Orthodoxy

In July 2009 Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and all Rus' paid a visit to Ukraine with ostensibly spiritual concerns to celebrate the anniversary of the baptism of St Vladimir and Rus' and the 450th anniversary of the gift of the Pochaiv icon of the Mother of God. In this article we argue that the visit was, however, of more than just pastoral significance: it served both symbolically and realistically as a means to shore up the relationship between the Ukrainian Orthodox and Russia, reinforcing the religious and political ties between the two countries. We also argue that in backing up these ties, Kirill will not allow the formation of an independent and unified Ukrainian Orthodox Church in the motherland of Russian Orthodoxy, thus perpetuating the schism that exists between the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Kiev Patriarchate (UOC-KP), the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP). As a result, Ukraine is left without a unified church to promote union among the people, Russians and Ukrainians, something which was desired by President Viktor Yuschenko. This strategy by Kirill may cause further complications in inter-Orthodox relations, especially with the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which desires a resolution to the non-canonical situation in Ukraine.

Ensayo. Publicado como prólogo a la nueva edición de "Ortodoxia" de Gilbert Keith Chesterton, para la Biblioteca de Clásicos Cristianos. Editada por ABBA, Barcelona, 2020, pp. 11-25.

"La obra de Chesterton en general y 'Ortodoxia' en particular han atravesado mis ideas y mi fe de tantas maneras que, indefectiblemente, estos párrafos probablemente se parezcan más a un abrazo que a una clase magistral. Borges lo dijo antes y mejor que yo: que la literatura es una forma de felicidad, y que tal vez ningún escritor nos ha dado tantas horas felices como Chesterton".

This is an English version of the article “L’avenir de la « diaspora » orthodoxe”, Contacts 65:243 (Julliet-Septembre 2013), 477-497. The study examines the  grounds and the challenges for the future of Orthodoxy in the West after the fall of Communism and in the face of jurisdictional division and tension.

Lo studio propone un’analisi storico-contenutistica dell’evoluzione etimologica e semantica che subì la nozione di “missione” all’interno dell’ambito teologico ortodosso contemporaneo, in particolare in quello ellenofono. L’esame degli autori odierni più accreditati, evidenzia, infatti, il tentativo di definire teologicamente e di approfondire ecclesiologicamente il contenuto dell’impegno missionario. La missione (ιεραποστολή), intesa come l’annuncio kerigmatico della verità di Cristo, accompagna e si completa con l’evangelizzazione (ευαγγελισμός), che comprende la ricapitolazione finale di tutte le cose alla luce dell’eschaton, già penetrato nella storia. Tale idea ha ispirato i teologi a discernere le dinamiche più profonde dell’attività missionaria, in seno alla riconoscimento del mistero della Chiesa e in virtù all’inseparabile vincolo tra storia ed escatologia, quali: la testimonianza della gloria di Dio Trino; la “martyria” del Regno escatologico di Dio e dunque del legame imprescindibile tra storia ed eschaton; l’approfondimento del concetto di “liturgia dopo la Liturgia”, ovvero dell’ispirazione liturgica ed eucaristica della missione che pone l’accento sulla trasformazione della creazione. Sono appunti tali approcci che hanno dato il via ad una peculiare sintesi teologica di impronta missiologica.

The ideas that are commonly associated with Esther Bick, such as primal skin function, defensive second skin phenomena and adhesive identity, are traditionally seen as affiliated to the larger body of work that constitutes the Kleinian school. I shall argue, however, that Bick’s thinking owes a largely communally unrecognised debt to the work of her training analyst, Michael Balint. Beginning with a discussion of Bick’s early psychoanalytic formation within the British Psychoanalytic Society, her ideas will be reapproached in the light of her contemporary psychoanalytic milieu, with particular reference to Balint’s notions concerning primary object-love, the basic fault and space. A brief history of the Manchester Training Centre, a short-lived but pioneering British attempt to extend psychoanalytic training beyond London, is included incidentally. Bick’s early intellectual openness to diverse psychoanalytic streams will then be discussed in relation to the formation of psychoanalytic groups and their relative capacity to tolerate difference.

