Back in the early seven-
ties, he was exposed to
words, used by progress-

ive, religious academics —
orthodoxy and orthopraxy.
He wasn’t sure what they

meant but he felt really
smart using them. He was
told that academically

oriented divinity schools
and even denominational
seminaries are geared

toward orthodoxy and a
heavy dose of ortho-
praxy was needed to

balance the scales.
Years later, long after
he had ceased using the

words, he learned that
orthopraxy, in his part-
icular circles, was simply

a metaphor for following
Jesus, like St. Francis of
Assisi did and we are all

called to do. Wouldn’t
it have been easier
to say, “Jesus said,

‘Follow me,’ and that
is the way it should
be”? But orthopraxy

is so much more sophist-
icated and we all sound
a whole lot smarter.