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John Dumancic's avatar

As an American convert to Orthodoxy from Evangelicalism… sorry? At the very least, to defend my good name, we’re not all like that (though it is a depressingly common trend).

I’m with the tenth century Christians, inasmuch as I can skip over to much Buddhist literature (especially the Dhammapada) without skipping a beat; it’s always been a very natural transition for me. From what I’ve heard, the feeling is apparently mutual, at least when it comes to the Sermon on the Mount.

Do you have any resources discussing the accidental canonization of Pope Marcellinus? That’s hilarious (though, if you will, his accidental canonization could be seen as a providential exposé of the inevitability of universal salvation).

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Salley Vickers's avatar

A version of of Barlaam's tales appears in the casket choice decreed by Pportia's father in "The Merchant of Venice". To my mind, it is an illustration of the powers of stories to cross boundaries of culture, faith, and age via the unconscious (often much wiser and more open than the stratifying conscious mind and presumably the reason Jesus taught with parables).

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