Studies in Eastern Orthodoxy – serie

This book questions the extent to which knowledge and experience can be reasonably, if at all, separated in consideration of the divine. Gregory Palamas’s dynamic patterning of unions and distinctions provides the context for a response to this question in which the breadth and depth of human functioning is explored - from the body to the passions to the intellect. In the course of close analysis of Palamas’s writings, the author presents from Palamas a thoroughly apophatic and an iconic mode of understanding the whole human person so as to mark out a fully integrated theological anthropology.

This book explores the relationship between the Orthodox tradition and the ecumenical practice of engagement with other Christian traditions. This relationship has for a long time been compromised by an underlying tension, as the Orthodox have chosen to participate in ecumenical encounters while – often at the same time – denouncing the ecumenical movement as deficient and illegitimate. The author perceives this relationship to be even more inconsistent since the core of Orthodoxy as professed by the Orthodox is precisely that of re-establishing the unity and catholicity of the Church of Christ. This vision informs Orthodox identity as essentially a Church of exploration, of engagement and dialogue, a Church committed to drive all other traditions, but also itself back to the «right» primordial faith. The book exposes the risk of Orthodox theology turning into an oppositional picture of Orthodoxy as necessarily opposed to a heterodox antipode, rather than being the continuous dynamic reality of the living Church of Christ. The author proposes the rediscovery of a set of paradigms in an ethos of humble, active metanoia that would enable a more plenary ecumenical operation for the Orthodox as well as a renewed awareness of their own spirituality.

The field of political theology in the Orthodox traditions of Europe in post-Byzantine times is an almost unknown area. The book offers a comparison of four mirrors for princes from the beginning of the sixteenth century: The Teachings of Neagoe Basarab to His Son Theodosius (1520), Institutio Principis Christiani of Erasmus of Rotterdam (1516), On Secular Authority of Martin Luther (1523) and The Prince of Niccolò Machiavelli (1513). The author thus provides a cross-section of the history of Christian discourse concerning the concept of ‘Princeps Christianus’ in Europe. These works are representative because they show relevant confessional interpretations in Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Lutheranism. The main focus is on Neagoe Basarab, Lord of Wallachia between 1512 and 1521. This important author from Orthodox Europe is here brought into conversation with his three famous contemporaries on such topics as humanity, religion, politics, state, subjects, rulers and freedom.

The anagrams, or more generally, the mathēmata and morphologically related kalophonic forms of Byzantine melopoeïa, constitute the artistic creations by which Psaltic Art is known in all its splendour and becomes an object of admiration. Kalophony as ars nova was born following the recovery of the city of Constantinople after the Latin occupation of Byzantium (AD 1204–1261) during the long reign of Andronicus II (1282–1328) and reached its final form in the first half of the fourteenth century. During the years 1300–1350, four key composers and teachers of the Psaltic Art imposed a new attitude of melic composition on the preexisting forms and designated new compositional techniques dominated by the beautifying kallopistic element. They created new compositions in the new spirit of kallōpismos and musical verbosity. This new musical creation was christened with the term kalophony and this period is the golden age of Byzantine Chant.Originally published under the title Hoi anagrammatismoi kai ta mathemata tes byzantines melopoiïas (1979 plus seven reprints), this publication thoroughly investigates and reveals for the first time the entire magnitude of Byzantine kalophony with its individual forms, serving as a systematic introduction to the Greek Byzantine music culture and that of the Byzantine Psaltic Art at the height of its expression.