Colloquium on the Mystagogy of St. Maximos the Confessor

📢@PappasPatristic is pleased to announce six additional speakers to the Colloquium on the Mystagogy of St. Maximos the Confessor (April 28-30, 2022) https://t.co/AgkeDJYXAI: Jelena Bogdanović, Thomas Cattoi, Demetrios Harper, Robin Jensen, Tamsin Jones, and Vitaly Permiakov.

— The Pappas Patristic Institute (@PappasPatristic) October 19, 2021

The Ethical Discourses

The treatises on the mystical life, usually rendered as The Ethical Discourses, comprise St Symeon's most extensive treatment of the experience of God. Volume I selects those treatises devoted to the Church, the sacraments and the last things. Buy now: https://t.co/BWkFHLknWd pic.twitter.com/m8wvLeuUye

— SVS Press (@SVSPress) October 18, 2021

This is the second of a three-volume series translating The Ethical Discourses into English for the first time. In this collection he addresses the traditional language of Eastern Christian asceticism in the light of his message. Buy now: https://t.co/Z3bh7csVYL pic.twitter.com/qXwn6vZ1mH

— SVS Press (@SVSPress) October 19, 2021

Orthodox Theology in the 20th Century and Early 21st Century

The Orthodox Theology expounds the doctrine of the Church for each generation of the faithful, and for each particular pastoral context, in order to proclaim God's love for the entire world, as it is expressed in the Gospels.

More in the book. :)👉 https://t.co/X07EwbH1cT. pic.twitter.com/Ob1dEyxYD1

— Basilica.ro (EN) (@BasilicaNews) April 16, 2021

Byzantine Soteriology

Rooted in Scripture...

And thus all who are in Him may become one with God, being healed of their sin and corruption, freed from demonic domination and granted eternal life in the resurrection. 6/

— Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick (@FrAndrewSDamick) March 25, 2021

Bridal Mysticism in the Byzantine Rite?

I love the prayer experience of talking to Jesus by quoting one of his beloved saints. pic.twitter.com/x5U4UkmxUf

— Fr. Michael O'Loughlin (@PadreMichaelO) September 16, 2020

Daniel Galadza, Introduction to Liturgical Mystagogy

For Those Interested in Palamas

Apparently a research project devoted to studying the two variants of Gregory Palamas' (in)famous third letter to Gregory Akindynos on the essence/energies distinction has just published (all?/some of?) its results on a new site, yesterday: https://t.co/w2Y5YVMUYN

— Jonathan Greig (@jabgreig) September 2, 2020

website

Eastern Christian Books: To Attain the Full Stature of the Perfect Christ

Eastern Christian Books: To Attain the Full Stature of the Perfect Christ OUP: Human Perfection in Byzantine Theology: Attaining the Fullness of Christ by Alexis Torrance

Lumen Christi Institute Fall Webinar Series: Eastern Catholic Theology in Action

More info.

The Byzantine View of the Incarnation

"We need to stop seeing the Incarnation as a reaction of God to the Fall, but see the Incarnation as the very purpose of Creation."
From the Clips channel. https://t.co/62n918Tdib

— Jonathan Pageau (@PageauJonathan) August 19, 2020

Eastern Christian Books: Matthew Briel on Greek Thomists

Eastern Christian Books: Matthew Briel on Greek Thomists

Dr. David Bradshaw: "The Cappadocian Fathers as Founders of Byzantine Thought"

Protecting Veil

Patrick Viscuso Reviews Kevin Schembri's Oikonomia

Journal of Orthodox Christian Studies (temporary free access)

The reviewer is a priest and canonist for GOARCH:

The Reverend Dr. Patrick Viscuso is a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and a canonist specializing in marriage and gender issues. His doctorate in historical theology from The Catholic University of American concentrated on Byzantine and Oriental canon law, patristic studies, and church history. He also holds a Master of Divinity from Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University. Fr. Viscuso is the author of a large number of scholarly publications in the field of Late Byzantine Canon Law and is a specialist in marriage legislation and theology. His most recent writings focus on the relationship of marriage to ordination, purity issues, divorce, and women's superstitions in late Byzantium.

Perhaps he has written something on the Byzantine canons on marriage and divorce.

In his review of Oikonomia: Divorce and Remarriage in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition, he notes

Another point repeatedly made is that the "Orthodox tradition" invests the indissolubility of marriage with an eternal character and consequently views remarriage as a concession or expression of ecclesial oikonomia. The absence of the Eucharist and crowning during late Byzantine celebration of second and third marriages is said to imply that Orthodoxy regarded or still regards these unions as less than sacramental in some way.

However, the author fails to show any articulation of marriage as an eternal bond in Orthodox canonical or theological literature prior to the twentieth century, when this theological opinion came to be expressed at the Institut de Théologie Orthodoxe Saint-Serge. In fact, there are substantial Byzantine texts that articulate a contrary view affirming that marriage is ended by death, an example being the Scriptural commentaries of Theophylaktos, archbishop of Ohrid (b. ca. 1055-d. after 1126), specifically on Luke 20:34–36.

The assertions regarding the non-sacramental nature of second and third unions within Orthodoxy do not adequately address the facts. For instance, there was no uniform practice regarding crowning of a second or third marriage in Byzantium. Second unions were definitely crowned according to the usage of the Great Church; the presence or absence of crowning did not mean that a sacerdotal blessing of the marriage did not take place; and, since the Eucharist was not a constitutive element in the establishment of the marriage, the canonical restriction of the second and third married from the Eucharist during a period of penance did not mean that the union, as established by sacerdotal blessing, was not regarded as sacramental and incapable of sanctification.

Furthermore, in considering such questions, the absence of the Eucharist from the marriage service is completely irrelevant to its sacramental nature. As is obvious to those who have ever attended a contemporary ceremony, Orthodox marriages today are considered blessed and sacramental without the reception of the Eucharist during their celebration, even the so-called mixed marriages of Roman Catholics and Orthodox. Also, the author's emphasis on the penitential nature of second and third unions does not adequately address contemporary practice, where such penances are no longer imposed.

A dominant theologoumenon is not the same as dogma... and the opinion that marriage is eternal may not even be dominant in the various Byzantine ecclesial traditions.

So second and third "marriages" may be deemed "sacramental"? And yet a period of penance might be required. Is there a authoritative work discussing penances in the canons and their rationale?

I will have to eventually get a Byzantine textbook on marriage but probably at least one that covers a range of opinions among the various ecclesial traditions, or several textbooks. I don't think I would rely on a Greek one alone.

"Transubstantiation" in the Byzantine Tradition?

Eclectic Orthodoxy: Transubstantiation: Maybe Dositheos Got It Right by the Very Rev. Christiaan Kappes, S.L.D., Ph.L., Ph.D.

Eternal Memory!

OCA: Remembering Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko





(via Byz, TX)

International Conference on the Theological Heritage of Fr. Georges Florovsky

Tradition? One Just the Opinion of Many?

Ancient Faith Blogs

James Ginther, Robert Grosseteste and Byzantine Theology

Revd Prof Nikolaos Loudovikos on 'Bringing New Spirit to the Old Letter'

Dr Alexis Torrance: "The Concept of the Person in Orthodox Theology"