By the early twentieth century, a genuine renaissance of religious thought and a desire for ecclesial reform were emerging in the Russian Orthodox Church. With the end of tsarist rule and widespread dissatisfaction with government control of all aspects of church life, conditions were ripe for the Moscow Council of 1917-1918 to come into being. The council was a major event in the history of the Orthodox Church. After years of struggle for reform against political and ecclesiastical resistance, the bishops, clergy, monastics, and laity who formed the Moscow Council were able to listen to one other and make sweeping decisions intended to renew the Russian Orthodox Church. Council members sought change in every imaginable area-from seminaries and monasteries, to parishes and schools, to the place of women in church life and governance. Like Vatican II, the Moscow Council emphasized the mission of the church in and to the world. Destivelle's study not only discusses the council and its resolutions but also provides the historical, political, social, and cultural context that preceded the council. In the only comprehensive and probing account of the council, he discusses its procedures and achievements, augmented by substantial appendices of translated conciliar documents. Tragically, due to the Revolution, the council's decisions could not be implemented to the extent its members hoped. Despite current trends in the Russian church away from the Moscow Council's vision, the council's accomplishments remain as models for renewal in the Eastern churches.

This third and final volume of Archbishop Averky's New Testament commentary elucidates the moral and pastoral aspects of the Pauline and Universal Epistles and the Book of Revelation. Discussion of each New Testament book is preceded by an analysis of the authorship, time and place of composition, and major themes within. The final commentary on the Apocalypse, in which Archbishop Averky relies heavily on the ancient commentary of St Andrew of Ceasaria, is provided in the popular translation by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose), together with the Scriptural text itself. The author's approach is thoroughly patristic, constantly turning to the Church Fathers for the elucidation of one or another particular verse, especially to the commentaries and expositions of St John Chrysostom, Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid, Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, and most particularly to the voluminous Scriptural commentaries of St Theophan the Recluse. The commentary has been copiously annotated with citations to primary sources, which did not appear in the original text. Archbishop Averky's commentaries on the New Testament have become standard textbooks in Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary and have been published in Russia to widespread acclaim. They are an indispensable addition to the library of every student of the New Testament.

The Divine Liturgy of Saint James is the eucharistic rite of the ancient Church of Jerusalem and the most ancient extant liturgy of the Eastern Church. In recent decades, the frequency of its use has increased throughout the Orthodox Church. This service book offers for the first time a parallel Church Slavonic-English text, suitable for use by clergy and servers. It also contains the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts of the Holy Apostle James, which is rarely served today but has been preserved in part in a few Greek manuscripts and in full in several Georgian sources. An introduction by Dr Vitaly Permiakov, a specialist in the Jerusalem liturgy, presents the provenance and integrity of both ancient Liturgical services.

The Church of the Holy Spirit, written by Russian priest and scholar Nicholas Afanasiev (1893-1966), is one of the most important works of twentieth-century Orthodox theology. Afanasiev was a member of the "Paris School" of emigre intellectuals who gathered in Paris after the Russian revolution, where he became a member of the faculty of St. Sergius Orthodox Seminary. The Church of the Holy Spirit, which offers a rediscovery of the eucharistic and communal nature of the church in the first several centuries, was written over a number of years beginning in the 1940s and continuously revised until its posthumous publication in French in 1971. Vitaly Permiakov's lucid translation and Michael Plekon's careful editing and substantive introduction make this important work available for the first time to an English-speaking audience.

