The Oxford Movement within the Anglican communion sought changes to the Church of England in its articulation of theology and performance of liturgy that would more clearly demonstrate what the movement's members believed was the place of their Church within the wider universal and ancient Church. In this regard they mostly looked to the Roman Catholic Church, but one of their most prominent members thought their goals would be better served by seeking recognition from the Orthodox Church. This book charts the eccentric career of that member, William Palmer, a fellow of Magdalen College and deacon of the Anglican Church. Seemingly destined for a conventional life as a classics don at Oxford, in 1840 and 1842 he travelled to Russia to seek communion from the Russian Orthodox Church. He sought their affirmation that the Anglican Church was part of the ancient Catholic and Apostolic Church world-wide. Despite their personal regard for him, the Russians remained unconvinced by his arguments, not least because of the actions of the Anglican hierarchy in forming alliances with other Protestant bodies. Palmer in turn wrestled with what he saw as the logical inconsistencies in the claim of the Orthodox to be the one true church, such as the differing views he encountered on the manner of reception of converts into the Church by either baptism and chrismation or the latter alone. Increasingly disillusioned with the Church of England, and finding himself without support from the Scottish Episcopal Church, Palmer closest Russian friends such as Mouravieff and Khomiakoff urged him to cast aside his reservations and to convert Orthodoxy. Ultimately he baulked at making what he saw as the cultural leap from West to East, and after some years in ecclesiastical limbo, he followed the example of his Oxford friends such as John Henry Newman, and was received into the Roman Catholic Church in Rome in 1855. He lived in Rome as a Catholic layman until his death in 1879. This is a fascinating account of a failed "journey to Orthodoxy" that should provide food for thought to all who may follow this path in the future and offer grounds for reflection to Orthodox believers on how to remove unnecessary stumbling blocks that can arise on the path to their Church.

In the autumn of 2018 the Russian Orthodox Church broke communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople following the latter Synods announcement of their intention to create an autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine. (OCU) In December of that year a formal council was convened in Kiev and this new ecclesial body was created from two Ukrainian groups previously considered schismatic by all of the Orthodox churches worldwide. All of this transpired without any attempt by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to seek a consensus of all the Orthodox churches before embarking this course of action. More than two years later the newly created OCU remains unrecognised by the overwhelming majority of the world's Orthodox believers notwithstanding that it has in that time been been recognised as Orthodox by the Patriarchate of Alexandra and the Churches of Cyprus and Greece. But even this recognition has not been without significant dissenting voices. One of these is the Abbot of the renowned Kykkos monastery in Cyprus, Metropolitan Nikephoros. In this pithy text he eloquently explains why the actions of the Ecumenical Patriarchate have created a schism in the Orthodox Church worldwide and how in turn they reflect the promotion of a new ecclesiology that distorts the traditional understanding of the Orthodox Church as headed only by Christ Himself. He is clear that the only road to healing and unending schism is a return to a form of inter-Orthodox relations which respects both conciliarity and hierarchy. In doing this he stresses his utmost respect for the historical place of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and the hope that it will turn back from the path it is currently on to resume its rightful place in the plurality of the Orthodox Church.This is essential reading for all Orthodox believers to better understand what the Ukrainian crisis means for the future of their Church. It will also assist others to see beyond the characterization of the crisis as a political event in the context of relations between Russia and the West. It makes clear that at its heart this is an ecclesiological dispute calling out for a conciliar solution.

Conflict or concord? Histories of Islam from its early seventh century beginnings in Arabia often portray its explosive growth into the wider Middle East as a story of struggle and conquest of the Christian people of Greater Syria, Palestine and Egypt. Alternatively these histories suggest that as often as not the conquerors were welcomed by the conquered and their existing monotheistic faiths of Christianity and Judaism tolerated and even allowed to flourish. In this short but in depth survey of the almost nine centuries that passed from the beginning of the spread of Islam up to the Ottoman Turkish conquest of Syria and Egypt beginning in 1516, Constantin Panchenko offers a more complex portrayal that opens up fresh vistas of understanding of these centuries focusing on the impact that the coming of Islam had on the Orthodox Christian communities of the Middle East and in particular the interplay of their Greek cultural heritage and experience of increasing Arabization. This work is drawn from the author's much larger work, Arab Orthodox Christians Under the Ottomans, being an updated and expanded version of the first chapter of that book which set the historical context for the period after 1516. It will deepen the readers understanding both of the history of the Middle East in these centuries and of how the faith of Orthodox Christians in these lands is lived today.

