10. The mysteries

2019 ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
A. Edward Siecienski
Keyword(s):  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Special Significance ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

The Orthodox church has blessings and ceremonies for every occasion, but among the various rites of the church, seven have taken on a special significance. ‘The mysteries’ describes these seven sacraments of the Orthodox church—baptism, chrismation (confirmation), the eucharist, reconciliation (confession), the Anointing of the Sick, marriage, and Holy Orders. The Orthodox conviction is that Christ himself is encountered in each of the seven mysteries, and it is he who provides believers with the grace needed for their particular ministry or state of life. For the Orthodox, sacraments are not just ceremonies or celebrations that mark important milestones in one’s Christian journey; they are manifestations of Christ’s ongoing presence in the world.

The Orthodox Preference for Democracy: An American Response to “The Church in the Public Square” (Section II), in For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

2021 ◽  
Vol 78 (4) ◽  
pp. 418-430
Author(s):  
Jonathan Tobias
Keyword(s):  
Orthodox Church ◽  
The Public ◽  
Clear Preference ◽  
Public Square ◽  
Modern Age ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church ◽  
Social Ethos

In For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church, there is a clear preference for the “democratic genius of the modern age.” This preference for democracy is due, in part, to the long experience of the Orthodox Church with other governmental forms, especially autocratic and authoritarian states.

Violence, War, and Capital Punishment in For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

2021 ◽  
pp. 095394682110453
Author(s):  
Philip LeMasters
Keyword(s):  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Moral Reflection ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
The World ◽  
Underlying Causes ◽  
Causes Of Violence ◽  
Spiritual Resources ◽  
The Church ◽  
Social Ethos

In response to the challenges presented by violence, war, and capital punishment, For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church argues that foundational liturgical, canonical, and spiritual resources invite the Church to manifest a foretaste of the fullness of God’s peace amidst the brokenness of a world that remains tragically inclined toward taking the lives of those who bear the divine image and likeness. It also summons the Church to engage people and power structures toward the end of enacting practical reforms that ameliorate the underlying causes of violence, a task especially urgent in light of the powerful weapons and technologies employed by governments today. While reflecting distinctive Orthodox sensibilities on the topics it addresses, the document also presents points of commonality with other Christian traditions of theological and moral reflection, especially concerning the obligation to take realistic initiatives in peacemaking.

Mary in the Hymnody of the East

2019 ◽  
pp. 105-121
Author(s):  
John Anthony McGuckin
Keyword(s):  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Virgin Mary ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Christian Tradition ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
The World ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
Unbroken Line ◽  
The Church

Beginning with a notice of the major Marian hymnal elements in the New Testament text, this study goes on to consider how the most ancient Christian tradition of celebrating the role of the Virgin Mary in the salvific events the Church commemorates at prayer runs on in an unbroken line into the earliest liturgical examples from the Byzantine Greek liturgy. The study exegetes some of the chief liturgical troparia addressed to the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox Church ritual books. It analyses some of the more famous and renowned poetic acclamations of the Virgin in Byzantine literary tradition, such as the Sub Tuum Praesidium, the Akathist, and the Nativity Kontakion of Romanos the Melodist, but also goes on to show how the minor Theotokia (or ritual verses in honour of the Virgin), taken from the Divine Liturgy and from the Eastern Church’s Hours of Prayer, all consistently celebrate the Mother of God’s role in the salvific work of Christ in the world.

scholarly journals ICONS, SMUGGLING AND MCDONALDIZATION OF CULTURE

Muzealnictwo ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 58 (0) ◽  
pp. 0-0
Author(s):  
Joanna Tomalska-Więcek
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Eastern Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Multicultural Society ◽  
Artistic Value ◽  
The World ◽  
Grand Duchy Of Lithuania ◽  
Polish Culture ◽  
The Church

Culture undergoes constant changes. Although today, Poland is an almost ethnically homogenous country, ages ago, the dialogue of cultures took place not only on the borderlines of the First Polish Republic but also in the then capital city of Cracow. In 1390, Slavic Benedictine monks who used Old Church Slavic language settled in the church of the Holy Cross in Krakow. Francis Skaryna (Francysk Skaryna), a pioneer of Belarusian printing and later the founder of the first printing house in Eastern Europe in Vilnius, published the first Cyrillic prints in the world in Cracow and in the early 16th c. also studied there. Poland was a great example of a multicultural society. In the early 16th c. the Catholics and the Protestants, the Jews and the Armenians, the Tatars and the Karaims lived in Poland. After the Union of Lublin, the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania formed one of the biggest countries in Europe at the time; it was inhabited by the Poles, the Lithuanians, the Ukrainians and the Belarusians. In the mid-16th c. Poland became a shelter for multitudes of religious dissenters in Western Europe, such as the Lutherans, the Calvinists, and other Protestants. Today it is useless to seek traces of such multiculturality in many museums. In museums which collect paintings related to the Eastern Orthodox Church, places of monuments connected with Polish culture are frequently occupied by late icons of mediocre artistic value smuggled from Russia. The article attempts to explain this phenomenon in the context of the transformation of modern museology.

