Sex is a difficult issue for contemporary Christians, but the past decade has witnessed a newfound openness regarding the topic among Eastern Orthodox Christians. Both the theological trajectory and the historical circumstances of the Orthodox Church differ radically from those of other Christian denominations that have already developed robust and creative reflections on sexuality and sexual diversity. Within its unique history, theology, and tradition, Orthodox Christianity holds rich resources for engaging challenging questions of sexuality in new and responsive ways. What is at stake in questions of sexuality in the Orthodox tradition? What sources and theological convictions can uniquely shape Orthodox understandings of sexuality? This volume aims to create an agora for discussing sex, and not least the sexualities that are often thought of as untraditional in Orthodox contexts. Through fifteen distinct chapters, written by leading scholars and theologians, this book offers a developed treatment of sexuality in the Orthodox Christian world by approaching the subject from scriptural, patristic, theological, historical, and sociological perspectives. Chapters devoted to practical and pastoral insights, as well as reflections on specific cultural contexts, engage the human realities of sexual diversity and Christian life. From re-thinking scripture to developing theologies of sex, from eschatological views of eros to re-evaluations of the Orthodox responses to science, this book offers new thinking on pressing, present-day issues and initiates conversations about homosexuality and sexual diversity within Orthodox Christianity.

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.

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.

An icon (from the Greek word eikon, "image") is a wooden panel painting of a holy person or scene from Orthodox Christianity, the religion of the Byzantine Empire that is practiced today mainly in Greece and Russia. It was believed that these works acted as intermediaries between worshipers and the holy personages they depicted. Their pictorial language is stylized and primarily symbolic, rather than literal and narrative. Indeed, every attitude, pose, and colour depicted in an icon has a precise meaning, and their painters - usually monks - followed prescribed models from iconographic manuals. The goal of this book is to catalogue the vast heritage of images according to iconographic type and subject, from the most ancient at the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai to those from Greece, Constantinople, and Russia. Chapters focus on the role of icons in the Orthodox liturgy and on common iconic subjects, including the fathers and saints of the Eastern Church and the life of Jesus and his followers. As with other volumes in the "Guide to Imagery Series", this book includes a wealth of color illustrations in which details are called out for discussion. This is a new title in the popular Guide "To Imagery series", and includes 400 colour illustrations; and over 380 pages.

In this sweeping history, Alexander Kitroeff shows how the Greek Orthodox Church in America has functioned as much more than a religious institution, becoming the focal point in the lives of the country's million-plus Greek immigrants and their descendants. Assuming the responsibility of running Greek-language schools and encouraging local parishes to engage in cultural and social activities, the church became the most important Greek American institution and shaped the identity of Greeks in the United States. Kitroeff digs into these traditional activities, highlighting the American church's dependency on the "mother church," the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the use of Greek language in the Sunday liturgy. Today, as this rich biography of the church shows us, Greek Orthodoxy remains in between the Old World and the New, both Greek and American.

"...for the last time the former rulers of their own home had gathered to fervently pray, tearfully, and on bended knee, imploring that the Lord help and intercede for them in all of their sorrows and misfortunes." Thus the Archpriest Afanasy Belyaev described the faith and piety of the Russian Imperial family, whom he served as priest and confessor, on the occasion of the Tsarevich's thirteenth birthday. These selected excerpts from the chaplain's diary open a window into the souls of the now sainted Royal Family and the struggles endured in their first five months of confinement following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II in early 1917. Russian cultural historian Marilyn Pfeifer Swezey sets the diary in its historical context and offers an epilogue to complete the story of the Romanov's journey to martyrdom at the hands of a Bolshevik firing squad in a Siberian basement. Also included is a short life of Fr Afanasy and biographical information regarding the various persons appearing in the work. This anniversary edition has been copiously illustrated throughout with color and black and white photos (some rarely or never published before) as well as charts and maps.

Severos, patriarch of Antioch, was one of the most important ecclesiastical figures of the first half of the sixth century, a time when the reception, or not, of the Council of Chalcedon (451) was still a matter of much dispute. As an opponent of the Council, Severos had to flee from his patriarchal see to Egypt in 518 when Justin came to the throne and imperial policy changed. Summoned by Justinian to Constantinople in 536, he won over Anthimos, the patriarch of Constantinople, but in the reaction to this unexpected turn of events, both he and Anthimos were anathematised at a synod in the capital and his writings were condemned to be burnt. Regarded as a schismatic by the Greek and Latin Church, he is commemorated as a saint in the Syrian Orthodox Church, and so it is only in Syriac translations from Greek that the majority of his voluminous writings are preserved. The first of the two biographies translated in this volume was written by Zacharias, a fellow law student in Beirut. The purpose of the work was to counter a hostile pamphlet and it happens to shed fascinating light on student life at the time; composed during Severos' own lifetime, it covers up to his election as patriarch in 512; the second biography comprises Severos' whole life, and its author, writing only shortly after Severos' death in 538, was probably a monk of the monastery of Qenneshre, on the Euphrates, a stronghold of Severos' supporters. In this volume for the Translated Texts for Historians series, the Anonymous Life of Severos is translated for the first time into English alongside a fully annotated translation of the Life of Severos by Zacharias scholastikos, all of which is preceded by an introduction providing the historical setting and background.

