Archive


More than thirty years of First Things articles at your fingertips.

Articles

Filter

Articles

Orthodoxy at War

John P. Burgess

St. Sophia Cathedral is quiet and almost empty when I step inside on a wintry morning. Saints in icons on the walls and pillars stare at me. A huge...

A Visit to Fr. Zinon

John P. Burgess

Down a deeply rutted dirt road, far from Russia’s centers of power and wealth, sits a small compound behind twelve-foot-high brick walls. People in the nearest village, several miles...

The Role of Religion in Russia’s War on Ukraine

John P. Burgess

The current conflict in Ukraine is not merely about politics; it is also a battle over religious ideals and symbols. The Orthodox Church plays a powerful role in Russia...

Pascha and Pandemic

John P. Burgess

This year’s Easter celebrations have revealed deep tensions in church-state relations throughout the world. On what Christians regard as the most holy of days, when worship momentarily lifts us...

Spiritual Freedom

John P. Burgess

On the outskirts of Moscow, there is an Orthodox Christian memorial. The site, known as Butovo, once belonged to a private estate. The Soviets expropriated the land after the...

Christian Witness in Ukraine

John P. Burgess

On a summer afternoon at the southern tip of the Crimean Peninsula, I shield my face from the blazing sun as I watch archaeologists dig amid the ruins of...

In-Churching Russia

John P. Burgess

On the eve of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Orthodox Churchhad 50,000 parishes, a thousand men’s and women’s monasteries, and sixtytheological schools. By 1941, Stalin had nearly succeeded in eliminating...