A perception of “Christian bioethics” developed by the American philosopher Hugo Tristram Engelhardt in Russia requires a systematic interdisciplinary analysis. This is due to the realities of medical practice,
as well as cultural and historical differences between the Russian and American societies. In Russia, there are certain difficulties in the open discussion of ethical issues in the public sphere. However, the recently growing participation of the Orthodox Church in public debates on the issues of medicine and biotechnology produce a basis for a reception of Engelhardt’s Christian bioethics. This article presents an analysis of how Engelhardt’s academic carrier was connected to his personal transformation, and how a “logical positivist” and physician interested in genetics, through his studies of continental philosophy, history of medicine, Catholicism and bioethics, came up finally as an founder of Christian bioethics based on Eastern Christian Orthodoxy. This analysis is purposed to expand the theoretical discussion of moral dilemmas posed at the intersection of medicine, religion and philosophy within the Russian academic discourse.

A long established tradition found in sources as early as the writings of St Cyprian and St Augustine and drawing on biblical precedent, allows occasions when lower ranking members of the church may speak out to advise or correct superiors. This was seen as a measure of the junior’s maturity in the faith. The reaction of the superior who recognises the justice of his inferior’s cause and his taking in good part any correction was seen as the guarantee of the integrity of his ministry. This paper considers examples of this tradition in papal letters from the sixth century and Insular sources from the seventh and later centuries, particularly the letters of Columbanus to Rome.

Ces pages n'ont pas été écrites pour justifier la conversion de l'auteur à l'Orthodoxie; elles constituent plutôt le débordement spontané de la gratitude et de l'appréciation sincères d'un homme et son souhait d'offrir un témoignage apologétique de la pureté de sa foi orthodoxe nouvellement découverte et de l'audace de son enseignement. L’originalité de cet ouvrage ne tient pas nécessairement dans son sujet, d'autant plus qu’un grand nombre d'études épistémologiques l'ont déjà examiné selon tous les angles ecclésiologiques possibles. Ce qui rend cette oeuvre originale, c'est la fraîcheur de sa démarche et la particularité de son analyse.
Sa Grâce Mgr Paul de Ballester n'a pas simplement discuté des aspects académiques de sa crise théologique. Au contraire, sa théologie, intimement liée à sa vie même, a été le moteur qui l'a propulsé vers le chemin spirituel le plus douloureux et le sacrifice inévitable : abandonner son église puis vivre une séparation d'avec son pays de naissance. L’expression d’une expérience théologique aussi profonde, sans le sacrifice de l'honnêteté, ne pouvait se concrétiser que par une inspiration extraordinaire et un pouvoir de volonté inflexible. Dans chaque chapitre, le lecteur aura l'occasion de suivre pas à pas le parcours impressionnant et angoissant de cet ancien moine franciscain, depuis sa crise de conscience initiale jusqu'à sa confession finale et décisive que l'orthodoxie est la véritable Église du Christ. De telles conversions, dont le nombre augmente sans cesse, servent à l'Église catholique romaine la sérieuse mise en garde qu'elle a perdu son privilège médiéval de régner en tant que centre dictatorial d'un empire politico-ecclésiastique. De même, pour tous ces groupes chrétiens qui errent encore sur des sentiers obscurs à la recherche de la véritable bergerie du Berger, de telles conversions sont de véritables phares. Plus que tout, cependant, elles nous donnent, à nous Orthodoxes, l'une des leçons les plus précieuses : un aveu objectif sur la pureté de notre héritage religieux, émanant de l'expérience personnelle de l'auteur. Ce témoignage des plus pieux illustre l'honneur dû à nos prédécesseurs pour leur détermination à maintenir la foi sans faille à travers les épreuves historiques les plus dures et les plus difficiles.

The account of Ireland in the Life of St Gall found in Ermenrich of Ellwangen's lengthy letter to Grimald draws substantially on Bede's Ecclesiastical History. The account in Ermenrich allegorises Bede's story, in the process associating Ireland with learning and orthodoxy and, in the process, challenging and subverting ancient taxonomies of barbarian peoples.