This book is about the Christ Pantokrator, an imposing monumental complex serving monastic, dynastic, medical and social purposes in Constantinople, founded by Emperor John II Komnenos and Empress Piroska-Eirene in 1118. Now called the Zeyrek Mosque, the second largest Byzantine religious edifice after Hagia Sophia still standing in Istanbul represents the most remarkable architectural and the most ambitious social project of the Komnenian dynasty. This volume approaches the Pantokrator from a special perspective, focusing on its co-founder, Empress Piroska-Eirene, the daughter of the Hungarian king Ladislaus I. This particular vantage point enables its authors to explore not only the architecture, the monastic and medical functions of the complex, but also Hungarian-Byzantine relations, the cultural and religious history of early medieval Hungary, imperial representation, personal faith and dynastic holiness. Piroska's wedding with John Komnenos came to be perceived as a union of East and West. The life of the Empress, a "sainted ruler," and her memory in early Arpadian Hungary and Komnenian Byzantium are discussed in the context of women and power, monastic foundations, architectural innovations, and spiritual models.

This volume contains a selection of papers read at an international colloquium on the way Eastern and Oriental Christianity has accommodated itself to a Diaspora situation. The colloquium was held at the KU Leuven in December 2016. Contributors have focused on liturgical issues (B. Groen, D. Galadza), ecclesiological and juridical questions (A. Kaptijn, V. Pnevmatikakis), the way the Orthodox churches are trying to adapt to these and other challenges of modern West-European and North American society as this was addressed in the recent Council of Crete (P. Kalaitzidis, P. Vlaicu), and the attitude of Middle Eastern Diaspora Christians towards Islam (A. Schmoller). In an epilogue, one also gets an inside view on a recent initiative to establish a theological seminar for Syriac speaking Christians (A. Shemunkasho).

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."

Marcus Pasha Simaika (1864-1944) was born to a prominent Coptic family on the eve of the inauguration of the Suez Canal and the British occupation of Egypt. From a young age, he developed a passion for Coptic heritage and devoted his life to shedding light on centuries of Christian Egyptian history that had been neglected by ignorance or otherwise belittled and despised. He was not a professional archaeologist, an excavator, or a specialist scholar of Coptic language and literature. Rather, his achievement lies in his role as a visionary administrator who used his status to pursue relentlessly his dream of founding a Coptic Museum and preserving endangered monuments. During his lengthy career, first as a civil servant, then as a legislator and member of the Coptic community council, he maneuvered endlessly between the patriarch and the church hierarchy, the Coptic community council, the British authorities, and the government to bring them together in his fight to save Coptic heritage. This fascinating biography draws upon Simaika's unpublished memoirs as well as on other documents and photographs from the Simaika family archive to deepen our understanding of several important themes of modern Egyptian history: the development of Coptic archaeology and heritage studies, Egyptian-British interactions during the colonial and semi-colonial eras, shifting balances in the interaction of clergymen and the lay Coptic community, and the ever-sensitive evolution of relations between Copts and their Muslim countrymen.

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.

Orthodox Christianity is one of the world's major religions, and the Russian Orthodox Church is by far its largest denomination. Few know its history and spiritual richness, however. Neil Kent's comprehensive new book fills that gap. The Russian Orthodox Church's Eastern roots, including its dogma, canons, and practices, are explored, along with the political and military contexts in which it carried out its mission over the centuries. Hemmed in between the Catholic powers of pre-Reformation Europe in the West, the Mongol steppe empires to the East, and the Islamic civilizations to the South, Russia and its Church found themselves in a difficult position during the Middle Ages. The Russian Orthodox Church's greatest strength was in the spiritual power of its liturgy, prayerfulness, icons, and monastic life. But even as the Church consolidated its authority under its own metropolitan, and later patriarch, it came into conflict with political rulers who sought to undermine it. After defeating foreign challenges, the Church underwent a painful reformation and schism, finally coming under government control. The Church survived this "Babylonian Captivity," and, in philosophical and spiritual terms, flourished under tsarist rule while still facing rising opposition. The fall of the monarchy in 1917 led to the Church's brief rejuvenation, but communist rule spelled relentless persecution with little respite at home and a lively emigre church carrying Russian traditions abroad. In post-Soviet times, however, the Church enjoyed an extraordinary resurrection and, benefiting from the spiritual richness and reunion with the Russian Orthodox Church abroad, once again became a spiritual pillar of the Russian people and a beacon of hope and Christian values, not only in Russia but anywhere it is currently practiced.

