Welcome to the website of Edith M. Humphrey, William F. Orr Professor Emerita of New Testament (Pittsburgh Theological Seminary), Orthodox Christian, and grandmother of 23 children.
Originally from Canada, she and her husband Chris have lived in Pittsburgh since 2002. Though retired, she continues to write and to teach in various milieux, and enjoys playing piano duos with a good friend. Her academic interests include visionary biblical literature, C. S. Lewis, theological anthropology, and patristic reception of the Bible, represented in numerous articles and 10 books, several of which have been translated into Russian. Currently she has celebrated the release of Mediation and the Immediate God: Scriptures, the Church, and Knowing God (SVS Press, June, 2023), and is rejoicing in the publication of her second children’s novel, Down the Valley (Cascade Imprint, January 2024).
A Personal Blog
What’s going on in my life that I’m happy to share.
New Release! A novel of faith, family, and fantasy for ages 9-15.
$19.00 Available now at Amazon and Wipf and Stock Press (Cascade Books)
Mediation and the Immediate God: Scriptures, the Church, and Knowing God
$21.00 – Available now at SVS Press
Mediation and the Immediate God pursues a long-debated question: How can we say both that God has a direct relationship with each Christian, and that He uses others in order to bring us to health and glory? I explore the ubiquity of mediation in the Christian life, and in life in general, as well as the paradox of mediation alongside the Christian confidence that each of us can be directly “taught by God” because of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Mediation is understood best as an ecclesial matter (showing the nature of the Church) and not as part of a soteriological debate.
Beyond the White Fence
“Simple and deep – like all great children’s books – this book is also rich in history and faith. I can’t wait to place it in the hands of my grandchildren.”
–Scott W. Hahn, Founder & President of the St. Paul Center; Author of The Lamb’s Supper; Scanlan Professor of Biblical Theology, Franciscan University of Steubenville
Explore Edith’s Writings
Books for both popular and academic audiences.
A Lamp for Today
Understanding the Old Testament with Jesus and the Apostles.
Speaking Engagements and Interviews
Recordings and papers from past speaking engagements and how you can invite Edith to speak at your event.
Edith M. Humphrey 
Dr. Humphrey, I have greatly appreciated your book Grand Entrance. I teach adjunct at a small school in northern Minnesota and have been looking for a book that explains this world that is so far removed from our own. I have a question for you. One thing the book does not address but I see the potential for in your definition of worship on page 4, how does the spiritual life intersect with worship? The individual life participates in the worshiping community but how do spiritual disciplines fit into worship? I hope my question makes sense. Would love your insight if you are willing and able to entertain my question. God bless!
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Dear Corban:
What a wonderful name! (The last name, too: I was born McEwan). It is very good to make your acquaintance. My purpose in the book was mostly to address corporate worship, you are correct. But indeed I have something to say also about personal prayer life on pages 11-17, where I argue that though our prayers with the LORD are intimate, they are never fully PRIVATE, for we belong to the Body of Christ. As an Orthodox Christian, the spiritual disciplines include for me hours of prayer, learning to be still before the LORD with the help of “the Jesus Prayer” (“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner”), repentance and confession, thanksgiving, intercession for others, regular participation in the Lord’s Supper, and fasting. Some of these have a distinctly personal aspect, but they are connected with the entire family of Christ, in their own way. If you are interested in what I have written about the Christian spiritual life, you might want to read _Ecstasy and Intimacy: When the Holy Spirit Meets the Human Spirit_, and also (but a more narrow topic!) my most recent _Mediation and the Immediate God: Scriptures, the Church, and Knowing God._ The first, Ecstasy and Intimacy, is directly on what you are asking, and the second lifts up our mutual life with each other. Please do keep in touch! And thank you for your encouragement!