scholarly journals Doing Orthodox Political Theology Today Insights from the Document For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church (2020)

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-30
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Asproulis
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Theology ◽  
Byzantine Empire ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
The Poor ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church ◽  
Made In ◽  
Social Ethos

Abstract The document titled For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Ortho dox Church, authored by a special commission of Orthodox scholars appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is a document that can be definitely understood as a political manifesto of Eastern Orthodoxy for the 21st century, namely for this period of history and not for a by-gone historical setting or a Christian utopia (either the Byzantine Empire or Holy Russia), a period of time with urgent problems and challenges that call for our attention. Therefore, bringing to the fore the personalist anthropological view inherent in the document itself, an attempt has been made in the text to critically reflect and highlight certain relevant aspects of the document (a positive reception of liberal democracy, human rights language, solidarity to the poor, etc.). The goal is to show how theologically important this document is for the Church witness to our pluralistic world.

scholarly journals Fates of priests of Russian Orthodox Church of Old-Believers in the ancient centres of Starodub and Vietka in 1920s-1960s

2019 ◽  
pp. 38-43
Author(s):  
Marina V. Kochergina
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Spiritual Life ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
World War ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Old Believers ◽  
The World ◽  
The Church

The article is devoted to the difficult fate of the old believers' priests of the Russian Orthodox Church of Old Believers in the period of Stalin's repression, the events on the World War II East Front and the postwar period, associated with a new oppression against the Church. The author restores the fate of old believers' priests from the ancient centres of Starodub and Vietka, who managed to preserve, despite the repression by the Soviet authorities, the faith of their ancestors, to show selflessness in relation to their flock, love for the Motherland, patriotism. The analysis of published biographies of old believers' priests of the Russian Orthodox Church of Old Believers, the memories of old believers themselves, recorded by the author, allow tracing the difficult way of restoring the spiritual life of old believer communities of Starodub and Vietka in this period, to show the regional aspects of the activity of old believers' priests in the field of state-confessional relations, their interaction with members of communities.

scholarly journals Truth or Diplomacy? For the Life of the World, Islam and the Patristic Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-41
Author(s):  
Serafim Seppälä
Keyword(s):  
Human Values ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Modern Approach ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Church

Abstract In their writings on Islam, John Damascene and Theodore Abu Qurrah, both authoritative patristic saints of the Orthodox Church, took an apologetic and polemic stand in defence of the Christian truth. In the modern interreligious discourse, however, the approach to Islam is rather diplomatic, concentrating on universal human values and common aspects of religions. How does the document For the Life of the World operate in this tension? In general, it aims to build on patristic argumentation, but the approach to Islam is most positive and all-embracing, welcoming the “beauty and truths” of Islam and stressing the “common roots,” while the patristic views on Islam are silenced. The discrepancy may arouse questions on the sincerity and coherence of the modern approach in relation to the patristic tradition. This reflects wider challenges in the modern theology of the Church: how to find a discursive position in the tension between the defence of truth, characteristic for the patristic thought, and the “diplomatic” language of the modern interreligious encounters.

11. Orthodoxy and the modern world

2019 ◽  
pp. 99-106
Author(s):  
A. Edward Siecienski
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Issues ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
Orthodox Christianity ◽  
The World ◽  
Role Of Women ◽  
The Church

The twentieth and twenty-first centuries have been times of great upheaval for the Orthodox, with persecutions and mass emigrations, but also rebirth and the possibility of new growth. ‘Orthodoxy and the modern world’ considers the position of the Orthodox church on a range of matters, including its views on other churches; the attempts to create an independent church in Ukraine outside the Moscow Patriarchate jurisdiction; the role of women in the church; its advocacy of environmental issues; and issues of sexual morality. Orthodox Christianity remains vibrant and relevant; it provides millions of Christians throughout the world with their spiritual home, and continues to shape world events.

Alexei Losev

2020 ◽  
pp. 563-579
Author(s):  
Sr. Teresa Obolevitch
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Language ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Russian Orthodox ◽  
Orthodox Church ◽  
Russian Orthodox Church ◽  
Philosophical Foundations ◽  
The World ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Church ◽  
Name Of God

Alexei Losev was among those few religious thinkers who remained in the USSR after the revolution. He was an advocate of the so-called onomatodoxy movement in the Russian Orthodox Church according to which the name of God is not something conventional, but God himself. It was Losev who elaborated the philosophical foundations of this teaching and built a sort of synthesis of Platonism (and Neoplatonism) and the thought of the Eastern Fathers of the Church, especially St. Gregory of Palamas. As an encyclopaedic man, Losev dealt with different branches of philosophy: philosophy of language, music, mathematics, aesthetics, etc. The common denominator of all works was the issue of symbol, which he considered to be an external expression of an internal content. In the context of onomatodoxy debates, it means that the name of God is nothing but His energy (using the term of the Greek Fathers of the Church), or manifestation of His unknowable essence in the world. Therefore, a symbol is primarily of an objective character and at the same time assumes the cooperation (synergy) between God and man.

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