Dr Jean-Claude Larchet, renowned for his examinations of the causes and consequences of spiritual and physical illness, here tackles the pressing question of the societal and personal effects of our societal use of new media. The definition of new media is broad - from radio to smart phones - and the analysis of their impact is honest and straightforward. His meticulous diagnosis of their effects concludes with a discussion of the ways individuals might limit and counteract the most deleterious effects of this new epidemic.

The Papacy and the Orthodox examines the centuries-long debate over the primacy and authority of the Bishop of Rome, especially in relation to the Christian East, and offers a comprehensive history of the debate and its underlying theological issues. Edward Siecienski begins by looking at the sources of the debate, analyzing the history and texts that have long divided the Catholic and Orthodox world, and ends by examining the Second Vatican Council and recent attempts at dialogue on the issue of the primacy. Starting with the historical Apostle Peter and the role he played in the early church, the book turns to the evidence long used in arguments for and against the Roman primacy. Siecienski details the 2000-year history of the papacy's reception-and rejection-among the Orthodox, beginning with the question that continues to bedevil ecumenists: what was the role of the Bishop of Rome during the time of the undivided church? Although Eastern attitudes towards the papacy often differed depending on time and place, by the time the First Vatican Council (1870) defined the pope's infallibility and universal jurisdiction-doctrines the Orthodox vehemently rejectedit was clear that the papacy, long seen by Catholics as the ministry of unity, had become the chief obstacle to it. Siecienski masterfully brings together all of the biblical, patristic, and historical material necessary to understand this longstanding debate. This book is an invaluable resource as both Catholics and Orthodox continue to reexamine the sources and history of the debate.

Although much has been written on the making of art objects as a means of engaging in creative productions of the self (most famously Alfred Gell's work), there has been very little written on Orthodox Christianity and its use of material within religious self-formation. Eastern Orthodox Christianity is renowned for its artistry and the aesthetics of its worship being an integral part of devout practice. Yet this is an area with little ethnographic exploration available and even scarcer ethnographic attention given to the material culture of Eastern Christianity outside the traditional 'homelands' of the greater Levant and Eastern Europe. Drawing from and building upon Gell's work, Carroll explores the uses and purposes of material culture in Eastern Orthodox Christian worship. Drawing on three years of ethnographic fieldwork in a small Antiochian Orthodox parish in London, Carroll focusses on a study of ecclesiastical fabric but places this within the wider context of Orthodox material ecology in Britain. This ethnographic exploration leads to discussion of the role of materials in the construction of religious identity, material understandings of religion, and pathways of pilgrimatic engagement and religious movement across Europe. In a religious tradition characterised by repetition and continuity, but also as sensuously tactile, this book argues that material objects are necessary for the continual production of Orthodox Christians as art-like subjects. It is an important contribution to the corpus of literature on the anthropology of material culture and art and the anthropology of religion.

Islam and the Orthodox Church in contemporary Russia are usually studied in isolation from each other, and each in relation to the Kremlin; the latter demands the development of a home-grown and patriotic 'religious traditionalism, as a bulwark against subversive 'non-traditional' imports. This volume breaks new ground by focusing on charismatic missionaries from both religions who bypass the hierarchies of their respective faith organizations and challenge the 'traditionalism' paradigm from within Russia's many religious traditions, and who give new meanings to the well-known catchwords of Russia's identity discourse. The Moscow priest Daniil Sysoev confronted the Russian Orthodox Church with 'Uranopolitism', a spiritual vision that defies patriotism and nationalism; the media-savvy Geidar Dzhemal projected an 'Islamic Eurasianism' and a world revolution for which Russia's Muslims would provide the vanguard; and the Islamic terrorist Said Buriatskii found respect among left- and right-wing Russians through his Islamic adaptation of Lev Gumilev's 'passionarity' paradigm. On the other side, Russian experts and journalists who propagate the official paradigm of Russia's 'traditional Islam' argue from either Orthodox or secularist perspectives, and fail to give content to the concept. This allows even moderate Salafis to argue that their creed is Russia's real 'traditionalist' Islam. This book was originally published as a special issue of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations.

