Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 6:00pm
Location: Study Center
Organized By: Maize Pages Student Organizations

Hi all,We are excited to invite you to Ratio Christi Meeting this Thursday 11/14 from 6-7 pm! The question for this week is: "How do Christianity and Buddhism  differ?" Our meeting will be held at the Study Center at 611 1/2 E. William St. Ann Arbor. This is a safe space for inquiring about religion and faith. Your perspectives are valued in fostering a thoughtful understanding of these subjects. All are welcome!! There will be pizza! If you are interested in learning more about us, you can join the Ratio Christi Maize page for updates and discussions: Ratio Christi Maize page. We're also active on Instagram: Ratio Christi Instagram page. We are excited to see you all soon and please feel free to reach out with any questions! Sincerely,Ratio Christi Team ????

Event Begins: Thursday, November 14, 2024 3:00pm
Location: East Hall
Organized By: Topology Seminar - Department of Mathematics

The Torelli group is the subgroup of the mapping class group of a surface acting trivially on the first homology of the surface. The first rational homology of the Torelli group is known for a closed surface of genus 2 by work of Mess, and for closed surfaces of genus at least 3 by work of Johnson. We will discuss forthcoming work with Putman that computes the second rational homology of the Torelli group for all closed surfaces of genus at least 6. In particular, we will show that this homology group is an algebraic representation of the symplectic group. Combined with the work of Kupers and Randal-Williams, this partially resolves Church and Farb's conjecture that the rational homology of the Torelli group is representation stable over the symplectic group.

The guys on Monday's edition of the RealClearPolitics radio show discussed whether an apology from FEMA will be the end of the story, first reported by the Daily Wire, that some disaster relief teams were ordered to avoid houses with Donald Trump campaign signs during the cleanup from Hurricane Milton last month.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart had lots of praise for backup safety Jake Pope on Tuesday, just days after he criticized the player for appearing to celebrate with fans from the opposing team.

Justin became a Christian, but he continued to wear the cloak that was the characteristic uniform of the professional teacher of philosophy. His position was that pagan philosophy, especially Platonism, is not simply wrong, but is a partial grasp of the truth, and serves as "a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ." He engaged in debates and disputations with non-Christians of all varieties, pagans, Jews, and heretics. He opened a school of Christian philosophy and accepted students, first at Ephesus and then later at Rome. There he engaged the Cynic philosopher Crescens in debate, and soon after was arrested on the charge of practicing an anauthorized religion. (It is suggested that Crescens lost the debate and denounced Justin to the authorities out of spite.) He was tried before the Roman prefect Rusticus, refused to renounce Christianity, and was put to death by beheading along with six of his students, one of them a woman. A record of the trial, probably authentic, is preserved, known as The Acts of Justin the Martyr. ... Justin's works are found in the multi-volumed set called The Ante-nicene Fathers [Church leaders before the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D.], and in various other collections of early Christian writings.

But even more importantly than the tweaking of Modalism so that it gets a place at the table is the attitude McDonald has displayed toward the Nicene definition. He says he does not trace his beliefs to credal statements. Really? If by that he means creeds are always subject to the higher authority of Scripture, of course. But this is where you fall off the other side of the narrow path and rather than believing in sola scriptura, you end up with something much less, and in fact, much different. Nicea's authority comes from its fidelity to Scripture. It does not stand alone as a new revelation, and it survived simply because it is, despite all the arguments to the contrary, the consistent, harmonious testimony of divine writ. To throw its authority into the dustbin of history in the service of some kind of "emergent" attitude is not only to display an astoundingly arrogant hubris, it is to show deep disrespect to those who fought, and some who died, in defense of its truth. And for what? For some kind of post-modern feel-goodism that cannot even recognize modalism when it is standing right in front of you. A truly educational example of just how far the emergent movement is willing to go in pursuit of its ultimately destructive goals. -- Recently Jamin Hubner has raised issues relating to a simple question: is the modern secular state of Israel religiously and theologically significant? Is it "Israel" as in the Israel of Scripture, or Romans 11? And if it is not, is it open to criticism? He is concerned about the strength of the movement, mainly amongst American evangelicals, that has granted to Israel not only a theological position it does not actually hold, but which precludes even the slightest mention of criticism of a secular state. Now, I am not going to re-hash everything here, but he has even been accused of being a "shill for Hamas" due to sources he has cited and issues he has raised (which seems to me to provide strong evidence of the need to raise such issues and challenge the knee-jerk reactions of many in the Evangelical community as a whole). While he has sought fair and non-emotional responses to questions he has raised, his requests have, in the main, fallen upon deaf ears, for I see no evidence that his critics really want to have a give-and-take.

