Slava Ukrayina!

I have the fondest memories of the summer of 2001, which I spent in Ukraine. I have made it to five of the world's seven continents, but the trip to and time in Ukraine was, without a doubt, the most rewarding for all kinds of reasons, not least because I met the now late Archpriest Robert Anderson of most blessed memory. I would go back if for no other reason than to spend more time in such places of inneffable grandeur as the Kievan Caves Monastery and the Pochaev Lavra.

The world of Eastern Christianity is complicated enough for outsiders, but when you try to explain Eastern Christian ecclesial life in Ukraine, even the most sympathetic outsider is taxed trying to take in and differentiate among four Eastern churches: three Orthodox, and one Greek Catholic. Telling the history of how Christianity came to Ukraine, and how today the country ended up with four Eastern churches (to say nothing of a very substantial Roman Catholic population, and various Protestant groups also), takes one into further layers of often bewildering complexity.

Todd E. French therefore had his work cut out for him in his article "Orthodoxy in the [sic] Ukraine" in John McGuckin, ed., The Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. I think on the whole he did a decent job, though there are some quirks, and noticeable gaps, in his coverage.

The first thing to notice, of course, is the strange presence of the definite article. Why is it there, but inconsistently? Many times he refers to "the Ukraine" but not always: the article appears twice on p. 604, but disappears on 605, reappears again on the left column on 606 but disappears in the right column on the same page--and so on throughout the article. That is sloppy copy-editing (whereas most of the rest of the two-volume text is free from any errors). The definite article used to indicate more than a lack of editorial attention: it used to indicate a lack of independence for the country when it was variously a province of the Polish-Lithuanian, Hapsburg, or most recently Soviet empires. But it has been independent for twenty years now, and proper English style does not require, indeed does not accept, the definite article: the country is, simply, Ukraine. Those who continue to insert the article are often ideologically committed to a nationalistic Russian revival of the old, thankfully dead, empire of the tsars in which Ukraine was nothing more than a province--"the Levant" of the Slavs, as it were.  Please God we have seen the end of that nonsense.

In any event, French gives the history in broad strokes, making it clear and comprehensible, with enough detail to cover the main periods and personages but without overwhelming the general reader. He does not take an overly apologetic approach--either apologizing for Russian influence, or excusing Orthodox behavior--and in fact commendably acknowledges, e.g., that "during General Dmitri Bibikov's rule (1837-52) the aim was to convert the two million remaining Catholics to Orthodoxy through willful tactics such as deportation and executions" (607).  Too many historians telling of relations in Ukraine invariably play up Catholic offenses--some real, some not, almost all wildly exaggerated--against the Orthodox, especially during and after the Union of Brest, and, more recently, after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. French avoids all that.

He also avoids, however, a couple of important details, not least the rather infelicitous "elevation" of the metropolitan of Moscow to patriarchal status. For those details, see Boris Gudziak's article "The Creation of the Moscow Patriarchate: A Prelude to Patriarchal Reforms in the Kyivan Metropolitanate Preceding the Union of Brest (1595-1596)" in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies 37 (1996). Even more important is Gudziak's book, Crisis and Reform: The Kyivan Metropolitanate, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Genesis of the Union of Brest (Harvard Series in Ukrainian Studies), which is not cited in this article but should be.

Missing, also, are several good texts from the "References and Suggested Readings" list at the end of French's article. A good very general introduction to Ukraine in general, for those with no background, is Anna Reid, Borderland: A Journey through the History of Ukraine.

I was also surprised to see that the work of Sophia Senyk is not here, especially her A History of the Church in Ukraine (Orientalia Christiana Analecta), and astonished that Paul Robert Magocsi is nowhere to be found. He has written many highly acclaimed works of scholarship that are nonetheless accessible to general readers, including:

• History of Ukraine - 2nd, Revised Edition: The Land and Its Peoples 
• Encyclopedia of Rusyn History and Culture 
• Ukraine: An Illustrated History 
• Galicia: A Multicultured Land (edited with Christopher Hann), and, of course, his well-known and hugely helpful cartographic works:  
• Historical Atlas of Central Europe Rev Exp edition 
• Ukraine: A Historical Atlas.