"The Church of the Holy Spirit," written by Russian priest and scholar Nicholas Afanasiev (1893-1966), is one of the most important works of twentieth-century Orthodox theology. Afanasiev was a member of the "Paris School" of emigre intellectuals who gathered in Paris after the Russian revolution, where he became a member of the faculty of St. Sergius Orthodox Seminary. "The Church of the Holy Spirit," which offers a rediscovery of the eucharistic and communal nature of the church in the first several centuries, was written over a number of years beginning in the 1940s and continuously revised until its posthumous publication in French in 1971.Vitaly Permiakov's lucid translation and Michael Plekon's careful editing and substantive introduction make this important work available for the first time to an English-speaking audience. "Nicholas Afanasiev is perhaps the most important ecclesiologist of modern times in the Orthodox world. "The Church of the Holy Spirit "is a very important book, a magnum opus, demonstrating that Afanasiev himself is undoubtedly a major twentieth-century theologian." --John McGuckin, Nielsen Professor of Early Ecclesiastical History, Union Theological Seminary "One of the great contributions of the Second Vatican Council was its recovery of a Eucharistic ecclesiology. Yet over a decade before the council, one of the most influential theologians of the Eastern Orthodox communion, Nicholas Afanasiev, was helping his own tradition recover its Eucharistic foundations. The publication of one of his most significant works, " The Church of the Holy Spirit," which the University of Notre Dame Press has now made available in English translation, will allow contemporary readers to discover the provocative, insightful and sometimes idiosyncratic perspectives of this seminal Orthodox theologian." --Richard R. Gaillardetz, Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies, University of Toledo. "Fr. Nicholas Afanasiev's" The Church of the Holy Spirit" is truly a seminal work of the twentieth-century, an indispensable monument of theological reflection on the Church and her Liturgy. Written over many years, in sustained engagement with the historical experience of the Church and contemporary Eastern and Western theology, the work became itself a catalyst in both eucharistic practice and ecclesiological reflection. This splendid English translation will provide the opportunity for Afanasiev's contribution to be more fully appreciated and critically appropriated." --Rev. Dr. John Behr, Dean, St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary

Writing in the tradition of biblical exegetes, such as St John Chrysostom, Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, and St Theophan the Recluse, the work of Archbishop Averky (Taushev) provides a commentary that is firmly grounded in the teaching of the Church, manifested in its liturgical hymnography and the works of the Holy Fathers. Using the best of prerevolutionary Russian sources, these writings also remained abreast of developments in Western biblical scholarship, engaging with it directly and honestly. In this second of three planned volumes, the author explains the significance of the Church's earliest history, as recorded in the Book of Acts. Questions of authorship and time of composition are also addressed. Archbishop Averky's commentaries on the New Testament have become standard textbooks in Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary and have been published in Russia to widespread acclaim. This present volume is the first translation of these texts into English. it is an indispensable addition to the library of every student of the New Testament.

By the early twentieth century, a genuine renaissance of religious thought and a desire for ecclesial reform were emerging in the Russian Orthodox Church. With the end of tsarist rule and widespread dissatisfaction with government control of all aspects of church life, conditions were ripe for the Moscow Council of 1917-1918 to come into being. The council was a major event in the history of the Orthodox Church. After years of struggle for reform against political and ecclesiastical resistance, the bishops, clergy, monastics, and laity who formed the Moscow Council were able to listen to one other and make sweeping decisions intended to renew the Russian Orthodox Church. Council members sought change in every imaginable area--from seminaries and monasteries, to parishes and schools, to the place of women in church life and governance. Like Vatican II, the Moscow Council emphasized the mission of the church in and to the world.
Destivelle's study not only discusses the council and its resolutions but also provides the historical, political, social, and cultural context that preceded the council. In the only comprehensive and probing account of the council, he discusses its procedures and achievements, augmented by substantial appendices of translated conciliar documents. Tragically, due to the Revolution, the council's decisions could not be implemented to the extent its members hoped. Despite current trends in the Russian church away from the Moscow Council's vision, the council's accomplishments remain as models for renewal in the Eastern churches.
"Destivelle's study is a much needed and timely examination of the historic All-Russia Church Council of 1917-1918--a council that marked both the culmination and the beginning of a new epoch in modern Russian Orthodoxy. The English translation of the council's definitions and decrees, as well as the 'Statute of the Local Council of the Orthodox Church of All Russia, ' along with Destivelle's exceptional commentary and annotations, will remain a foundational work for scholars and students of modern Christianity and Orthodoxy, as well as for scholars and students of Russian history for decades to come." --Vera Shevzov, Smith College