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“On Ancient Paths”

“This is what the LORD says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it.’” (Jeremiah 6:16)

I can’t say when I first read this verse, but it became important to me at some point early in graduate school. I was studying philosophy at U.C. Berkeley, and I noticed some of my views beginning to change. Being a philosopher, and being a Christian, were perhaps the two most central aspects of my identity, but in both cases I found myself being dissatisfied with the milieu in which I found myself.

In philosophy, my main interests were in ethics and in the philosophy of religion. Philosophy of Religion was my first love, and I was “raised” in the field by a student of Alvin Plantinga, and looked up as an undergrad mostly to him, Richard Swinburne, and William Lane Craig. In ethics, I was an intuitionist, committed to the idea that ethical claims bottom out in necessary truths, moral facts which we know in a basic way, simply by “seeing” their truth.

In religion, I was more or less a non-denominational evangelical Christian. This was itself already a significant branching out from my childhood as a fundamentalist Oneness Pentecostal (”oneness” meaning we denied the doctrine of the Trinity), during the early years of which my father was a preacher. At the time, I was attending a Presbyterian Church, which was already beginning to open my eyes to the beauty and importance of liturgy.

In both areas, philosophy and religion, I slowly became frustrated with what seemed a lack of depth and historical awareness. In the study of ethics, a qualifying exam topic on practical wisdom and virtue in Aristotle, combined with a deep reading of Alasdair MacIntyre’s After Virtue, led me to a skepticism of modern ethical theories and appreciation for ancient ethical traditions (further deepened by my study of Chinese philosophy). In religion, the inquiry of my cousin (and closest friend) into Catholicism and Orthodoxy (and eventual conversion to the latter) got me reading the Church Fathers for the first time, where I found a conception of God and Christian life so much deeper and more beautiful than what I had grown up with in Protestant evangelicalism. Discovery of the works of David Bentley Hart further awakened me from my dogmatic slumber in the philosophy of religion, and in particular, to my previous acceptance of a shallow and anthropomorphic conception of God, and in a way tied together all of the changes I had been undergoing in my understanding of philosophy and religion.

In short, in searching for the good Way, I found myself walking on ancient paths. I ended up finishing my Ph.D., with a dissertation on moral psychology[1] and converting to Eastern Orthodoxy myself.[2] (I should perhaps be clear, given the title, that I am not a specialist in ancient philosophy, nor am I “traditionalist” in the sense many use that term. Rather, I am someone who tries to be historically aware and responsible, and who sees in tradition an inexhaustible source of inspiration and perennial truths, practical and theoretical.)

I wish I could say that all has been well since, but it has not. After several years on an abysmally bad job market and a short stint as a Visiting Assistant Professor, I failed to secure a tenure track position. For the sake of family stability, I decided to give up on my dreams of a life in academia. This was devastating, and happened right at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, which brought its own stresses and difficulties. The lack of a home parish after moving, the rise in far right and conspiracy thinking in online Orthodoxy, and the descent of several of my Orthodox friends into what I can only call, following the tradition, prelest, brought about a crisis of faith. The sudden and unexpected loss of my father rounded out what turned out to be two and a half very difficult years.

Thankfully, things have gotten better. After a year of teaching myself to code, I’ve started a new career as a software engineer so that I can provide responsibly for my family. More importantly, after some time questioning whether I could still consider myself a philosopher, whether I really still wanted to be Orthodox, I’ve accepted that both are inescapable parts of my vocation. That brings me, finally, to the point of this new publication.

What to Expect Here

I’m determined, despite the difficulties and all the constraints on my time, to continue to make progress in my thinking and writing, and I’m hoping that this will provide a helpful outlet and a source of motivation. I will use it mostly as a place to compile reading notes related to my projects and to test out arguments or sections of work in progress. There will be occasional longer standalone pieces, and maybe even some devotional material. My interests and my current projects are pretty eclectic, which likely means this will be a place for everyone and no one. I hope to post once or twice a week.

So you know what you’re getting into, here are the three current projects I’m most committed to working on:

• A response to Fr. James Dominic Rooney’s reply to my recent article “On Orthodox Panentheism” (my original article and his response both forthcoming in Religious Studies). (This is somewhat related to a possible co-authored project on on Vedantic and Christian “pantheism/monism.”)

• A book-length project (and some smaller articles) discussing and arguing for vegetarianism from a theological and philosophical perspective.

• A co-authored book-length project translating and introducing a fascinating but little known Russian figure, the political-radical-turned-New-Martyr St. Valentin Sventsitsky. (Writing on this well will need involve my getting to know other figures from the Russian Religious Renaissance much better than I do.)

In addition to these, I’m also interested in doing some writing on virtue ethics and social/political thought from an Orthodox perspective, as well as general problems in the philosophy of religion. I’ve also got an idea for a sort of daily devotional that would be short commentary on Patristic quotations that could also serve as a sort of catechism, covering essential topics on God, Christ, the Church, Christian life, etc. But we will see. (This would obviously be something to build up over a period of time.)

If all or any of that sounds interesting, please subscribe and tell your friends. As an inveterate amateur, all of my posts here will be free to all subscribers. But if anyone happens to want to support my efforts by pledging a few dollars a month, it would provide extra incentive to my writing and secure my astonished gratitude.

[1] The first chapter of which, more or less, was published in the European Journal of Philosophy as “Akrasia, practical reason, and the diversity of motivation: A new defense of tripartition.”**

[2] I tell this story somewhat more completely in “On Trying to be an Orthodox Philosopher”, forthcoming in a second volume of Turning East, ed. Rico Vitz, from St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.

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