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Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Orthodox Churches
How do people experience spirituality through what they see, hear,
touch, and smell? Sonja Luehrmann and an international group of
scholars assess how sensory experience shapes prayer and ritual
practice among Eastern Orthodox Christians. Prayer, even when
performed privately, is considered as a shared experience and act
that links individuals and personal beliefs with a broader,
institutional, or imagined faith community. It engages with
material, visual, and aural culture including icons, relics,
candles, pilgrimage, bells, and architectural spaces. Whether
touching upon the use of icons in age of digital and electronic
media, the impact of Facebook on prayer in Ethiopia, or the
implications of praying using recordings, amplifiers, and
loudspeakers, these timely essays present a sophisticated overview
of the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianities. Taken as a whole
they reveal prayer as a dynamic phenomenon in the devotional and
ritual lives of Eastern Orthodox believers across Eastern Europe,
the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia.
John Bushnell's analysis of previously unstudied church records and
provincial archives reveals surprising marriage patterns in Russian
peasant villages in the 18th and 19th centuries. For some villages
the rate of unmarried women reached as high as 70 percent. The
religious group most closely identified with female peasant
marriage aversion was the Old Believer Spasovite covenant, and
Bushnell argues that some of these women might have had more agency
in the decision to marry than more common peasant tradition
ordinarily allowed. Bushnell explores the cataclysmic social and
economic impacts these decisions had on the villages, sometimes
dragging entire households into poverty and ultimate dissolution.
In this act of defiance, this group of socially, politically, and
economically subordinated peasants went beyond traditional acts of
resistance and reaction.
Radical Orthodoxy remains an important movement within Christian
theology, but does it relate effectively with an increasingly
pluralist and secular Western society? Can it authentically
communicate the beauty and desire of the divine to such a diverse
collection of theological accounts of meaning? This book
re-assesses the viability of the social model given by John
Milbank, before attempting an out-narration of this vision with a
more convincing account of the link between the example of the
Trinitarian divine and the created world. It also touches on areas
such as interreligious dialogue, particularly between Christianity
and Islam, as well as social issues such as marginalisation,
integration, and community relations in order to chart a practical
way forward for the living of a Christian life within contemporary
plurality. This is a vital resource for any Theology academic with
an interest in Radical Orthodoxy and conservative post-modern
Christian theology. It will also appeal to scholars involved in
Islamic Studies and studying interreligious dialogues.
Following the end of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church
has canonized a great number of Russian saints. Whereas in the
first millennium of Russian Christianity (988-1988) the Church
recognized merely 300 Russian saints, the number had grown to more
than 2,000 by 2006. This book explores the remarkable phenomenon of
new Russian martyrdom. It outlines the process of canonization,
examines how saints are venerated, and relates all this to the ways
in which the Russian state and its people have chosen to remember
the Soviet Union and commemorate the victims of its purges. The
book includes in-depth case studies of particular saints and
examines the diverse ways in which they are venerated.
Bringing together international scholars from across a range of
linked disciplines to examine the concept of the person in the
Greek Christian East, Personhood in the Byzantine Christian
Tradition stretches in its scope from the New Testament to
contemporary debates surrounding personhood in Eastern Orthodoxy.
Attention is paid to a number of pertinent areas that have not
hitherto received the scholarly attention they deserve, such as
Byzantine hymnography and iconology, the work of early miaphysite
thinkers, as well as the relevance of late Byzantine figures to the
discussion. Similarly, certain long-standing debates surrounding
the question are revisited or reframed, whether regarding the
concept of the person in Maximus the Confessor, or with
contributions that bring patristic and modern Orthodox theology
into dialogue with a variety of contemporary currents in
philosophy, moral psychology, and political science. In opening up
new avenues of inquiry, or revisiting old avenues in new ways, this
volume brings forward an important and on-going discussion
regarding concepts of personhood in the Byzantine Christian
tradition and beyond, and provides a key stimulus for further work
in this field.
From sermons and clerical reports to personal stories of faith,
this book of translated primary documents reveals the lived
experience of Orthodox Christianity in 19th- and early 20th-century
Russia. These documents allow us to hear the voices of educated and
uneducated writers, of clergy and laity, nobles and merchants,
workers and peasants, men and women, Russians and Ukrainians.
Orthodoxy emerges here as a multidimensional and dynamic faith.
Beyond enhancing our understanding of Orthodox Christianity as
practiced in Imperial Russia, this thoughtfully edited volume
offers broad insights into the relationship between religious
narrative and social experience and reveals religion's central
place in the formation of world views and narrative traditions.