Christian apologist and talk show host Chris Rosebrough (Fighting For The Faith) was recently the featured guest on Stand Up For The Truth radio show. From the Stand Up For The Truth website: "We know that the God of the Bible is not the same god of the Qur'an. Yahweh of the Bible became flesh 2,000 years ago to be that perfect lamb, the Son, the atonement for our sins. The Jesus we believe in is God. But Allah of the Qur'an did not have a son. There was no atonement, no hope of a Messiah, and no grace for sinners. The Christian God and the Muslim Allah cannot be one and the same. And yet there are a growing number of Christians and Muslims who are combining the faith-syncretizing the two into one. That's called Chrislam, and it is heresy. -- This week the Orange County Register reported in an article that leadership of Pastor Rick Warren's Saddleback Church believe that Muslims and Christians believe in the same God. Is the article accurate? Is that truly what these leaders believe? Our guest today has communicated with Rick Warren twice in the past few days, and it's as close as anyone has gotten to America's Pastor to hear in his own words what is going on. -- Chris Rosebrough is host of a daily two-hour internet radio program, Fighting For The Faith, heard around the world on Pirate Christian Radio, a broadcast group he started in his hometown of Indianapolis. Chris is at the forefront of those contending for the truth of God's Word."

Played an interesting practice game last Friday (1/12) evening with one of my fellow DRW chess teammates, Oliver Gugenheim. After my stupendous blunder last week, I'm interested in playing some practice games - both to drill my pre-move thinking process, and because there's nothing like a bad loss to motivate one to start playing again...

Oliver and I wound up exploring a sharp line of the French defense - an opening I have historically not enjoyed playing as white, and so had started learning more about the past week. Oliver (without us discussing it) obliged me by playing a line I had looked at that day so we went a good way into the "book" before (very quickly thereafter) reaching crazy territory.

The most interesting bit tho, is actually black's move: 9. ... f6. The conclusion I got from this analysis, is that 9. ... f5 is better (see below for more) and so this was a useful game for this analysis alone...

All in all, it was interesting to play, and gave me the opportunity to practice the things above... and it gave Oliver a chance to fend off a ridiculous attack (which is always satisfying if a bit scary at times). Here's the game and my notes (Time Control is G30 with 5 second increment):

And so, QED on this idea. My conclusion: better off building an attack here as White's got the ball. Also, for a bishop sac to have any chance, white really needs another piece. Perhaps once the f-pawn were advanced and White has castled, the possibilty of lifting a rook with tempo might be enough to give the sac some teeth. It'd be interesting to see if I can find any Winawer games with a bishop sac on h7 (if I do, perhaps I'll write a follow-up; regardless, looking at how White attacks here should be fun.)

So my soon-to-be-born nephew will be the best dressed boy out there. I had to... It was on sale!!! And Kasey liked it, too....

Fr. John Whiteford talks about the ungodly society around us.

With all of the attention on the Church today, how should we respond?

"She was the daughter of Prince Vseslav of Polotsk. When her parents wished her to be married, she ran away to a monastery and became a nun. An angel of the Lord appeared to her three times to show her the place where she was to build a new monastery for virgins. She brought her own sister, Evdokia, into monasticism and many other young girls from the ranks of the aristocracy. One kinswoman of hers, Zvenislava, a princess of Borisov, brought all her wealth, clothing and precious jewels, and said: 'I count all the beauty of this world as naught, and wish to give these fine things, prepared for my marriage, to the Church of the Saviour. And I desire to espouse myself to Him in a spiritual marriage, and to bow my head beneath His easy and light yoke.' Euphrosyne professed her too, and gave her the name Evpraxia. In old age, Euphrosyne evinced a desire to die in Jerusalem, and prayed for this boon. God heard her prayer, and she did indeed die in the monastery of St Theodosius in Jerusalem on May 23rd, 1173, during a visit there." (Prologue)

