LOGOS: Spring and Fall 2013

I am already much at work on the fall issue of Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies (to which you can and should subscribe here), and wanted to offer updates on both the spring issue now and, in a few days, on the fall issue as its shape becomes clearer.

The spring issue has been very much delayed--the first long delay in over a decade since I started editing the journal and ruthlessly enforcing deadlines--because shortly before finishing up the spring issue two major events struck: the managing editor and publisher, who is concomitantly the director of the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies, finished his second and final term in office in Ottawa and departed for new work in Edmonton; and then, very sadly, Basil Onuferko, the son of one of our layout editors, Fr. Andrew Onuferko, was killed in an airplane crash. The whole spring issue ground to an understandable halt and was only this month capable of being finished. I apologize for the delay, but know that everyone who has asked about the spring issue has been most understanding and compassionate in view of this tremendously sad news. The issue should be in the mail to you in the next few weeks, and it will contain:

Necrologies:

Bishop Julian (Voronovsky) 1936–2013

Bishop Michael (Hrynchyshyn), CSsR (1929–2012)

Articles:

"The Surprising Eastern Connection of Pope Francis" by Andriy Chirovsky. Pope-watchers will want to pay particular attention to this article because it reveals some hitherto unknown and little known details about the extent to which Jorge Bergoglio, as a student, Jesuit seminarian, priest, and archbishop, was influenced by the Christian East through contacts with Ukrainian Catholic priests and hierarchs.

"On the Acquisition of the Holy Spirit: Sergius Bulgakov and the Theotokos" by Walter Sisto. The article's abstract:

The pneumatology and Mariology of Sergius Bulgakov, widely believed to be the most important Russian theologian of the twentieth century, is here examined to discover the links between the Holy Spirit and the Mother of God, and the implications for the divinization of humanity, especially as we share in the sufferings of Mary and Christ, and “so complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions.” These connections are developed in Bulgakov’s controversial sophiology whose development and implications for both Trinitarian theology and ecumenical methodology are discussed.

"Fractured Orthodoxy in Ukraine and Politics: The Impact of Patriarch Kyrill’s 'Russian World'” by Nicholas E. Denysenko. The article's abstract:

This article analyzes the intersection of “church” and “state” in Ukraine and the many complexities of a situation involving a multiplicity of both ecclesial and political actors: in the latter category, both Russia and Ukraine itself, in the context of a globalized world; in the former category the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate; the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (in both pre- and post-war iterations); the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church; and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Kyiv Patriarchate. Adding to the complexity of these relations among these churches and between these states is a new theopolitical ideology being sponsored by the current Patriarch Kiril of Moscow under the heading of a “Russian world,” which is supposed to unite at least East-Slavic Orthodoxy (if not other Orthodox Churches) and their host countries against the perceived threats of “Western” globalization. This “Russian world” is analyzed here for what it says, what reactions it has evoked among the four major churches in Ukraine; and for what it might portend for Orthodox Christians in Ukraine and well as relations between Moscow and Constantinople in the ongoing struggle for understanding of global primacy among Orthodox hierarchs.

"The Role and Meaning of Miracles and Relics in the Christological Thought of Sergius Bulgakov" by Robert F. Slesinski. The abstract:

Bulgakov’s Christology (particularly in his recently translated The Lamb of God) is here examined for what it says about miracles and relics, including the relics of the bodies of saints and the body of Christ himself, both of which are treated by Bulgakov not as mere “corpses” but as still life-bearing bodies capable of resurrection. In addition, the category of miracle in Bulgakov is larger than healings or other manifestations of divine power: the very creation of the world is itself a miracle, and considered by Bulgakov in a teleological fashion in the context of Divine Providence. In this context, miracles are seen by Bulgakov not as violations of some material-spiritual boundary but as the singular outworking of divine purpose in the world. Miracles are given not to overwhelm or coerce people into belief, but entirely as invitations to follow Christ and share in the glorification of the Father. All this is tied into a unique and challenging discussion about the dyophysite nature of Christ and the relation in Him of His two natures, especially in their encountering death.

Notes, Essays, Lectures:

"Transfiguring Voluptuous Choice: An Eastern Orthodox Approach to Marriage as Spiritual Path" by Stephen Muse 

"The Body of the Living Christ: The Patristic Doctrine of the Church Report on a Recent Symposium at Princeton University and Seminary" by Seraphim Danckaert

"Reclaiming Psychology?" by Gregory Jensen

Book Reviews:

Michael Plekon reviews Diana Butler Bass, Christianity After Religion: The End of Church and the Birth of a New Spiritual Awakening.
 
He also reviews  Lillian Daniel, When "Spiritual but Not Religious" Is Not Enough: Seeing God in Surprising Places, Even the Church.

David Bertaina (whom I interviewed here) reviews David Wilmshurst, The Martyred Church: A History of the Church of the East.

Thomas Weinandy reviews Khaled Anatolios, Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine. I interviewed Anatolios here and commented on his book here and especially here.

David Fagerberg reviews William C. Mills, Church, World, and Kingdom: The Eucharistic Foundation of Alexander Schmemann's Pastoral Theology. I interviewed Mills here about this book. Further interviews with him here and here.

Matthew Levering reviews Marcus Plested's superb new book, Orthodox Readings of Aquinas. I reviewed the book here, and interviewed the author here.

Jack Turner reviews two books in the field of Orthodoxy and science: Efthymios Nicolaidis, Science and Eastern Orthodoxy: From the Greek Fathers to the Age of Globalization.

Turner also reviews Danil Buxhoeveden and Gayle Woloschak (whom I interviewed here), eds., Science and the Eastern Orthodox Church.