The Mystery of the Church

As someone who has had a few things to say about Orthodox ecclesiology in my Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity, I was delighted to receive recently from St. Vladimir's Seminary Press the translation of Boris Bobrinskoy's recent book, The Mystery of the Church: A Course in Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, trans. Michael Breck (SVS Press, 2012), 292pp. 

About this book the publisher tells us: 

In this sweeping survey the author traces the Church?s history from her Old Testament roots to the present. In his enduring devotion to the Orthodox understanding of the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit as "the two hands of the Father," Fr Bobrinskoy brings his considerable knowledge and experience to bear in witnessing to the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as the instrument of God's saving grace for all mankind. In this work, Fr Bobrinskoy has achieved an uncommon balance of exacting scholarship, spiritual depth, and accessibility from which readers at every level are bound to reap great benefit. Fr Boris Bobrinskoy, one of the towering figures of 20th-century Orthodox theology, recently retired from St Sergius Institute in Paris, the Institut Supérieur des Etudes Oecuméniques, and as rector of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Paris. Michael Breck is a translator and publisher focused on theological texts. He resides near Charleston, SC, where he directs a collaborative publishing venture. 

Bobrinskoy has written several other books, including what I regard as one of the best recent treatments of Trinitarian theology:  The Mystery of the Trinity: Trinitarian Experience and Vision in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition. We are having his ecclesiology book reviewed in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, the oldest scholarly revue of its kind in North America which, in every issue, easily manages to review more books in Eastern Christianity than the next half-dozen comparable journals combined. If you are not subscribing, you may rectify this immediately here. 

Oriental Orthodox Spirituality

I have long thought that one of the challenges within the world of Eastern Christian studies is the dominance of the Byzantine Churches--especially the East-Slavic Byzantine Churches, particularly the Russian which, on paper at least, numerically dwarfs all other Eastern Churches. Too often Oriental Orthodox Christians are overlooked even by those who know better. Now, happily, Les Éditions du Cerf has just brought out a new book that will be of interest to all students of Oriental Orthodoxy--the Syriac, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopian traditions:

Christine Chaillot, Vie et spiritualité des Églises orthodoxes orientales: des traditions syriaque, arménienne, copte, et éthiopienne (Cerf, 2011), 478pp.

The preface is written by the renowned Boris Bobrinskoy, some of whose works on the Trinity and God the Father have been translated into English:

« Les orthodoxes orientaux des traditions syriaque, arménienne, copte et éthiopienne sont les témoins vivants d'un christianisme très ancien. La Mésopotamie fut le berceau des Syriaques orthodoxes qui pratiquent encore une langue cousine de l'araméen que parlait le Christ. Les Arméniens furent les premiers à fonder un État-royaume chrétien au tout début du IVe siècle. Les Coptes orthodoxes ont répandu le christianisme en Égypte dès le temps de l'évangéliste saint Marc. Quant aux Éthiopiens, rattachés juridiquement à l'Église copte jusqu'au milieu du XXe siècle, ils ont christianisé officiellement leur région dès le IVe siècle. Ce livre peut être un guide pour tous ceux qui visiteront les pays évoqués avec une âme de pèlerin. Ce livre peut aussi servir au dialogue œcuménique entre chrétiens, et également au dialogue interreligieux, en particulier avec les musulmans, autres enfants d'Abraham. Le dialogue passe aussi par la découverte de la spiritualité. Et c'est bien cette spiritualité profonde et vivifiante des Églises orthodoxes orientales que ce livre nous permet de découvrir. » [P. Boris Bobrinskoy]

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