Fr. Michael Butler

Orthodox Speakers at Acton University – 2013 [Audio]

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Acton University is a unique, four-day exploration of the intellectual foundations of a free society. Guided by a distinguished international faculty, Acton University is an opportunity to deepen your knowledge and integrate rigorous philosophy, Christian theology, and sound economics. At this year’s event, the following Orthodox speakers were featured: Fr. Gregory Jensen, Fr. Michael Butler and Fr. Johannes Jacobse.

Audio courtesy of Ancient Faith Radio.

Audio is available for purchase at the Acton Institute.

Listen here:

East Meets West: Consumerism and Asceticism

Fr. Gregory Jensen

Asceticism is concerned with the “inner transformation of the human person, in his being progressively conformed to Christ.” Understood in this way, asceticism has a foundational role to play in any Christian response to the practical and anthropological challenges of consumerism.

Orthodoxy and Natural Law

Fr. Michael Butler

Eastern Orthodoxy is traditionally viewed as ambivalent about natural law. This lecture considers how natural law thinking might work in distinctly Orthodox ways of thinking about the relationship between faith and reason and its implications of the social order.

Orthodoxy, Church, and State

Fr. Michael Butler

For centuries, the relationship between Orthodox churches and the state with majority-Orthodox countries has been close. This lecture explains the historical and theological background to this relationship, and how it has changed in the modern world.

Why Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Matters

Fr. Johannes L. Jacobse

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, the courageous Russian writer, contributed indispensably to bringing down the Soviet Union. Conventional Western opinion sees his story, too, as ending then. But the conflict of good against evil and truth against lies runs throughout the moral universe, not just the Soviet scene. Moreover, half of his writings are not yet in English. This is the unknown Solzhenitsyn.

Fr. Michael Butler: Orthodoxy and Environmentalism [AUDIO]

3 Comments

As a companion to the text of His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah’s address (“Ascestism and the Consumer Society“) at Acton University published here, we’re posting the audio from a lecture by the Very Rev. Michael Butler on Orthodoxy and Environmentalism. We’re grateful to the Acton Institute for making this lecture available to AOI. To purchase a copy of Fr. Butler’s lecture, or other talks from AU 2011, please visit the organization’s Digital Downloads store (files are $2.99 each).

Fr. Butler, pastor of St. Innocent the Apostle to America Church in Olmsted Falls, Ohio, is also working on an Acton scholarly monograph on Orthodoxy and Environmentalism with Professor Andrew Morriss of the University of Alabama. Prof. Morriss is the D. Paul Jones, Jr. & Charlene Angelich Jones Chairholder of Law.

Fr. Butler’s course description:

Orthodoxy and Environmentalism

Apart from statements by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople (the “Green Patriarch”), the Orthodox Church has not been widely known for its teaching on environmental issues. This course will present some themes from Orthodox theology, e.g., creation through the Logos, creation as an Icon of God, and the role of mankind in perfecting the world, as an offering to the wider discussion of environmentalism in Christian circles.

Listen here:

Ambiguorum Blogis: The miscellaneous thoughts of Fr Michael Butler — goes live.

10 Comments

I always welcome the emergence of new contributions on Orthodoxy and culture by thoughtful commentators. Orthodox Christianity has much to give this country, indeed all of the Christian West, but our thinking has been underdeveloped and our contributions sparse. Much of this is due of course to historical circumstance; Orthodox Christianity is only now finding its voice in the public square. We’ve seen the contributions primarily in the new media, blogs mostly, but also in journals and elsewhere. We see it on all levels too, from the academy to cultural gatekeepers to those of us who, as Hayek says, are “merchants of ideas.”

Fr. Michael Butler

Fr. Michael Butler, a priest in the Orthodox Church in America, just entered the fray and, if his first few posts are any indication, it looks like a blog deserving a place in your favorites folder. John Couretas, Communications Director at the Action Institute wrote a fine introduction copied below. Fr. Michael blogs at the Ambiguorum Blogis.

Advising the Poor to Do Less With Less

By John Couretas

Source: Acton Power Blog

John Couretas

On his recently launched Ambiguorum Blogis site, Fr. Michael Butler is reviewing Elizabeth Theokritoff’s Living in God’s Creation: Orthodox Perspectives on Ecology (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2009). Fr. Michael, who joined us for Acton University 2010, examines the author’s exhausted earth meme, beginning with this quote from the book:

It is hard to escape the conclusion that with an ever-growing human population, it is not enough for humanity as a whole to do more with less; individually, we must also learn to do less with less (Theokritoff, p. 21).

Fr. Michael comments:

This statement is astonishing. It is a call to reduce our quality of life, and I find it hard to square with her concern for the poor and the weak, for whom learning “to do less with less” is a recipe for catastrophe. She says, on p. 19, “most environmental problems take their toll on the poor and weak long before they affect those who can afford to live far from the landfills, upwind of the factories or power plants, and well above sea level”. If the poor and the weak suffer in our current economy, their suffering in a reduced economy will be unspeakable. A vibrant economy helps everyone; poverty in the United States, for example, is incomparable with poverty found elsewhere in the world. The poor and weak will not be helped by making everyone else poorer and weaker.

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