Western societies today are coming unmoored in the face of earth-shaking ethical and cultural paradigm shift. At its core is the question of what it means to be human and how we are meant to live. The old answers are no longer accepted; a dizzying array of options are offered in their stead. Underpinning this smorgasbord of lifestyles is a thicket of unquestioned assumptions, such as the separation of gender from biological sex, which not so long ago would have been universally rejected as radical notions.In the spring of 2019, a group of Orthodox Christian scholars drawn from a wide variety of academic disciplines met together to offer responses to the moral crisis our generation faces, elaborating upon its various forms and facilitating a fuller understanding of some of its theological and philosophical foundations. In doing so they offer support to all those who question the claims that are so forcefully insisted upon today – a clarity that will aid them in standing up and resisting trends that have already shown to be the cause of great suffering and unhappiness. Among the contributors to this volume are NY Times bestselling author Rod Dreher, Frederica Matthewes-Green, Dr David Bradshaw, Fr Chad Hatfield, and Fr Peter Heers. Collectively, these scholars remind us that it is only through our participation in the life of Christ, God who became man, that we can find the healing of our humanity through the restoration in us of His image, in which we were formed at the beginning of time.

"Thou hast redeemed us from the curse of the Law by Thy precious Blood. By being nailed to the Cross and pierced with the Spear, Thou hast poured immortality on mankind. O our Saviour, glory to Thee. " - Troparion for Holy Friday Atonement is a contested but inescapable term in contemporary English-language theological discussion. The doctrine of atonement has received little attention in Orthodox Christian circles since the work of Fr Georges Florovsky, who labored to clarify and promulgate the Orthodox teaching on atonement on the basis of his theological leitmotifs of neo-patristic synthesis and encounter with the West. Florovsky saw the doctrine of the person of Christ as the key to apprehending the pattern and the unity of God’s redemptive work. Hence he always sought to follow the Church Fathers in weaving together the themes of creation and fall, incarnation and atonement, deification and redemption, liturgy and asceticism, in the variegated yet seamless robe of true theology. The present volume is inspired by Florovsky’s legacy. It is composed of two parts. The first is a collection of papers on atonement by contemporary scholars from a patristic symposium in honor of Florovsky held at Princeton Theological Seminary and Princeton University in 2011. The second part is a collection of writings on atonement by Florovsky himself, including previously unpublished manuscripts and other works otherwise hard to access. This book offers incisive and informed neo-patristic voices to any contemporary discussion of atonement, thus responding to the perennial legacy and task to which Fr Georges Florovsky exhorted Orthodox theological reflection.

This book is a critical study of the interaction between Russian Church and society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. At a time of rising nationalist movement throughout Europe, Orthodox patriots advocated for the place of the Church as a unifying force, central to the identity and purpose of the burgeoning, yet increasingly religiously diverse Russian Empire. Their views were articulated in a variety of ways. Bishops such as Metropolitan Antony Khrapovitsky - a founding hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia - and other members of the clergy expressed their vision of Russia through official publications (including ecclesiastical journals), sermons, the organization of pilgrimages and the canonization of saints. On the other hand, religious intellectuals (such as the famous philosopher Vladimir Soloviev and the controversial former-Marxist Sergey Bulgakov) promoted what was often a variant vision of the nation through the publication of books and articles. Even the once persecuted Old Believers, emboldened by a religious toleration edict of 1905, sought to claim a role in national leadership. And many - in particularly famous painter Mikhail Vasnetsov - looked to art and architecture as a way of defining the religious ideals of modern Russia. Whilst other studies exist that draw attention to the voices in the Church typified as “liberal” in the years leading up to the Revolution, this work introduces the reader to a wide range of “conservative” opinion that equally strove for spiritual renewal and the spread of the Gospel. Ultimately neither the “conservative” voices presented here nor those of their better-known “liberal” protagonists were able to prevent the calamity that befell Russia with the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. Grounded in original research conducted in the newly accessible libraries and archives of post-Soviet Russia, this study is intended to reveal the wider relevance of its topic to an ongoing discussion of the relationship between national or ethnic identities on the one hand and the self-understanding of Orthodox Christianity as a universal and transformative Faith on the other.

The Apostle Paul commands his disciple Timothy to “be an example to the believers in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.” This exhortation encapsulates the Orthodox Church’s expectations from her clergy and forms the basis of her Pastoral Theology. The aim of the present work is to guide the contemporary Orthodox priest in his application of the Apostle’s words to his everyday life as a conduit of Divine Grace and shepherd of Christ’s flock. At the same time, its focus on the proper formation of the soul will benefit every Christian, whether ordained or not. Compiled from recent and historical sources reflecting the rich heritage of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Written close to the end of the great writer’s life, Fyodor Dostoevsky’s short story The Dream of a Ridiculous Man tells of a transformation of the heart and a journey from despair to joy: a joy that can be known by all through the experience of God that transcends a simply rational discourse. In this eye opening literary study, the title character and his spiritual metamorphosis are examined in depth in light of the ancient concept of Nous as it developed from the Greek philosophers to the Christian fathers. By comparing the “Ridiculous Man” to similar characters in Dostoevsky’s corpus, the author shows how an Orthodox Christian understanding of the Nous underpins Dostoevsky’s own anthropology and how his literary works in turn guide the reader toward a truer vision of humanity.

