Here is the book that converted C. S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity. This history of mankind, Christ, and Christianity is to some extent a conscious rebuttal of H. G. Wells' Outline of History, which embraced both the evolutionary origins of humanity and the mortal humanity of Jesus. Whereas Orthodoxy detailed Chesterton's own spiritual journey, this book illustrates the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization. A book for both mind and spirit.

The Asketikon of St Basil the Great comprises a new English translation and studies which re-examine the emergence of monasticism in Asia Minor. The Regula Basilii, translated by Rufinus from Basil's Small Asketikon, is closely compared with the Greek text of the longer edition, as a means to tracing the development of ideas. Silvas concludes that the antecedents of the monastic community of the Great Asketikon are best sought not in some kind of sub-orthodox modus vivendi of male and female ascetics living together and increasingly curbed by an emerging neo-Nicene orthodoxy less favourable to women ('homoiousian asceticism'), but in the local domestic ascetic movement in Anatolia as typified in the developments at Annisa under the leadership of Makrina.

The volume contains contributions dedicated to the person and the work of Shalva Nutsubidze and his scholarly interests: the Christian Orient from the fifth to the seventh century, the Georgian eleventh century, the Neoplatonic philosopher Ioane Petritsi and his epoch and Shota Rustaveli and mediaeval Georgian culture. Among the articles are a new edition and translation of the original Georgian author's Preface to the lost Commentary on the Psalms by Ioane Petritsi and the editio princeps with an English translation of an epistle of Nicetas Stethatos (eleventh century), whose Greek original is lost. The traditions of Georgian mediaeval thought are considered in their historical context within the Byzantine Commonwealth and are traced in both philosophy and poetry.

This book is a classic in the history of the Oriental Churches, which are sometimes portrayed as heretical in general church history books, if mentioned at all. Written by a Copt, it portrays the history of the faith of these non-Chalcedonian Churches with first-hand knowledge of their traditions. The author covers Alexandrine Christianity (the Copts and the Ethiopians), the Church of Antioch (Syriac Orthodox), the "Nestorian" Church of the East, the Armenian Church, the St. Thomas Christians of South India, the Maronite Church, as well as the Vanished Churches of Carthage, Pentapolis, and Nubia.

With a combination of essay-length and short entries written by a team of leading religious experts, the two-volume En cyclopedia of Eastern Orthodoxy offers the most comprehensive guide to the cultural and intellectual world of Eastern Orthodox Christianity available in English today. * An outstanding reference work providing the first English language multi-volume account of the key historical, liturgical, doctrinal features of Eastern Orthodoxy, including the Non-Chalcedonian churches * Explores of the major traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy in detail, including the Armenian, Byzantine, Coptic, Ethiopic, Slavic, Romanian, Syriac churches * Uniquely comprehensive, it is edited by one of the leading scholars in the field and provides authoritative but accessible articles by a range of top international academics and Orthodox figures * Spans the period from Late Antiquity to the present, encompassing subjects including history, theology, liturgy, monasticism, sacramentology, canon law, philosophy, folk culture, architecture, archaeology, martyrology, hagiography, all alongside a large and generously detailed prosopography * Structured alphabetically and topically cross-indexed, with entries ranging from 100 to 6,000 words

What were the historical and cultural processes by which Cyril of Alexandria was elevated to canonical status while his opponent, Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, was made into a heretic? In contrast to previous scholarship, Susan Wessel concludes that Cyril's success in being elevated to orthodox status was not simply a political accomplishment based on political alliances he had fashioned as opportunity arose. Nor was it a dogmatic victory, based on the clarity and orthodoxy of Cyril's doctrinal claims. Instead, it was his strategy in identifying himself with the orthodoxy of the former bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius, in his victory over Arianism, in borrowing Athanasius' interpretive methods, and in skilfully using the tropes and figures of the second sophistic that made Cyril a saint in the Greek and Coptic Orthodox Churches.

The History of the Za'faran Monastery is for the first time offered in English translation to the readers. It was written in 1917 by Patriarch Ignatius Aphram Barsoum (d. 1957) when he was still a monk at the monastery. The book details the history of the monastery from its inception until modern times. It deals with with everything, from construction to its significance as a center of Syriac learning and learned men. Without this small book, the first of its kind, a great and significant page of the history of the Syrian Church of Antioch would have been lamentably lost.

