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Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > Christianity > Orthodox Churches
The Great Canon has been described as one of the jewels of
Orthodoxy's ascetic spirituality. In the first week of Lent, during
Great Compline, it is sung and declaimed in portions; on Thursday
of the fifth week, during Matins, in its entirety. Throughout,
accompanied by bows or prostrations, the refrain is: Have mercy on
me, O God, have mercy on me. This short, yet full, essay by Olivier
Clement serves as an enriching commentary and guide for reading The
Great Canon of St Andrew of Crete. The author begins the journey
with a study of the meaning of "awakening" and "the fear of God"
the stepping stones toward true repentance. He then follows the
Canon's path of identifying our fallen nature, the passions,
Christ's liberation from sin and death, humility, and asceticism,
and ends with a comparison between the shedding of tears and the
holy chrism of baptism. Clement ultimately encourages us to see
repentance as the key to being fully alive-and The Great Canon as
our roadmap toward becoming alive in Christ. A translation of the
Great Canon accompanies the text.
Patriarch Nikon, the most energetic, creative, influential, and
obstinate of Russia's early religious leaders, dominates this book.
As Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Nikon's most important
initiative was to bring Russian religious rituals into line with
Greek Orthodox tradition, from which Russia's practices had
diverted. Kiev's Monastery of the Caves served as a medium for his
transmission of Greek notions. Nikon and Tsar Alexis I (r.
1645-1676) envisioned Russia's transformed into a new Holy Land.
Eventually, Nikon became a challenger for Imperial authority. While
his reforms endure, failed policies and poor political judgment
were decisive in his fall and in the Patriarchate's reduction in
status. Ultimately, the reforms of Peter the Great (r. 1682-1725)
led to its replacement by a new, government-controlled body, the
Holy Synod, which nevertheless carried out a continuity of Nikon's
policies. This exceptional volume contextualizes Nikon's
Patriarchate as part of the broader continuities in Russian History
and serves as a bridge to the present, where Russia is forging new
relationships between Church and power.
This book explores how traces of the energies and dynamics of
Orthodox Christian theology and anthropology may be observed in the
clinical work of depth psychology. Looking to theology to express
its own religious truths and to psychology to see whether these
truth claims show up in healing modalities, the author creatively
engages both disciplines in order to highlight the possibilities
for healing contained therein. Dynamis of Healing elucidates how
theology and psychology are by no means fundamentally at odds with
each other but rather can work together in a beautiful and powerful
synergia to address both the deepest needs and deepest desires of
the human person for healing and flourishing.
Christianity and monasticism have flourished along the Nile Valley
in the Aswan region of Upper Egypt and in what was once Nubia, from
as early as the fourth century until the present day. The
contributors to this volume, international specialists in Coptology
from around the world, examine various aspects of Coptic
civilization in Aswan and Nubia over the past centuries. The
complexity of Christian identity in Nubia, as distinct from Egypt,
is examined in the context of church ritual and architecture. Many
of the studies explore Coptic material culture: inscriptions, art,
architecture, and archaeology; and language and literature. The
archaeological and artistic heritage of monastic sites in Edfu,
Aswan, Makuria, and Kom Ombo are highlighted, attesting to their
important legacies in the region.
Matthew Briel examines, for the first time, the appropriation and
modification of Thomas Aquinas's understanding of providence by
fifteenth-century Greek Orthodox theologian Gennadios Scholarios.
Briel investigates the intersection of Aquinas's theology, the
legacy of Greek patristic and later theological traditions, and the
use of Aristotle's philosophy by Latin and Greek Christian thinkers
in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. A Greek Thomist
reconsiders our current understanding of later Byzantine theology
by reconfiguring the construction of what constitutes "orthodoxy"
within a pro- or anti-Western paradigm. The fruit of this
appropriation of Aquinas enriches extant sources for historical and
contemporary assessments of Orthodox theology. Moreover,
Scholarios's grafting of Thomas onto the later Greek theological
tradition changes the account of grace and freedom in Thomistic
moral theology. The particular kind of Thomism that Scholarios
develops avoids the later vexing issues in the West of the de
auxiliis controversy by replacing the Augustinian theology of grace
with the highly developed Greek theological concept of synergy. A
Greek Thomist is perfect for students and scholars of Greek
Orthodoxy, Greek theological traditions, and the continued
influence of Thomas Aquinas.
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All Is Well
(Paperback)
Albert S Rossi; Foreword by John Abdalah
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R369
R304
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The only comprehensive critical anthology of theological and
historical aspects related to Florovsky's thought by an
international group of leading academics and church personalities.
It is the only book in English translation of Florovsky's key study
in French - "The Body of the Living Christ: An Orthodox
Interpretation of the Church". The contributors tackle a broad
range of subjects that comprise the theological legacy of one of
the most influential theologians of the twentieth century. The
essays examine the life and work of Florovsky, his theology and
theological methodology, as well as ecclesiology and ecumenism. A
must-have volume for those who study Florovsky and his legacy.
This lucidly written biography of Aleksandr Men examines the
familial and social context from which Men developed as a Russian
Orthodox priest. Wallace Daniel presents a different picture of
Russia and the Orthodox Church than the stereotypes found in much
of the popular literature. Men offered an alternative to the
prescribed ways of thinking imposed by the state and the church.
Growing up during the darkest, most oppressive years in the history
of the former Soviet Union, he became a parish priest who eschewed
fear, who followed Christ's command "to love thy neighbor as
thyself," and who attracted large, diverse groups of people in
Russian society. How he accomplished those tasks and with what
ultimate results are the main themes of this story. Conflict and
controversy marked every stage of Men's priesthood. His parish in
the vicinity of Moscow attracted the attention of the KGB,
especially as it became a haven for members of the intelligentsia.
He endured repeated attacks from ultraconservative, anti-Semitic
circles inside the Orthodox Church. Fr. Men represented the
spiritual vision of an open, non-authoritarian Christianity, and
his lectures were extremely popular. He was murdered on September
9, 1990. For years, his work was unavailable in most church
bookstores in Russia, and his teachings were excoriated by some
both within and outside the church. But his books continue to offer
hope to many throughout the world-they have sold millions of copies
and are testimony to his continuing relevance and enduring
significance. This important biography will appeal to scholars and
general readers interested in religion, politics, and global
affairs.
Based on a constructive reading of Scripture, the apostolic and
patristic traditions and deeply rooted in the sacramental
experience and spiritual ethos of the Orthodox Church, John
Zizioulas offers a timely anthropological and cosmological
perspective of human beings as "priests of creation" in addressing
the current ecological crisis. Given the critical and urgent
character of the global crisis and by adopting a clear line of
argumentation, Zizioulas describes a vision based on a
compassionate and incarnational conception of the human beings as
liturgical beings, offering creation to God for the life of the
world. He encourages the need for deeper interaction with modern
science, from which theology stands to gain an appreciation of the
interconnection of every aspect of materiality and life with
humankind. The result is an articulate and promising vision that
inspires a new ethos, or way of life, to overcome our alienation
from the rest of creation.
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