have found fitting within modern day non-denominational, Western (i.e. American) Christianity pushed me ever further not away from Christianity but more toward what is 'natural' in my spiritual life which happens to align, in many ways, with Orthodox thought. At least in terms of the written word.

I've not participated in the actual service of anything Eastern Orthodox but with some modern day theologians of the Orthodox church, most notably Vladimir Lossky and Olivier Clement's magnum opus The Roots Of Christian Mysticism, I have found more peace and, paradoxically, more 'divine' restlessness in pursuit of this truth.

If you saw my book shelf and how it has thinned over the years with a more specialized focus you'd understand. The pivotal guides of my journey still remain, heavily penciled and rabbit-eared, but the current lot is ever more specific. 

In the dance I do in seeking meaning I - finally! - stumbled across a one year reading plan for the Septuagint. I have the Orthodox Study Bible and the EOB: New Testament as my text. The OSB is good for its translation of the Hebrew Bible though it is basically the KJV in the New Testament and quite patronizing and irritatingly like my first Bible which was the NIV which I grew to detest over the years in its obviousness approach not to truth but to indoctrination.

The EOB, on the other hand, is refreshing as it does not shun textual criticism. With a lexicon in hand and my NASB on the side I feel quite enriched in getting a deeper understanding of the Word. My pursuit of knowledge is never static. Never. I question, and question, and question any and all things I read both questioning my understanding but also questioning the deeper history of what is often lost in the 'static' pages of the written word. Call this the Holy Spirit if you will.

The pursuit is not to discredit, though in my early days this was my motive, but to get understanding. If God is truly a mystery, this questioning should never end. The quest is not to conform to a particular theology or doctrine or to fully understand with my mind. 

The quest is to further open my mind to the mystery. The words of the Dao, my translation, resonate: "the deeper you go, the deeper you go."