Patriarch Kirill’s recently published book, WAR: Beyond the Visible Causes and Consequences, summarizes much of what he has said and experienced in recent years and is, in essence, a document of church history, a testimony to the state of the Russian Church…
Section: Reading Room
Review of Amy Slagle, “The Eastern Church in the Spiritual Marketplace: American Conversion to Orthodox Christianity”
A professor of religion at the University of Southern Mississippi, Slagle’s 2011 study, The Eastern Church in the Spiritual Marketplace: American Conversion to Orthodox Christianity, was one of the first studies to focus specifically on American conversions to Eastern Orthodoxy, an area of research that would soon be followed by Oliver Herbel (2014), Turning to Tradition, and Sarah Riccardi-Schwarz (2022), Between Heaven and Russia.
Review of Rowan Williams, “Discovering Christianity: A guide for the curious”
The former archbishop of Wales and of Canterbury and professor and master of Magdalene College, Cambridge, Rowan Williams is a scholar of the first order. He’s written a great deal about what history teaches us about ourselves, God, and the Church…
What is The Gospel? A review of Alvin Kimel, “Destined for Joy: The Gospel of Universal Salvation”
Several years ago, I wrote a review of David Bentley Hart’s book That All Shall Be Saved /… / Professor Hart’s examination of the ancient Christian doctrine of apokatastasis was written from the perspective of the philosopher/ theologian. Terminology was technical and precise; logical and rational argumentation prevailed. Fr. Aidan Kimel1 addresses the same topic from the perspective of an Orthodox pastor…
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians 5:20-33: A New Translation
St. Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians 5:20-
33 is a traditional Epistle reading for a
wedding. In what follows, however, I
have included the preceding verses going
back to 5:17 in order to include the
entire grammatical sentence as St. Paul
presents it rather than picking up midphrase.
I believe it also helps to set the
stage for the mutually supportive and
ultimately apolitical mystery (known
as “marriage”) that he explores.
Review of Lilyana Andrews, “Waiting and Dating”
If you are waiting for a thoughtful Orthodox perspective on modern love, Waiting and Dating will leave you still waiting…
Fantasy Literature as a Mirror.
According to J. R. R. Tolkien, one of the main wishes of the human heart is to be able to converse with other living things: “On this desire, as ancient as the Fall, is largely founded the talking of beasts and creatures in fairy tales, and especially the magical understanding of their proper speech.” Indeed,[…..]
Fictional Aliens and Anthropocentrism: A Field for Theological Reflection.
According to the creation narrative in Genesis, God intended that Man be king of creation; humankind was to reign over other creatures (Gn. 1:28) and name them (Gn. 2:19). This central role accorded to mankind was developed by the early Church fathers, especially St. Maximus the Confessor. Through deification, humans should unify and raise all[…..]
Review of Marly Youmans, Charis and the World of Wonders.
Written by an Orthodox convert Marly Youmans and published in 2020, Charis and the World of Wonders tells a story of America’s Puritan past hrough the eyes of Charis, a heroine who begins her narrative in the year 1690. Youman’s Orthodoxy is evident in the story; it is a story in tension with and threading[…..]
Review of Zizioulas, Ascetic Ethos and Monasticism
“The Lord is the first and quintessential monk” (22). Read out of context, one can hardly believe that these words come from the late Metropolitan John Zizioulas. Widely considered one of the most influential Orthodox theologians of our age, Zizioulas’s fame rests on his insistence on the episcopate and the Eucharist as the contexts which[…..]
Review of Nassif, The Evangelical Theology of the Orthodox Church
When I pick up a book that comes endorsed with impressive blurbs on the back cover and an appreciative foreword by one of the tradition’s heavy-weights, my attention is piqued. Bradley Nassif’s The Evangelical Theology of the Orthodox Church is one such book. The title is supposed to be provocative, suggesting that Evangelicalism has its[…..]
Review of Rich, Gender Essentialism and Orthodoxy
The United States Supreme Court’s 2015 decision to legalize same-sex marriage in all fifty states drew the Orthodox Church’s attention to LGBTQ issues in a new way. Now that same-sex couples had access to civil marriage, the Church needed to decide whether it would recognize the sanctity of same-sex unions by granting admittance to the[…..]
Review of Bulgakov, The Sophiology of Death
Roberto J. De La Noval—a writer and professor of theology at Notre Dame University—is the translator and editor of this volume, a significant contribution to the abundant new scholarship and translation of Sergii Bulgakov’s work. Centering on Bulgakov’s writings about eschatology and the meaning of creation—and its counterpart, death— it includes many essays that are,[…..]