This third and final volume of Archbishop Averky's New Testament commentary elucidates the moral and pastoral aspects of the Pauline and Universal Epistles and the Book of Revelation. Discussion of each New Testament book is preceded by an analysis of the authorship, time and place of composition, and major themes within. The final commentary on the Apocalypse, in which Archbishop Averky relies heavily on the ancient commentary of St Andrew of Ceasaria, is provided in the popular translation by Hieromonk Seraphim (Rose), together with the Scriptural text itself. The author's approach is thoroughly patristic, constantly turning to the Church Fathers for the elucidation of one or another particular verse, especially to the commentaries and expositions of St John Chrysostom, Blessed Theophylact of Ochrid, Blessed Theodoret of Cyrus, and most particularly to the voluminous Scriptural commentaries of St Theophan the Recluse. The commentary has been copiously annotated with citations to primary sources, which did not appear in the original text. Archbishop Averky's commentaries on the New Testament have become standard textbooks in Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary and have been published in Russia to widespread acclaim. They are an indispensable addition to the library of every student of the New Testament.

Writing in the tradition of biblical exegetes, such as St John Chrysostom, Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, and St Theophan the Recluse, the work of Archbishop Averky (Taushev) provides a commentary that is firmly grounded in the teaching of the Church, manifested in its liturgical hymnography and the works of the Holy Fathers. Using the best of prerevolutionary Russian sources, these writings also remained abreast of developments in Western biblical scholarship, engaging with it directly and honestly. In this second of three planned volumes, the author explains the significance of the Church's earliest history, as recorded in the Book of Acts. Questions of authorship and time of composition are also addressed. Archbishop Averky's commentaries on the New Testament have become standard textbooks in Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary and have been published in Russia to widespread acclaim. This present volume is the first translation of these texts into English. it is an indispensable addition to the library of every student of the New Testament.

Following the so called "Arab Spring" the world's attention has been drawn to the presence of significant minority religious groups within the predominantly Islamic Middle East. Of these minorities Christians are by far the largest, comprising over 10% of the population in Syria and as much as 40% in Lebanon. The largest single group of Christians are the Arabic-speaking Orthodox. This work fills a major lacuna in the scholarship of wider Christian history and more specifically that of lived religion within the Ottoman empire. Beginning with a survey of the Christian community during the first nine hundred years of Muslim rule, the author traces the evolution of Arab Orthodox Christian society from its roots in the Hellenistic culture of the Byzantine Empire to a distinctly Syro-Palestinian identity. There follows a detailed examination of this multi-faceted community, from the Ottoman conquest of Syria, Palestine and Egypt in 1516 to the Egyptian invasion of Syria in 1831. The author draws on archaeological evidence and previously unpublished primary sources uncovered in Russian archives and Middle Eastern monastic libraries to present a vivid and compelling account of this vital but little-known spiritual and political culture, situating it within a complex network of relations reaching throughout the Mediterranean, the Caucasus and Eastern Europe. The work is made more accessible to a non-specialist reader by the addition of a glossary, whilst the scholar will benefit from a detailed bibliography of both primary and secondary sources. A foreword has been contributed to this first English language edition by the Patriarch of Antioch, John X. It contextualizes the history found in this work within the ongoing struggle to preserve the ancient Christian cultures of the Arabic speaking peoples from extinction within their ancestral homeland.

Writing in the tradition of biblical exegetes, such as St John Chrysostom and Blessed Theophylact of Bulgaria, the work of Archbishop Averky (Taushev) provides a commentary that is firmly grounded in the teaching of the Church, manifested in its liturgical hymnography and the works of the Holy Fathers. Analyzing all four Gospels chronologically and simultaneously, he allows readers to see the life of Christ as an unfolding narrative in accessible, direct language. Using the best of prerevolutionary Russian sources, these writings also remained abreast of developments in Western biblical scholarship, engaging with it directly and honestly. He approaches the Gospels first and foremost not as a literary work of antiquity, but as the revelation of Jesus Christ as God in the flesh. Archbishop Averky's commentaries on the New Testament have become standard textbooks in Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary and have been published in Russia to widespread acclaim. This present volume is the first translation of these texts into English and it is an indispensable addition to the library of every student of the Gospels.

St. Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow (Vasily Ivanovich Bellavin, 1865Ð1925) is one of the most important figures of both Russian and Orthodox Church history in the 20th century. Yet 90 years after his death this remains the only complete biography ever published in the English language. It has now been updated and revised with a new preface and bibliography, together with revised and additional endnotes, by Scott M. Kenworthy. The biography reveals a picture of a man whom no one expected to be chosen as Patriarch, yet who nevertheless humbly accepted the call of God and the people to guide the Church during the most turbulent of times as it faced both internal upheavals and external persecution. Both specialists and general readers will become better acquainted with