Dr. Zachary Porcu
PhD in Church History
Catholic University of America
Dr. Zachary Porcu has worked in various roles as a theologian, including as a professor of theology and history at the University of Saint Katherine in San Marcos, California. He has a PhD in church history from the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, with additional degrees in philosophy, humanities, and Classics (Greek and Latin). You can follow his publications and talks at ZacharyPorcu.com.
Zachary is also part of an indie game company called MythweaverGames, a company focused on recapturing the authentic experience of folk storytelling and myth. Read about their philosophy of folk storytelling.
An interview with Dr. Zachary Porcu
Holy Ground: Are you a Christian, and what does that mean to you?
Dr. Zachary Porcu: I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian. Orthodoxy is one of the oldest kinds of Christianity, grounded in what we call Apostolic Tradition — the collected teachings of Christ’s original apostles.
Holy Ground: Who is someone in your life that has helped your faith in God?
Porcu: The priest at my current parish church, Fr. Josiah Trenham, has been a wonderful spiritual guide to me and my wife. He baptized and married us and has continued to be a source of great encouragement and counsel.
Holy Ground: What is your hope in writing theology?
Porcu: My hope is to help people understand what is actually the most important subject of all. Most people think of religion as merely a matter of personal preference or taste, but your religion is really the question of ultimate reality: what is the universe? What does it mean? What is our place in it? These are the most important questions of all and depending on the answer, they affect everything else about our lives — from politics to entertainment.
Holy Ground: Who is your favorite theologian or theology book?
Porcu: As a teenager I discovered the works of CS Lewis and he was a big influence on my spiritual growth. His fiction in particular affected me very deeply, as he presented a world of beauty and meaning that I hadn’t really encountered in the religions I had been exposed to growing up.
Holy Ground: What theology do you wish regular Christians today could learn and internalize?
Porcu: My hope is that regular Christians today will be able to understand the beauty and power of sacramental theology—the deep, ancient ideas that under-gird things like baptism, communion, the liturgy, and iconography. Orthodox Christianity—and traditional Catholicism—is saturated with this way of being, but even people raised in those traditions sometimes have a hard time understanding their meaning. To help my college students understand these ideas better, I wrote a short book that breaks these hard ideas down into simple, engaging language. The book is called Journey to Reality: Sacramental Life in a Secular Age, and it’s available on AncientFaith.com.
Featured articles by
Dr. Zachary Porcu
Are there aliens in the Bible?
Why stay away from the Book of Enoch
