Eastern Churches Journal
Author:
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Published: 1993
Total Pages: 662
ISBN-13:
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Boundless Grandeur
Author: David G. R. Keller
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2015-06-30
Total Pages: 219
ISBN-13: 1498203205
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDonald Allchin was an ordained priest in the Church of England, an historian, ecumenist, and contemplative theologian. The essays, poems, and memoires in this book represent what his Christian vision has brought forth in the lives of the contributors. You will meet poets, historians, bishops, archbishops, monks, priests, lay persons, and scholars. You will taste the rich ecumenical dialogue between Donald's Anglican heritage, Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Roman Catholic Church, and churches of the Reformed Traditions, including Donald's friendships and correspondence with Thomas Merton and the Romanian Orthodox theologian Dumitru Stăniloae. Readers will gain insights into Donald's interpretation of the Anglican Tradition and his emphasis on the value of monastic solitude and community for the lives of modern Christians. You will enter Donald's journey into the lives, poetry, saints, and holy places of the Welsh spiritual tradition. And this is only a taste of his legacy. In Donald's words, "For the things which belong to the story of Jesus are not yet completed."
On Rowan Williams
Author: Matheson Russell
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2009-01-01
Total Pages: 254
ISBN-13: 1630874442
DOWNLOAD EBOOKTheologian, poet, public intellectual, and clergyman, Rowan Williams is one of the leading lights of contemporary British theology. He has published over twenty books and one hundred scholarly essays in a distinguished career as an academic theologian that culminated in his appointment as Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity at Oxford University. Williams left this post to serve in the Anglican Church, first as Bishop of Monmouth, then Archbishop of Wales, before finally being enthroned in 2003 as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury. In this collection of essays, a talented younger generation of Australian theologians critically analyzes the themes that bind together Williams's theology. These sympathetic yet probing essays traverse the full breadth of Williams's work, from his studies on Arius, the Desert Fathers, Hegel, and Trinitarian theology to his more pastoral writings on spirituality, sexuality, politics, and the Anglican Church.
The Modern Assyrians of the Middle East
Author: John Joseph
Publisher: BRILL
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 310
ISBN-13: 9789004116412
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAs "Assyrians" members of this religio-linguistic minority have either been romanticized for gallantry and integrity, or have been portrayed as rebellious and mischievous. This study covers - as summed up by its subtitle - some of the unexplored aspects of this history.
Glory Descending
Author: Douglas Dales
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2018-07-12
Total Pages: 283
ISBN-13: 1532653174
DOWNLOAD EBOOKMICHAEL RAMSEY (1905–1988) was one of the greatest Anglican archbishops of the twentieth century and a man of spiritual depth who inspired a generation of Christians. Evangelical by origin, catholic by formation, and liberal by instinct, Ramsey learned from many traditions and, as Archbishop of Canterbury, moved ecumenical dialogue into a new and decisive phase. A remarkable spiritual leader, he continues to be remembered as both reverent and visionary. Glory Descending serves both as an introduction to Ramsey’s life and as a reader of his key writings. The introductory chapter gives an overview of Ramsey’s career and explains why he was such a significant figure in recent church history. The large selection of Ramsey’s writings that follows makes readily accessible the essence of his thought. Drawn from all of his works, these powerful passages constitute an exceptionally consistent body of spiritual theology and teaching. Here we have not just a voice from the past but a prophetic call to holiness and faith in our own times. Also included are reflections by leading churchmen and scholars on Ramsey’s continuing influence. Four pieces by Rowan Williams probe distinctive themes in Ramsey’s thought. John Habgood and Geoffrey Rowell offer lectures prepared for the centenary of Ramsey’s birth. Douglas Dales explores the contours of Ramsey’s spiritual theology. Finally, the book has been designed as a companion to the Christian liturgical year, making it an invaluable aid to preaching, teaching, and devotions.
Experiencing the Last Judgement
Author: Niamh Bhalla
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2021-09-30
Total Pages: 381
ISBN-13: 1000427420
DOWNLOAD EBOOKExperiencing the Last Judgement opens up new ways of understanding a Byzantine image type that has hitherto been considered largely uniform in its manifestations and to a great extent frightening, coercive and paralysing. It moves beyond a purely didactic understanding of the Byzantine image of the Last Judgement, as a visual eschatological text to be ‘read’ and learned from, and proposes instead an appreciation of each unique image as a dynamic site to be experienced. Paintings, icons and mosaics from the tenth to the fourteenth century, from inside and outside of the Byzantine Empire, are placed within their specific socio-historical milieus, their immediate decorative programmes and their architectural contexts to demonstrate that each unique image constituted a carefully orchestrated and immersive experience of judgement. Each case study outlines the differences that exist in reality between these images that are often subsumed under one iconographic label, making a case against condensing dynamic, lived images into apparently static pictorial ‘types’. Images of the Last Judgement needed the body, mind and memory of the viewer for the creation of meaning, and so the experience of these images was unavoidably spatial, gendered, corporeal, mnemonic, emotional, rhetorical and most often liturgical. Unpacking Byzantine images of judgement in light of these various facets of experience for the first time helps to elucidate the interaction of past individuals with the image, and the ways in which such encounters were intended to benefit the communities that made and lived alongside them.