Review of Rod Dreher, Live Not by Lies
There can be little doubt that civil liberties are at risk of erosion today by certain ideologies. This is of obvious concern to intellectuals in liberal democratic societies. In the yearning for greater social good, both conservatives and progressives occasionally cross the lines of thought censorship. And when they do so, they threaten the intellectual[…..]
Peeling Back the Onion Dome: Review of Nicholas Denysenko, Theology and FormJoseph L. Clarke
Few endeavors test a parish’s collective determination and mutual goodwill like the construction of a new building, or the renovation of an existing one. Even a modest building is a tangible manifestation of a community’s distinctive character and of the public face it wishes to present. Like liturgy itself, the church structure plays a crucial[…..]
Hell, the Goodness of God, and Orthodoxy: Review of David Bentley Hart, That All Shall be Saved
In the introductory remarks to his latest book, David Bentley Hart admits that his arguments will convince few who were not already predisposed to accept the central thesis contained in the title of the book. Yet he persists. Hart was already known for his universalist understanding of Christian eschatology, yet for him, the significance of[…..]
Lessons from Corinth: Review of John A. Jillions, Divine Guidance
The importance of understanding the social, political, and economic context in which a biblical text was written and received in order to properly read and interpret it has been a central principle of biblical scholarship for some time now. This movement started with the well-known work of Wayne Meeks in the 1980s, followed by Bart[…..]
On the Path to Theology: Review of Sergii Bulgakov, The Tragedy of Philosophy
This new translation of Sergii Bulgakov’s The Tragedy of Philosophy is a most welcome edition to the continuing series of translations of Father Bulgakov’s books. Thanks to the enormous efforts of Boris Jakim but also Thomas A. Smith and now Stephen Churchyard, we are close to having most of Bulgakov available in English.
Review of Rowan Williams, Looking East in Winter
Looking East in Winter is a diverse and rich collection of essays from Rowan Williams, the former Archbishop of Canterbury and a professor at both Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Throughout his scholarly and pastoral work, Williams has often taken it upon himself to present lesser-known treasures of Eastern Christian thought to the West in an[…..]
Review of Gluschenko and Drygiankis, “On The Roads We Travelled”
Folk art, forgotten churches. What relationship have such subjects with monarchy and Christian empire? Perhaps more than meets the eye. Olya Gluschenko and Costis Drygiankis, in their photo album “On the Roads We Travelled”: Unfrequented Places in the Metropolis of Demetrias, present an intimate view of sacred space as experienced in the earthly spaces where[…..]
Abuse and Reform: Review of DeVille, Everything Hidden Shall Be Revealed
The AOC Reaches Out to the Nones: Review of Becoming Truly Human
Secularization Revisited: Review of Plekon, Community As Church, Church As Community
For the Unity of All: A Prayer Worth Reviewing?
Few theological reflections penned by Orthodox authors begin with a foreword contributed by His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople–New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. The present book not only begins with such a foreword, but the reader is at once advised by His All Holiness: “It is with joy that we welcome and recommend For[…..]
Arrested Development
Contemporary global Orthodoxy is in the process of confronting unprecedented challenges. The most formidable issues facing Church leaders are the relations between Church and state, the structures of the Church, the tension between conciliarity and authority, and seismic shifts in culture, to name a few. The autocephalous Orthodox Churches address these challenges in various ways,[…..]
Ascetic Endeavour and Mutual Martyrdom: Review of Christian Family and Contemporary Society
Nicu Dumitraşcu, Professor of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology at the University of Oradea, Romania, has assembled a fine collection of essays from Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant scholars in Christian Family and Contemporary Society. This volume deals deftly with the many contradictions at hand when addressing family in the Christian context.
Reading The Benedict Option with MacIntyre and Schmemann
Rod Dreher’s idea of a “Benedict option” is ostensibly drawn from the closing paragraph of philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre’s monumental book After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Writing in 1981, MacIntyre pointed to the efforts of Christians during the decline of the Roman Empire to salvage their moral tradition by constructing “local forms of community.”
Transfiguring Time
The great French Orthodox theologian Olivier Clément was born in the village of Aniane in the Languedoc region of southwestern France to a non-religious family. “I grew up in an environment in which Christianity played no part. I was not baptized, and received no religious instruction.” Attracted first by poetry, especially that of Rainer Maria[…..]
Shadow Stories: Review of Catherine Nixey, The Darkening Age
When is an age “dark”? It was the great Renaissance scholar Petrarch who, in the 1330s, first used the term “Dark Age” to describe his own time, a epoch he saw in sharp contrast to the bright glories of the pre-Christian Greco-Roman world. Within a hundred years, historians such as Leonardo Bruni and Flavio Biondo[…..]
