Here is the paper I presented (warts and all) at the St. Sophia Institute Conference on Vladimir Lossky's The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. The conference was excellent and recommend such things to all those interested in such things. The paper may be useful to priests and church … [Read more...]
You Can’t Plan for a Funeral
This title is not making a theological statement; of course we can and should prepare for our own funeral. This is about something else. There's a joke that is popular among priests. It goes something like this; Bishop: Father, I need you to come in for an important committee meeting on the … [Read more...]
Pastoral Strategy in an Iterated Game
As I mentioned yesterday, one of the first thing social scientists do when they want to model interactions is figure out whether the interactions are iterated (i.e. repeated). The vast majority of the work pastors do consists of repeated interactions. While this does take the pressure off of each … [Read more...]
The Joy of Ministry being an Iterated Game
When social scientists model interactions, one of the first things they have to figure out is whether the interactions are iterated (i.e. repeat themselves) or not. Non-iterated games are rare (the classic "Prisoner's Dilemma" is the one most people are familliar with; the game of "Chicken" is … [Read more...]
The (Unavoidable) Sin of Letting People Down
It’s an accepted truism that “you can’t please everyone.” And, as long as lazy people don’t use it as an excuse to ignore the preferences of those they are called to serve (i.e. their neighbor), it’s a useful one. But “useful” is not the same as easy. I reckon it’s easy enough when we are … [Read more...]
On the Joy of Service, Well Done
One of the many things I am thankful for in being an Orthodox priest is that the most important thing I do is scripted. As a musician, I was never inclined to jazz (or any kind of improvisation); I found my greatest joy when playing difficult pieces with a group that worked well together. … [Read more...]
On the Problem of Scientific and Spiritual Validation
As a social scientist, I was trained to test models based on their internal and external validity. A good model would explain a significant portion of the variation within the sample data (i.e. have internal validity) AND have applicability beyond that sample (i.e. in the "real world" or on … [Read more...]
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