John Couretas

is a writer and editor based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Posts by John Couretas

April 21, 2006

The ‘gospel’ of Judas

Over at OrthodoxyToday.org, Fr. Theodore Stylianpoulos demolishes the media driven speculation that the so-called Gospel of Judas might somehow turn traditional Christianity on its head. The Gospel of Judas is but another small window to Gnosticism, a hodgepodge of religious speculations that exploded on the scene during the second century. Continue Reading...
April 19, 2006

Ideology and terror

The name Robespierre is synonymous with terror and mass murder. But the author of The Terror that accompanied the French Revolution was also the prototype of the revolutionary leader who would become all too familiar in the 20th Century. Continue Reading...
April 06, 2006

‘Overwhelmed by orphans’

Where will they go? Churches and religious relief organizations are playing a much more active role in U.S. foreign policy. And that has been obvious in recent months in the recovery efforts for the South Asian tsunami and the Pakistan earthquakes. Continue Reading...
February 21, 2006

Schall on wealth and poverty

The Jesuit journal In All Things devoted its Winter 2005-06 issue to the question of poverty in the United States. The issue brings together a number of perspectives from Jesuits, both liberal and conservative. Continue Reading...
February 16, 2006

Remembering Ed Opitz

The Rev. Edmund Opitz, a longtime champion of liberty, passed away on Feb. 11. Rev. Robert A. Sirico, president of the Acton Institute, looks back on Ed’s remarkable life in an article today on National Review Online (also available on the Acton site as a PDF). Continue Reading...
January 20, 2006

Feel-good hybrid hype

Richard Burr has an excellent commentary in the Weekly Standard on the growing — and for some reasons puzzling — popularity of hybrid vehicles. Puzzling because these things don’t get the promised gains in fuel economy and don’t seem to work very well. Continue Reading...
January 06, 2006

Epiphany and creation

Today, Orthodox Christians all over the world are celebrating Epiphany, one of the great feast days of the Eastern Church. Epiphany is, for the Orthodox, the manifestation of the Lord’s divinity and the mystery of the Trinity, the inauguration of the sacrament of baptism, and the beginning of the preaching of the Kingdom of Heaven. Continue Reading...
January 05, 2006

2006 Index of Economic Freedom

The new Heritage Foundation/Wall Street Journal report on economic freedom is out, and the findings couldn’t be more straightforward. “The countries with the most economic freedom also have higher rates of long-term economic growth and are more prosperous than are those with less economic freedom,” the report says. Continue Reading...
December 22, 2005

Come, ye believers!

From the Orthros service (Tone 4) which precedes the Divine Liturgy of St. Basil the Great, celebrated by the Eastern Orthodox churches on December 25, the Nativity of Christ. Come, ye believers, let us see where Christ was born. Continue Reading...