An Extraordinary Logic: God in Literature
God in literature is probably something one encounters in the act of reading more often than one considers it as an idea apart, so when asked to write on the topic, I catch myself wanting to describe instead what I find: a glimpse into the ineffable. “There is only one name by which the divine[…..]
Orthodox Subtexts in Crime and Punishment: Dostoevsky’s Larger Context
Russian Orthodox religious subtexts are of a specific nature. Fyodor Dostoevsky uses both liturgical and biblical references, but a Russian speaker often perceives even a scriptural quote or allusion primarily through its liturgical context. Sometimes the same reference has two levels of allusion—as perceived in the biblical context and, separately, as it would be known[…..]
The Case of Father Arseny: New Mythology in Russian Spiritual Literature
In post-Soviet Russia, a small circle of Moscow churchgoers read Father Arseny and believed that the book was based on the stories of priests and laity who were prisoners of Stalinist camps. The book did not pretend to be biographical, especially since the narrow circle of its original readers knew the identity of the author,[…..]
Anton Chekhov: Atheist, Agnostic, or Struggling Orthodox Christian?
The question of Chekhov’s Christianity and his relationship with the Orthodox Church continues to be debated. Even Father Alexander Schmemann, who lauded Chekhov’s deep insights into the complexities of the human person brought about by his religious and medical backgrounds, could not confidently state that he was a man of the Church.
Tolstoy’s American Stepsister: Orthodox Women’s Lit in America
Nothing dooms literature like dishonesty. Thus, unsurprisingly, it is above all the ability to speak honestly that distinguishes between quality writing and the vast majority of what is produced by contemporary Orthodox Christian women in America. So you might say that what I want to consider here is the kind of courage it takes to[…..]
Harry Potter, A Christ Figure
Since the release of the first novel in 1997, J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series has met with controversy in the Christian world, the Orthodox sphere included. Its critics oppose what they regard as an anti-Christian encouragement of magic. Its defenders stress the moral themes in the books, and highlight various resonances with the gospel.
Death and the Priest: Review of Alexander Schmemann, The Liturgy of Death
The title of this series of lectures by Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann, published as a book in English and Russian, may cause dismay and confusion. But I would like to warn the reader against getting into an argument about the title without opening the book.
Christianity in the World: Review of Tom Holland, Dominion
Tom Holland’s recent work, Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, is a remarkable history of the Christian faith and Church and how it shaped the world. Much to his credit, Holland’s book stays true to its title. When he says the whole world, he really means all of it, including other faith traditions,[…..]
Echoes of Byzantium: Review of Cappella Romana, Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia, and Bissera V. Pentcheva, Hagia Sophia
To “transcend the textual and plunge into the rich sensorial realm of the past culture of Byzantium”: this is the alluring promise of the recent album by the vocal ensemble Cappella Romana. The recording presents a series of chants for the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross selected to demonstrate the stylistic breadth of[…..]
The Kingdom in Our Midst: Review of Olivier Clement, Transfiguring Time
Originally published in 1959, Transfiguring Time, one of the early works of the French Orthodox theologian Olivier Clément, finally appears in Jeremy Ingpen’s lucid and lovely translation. Ingpen also provides a useful introduction, which helps the reader become acquainted both with the author’s person and with the style and outlook of his writings—a welcome addition,[…..]
Reassessing the Fourth Crusade: Review of Demacopoulos, Colonizing Christianity
Greeks and Latins During the Crusades and the Question of Colonialism: Review of Demacopoulos, Colonizing Christianity
One of the long-awaited releases in the field of religious and medieval studies is George E. Demacopoulos’ Colonizing Christianity: Greek and Latin Religious Identity in the Era of the Fourth Crusade. The book analyzes two major Latin and two major Byzantine texts from the thirteenth century as well as the Chronicle of Morea, a product[…..]
Anthropology Revisited: Review of Thomas and Narinskaya, Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church
Despite being filled with political division and social upheaval, 2020 proved to be an excellent year for publications in the field of Orthodox Christian Studies. One important text rises like cream to the top. Gabrielle Thomas and Elena Narinskaya’s edited volume Women and Ordination in the Orthodox Church: Explorations in Theology and Practice wrestles with[…..]
The Road to Autocephaly: Review of Denysenko, The Orthodox Church in Ukraine
With the granting of a tomos of autocephaly to the Orthodox Church ofUkraine (OCU) on January 6, 2019, by Patriarch Bartholomew I and the synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the pursuit of a century was finally attained: an authentic local church in Ukraine, truly self-determining and no longer a dependency of another church. Soon after,[…..]