The contemporary Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) is in a paradoxical situation: On all levels of Church life, new practices and concepts are considered to belong to Orthodox tradition, yet at the same time Orthodoxy is regarded as the most "unchangeable" and normative of the Christian confessions. So what makes tradition? The nineteen contributions in this volume examine the ambiguities and complexities created by the dynamic between tradition and innovation within the ROC in relation to the fundamental tenets of Orthodoxy. By this focus, the volume offers new insights and highlights the question how to define (Orthodox) Tradition. It addresses "unorthodox" topics of Orthodox paradoxes. Contributors include: Tatiana Artemyeva, Alexei Beglov, Wil van den Bercken, Per-Arne Bodin, Page Herrlinger, Nadieszda Kizenko, Anastasia Mitrofanova, Stella Rock, and Alexander Verkhovsky.

This is the first modern study in English of the life and thought of the ninth-century Byzantine theologian and monastic reformer, Theodore the Stoudite. Cholij analyses Theodore's letters and religious writings in context in order to reach new conclusions concerning the religious and secular issues which engaged him in controversy. This analysis develops a new definition of the origins of the Orthodox sacramental tradition.

Almost forty years after the publication of Hobsbawm and Ranger's The Invention of Tradition, the subject of invented traditions-cultural and historical practices that claim a continuity with a distant past but which are in fact of relatively recent origin-is still relevant, important, and highly contentious. Invented Traditions in North and South Korea examines the ways in which compressed modernity, Cold War conflict, and ideological opposition has impacted the revival of traditional forms in both Koreas. The volume is divided thematically into sections covering: (1) history, religions, (2) language, (3) music, food, crafts, and finally, (4) space. It includes chapters on pseudo-histories, new religions, linguistic politeness, literary Chinese, p'ansori, heritage, North Korean food, architecture, and the invention of children's pilgrimages in the DPRK. As the first comparative study of invented traditions in North and South Korea, the book takes the reader on a journey through Korea's epic twentieth century, examining the revival of culture in the context of colonialism, decolonization, national division, dictatorship, and modernization. The book investigates what it describes as "monumental" invented traditions formulated to maintain order, loyalty, and national identity during periods of political upheaval as well as cultural revivals less explicitly connected to political power. Invented Traditions in North and South Korea demonstrates that invented traditions can teach us a great deal about the twentieth-century political and cultural trajectories of the two Koreas. With contributions from historians, sociologists, folklorists, scholars of performance, and anthropologists, this volume will prove invaluable to Koreanists, as well as teachers and students of Korean and Asian studies undergraduate courses.

In Zinoviy Otenskiy and the Trinitarian Controversy, Viacheslav V. Lytvynenko and Mikhail V. Shpakovskiy offer the first English edition of two major Slavic works written by the eminent Russian theologian Zinoviy Otenskiy (d. 1571/2). The selected texts represent our chief source on the Trinitarian controversy in sixteenth-century Russia and reveal Zinoviy as a man of profound theological thinking and Biblical exegesis. The authors provide a detailed and welcome overview of the history of the Trinitarian controversy and the role that Zinoviy played in it. The readers will find here a comprehensive discussion of the issues related to the history of the edited texts, Zinoviy's sources, and his doctrines of the Trinity, Christ, and salvation.

The Russian Orthodox Church has survived more than seventy years of the most brutal and sustained attempts to eradicate religion that has ever been. Weakened but spiritually alive, it is confronted by the demands of a ravaged, exhausted society. Can it, however, find the resources and energy to respond to these demands? Jane Ellis describes the developments and problems in the Russian Orthodox Church under glasnost and especially since the new freedoms were granted following the millennium celebrations of 1988. New opportunities mean new challenges and demand huge new resources. Old problems in the form of close State and KGB contacts remain, and new problems in the form of competition from other denominations and sects arise. Traditionally the Orthodox Church has enjoyed a 'symphony' with the State. However are unhealthy links with the KGB and the communist past still damaging the Church. Is it in danger of becoming a state church?