This book tells the remarkable story of the decline and revival
of the Russian Orthodox Church in the first half of the twentieth
century and the astonishing U-turn in the attitude of the Soviet
Union s leaders towards the church. In the years after 1917 the
Bolsheviks anti-religious policies, the loss of the former western
territories of the Russian Empire, and the Soviet Union s isolation
from the rest of the world and the consequent separation of Russian
emigres from the church were disastrous for the church, which
declined very significantly in the 1920s and 1930s. However, when
Poland was partitioned in 1939 between Nazi Germany and the Soviet
Union, Stalin allowed the Patriarch of Moscow, Sergei, jurisdiction
over orthodox congregations in the conquered territories and went
on, later, to encourage the church to promote patriotic activities
as part of the resistance to the Nazi invasion. He agreed a
Concordat with the church in 1943, and continued to encourage the
church, especially its claims to jurisdiction over emigre Russian
orthodox churches, in the immediate postwar period. Based on
extensive original research, the book puts forward a great deal of
new information and overturns established thinking on many key
points."
In celebration of the 2021 visit to the University of Notre Dame by
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, as well as the thirtieth
anniversary of his election, this groundbreaking volume gathers
together and introduces eleven important joint statements from the
patriarch, addressing diverse topics from climate change to
ecumenical dialogue. As the spiritual leader of 300 million
Orthodox Christians worldwide, His All-Holiness Bartholomew,
Orthodox Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical
Patriarch, has long been a beacon for strengthening inter-religious
and inter-faith dialogues on the world stage. This volume assembles
eleven joint statements initiated by the ecumenical patriarch with
prominent global Christian leaders, including Pope Francis, Pope
Benedict XVI, Pope St. John Paul II, Archbishop of Canterbury
Justin Welby, and Archbishop Ieronymos II. It also includes
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew's address at Notre Dame upon
receiving an honorary doctorate. The statements address a wide
array of pressing issues, including human rights, the environment,
support of migrants, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the relationship
between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches, frequently
referred to as "sister churches." The book contains a foreword by
John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., president of the University of Notre Dame,
and an introduction by John Chryssavgis, which provides an overview
of the ecumenical patriarch's long ministry and powerful vision,
illustrating his significance both within the Orthodox world as
well as on the world stage. Beyond its testimony to the patriarch's
longstanding commitment to interreligious and inter-Christian
dialogue, this collection of joint statements has the added benefit
of gathering these all-important texts into one convenient place
for the first time.
The Orthodox migration in the West matters, despite its unobtrusive
presence. And it matters in a way that has not yet been explored in
social and religious studies: in terms of size, geographical scope,
theological input and social impact. This book explores the
adjustment of Orthodox migrants and their churches to Western
social and religious contexts in different scenarios. This variety
is consistent with Orthodox internal diversity regarding ethnicity,
migration circumstances, Church-State relations and in line with
the specificities of the receiving country in terms of religious
landscape, degree of secularisation, legal treatment of immigrant
religious institutions or socio-economic configurations. Exploring
how Orthodox identities develop when displaced from traditional
ground where they are socially and culturally embedded, this book
offers fresh insights into Orthodox identities in secular,
religiously pluralistic social contexts.
Life after Death according to the Orthodox Tradition provides an
accessible and well organized synthesis of the ancient Christian
understanding of death and the afterlife. It draws primary from the
Greek language writings of the Fathers of the Church whilst also
bringing in the perspectives of Western Latin sources. Noting that
some divergences between eastern and western traditions have
existed since the fifth century, it argues that these have become
of much greater importance since the twelfth century as the Roman
Catholic Church developed the notion of Purgatory. This work will
be of benefit both to the Orthodox reader who wants to enhance
their own understanding of their Church's teaching, and to Roman
Catholics, Protestants and others who wish to become acquainted
with the fullness of Christian tradition on death and the
afterlife. They will encounter the abundant heritage of the faith
which was once for all delivered to the saints. (Jude 3)
This comprehensive work represents a complete but accessible survey
of everything related to the Orthodox Church's divine services and
is helpfully illustrated throughout. The author begins with a
discussion of the nature and origin of Divine worship. He describes
the church building, the clergy who perform divine services and
their vestments, and the cycles of public worship. The services of
Great Vespers, Matins, and the Divine Liturgy are reviewed in
detail, as are festal services, and different services of need:
Baptism and Chrismation, Confession, Ordination, Matrimony,
Unction, Prayer Services, Monastic Tonsure and Burial, and the
Consecration of a Church. The reader will also find a rare
discussion of the rite of the Coronation and Anointing of the Tsar.