Your sister in Christ, Edith
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Hello Edith, we have had a few email exchanges some years ago. I would like to write to you about a few things – not business, just friendly and about Orthodoxy, your Ancient Faith blog and your writings. Do I use the PTS email address for that ? Kind regards, Lesley
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LEsley, I do not remember I I responded to you on this. If not, my apologies. If so, then I am still at ehumphrey@pts.edu
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I read an essay you wrote in Healing Humanity. As a professed Orthodox Christian, why are you a disciple of C.S. Lewis? You should convert to the Anglican Church. Don’t your 9 boundaries put a limit on mystery (mystery can’t be quantified by any number of boundaries)? Mystery is ineffable, is it not? You need to read the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite to understand the splendid mystery of the Trinity, allowing us to stray beyond what we know, into an ultimate unknowing. Moreover, the only thing you’re “safeguarding” us from is the direct mysteries revealed to us in the teaching tradition of the Orthodox Church itself, through the Sacraments, and Holy Scripture. You are over analyzing the simplicity of revealed mystery, just like all the post modern pundits do at present. I’ll exit by quoting Archpriest Peter Heers, from the essay he wrote right after yours in the same book: “Therefore, anyone, no matter the rank, who sets aside the sacred deposit if faith, far from improving on or updating the Lord’s teaching, simply makes himself irrelevant”. You are not setting aside the deposit of faith per say, but you’re laying down the path leading away from the deposit of faith, by trying to prove too much that is extraneous to the deposit of faith! So no, your not rejecting Christ’s Church, teachings, or commandments, but you analogize, try to improve upon, and are 9 steps removed from accepting “every word of the Word” (Heers), of Christ Jesus, revealed through His mysterious incarnation as the God-Man . . .
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Sammy, I am sorry that I did not see this until recently. I think you do not mean that I should join the Anglicans (whom I left for the apostolic Orthodox church, though I retain many friends there). After all, it seems that you believe the Orthodox Church to be the true Church, so why would you ever counsel anyone to leave her? I certainly would not.
Perhaps you are worried that I make use of Lewis. That is too bad, for the Holy Spirit, who is “everywhere present,” can speak through those who are not (yet) Orthodox. And, of course, we would not presume to say what Lewis now understands about the Church, since he is no longer with us. I am not his disciple, but I learned much about Christ, the Bible, and theology from him, as have others in Orthodoxy. Fr. Thomas Hopko considers his essay “The Abolition of Man” is the single most important writing to explain the flawed mindset of today, and claim the foundational truth of Christ.
Of course, I would never use Lewis’s reasoning on ecclesiology, since he was a Protestant, and misunderstood, in some ways, the nature of the Church, subscribing to a kind of “branch theory.” But he had plenty of important things to say, and he is worth reading on other things.
I would like to know precisely what you see to be problematic in the 9 boundaries that I suggest, rather than just hearing you reject the idea of negative boundaries. Yes, our faith is mysterious! Indeed, I introduce the 9 boundaries by saying that they are intended to help us see “where our reason cannot take us.” One of the ways that the fathers spoke about mystery is by using the negative way, which I do here. We struggle to use words to speak of the Trinity, and indeed to speak of the mystery of humanity. And so sometimes negative sentences help! We see this in the Creed, where we speak of the Son being “begotten, NOT made,” and in other patristic works where God is described as uncircumscribed, without a body, uncreated, and so on. That is what I am trying to do with these 9 boundaries, to show, from what we have learned in Scripture and Holy Tradition, what we CANNOT say and remain Orthodox–that is, to prevent heresy in our talk about male and female, and in how we speak about the triune God.
If you can show where any one of my 9 boundaries departs from Scripture and Holy Tradition, then I will gladly hear you! But you simply say that these 9 statements remove me from accepting the Word, and that they inhibit mystery. Actually, they are built UPON words from Scripture and the fathers, or at least that was my aim. And indeed, several of the boundaries are “opposite” to each other showing the mystery: “We cannot say that the relations of Father, Son, and Spirit are symmetrical, nor can we say that they are not mutual and equal.” For example, the Father begets the Son, but not vice versa (they are not symmetrical), and yet one must NEVER deny the divinity of either, nor their mutual existence. This is simply creedal and patristic.
So, I would want to know how the “path” that I have laid down leads away from the deposit of faith. My concern was to help to describe it and show where we might stray from it. If the 9 boundaries are not helpful to you, that’s fine–they are just suggestions. But just to assert that they are false, without showing how, is not helpful.
Your sister in Christ, and decidedly Orthodox,
Edith
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Many thanks for your discerning position as excerpted on “The LGBT agenda in western Orthodoxy” YT vlog. ”Wise as serpents and innocent as doves” is called for in that debate setting and needs to be honed by Orthodox participants so as not to concede the ground before the discussion has even begun. Your voice, to my ear, struck the right note on how to avoid entering the debate unprepared.
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Thank you, friend. This is not my first rodeo, as I was involved in Anglican “dialogue” from about 1984 until 2008. I am sorry that this has come to Orthodox circles, too, and (quite honestly) there are no new arguments, just more arguments that try to involve the fathers as well as the Scriptures. Sadly, some of our scholars are more inventive than faithful, but the bishops appear to be aware, and holding for both love and righteousness. We must pray for them!
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