Talk:St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Crestwood, New York)

Criticism of SVS

I changed the order of the sections a little bit since it seems like "History and Influence" and "Criticism" should go together. I think we have to be careful here. Certainly the main text of the article is not the place to showcase inflamatory rumors. I do think a criticism section, if well done, is very appropriate since this has been - for good or bad (maybe good and bad!) a constant issue of discussion vis a vis St. Vlad's in Orthodox Church life.

I'm not sure that what's there now really works. Certainly this objection -- probably the most frequent one I've heard -- is worth a mention, but I'm sure you'd find more nuance among the faculty than you imagine. More to the point, IMHO this is not characteristic of what St. Vladimir's stands for in the larger context of church life.

The Schmemannite liturgical reforms - which have had a huge impact on church life in this country and abroad (e.g. the Anaphora being read aloud) would, it seems to me, make a good focus or beginning for discussion about the influence SVS has had as well as the criticism it has engendered.

Perhaps these "Schmemannite" reforms do have something significant in common with at least "lower" biblical criticism -- both reject a simple adherence to the "received tradition" and endorse a certain qualified use of reason (e.g. historical criticism) for the purpose of achieving a greater fidelity to the Tradition of the Church (with a big 'T'), and attempting to live out that Tradition in as full a manner as possible in our contemporary circumstance.

Fr. John 21:15, 20 Mar 2005 (CST)