More recent scholarship that would need to be considered here would include:

• Barbara Skinner's Western Front of the Eastern Church: Uniate and Orthodox Conflict in Eighteenth-Century Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia.
• John-Paul Himka and Andriy Zayarynuk, Letters from Heaven: Popular Religion in Russia and Ukraine

Still, on the whole, this article, and The Encyclopedia of Eastern Orthodox Christianity generally does what one would expect such a volume to do and it remains a solid resource.

Will My Viennese Couch Fit in Your Egyptian Cell?

I know some Eastern Christians who are unduly suspicious, and occasionally contemptuous, of psychology. Some of that suspicion is justified, but some is not. Reading Nina Coltart's wonderful book Slouching Towards Bethlehem: And Further Psychoanalytic Explorations would be especially helpful here in many ways. Psychoanalytic therapy, especially in its classically Freudian variants, has of course been notoriously hostile to "religion" but Coltart, who was director of the London Clinic of Psychoanalysis and vice-president of the British Psychoanalytical Society, was a wonderful exception, openly drawing convincing links between faith (she abandoned the Anglicanism of her childhood to become a Buddhist, but without ignoring or disdaining the benefits and wisdom of a Christian upbringing) and psychoanalytic practice.

Some have attempted to integrate psychology and theology in a Western context but attempts to do that in the Christian East remain few--until now, with the advent of two important works: Stephen Muse, When Hearts Become Flame: An Eastern Orthodox Approach to the dia-Logos of Pastoral Counseling (Orthodox Research Institute, 2011).

Muse, himself a clinician, is editor of an earlier collection on healing in Orthodoxy. 

About this book, which carries a slew of laudatory reviews, the publisher tells us:

When Hearts Become Flame takes its point of departure and return from reflection on the question, "What Makes Counseling Pastoral?" to show that it involves participation of all three aspects of our human nature in dialogue with others in such a way that as in Emmaus, Christ, the Logos, appears 'between' us. It is not enough to be emotionally warm or conceptually accurate or physically energetic. The human person is an integrated presence of all three turned toward trialogue with God, self and others. Taking my cues from Jesus' formulation of the heart of the law, it is clear that an Orthodox approach to pastoral care and counseling cannot be focused solely on the intrapsychic and individual person. Nor can social justice proceed cut off from the wellspring of contemplative life in Christ, as Thomas Merton observed, without burning out or becoming the evil that we fight against. There is both a private inner discernment and ascetical struggle in dialogue with God and an existential and communal outward dimension which involves fellowship in confronting justice issues in society that contribute to the sickness and wellbeing of people. These two domains must be considered together as mutually influencing one another in a circular causality. Given the burgeoning field of counseling and psychotherapy and the growing interest in its spiritual dimensions, the time is ripe for interdisciplinary Orthodox dialogue between priests and practitioners, monastics, theologians and scientists as well as with mental health professionals outside Orthodoxy. The field of pastoral counseling has been largely Protestants and Roman Catholics, who, since the founding of AAPC, have contributed half a century's worth of valuable reflections on the integration of theology and psychology in service to suff ering persons. There is a great deal we can share with one another to know Christ more fully and learn how to serve better and celebrate human potential when it is in co-creative partnership with God to help alleviate human suffering.

The second work, which Peeters has recently drawn to my attention, is Alexis Trader, Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Becks Cognitive Therapy: A Meeting of Minds (Peeters, 2011), 370pp.

About this book, the publisher tells us:

Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck's Cognitive Therapy details a colorful journey deep into two seemingly disparate worlds united by a common insight into the way our thinking influences our emotions, behaviors, and ultimately our lives. In this innovative study about mental and spiritual health, readers are not only provided with a thorough introduction to the elegant theory and practical techniques of cognitive therapy, they are also initiated into the perennial teachings of ascetics and monks in the Greek-speaking East and Latin-speaking West whose powerful writings not only anticipated many contemporary findings, but also suggest unexplored pathways and breathtaking vistas for human growth and development. This groundbreaking interdisciplinary volume in the art of pastoral counseling, patristic studies, and the interface between psychology and theology will be a coveted addition to the working libraries of pastors and psychologists alike. In addition, it is ideal as a textbook for seminary classes in pastoral theology and pastoral counseling, as well as for graduate courses in psychology dealing with the relationship between psychological models and religious worldviews.

Further details, including the table of contents, are available here.

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

Tales from Another Byzantium

Byzantine studies remains a growth industry, with the East-Romans continuing to fascinate many people today. Along comes a new book from Cambridge University Press:

Jane Baun, Tales from Another Byzantium: Celestial Journey and Local Community in the Medieval Greek Apocrypha (CUP, 2010), 474pp.