This book examines the function and development of the cult of saints in Coptic Egypt, focusing primarily on the material provided by the texts forming the Coptic hagiographical tradition of the early Christian martyr Philotheus of Antioch, and more specifically, the Martyrdom of St Philotheus of Antioch (Pierpont Morgan M583). This Martyrdom is a reflection of a once flourishing cult which is attested in Egypt by rich textual and material evidence. This text enjoyed great popularity not only in Egypt, but also in other countries of the Christian East, since his dossier includes texts in Coptic, Georgian, Ethiopic, and Arabic.

In this book, Bushkovitch traces the evolution of religious attitudes in an important transitional period in Russian history, the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Concentrating on the attitudes of the court and elite of Russian society, he explores the effects of the gradual decline of Monastic spirituality, the rise of miracle cults, and the redefinition of Orthodoxy in the seventeenth century. Around 1650, preaching and a moral reformation of the individual believer began to displace the predominant miracle cults and rituals. Centered at first in the court of Tsar Aleksei, these changes began to spread into society at large by the end of the seventeenth century. This redefinition of Orthodoxy created a religion that stressed virtue more than revelation, and thus prepared the ground for the secularization of Russian culture in Peter the Great's time. Using unpublished manuscript material as well as early printed books, Bushkovitch demonstrates that this period was far from the stable (or stagnant) era of Slavophile myth, but a time of continuous and often rapid change. Discussing areas never before researched (such as miracle cults), he not only skillfully reconstructs these rapid and fundamental changes in the Russian religious experience, but also shows how they were influenced by European religious ideas and how they foreshadowed the secularization of Russian society.

The Russian church is central to an understanding of early Russian and Slav history, but for many years there has been no accessible, up-to-date introduction to the subject in English - until now. The late John Fennell's last book, is a masterly survey of the development, nature and role of the early Church in Russia from Christianization of the country in 988, through Kievan and Tatar poeriods to 1448 when the Russian Church finally became totally independent of its mother-church in Byzantium.

The Ukrainian Cossacks became famous as ferocious warriors, their fighting skills developed in their religious wars against the Tartars, Turks, Poles, and Russians. In this pioneering study, Serhii Plokhy examines the confessionalization of religious life in the early modern period, and shows how Cossack involvement in the religious struggle between Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism helped shape not only Ukrainian but also Russian and Polish cultural identities.

The Syriac writers of Qatar themselves produced some of the best and most sophisticated writing to be found in all Syriac literature of the seventh century, but they have not received the scholarly attention that they deserve in the last half century. This volume seeks to redress this underdevelopment by setting the standard for further research in the sub-field of Beth Qatraye studies.

The classic exploration of Syriac liturgical melodies, the work of Dom Jeannin has no rivals. Beginning with a discussion of the nature of Beth Gazo, the treasury of chants, this work provides a careful introduction to the various types of liturgical music found in the church. Homilies in strophic form, the popular poetry of the fifth-century qole, antiphonal psalms, anthems, melismatic hymns or litanies, and melodies from Mosul are just part of the service music and hymnody discussed in the introduction and presented with their melodies in Syriac.

Since the Mediterranean connects cultures, Mediterranean studies have by definition an intercultural focus. Throughout the modern era, the Ottoman Empire has had a lasting impact on the cultures and societies of the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean. However, the modern Balkans are usually studied within the context of European history, the southern Mediterranean within the context of Islam. Although it makes sense to connect both regions, this is a vast field and requires a command of different languages not necessarily related to each other. Investigating both Greek and Arabic sources, this book will shed some light on the significance of ideas in the political transitions of their time and how the proponents of these transitions often became so overwhelmed by the events that they helped trigger adjustments to their own ideas. Also, the discourses in Greek and Arabic reflect the provinces of the Ottoman Empire and it is instructive to see their differences and commonalities which helps explain contemporary politics.

The classic exploration of Syriac liturgical melodies, the work of Dom Jeannin has no rivals. Beginning with a discussion of the nature of Beth Gazo, the treasury of chants, this work provides a careful introduction to the various types of liturgical music found in the church. Homilies in strophic form, the popular poetry of the fifth-century qole, antiphonal psalms, anthems, melismatic hymns or litanies, and melodies from Mosul are just part of the service music and hymnody discussed in the introduction and presented with their melodies in Syriac.