This manual was originally translated and printed before the
Russian Revolution. It is suitable both as an introduction to
Orthodox worship for the inquirer and as a convenient handbook for
those already familiar with the intricacies of Orthodox services.
A discussion of prayer, especially the "Jesus Prayer." Not simply a
presentation of techniques, it emphasizes theology as well as
practice.
In A Philosophy of the Unsayable, William Franke argues that the
encounter with what exceeds speech has become the crucial
philosophical issue of our time. He proposes an original philosophy
pivoting on analysis of the limits of language. The book also
offers readings of literary texts as poetically performing the
philosophical principles it expounds. Franke engages with
philosophical theologies and philosophies of religion in the debate
over negative theology and shows how apophaticism infiltrates the
thinking even of those who attempt to deny or delimit it. In six
cohesive essays, Franke explores fundamental aspects of
unsayability. In the first and third essays, his philosophical
argument is carried through with acute attention to modes of
unsayability that are revealed best by literary works, particularly
by negativities of poetic language in the oeuvres of Paul Celan and
Edmond Jabes. Franke engages in critical discussion of apophatic
currents of philosophy both ancient and modern, focusing on Hegel
and French post-Hegelianism in his second essay and on Neoplatonism
in his fourth essay. He treats Neoplatonic apophatics especially as
found in Damascius and as illuminated by postmodern thought,
particularly Jean-Luc Nancy's deconstruction of Christianity. In
the last two essays, Franke treats the tension between two
contemporary approaches to philosophy of religion-Radical Orthodoxy
and radically secular or Death-of-God theologies. A Philosophy of
the Unsayable will interest scholars and students of philosophy,
literature, religion, and the humanities. This book develops
Franke's explicit theory of unsayability, which is informed by his
long-standing engagement with major representatives of apophatic
thought in the Western tradition.
In this groundbreaking, interdisciplinary study, Andrew Walker
White explores the origins of Byzantine ritual - the rites of the
early Greek Orthodox Church - and its unique relationship with
traditional theatre. Tracing the secularization of pagan theatre,
the rise of rhetoric as an alternative to acting, as well as the
transmission of ancient methods of musical composition into the
Byzantine era, White demonstrates how Christian ritual was in
effect a post-theatrical performing art, created by intellectuals
who were fully aware of traditional theatre but who endeavoured to
avoid it. The book explores how Orthodox rites avoid the aesthetic
appreciation associated with secular art, and conducts an in-depth
study (and reconstruction) of the late Byzantine Service of the
Furnace. Often treated as a liturgical drama, White translates and
delineates the features of five extant versions, to show how and
why it generated widely diverse audience reactions in both medieval
times and our own.
"The Philokalia" is a collection of texts written between the
fourth and the fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the
Orthodox Christian tradition. First published in Greek in 1782,
then translated into Slavonic and later into Russian, " The
Philokalia "has exercised an influence in the recent history of the
Orthodox Church far greater than that of any book apart from the
Bible. It is concerned with themes of universal importance: how man
may develop his inner powers and awake from illusion; how he may
overcome fragmentation and achieve spiritual wholeness; how he may
attain the life of contemplative stillness and union with
God.
Western societies today are coming unmoored in the face of
earth-shaking ethical and cultural paradigm shift. At its core is
the question of what it means to be human and how we are meant to
live. The old answers are no longer accepted; a dizzying array of
options are offered in their stead. Underpinning this smorgasbord
of lifestyles is a thicket of unquestioned assumptions, such as the
separation of gender from biological sex, which not so long ago
would have been universally rejected as radical notions. In the
spring of 2019, a group of Orthodox Christian scholars drawn from a
wide variety of academic disciplines met together to offer
responses to the moral crisis our generation faces, elaborating
upon its various forms and facilitating a fuller understanding of
some of its theological and philosophical foundations. In doing so
they offer support to all those who question the claims that are so
forcefully insisted upon today - a clarity that will aid them in
standing up and resisting trends that have already shown to be the
cause of great suffering and unhappiness. Among the contributors to
this volume are NY Times bestselling author Rod Dreher, Frederica
Matthewes-Green, Dr David Bradshaw, Fr Chad Hatfield, and Fr Peter
Heers. Collectively, these scholars remind us that it is only
through our participation in the life of Christ, God who became
man, that we can find the healing of our humanity through the
restoration in us of His image, in which we were formed at the
beginning of time.
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