About this book, Cambridge UP tells us:

The rich corpus of medieval Greek apocryphal religious literature has been little used by historians. This 2007 book was the first full-length study of two medieval Greek visionary journeys to heaven and hell: the Apocalypse of the Theotokos and the Apocalypse of Anastasia. Composed anonymously sometime between the ninth and eleventh centuries, both enjoyed a lively circulation in the Byzantine Empire and far beyond. Functioning on the fringes of the official Church, they transmit both traditional and novel theological ideas, and shed light on the reception of Church doctrine and imperial governance by ordinary Byzantine Christians. Though their heroines tour the Other World, their true concern is this world, and the reinforcement of social, moral, and ritual norms within local communities. Providing an original translation of both texts, the book probes the tales as manifestations of non-elite religious and moral culture in the medieval Orthodox Church.

We also have the table of contents:

Introduction: tales from another Byzantium
Part I. Texts and Contexts: 1. What is an apocalypse? Responses medieval and modern
2. Apocryphal biology: the texts and their mutations
3. Transformations from Late Antiquity to Byzantium
4. The Middle Byzantine textual environment
Part II. Other Worlds: 5. Passages through the apocalyptic imagination
6. The inhabitants of heaven
7. This world and the next
Part III. Morals:
8. Intercession, judgement, and the Mother of God
9. Morality, culture and community.

Ambrose and John Chrysostom

One trend becoming more widespread today in religious history and religious studies generally is what I would call "urban studies." Particular attention is paid to the cities of Christian antiquity and their influence on the Church and theology. Such a focus is at work in a new book that focuses on two of the towering figures of, respectively, Latin and Greek Christianity, Ambrose of Milan and John Chrysostom, both known for their rhetorical power. They are examined together in this Oxford University publication:

J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz, Ambrose and John Chrysostom: Clerics between Desert and Empire (OUP, 2011), 320pp.


About this book, Oxford tells us:

J. H. W. G. Liebeschuetz compares the personalities and the respective careers of two of the greatest of the early Christian Fathers, Ambrose and John Chrysostom. While the statesmanlike Ambrose ended his life as a pillar of the Western establishment, Chrysostom, the outspoken idealist, died in exile. However, their views and ideals were remarakably similar: both bishops were concerned with the social role of the Church, both were determined opponents of what they called the Arian heresy, and each attracted a dedicated following among his urban congregation. This similarity, Liebeschuetz argues, was due not to the influence of one on the other, but was a consequence of their participation in a Christian culture which spanned the divide between the Eastern (later Byzantine) and Western parts of the Roman Empire. The monastic movement figures throughout the book as an important influence on both men and as perhaps the most dynamic development in the Christian culture of the fourth century.

Old Believers

Old Believers in Russia have not been well studied, though Northern Illinois Press, which published Roy Robson's 1995 Old Believers in Modern Russia, has been trying to remedy that. This month, they are set to release a new book about them:  

Robert O. Crummey, Old Believers in a Changing World (Northern Illinois University Press, 2011), 270pp.


This book, we are told, is an

important collection of essays by a pioneer in the field focuses on the history and culture of a conservative religious tradition whose adherents have fought to preserve their beliefs and practices from the 17th century through today. Old Belief had its origins in a protest against liturgical reforms in the Russian Orthodox Church in the mid-1600s and quickly grew into a complex torrent of opposition to the Russian state, the official church, and the social hierarchy. For Old Believers, periods of full religious freedom have been very brief—from 1905 to 1917 and since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Crummey examines the ways in which Old Believers defend their core beliefs and practices and adjust their polemical strategies and way of life in response to the changing world. Opening chapters survey the historiography of Old Belief, examine the methodological problems in studying the movement as a Russian example of “popular religion,” and outline the first decades of the history. Particular themes of Old Believer history are the focus of the rest of the book, beginning with two sets of case studies of spirituality, culture, and intellectual life. Subsequent chapters analyze the diverse structures of Old Believer communities and their fate in times of persecution. A final essay examines publications of contemporary scholars in Novosibirsk whose work provides glimpses of the life of traditional believers in the Soviet period.

Old Believers in a Changing World will appeal to scholars and students of Russian history, to those interested in Eastern Orthodoxy, and to those with an interest in the comparative history of religious movements.