The Concept of "Sister Churches" in Catholic-Orthodox Relations since Vatican II
Author: Will T. Cohen
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Published: 2017-09-28
Total Pages: 327
ISBN-13: 1498299709
DOWNLOAD EBOOKOften invoked between Vatican II and the end of the twentieth century by both Orthodox and Catholic officials across their confessional division, the expression “sister churches” reflected their growing rapprochement, as well as a shift on the Catholic side from a more centralized ecclesiology to one more attentive to the local church and conciliarity. Pope John Paul II in his 1995 encyclical Ut Unum Sint spoke significantly of a “doctrine of sister churches” that would help guide the Catholic and Orthodox toward unity along a path of mutual respect rather than either tradition’s submission to the other. In his comprehensive treatment of the history of the expression “sister churches” over half a century of Catholic-Orthodox relations, Dr. Will Cohen explores why the concept developed as it did, why it was so fiercely contested, and what remains vital about the concept today. In the process, Dr. Cohen illuminates the ways in which Catholic and Orthodox ecclesiology, respectively, is each most capable of renewing and sustaining its proper balance when open to the authentic gifts of the other.
Gregory Palamas and the Making of Palamism in the Modern Age
Author: Norman Russell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2019-03-21
Total Pages: 419
ISBN-13: 0192565486
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe fourteenth-century Greek hesychast and controversialist, Gregory Palamas, has been so successfully cast as 'the other' in Western theological discourse that it can be difficult to gain a sympathetic hearing for him. In the first part of this book, Norman Russell traces the historical reception of Palamite thought in Orthodoxy and in the West, and investigates how 'Palamism' was constructed in the early twentieth century by both Western and Eastern theologians (principally Martin Jugie and John Meyendorff) for polemical or apologetic purposes. Russell argues that we need to go behind these ideological constructions in order to gain a true perception of the teaching of Gregory Palamas. In his recent survey of Palamite scholarship, Robert Sinkewicz noted that it is now time to raise the larger questions. The second part of the book attempts to do this, following the contours of Palamas' thinking in three areas: his relationship to tradition, his philosophy, and his theology. Russell shows that Palamite thought, when freed of misunderstanding and misrepresentation, has the potential to enrich our understanding of divine-human communion. This study contributes to the changing paradigm of scholarship on Palamas, nudging it towards the point at which Palamite thought can be used fruitfully by contemporary Western and Eastern theologians without the need to subscribe to what has been regarded as 'Palamism'.
The Philokalia
Author: Brock Bingaman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2012-08-23
Total Pages: 366
ISBN-13: 0195390261
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Philokalia (literally "love of the beautiful") is, after the Bible, the most influential source of spiritual tradition within the Orthodox Church. First published in Greek in 1782 by St. Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain and St. Macarios of Corinth, the Philokalia includes works by thirty-six influential Orthodox authors such as Maximus the Confessor, Peter of Madascus, Symeon the New Theologian, and Gregory Palamas. Surprisingly, this important collection of theological and spiritual writings has received little scholarly attention. With the growing interest in Orthodox theology, the need for a substantive resource for Philokalic studies has become increasingly evident. The purpose of the present volume is to remedy that lack by providing an ecumenical collection of scholarly essays on the Philokalia that will introduce readers to its background, motifs, authors, and relevance for contemporary life and thought.
The Library of Paradise
Author: David A. Michelson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2023-01-13
Total Pages: 358
ISBN-13: 0198836244
DOWNLOAD EBOOKContemplative reading is a spiritual practice developed by Christian monks in sixth- and seventh-century Mesopotamia. Mystics belonging to the Church of the East pursued a form of contemplation which moved from reading, to meditation, to prayer, to the ecstasy of divine vision. The Library of Paradise tells the story of this Syriac tradition in three phases: its establishment as an ascetic practice, the articulation of its theology, and its maturation and spread. The sixth-century monastic reform of Abraham of Kashkar codified the essential place of reading in East Syrian ascetic life. Once established, the practice of contemplative reading received extensive theological commentary. Abraham's successor Babai the Great drew upon the ascetic system of Evagrius of Pontus to explain the relationship of reading to the monk's pursuit of God. Syriac monastic handbooks of the seventh century built on this Evagrian framework. 'Enanisho' of Adiabene composed an anthology called Paradise that would stand for centuries as essential reading matter for Syriac monks. Dadisho' of Qatar wrote a widely copied commentary on the Paradise. Together, these works circulated as a one-volume library which offered readers a door to "Paradise" through contemplation. The Library of Paradise is the first book-length study of East Syrian contemplative reading. It adapts methodological insights from prior scholarship on reading, including studies on Latin lectio divina. By tracing the origins of East Syrian contemplative reading, this study opens the possibility for future investigation into its legacies, including the tradition's long reception history in Sogdian, Arabic, and Ethiopic monastic libraries.