"She was the daughter of Prince Vseslav of Polotsk. When her parents wished her to be married, she ran away to a monastery and became a nun. An angel of the Lord appeared to her three times to show her the place where she was to build a new monastery for virgins. She brought her own sister, Evdokia, into monasticism and many other young girls from the ranks of the aristocracy. One kinswoman of hers, Zvenislava, a princess of Borisov, brought all her wealth, clothing and precious jewels, and said: 'I count all the beauty of this world as naught, and wish to give these fine things, prepared for my marriage, to the Church of the Saviour. And I desire to espouse myself to Him in a spiritual marriage, and to bow my head beneath His easy and light yoke.' Euphrosyne professed her too, and gave her the name Evpraxia. In old age, Euphrosyne evinced a desire to die in Jerusalem, and prayed for this boon. God heard her prayer, and she did indeed die in the monastery of St Theodosius in Jerusalem on May 23rd, 1173, during a visit there." (Prologue)

In the introduction to a new series, host Mathew Monos interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey about the proper way to share the Orthodox faith on college campuses.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about how to explain what Eastern Orthodox Christianity is.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about how to explain Orthodox baptism.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about how to explain fasting.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about how to explain iconography.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about the Orthodox view of salvation.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about the Theotokos.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about the Priesthood.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about the Eucharist.

Mathew Monos once again interviews Fr. Brendan Pelphrey—this time about the Problem of Evil.

Do Orthodox Christians believe in the Bible? On the first episode of the new season of the OCF podcast, media student leader Dan Bein asks Fr. Brendan Pelphrey this question and more.

Dan and Fr. Brendan discuss exactly what people mean when they say they're "Spiritual but Not Religious," and how to address that without turning into a patronizing nuisance.

Original guilt, immaculate conception, the Filioque, papal authority: Sometimes it can be difficult to explain the differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism. OCF Student Media Leader Tasya Lysack and Fr. Brendan Pelphrey will be speaking about other Christian denominations for the next few episodes of Orthodox Apologetics, and today they discuss the answers to common questions our peers might ask us about the differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism.

Fr. Brendan Pelphrey returns for the second instalment of Orthodox Apologetics for the 2017-2018 school year. In this episode, Fr. Brendan gives an overview of the history of the Protestant churches. He also answers some questions that Protestants may ask Orthodox college students. If you have any questions for Fr. Brendan, please email Tasya at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)/**/.

"As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." What is belief? Tasya and Fr. Brendan discuss the fact that belief is more than recognizing the historical existence of Jesus Christ and His resurrection—the Church Fathers explain to us that it means that we try to be like Him.

Fr. John looks at a couple of consequences of St. Augustine's anthropology in the West.

Fr. John describes the desanctification of the world that began to occur in the time leading up to the Great Schism.

Fr. John addresses the foundations in the West of a growing pessimism about man's condition, paying particular attention to Augustine.

In this latest episode on the impending Protestant Reformation, Fr. John discusses ways in which the long legacy of pessimism about the human condition and the world in general undermined western Christendom at one of her most critical moments.

Fr. John discusses the dignity of man according to the Greek Fathers

Fr. John contends that to understand the coming of the Renaissance and its humanism, one really needs to understand how in the West the doctrines about man became increasingly pessimistic.

Fr. John continues to discuss St. Augustine by looking first at his notorious doctrine of original sin and its impact on the conception of man in the West.

Fr. Ted answers a question regarding the Church's take on support groups such as AA. He also explains how the Church views each of us as a living icon or a treasure.

Fr. Theodore Paraskevopoulos preaches on the Sunday of the Blind Man and explains the use of typology in the Holy Scriptures.

In Part 7 of the series we discuss the "practical application" of the dogma of the Trinity. While all "orthodox" Christian churches affirm the dogma of the Trinity virtually none of them can really tell a believer why it is important to our salvation. If we are created in the image of God, then the Trinity is at the core of our being and defines not only God, but the human being and the nature of our salvation in Christ.

More stories from volunteers at the mission.

Dr. Rossi interviews Fr. Sergius Halvorsen on the topic of apologetics.

Dr. Albert Rossi interviews Fr. Sergius Halvorsen on the topic of "Apologetics and Evangelization: The Dangers of Profiteering." Rev. Dr. J. Sergius Halvorsen is the Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary in Yonkers, NY.

Fr. Lawrence Farley argues that the traditional Christian Church should not heed impassioned demands that it shut up and say nothing when its central teachings are trampled, denied, and distorted.

Bobby Maddex interviews Bruno Capolongo, a full-time artist and convert to Orthodox Christianity who attends All Saints of North America Church in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and specializes in the art of kintsugi. Please see the attachment for an example of kintsugi.