Elder Joachim Parr has so many good teaching videos on Youtube. On one level his teaching is very simple, but on another level it is incredibly deep and profound. One of the things I like about Elder Parr’s teaching is his insights into the teleological orientation of Biblical ethics. Don’t be scared off by a big word like “teleological” – all I mean by this is that Elder Parr is able to emphasize that Biblical ethics are not arbitrary rules that God happens to require us to live by that might have been otherwise, but the very means by which human beings are able to flourish and realize the ends for which they were created. This is an approach to Christian virtue that is often neglected. The other thing I find helpful about Elder Parr’s teaching is that he is able to connect the dots between Orthodox doctrine and Orthodox living, showing how practical Christian theology actually is. Here is one of Elder Joachim Parr’s excellent videos where he emphasizes some of these themes.