"This new translation of the Pistis Sophia ... brings clarity to the Gnostic myth of the exile of feminine wisdom whose dwelling place is with the people. Her story, like that of the Hebrew Shekinah and of Mary Magdalene herself, is the story of the exclusion of the sacred feminine over millennia of human history and its eventual restoration to a place of honor." -Margaret Starbird, author of The Woman with the Alabaster Jar and The Goddess in the Gospels. "Sophia (the world soul) fell from her place in the heavens to the chaos below..." Sophia is among the most haunting and mysterious figures in Western spirituality. She is also one of the great symbols of the divine feminine in world civilization. The personification of divine Wisdom, Sophia is praised in the biblical book of Proverbs as co-creator of the universe with God. In the secret teachings of early Christianity known as Gnosticism, she represents our shared consciousness, trapped in the material world as a result of the Fall. One of the most sublime Gnostic texts is the Pistis Sophia or "Faith Wisdom," a great allegory in which the resurrected Christ explains how he freed the divine Sophia from her imprisonment by the forces of spiritual wickedness. Christ goes on to show his disciples how they will share in this cosmic act of redemption. In this profound yet accessible work, Egyptologist Violet MacDermot gives us a fresh translation of the Pistis Sophia from the Coptic and discusses it in its historical setting. She also shows us how Sophia's story of is our story. It is a tale of our separation and isolation as a result of ego-consciousness, but it is one in which we, too, can share spiritual liberation. Her engaging discussion relates this work not only to ancient teachings but to the thought of C.G. Jung, Emanuel Swedenborg, and the Kabalah. Violet MacDermot studied Egyptology at University College, London, and was a board member of the Egypt Exploration Society. She has translated two Coptic texts, Volumes IX and XIII in the Nag Hammadi Studies series: Pistis Sophia and The Books of Jeu and the Untitled Text in the Bruce Codex. Stephan A. Hoeller, born in Hungary, speaks regularly at the Los Angeles Gnostic Society on Western inner traditions, with emphasis on Jungian psychology and Gnostic wisdom. He is the author of The Gnostic Jung and the Seven Sermons to the Dead and Jung and the Lost Gospels: Insights into the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Nag Hammadi Library.

Georges Florovsky is the mastermind of a 'return to the Church Fathers' in twentieth-century Orthodox theology. His theological vision-the neopatristic synthesis-became the main paradigm of Orthodox theology and the golden standard of Eastern Orthodox identity in the West. Focusing on Florovsky's European period (1920-1948), this study analyses how Florovsky's evolving interpretation of Russian religious thought, particularly Vladimir Solovyov and Sergius Bulgakov, informed his approach to patristic sources. Paul Gavrilyuk offers a new reading of Florovsky's neopatristic theology, by closely considering its ontological, epistemological and ecclesiological foundations. It is common to contrast Florovsky's neopatristic theology with the 'modernist' religious philosophies of Pavel Florensky, Sergius Bulgakov, and other representatives of the Russian Religious Renaissance. Gavrilyuk argues that the standard narrative of twentieth-century Orthodox theology, based on this polarization, must be reconsidered. The author demonstrates Florovsky's critical appropriation of the main themes of the Russian Religious Renaissance, including theological antinomies, the meaning of history, and the nature of personhood. The distinctive features of Florovsky's neopatristic theology Christological focus, 'ecclesial experience', personalism, and 'Christian Hellenism' are best understood against the background of the main problematic of the Renaissance. Specifically, it is shown that Bulgakov's sophiology provided a polemical subtext for Florovsky's theology of creation. It is argued that the use of the patristic norm in application to modern Russian theology represents Florovsky's theological signature. Drawing on unpublished archival material and correspondence, this study sheds new light on such aspects of Florovsky's career as his family background, his participation in the Eurasian movement, his dissertation on Alexander Herzen, his lectures on Vladimir Solovyov, and his involvement in Bulgakov's Brotherhood of St Sophia.

T. H. Robinson's Paradigms and exercises in Syriac Grammar was first published in 1915 to meet the need for 'something of an elementary nature which should be of value to the student who takes up Syriac for the first time'. Since then, the book has met this need for generations of students. The fifth edition of 2002 remains the grammar of choice for many teachers of Syriac classes as well as for students learning by themselves. The present revision, drawing on ten more years of university teaching experience and students' comments, clarifies some of the grammatical explanations and exercises. Improvements to the fonts and a larger format make for easier reading. As before, the West Syriac script and grammatical tradition are followed in the body of the lessons, and appendices introduce reading in the other (estrangela and Eastern) scripts. The book remains a plain and friendly introduction to this important language.

The Divine Liturgy is the name given to the Eucharist service in the Orthodox Church. This is a well-bound hardcover volume that contains all the material that is necessary from the perspective of the choir and people for the performance of the Divine Liturgy on Sundays and major Feast Days. It also includes the texts of Third and Sixth Hours and other prayers read before and after Communion. In addition, a selection of the most commonly used variable texts from other Orthodox liturgical books is provided. Traditional English is used throughout.