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

Picture Me in My Grief

Brepols continues to publish an enormous number of fascinating and important books that will be of great interest to Eastern Christians. Among recent offerings we find:

S. Papadaki-Oekland, Byzantine Illuminated Manuscripts of the Book of Job: A Preliminary Study of the Miniature Illustrations. Its Origin and Development (Brepols, 2009), 478pp.

About this book, the publisher tells us:

Of all the Old Testament books, the Book of Job remains acutely contemporary today. Written between the 6th and 3rd c. B.C., it deals with subjects such as the presence of evil in the world, misery, the quest for justice, faith, and the behavior of people when they face sudden twists and turns of life. It seems that the ancient text had been illustrated in the Early Christian period due to its fascinating novel-like narrative style. In her own study on the Book of Job, Stella Papadaki-Oekland probes into all the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts of the illustrated Greek text. The number of miniature illustrations included in these fifteen manuscripts, dating from the 9th to the 16th century, comes to more than 1800 of which 2/3 of the about 380 illustrated herein are previously unpublished manuscript images. The book is an unabridged version with minor changes of Papadaki-Oekland's Inaugural Dissertation at Heidelberg University (1979) and is published posthumously by her daughters, Helen-Aina and Astrid-Zoe -in homage to Byzantine Art. The book is of invaluable importance due to its methodological approach. As the leading art historian Hans Belting points out, the study of Stella Papadaki-Oekland calls in question Kurt Weitzmann's rigid theory about the process of the Byzantine illuminated manuscripts production. This remains the most complete and comprehensive study about the Book of Job in Byzantine art.

Rome and the Orthodox Churches

Next month you will have two opportunities to hear me speak on Orthodoxy and the Roman Papacy: Ut Unum Sint and the Prospects of East-West Unity (University of Notre Dame Press, 2011).

First up is the annual Orientale Lumen conference, this year in its fifteenth year. The theme this year is "Rome and the Communion of Churches: Bishop, Patriarch, or Pope?" I will be speaking on my book, but don't come only for me. Come to hear such impressive and venerable figures as Metropolitan Kallistos Ware and Archimandrite Robert Taft. Further details of other speakers, the schedule, and registration information, may be found here.

If you can't make it to Washington, the day after that conference ends I will be in the Youngstown, Ohio area (in Boardman, OH) speaking at the local chapter of the Society of St. John Chrysostom. Further details may be found here by clicking on the May/June 2011 link.

In addition to both of these, I will be in Ottawa in July at the annual Sheptytsky Institute Study Days, where I will also be lecturing.

And if you would wish me to come speak elsewhere on the book or other topics, please do not hesitate to get in touch with me.

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. 

εις πολλά έτη, Δέσποτα!

Vassa Larin,
a nun of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, has recently published her doctoral dissertation on the Byzantine hierarchical liturgy. 

Her thesis was written at the Pontifical Oriental Institute in Rome under the great Robert Taft. (She tells of her background, and work with Taft, in this informative and important interview here.) 

Her work, published as part of the Orientalia Christiana Analecta series, appears in print as The Byzantine Hierarchal Divine Liturgy in Arsenij Suxanov’s Proskinitarij [=OCA 286] (Rome: PIO, 2010), 283pp. Details of this book, the series, and earlier works, may be obtained here.

Translating the Septuagint

The Septuagint remains authoritative for Eastern Christians in a way that could not be said of the West. Several recent publications have been re-examining the LXX, including: 

Robert J. Hiebert, ed., "Translation Is Required": The Septuagint in Retrospect and Prospect (Society of Biblical Literature, 2011), 268pp.


About this book, the publisher tells us:

This volume, which includes papers delivered at an international conference sponsored by the Septuagint Institute of Trinity Western University, addresses topics such as the nature and function of the Septuagint, its reception history, and the issues involved in translating it into other languages. The collection highlights the distinction between the Septuagint as produced (i.e., the product of the earliest attempt to translate the Hebrew Bible) and the Septuagint as it subsequently came to be received (i.e., as an autonomous text independent of its Semitic parent). It also reflects the kind of discourse currently taking place in the field of Septuagint research, celebrates the appearance of three modern-language translations of the Septuagint, and sets the stage for the next level of investigation: the hermeneutical/interpretative task associated with the production of commentaries.

