In Honour of Andrew Louth

There are Eastern Christian scholars of a certain stature whose publications one can never fail to read. Andrew Louth certainly and easily falls into that category. Even when he was an Anglican he wrote important books, beginning with Discerning the Mystery: An Essay on the Nature of Theology. He has also done important work on Maximus the Confessor as well as Denys the Areopagite and the wider mystical-patristic tradition--as well as church history in general. Also not to be forgotten is his important book on the one sometimes called the last of the Greek Fathers: St John Damascene: Tradition and Originality in Byzantine Theology.

Given this prolific output--to say nothing of books he has edited or contributed to--it is meet and right that other scholars have found it their bounden duty to offer a Festschrift in Louth's honour. Thus, forthcoming from Brepols in July of this year is A. Andreopoulos, A. Casiday, C. Harrison, eds., Meditations of the Heart: The Psalms in Early Christian Thought and Practice: Essays in Honour of Andrew Louth (Brepols, 2011), c. xii+320pp.

This collection amasses a large number of very prominent Orthodox and patristic scholars to pay their respects to one from whom we have all learned much. (Louth has written reviews for Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies over the last few years.)

About this book, the publisher provides the following overview and then table of contents:

The Psalms are one of the most important biblical texts in Patristic exegesis, commentary, preaching, liturgical practice and theological reflection. Their language and imagery  is all-pervasive; they were not only interpreted by the fathers but a good deal of Patristic exegetical practice actually evolved from engagement with them; they directly informed Christological and Ecclesiological reflection; were central to early monasticism; inspired early Christian poetry and provided material for liturgical chant, prayers, hymns and penitential or doxological expression.

This volume of essays on the Psalms in Early Christian Thought and Practice is offered with profound gratitude, admiration and respect by colleagues and friends of Professor Andrew Louth FBA, to honour his long and immensely distinguished career as priest, teacher and prolific author in almost every aspect of Greek and Latin Patristics.

Table of Contents:

John Behr – Foreword
Richard Price – The Voice of Christ in the Psalms
Rowan Williams – Christological Exegesis of Psalm 45
Sarah Coakley – On the Fearfulness of Forgiveness: Psalm 130:4 & Its Theological Implications
Kallistos Ware – ‘Forgive Us...As we Forgive’: Forgiveness in the Psalms & the Lord’s Prayer
Adam G. Cooper – Sex and Transmission of Sin: Patristic Exegesis of Psalm 50:5 (LXX)
John A. McGuckin – Origen’s Use of the Psalms in the Treatise On First Principles
Mihail Neamtu – Psalmody, Confession and Temporality
Robert Hayward – Saint Jerome, Jewish Learning, and the Symbolism of the Number Eight
Gillian Clark – Psallite sapienter: Augustine on Psalmody
Pauline Allen & Bronwen Neil – Discourses on the Poor in the Psalms: Augustine’s Ennarationes in Psalmos
Carol Harrison – Enchanting the Soul: The Music of the Psalms
Augustine Casiday – ‘The sweetest music that falls upon the ear’: translating and interpreting the Psalter in Christian Andalucia
Norman Russell – The ‘Gods’ of Psalm 81(82) in the Hesychast Debates
Carolinne White – Allegory and Rhetoric in Erasmus’ Expositions on the Psalms
Dimitri Conomos – Elder Aimilianos on the Psalter and the Revival of Melodious Psalmody at Simonopetra

I look forward to having this book reviewed in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies in 2012.