Contributors include Cameron Boyd-Taylor, Dirk Büchner, Brian Anastasi Butcher, Leonard Greenspoon, Robert J. V. Hiebert, Jan Joosten, August Konkel, Wolfgang Kraus, Larry Perkins, Melvin K. H. Peters, Albert Pietersma, Alison Salvesen, and Benjamin G. Wright III.

It is good to see Brian Butcher's name there.  He is a fellow graduate of the doctoral program in Eastern Christian Studies at the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Institute of Eastern Christian Studies at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, the publisher of Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, to which you are warmly invited to subscribe here.

Updated: Books and Articles in Logos 2011 (Spring)

Soon the spring issue (vol. 52, nos. 1-2) of Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies will be going to press. I have just finished editing Nicholas Denysenko's article, which the jury praised as a superlative piece of scholarship. It will be featured alongside other articles in Logos, which--alone of all comparable journals in North America--manages to be published regularly and consistently every year on a twice-yearly schedule that incorporates the best scholarship and pastoral reflection from Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Eastern Catholic, Roman Catholic, Protestant, and other scholars from around the world.

If through some inexplicable lapse you have not yet subscribed, or have let your subscription run out, have no fear: this link will let you sign up again so that you may feast on riches available nowhere else.

The spring issue will contain, inter alia, articles and essays by:

• Richard Rymarz on Ukrainian Catholics at World Youth Day
• Michael Plekon on Eastern Elements in Kierkegaard's Eighteen Upbuilding Discourses
• Nicholas Denysenko on Baptismal Themes in the Byzantine Rite of Water Blessing on Theophany
• Daniel Galadza on Paul's Notion of "Logike Latreia"
• Vincenzo Poggi on the Vita of Cyril Korolevsky/J.-F. Charon and the East
  

In addition, of course, we have nearly thirty reviews of many new books, including:

•  B. ter Haar Romeny, ed., Religious Origins of Nations? (reviewed by Oxford's Sebastian Brock)

• A.E. Siecinski, The Filioque: History of a Doctrinal Controversy (Oxford Studies in Historical Theology) (reviewed by Robert Haddad)

• Barbara Skinner, Western Front of the Eastern Church: Uniate and Orthodox Conflict in Eighteenth-Century Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia (reviewed by John-Paul Himka) 

• Gillian Crow, Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh: Essential Writings (Modern Spiritual Masters)(reviewed by Roman Rytsar)

•  Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Crusades, Christianity, and Islam (reviewed by John Bequette)

•  Thomas Mathews, Byzantium: From Antiquity to the Renaissance (reviewed by Emma Loosley)

•  Douglas M. Koskela, Ecclesiality and Ecumenism: Yves Congar and the Road to Unity (reviewed by Catherine Clifford)

• Anna Lisa Crone, Eros and Creativity in Russian Religious Renewal (Russian History and Culture) (reviewed by Judith Deutsch Kornblatt)

•  Judith Deutsch Kornblatt, Divine Sophia: The Wisdom Writings of Vladimir Solovyov (reviewed by Robert Slesinski)

• John Chryssavgis, Remembering and Reclaiming Diakonia: The Diaconate Yesterday and Today (reviewed by David Kennedy)

•  Larry Wolff, The Idea of Galicia: History and Fantasy in Habsburg Political Culture (reviewed by Christopher Hann)

• Paul Collins, Partaking in Divine Nature: Deification and Communion (reviewed by Daniel Keating)

• Wallace Alston and Cynthia Jarvis, The Power to Comprehend with All the Saints: The Formation and Practice of a Pastor-Theologian (reviewed by Bill Mills)

• Susan Ashbrook Harvey, Song and Memory: Biblical Women in Syriac Tradition (reviewed by Bill Mills)

• Matthew Blastares, Sexuality, Marriage, and Celibacy in Byzantine Law: The Alphabetical Collection of Matthew Blastares: Selections from a Fourteenth-Century Encyclopedia of Canon Law, trans. Patrick Viscuso (reviewed by Alex Laschuk)

•  Christopher Pramuk, Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton (reviewed by Michael Plekon)

• Another dozen or so brief reviews are included, most of books already discussed on here.

Really, given this cornucopia, do you have any excuse for not subscribing--today?

Jogging with Jesus through Jerusalem

Eerdmans has a new series of books devoted to liturgical history and liturgical development. Its most recent publication is:

Lester Ruth, Walking Where Jesus Walked: Worship in Fourth-Century Jerusalem (The Church at Worship: Case Studies from Christian History) (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 184pp.

About this series, the publisher first tells us that "The Church at Worship is a new series of documentary case studies of specific worshiping communities from around the world and throughout Christian history."

About this inaugural volume, Walking Where Jesus Walked, the publisher says that it "uses vivid descriptions of Jerusalem, its history, its people, and its worship practices to set the stage for a rich selection of primary church documents, presenting readers with a vibrant snapshot of the church at Jerusalem in the fourth century." Moreover, the publisher says:

Walking Where Jesus Walked is a document-rich snapshot of the church in Jerusalem in the late fourth century. Here the reader journeys with a woman visiting Jerusalem as the highlight of a Holy Land pilgrimage in the last part of the fourth century. As she marvels at the new churches built at so many sites associated with Jesus Christ, she notes how remembrance shaped by Scripture and fitting to the time and place serves as the bedrock for this church’s worship. Ruth helps today’s reader hear the preaching which caused shouts of delight at the tomb of Christ, know the readings which lead the congregation to weep in the shadow of Calvary, and see the new buildings which sought to manifest God’s glory at the places where Jesus had walked, died, and risen from the grave. By pairing contemporary descriptions, artistic portrayals, and worship texts with various commentaries to guide readers, this first in a series of case studies of particular worshiping communities from around the world and throughout Christian liturgical history aims to allow a worshiper today to think concretely and contextually about some of the continually important issues for Christian worship.

Some of the primary materials included here:

• Select art, artifacts, and architectural drawings

• Egeria’s Diary: A Pilgrim’s Observations of Jerusalem at Worship

• The lectionary and communion prayer likely used in Jerusalem

• The Liturgy of St. James, historically associated with Jerusalem

• Excerpts from the sermons of Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem 

This will be reviewed later this year or early next year in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies.

Ephraim's Devotion to the Mother of God

Saint Ephraim the Syrian, "harp of the Holy Spirit" and glory of Syriac Christianity, has been well studied over the years in Oxford's Sebastian Brock's many books. 

Brock continues this wonderful contribution to Oriental scholarship and liturgics with a new book, of which he is the translator and in which Ephraim figures prominently:

Bride of Light: Hymns on Mary from the Syriac Churches (Gorgias Press, 2010), 206pp.

About this book, Gorgias Press tells us:

Syriac is particularly rich in poetry on Mary. Not only is some of this of great tenderness and beauty, but much is also highly imaginative and dramatic. Three different genres are represented in the present selection, lyric, dialogue and narrative poems; almost all are likely to date from the fourth or fifth century. First come five poems by St Ephrem himself, followed by a series of 15 Hymns on Mary attributed to him, but which must date from somewhat later. The section on lyric poems ends with nine charming short poems on the Nativity by Simeon the Potter, a contemporary of St Jacob of Serugh, and a lament put in the voice of Mary at the Crucifixion. Of the five dialogue poems, the first three are based on moments in the opening chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke—Mary and the angel at the Annunciation, Mary and Joseph at the moment when Joseph discovers his betrothed is pregnant, and Mary and the Magi. By contrast, the last two are set on the morning of the Resurrection, where the Mary of chapter 20 of the Gospel of John is identified as Mary, the mother of Jesus, following an early tradition, and not as Mary Magdalene. The collection concludes with three narrative poems, of which the longest, on Mary and Jacob, makes use of themes in the Protogospel of James. A series of indexes includes ones listing the titles of Christ and of Mary that occur, as well as biblical references.

Eschatology

Oxford University Press continues to bring out a helpful series of Handbooks on a variety of religious and theological topics (among many others). Recent offering include Jerry Walls, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology (OUP, 2010), 742pp.


Contributions to this volume of particular interest to Eastern Christians include

• Chapter 5: Eschatology in the Early Church Fathers by Brian Daley

• Chapter 12: Eastern Orthodox Eschatology by Andrew Louth

• Chapter 19: Church, Ecumenism, and Eschatology by Douglas Farrow

• Chapter 25: Universalism by Thomas Talbot

But the whole volume seems to be a rich feast and I look forward to seeing it reviewed in Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies.

The Healing of Memories

NPR's blog "Being" (formerly "Speaking of Faith") here publishes some of my further thoughts on Pope John Paul II and the healing of Orthodox-Catholic memories.