This article analyzes selected issues related to the phenomenon of the so-called weeping icons in Orthodoxy from the perspective of cultural anthropology. In this part it portrays the regions of the Orthodox world that host the weeping icons, as well as the main themes and motifs associated with the subject of the “weeping persons” on icons (Mother of God, Christ, saints, monks and politicians), hierotopy and the time of weeping. The research carried out while interpreting the beliefs related to the origin of weeping, presents their historical consistency in the collective memory of Orthodoxy, as well as its contemporary transformation.
The study involves qualitative methods of research. Selected examples of weeping icons in historical and ethnographic sources from various ages and Orthodox countries were subjected to comparative analysis. Contemporary beliefs referring to weeping icons were also exposed to qualitative research – I conducted interviews with the Orthodox Church believers as well as residents of the places hosting weeping icons (Romania, Poland, Ukraine, Eastern Slovakia) and engaged in participant observation (Greece and Macedonia). The research also included internet research – the narration of the new media on weeping icons was analyzed, including blogs and web portals. The analysis employed the use of interpretivist paradigm facilitating the research of hidden meanings and cultural codes connected to the representations of Orthodox believers on the weeping icons.

The article’s main focus is the relationship between the re-established Bessarabian Orthodox Metropolitanate and the government of the post-Soviet Republic of Moldova. The article demonstrates that the Moldovan government refused recognition to the nascent church until 2002 primarily for two reasons: first and foremost, the Moscow Patriarchate opposed the idea of another Orthodox Christian church in Moldova outside of its jurisdiction; second, the government feared that the newly independent Republic of Moldova would fall under the influence of neighboring Romania, whose Orthodox Church offered patronage to the Bessarabian Metropolitanate. After a historical overview of the Orthodox Church in the Republic of Moldova, the article first presents and analyzes the history of the conflict between the Bessarabian Metropolitanate and the post-Soviet Moldovan government, and second, the European Court of Human Rights verdict ordering the government to recognize the Metropolitanate, before verdict’s implementation, and reactions to it. All these are done with an eye on intra-national relations among Moldova, Romania, and Russia, as well as those between the Romanian Orthodox Church and the Russian Orthodox Church in connection with this conflict.

Свети Јустин је веома поштован светитељ, како у својој
родној Србији, тако и код других православних људи који су његове идеје и учења примили к срцу. Један аспект који се ретко разматра и о коме се ретко говори јесте утицај и значај светог Јустина међу обраћеницима у православну веру на Западу. Заједно са светим људима 20. века као што су преподобни
отац Серафим Роуз и свети старац Пајсије Светогорац, свети Јустин је светионик који светли у духовној тами Запада. Његова учења су релевантна данас јер испитују нека питања на која црквени оци никада нису одговорили директно, јер нису били суочени управо са тим питањима и околностима. Свети Јустин је живи глас патристичке традиције у модерном свету. Зашто је свети
Јустин тако популаран међу обраћеницима? Који део његовог учења је пријемчив за бивше римокатолике, бивше протестанте, бивше вернике других вера и за атеисте? Свети Јустин је врхунац православног традиционализма и конзервативизма: дубоко укорењен у црквеним оцима. У раду ћемо испитати
и објаснити зашто је свети Јустин толико привлачан западним обраћеницима у православну веру. Аутор ће такође покушати да представи све поменуто кроз своје лично искуство преобраћења у православну веру и активно учествовање у животу Православне цркве на Западу.

Contents:

- Einige Grundlagen der (Historischen) Sozialen Netzwerkanalyse

- Vom historischen Dokument zum Netzwerk

- Das Individuum im Zentrum – Ego-Netzwerke in Byzanz

- Die Verflechtungen innerhalb einer Institution – Netzwerke der Interaktion in der Synode von Konstantinopel und ihre zeitliche Dynamik

- Die Ungleichverteilung von Netzwerkverbindungen – das Geflecht der spätbyzantinischen Aristokratie
-
Ein kurzer Ausblick: die Erfassung des Raumes – der geographische Aspekt von Netzwerken

- Zusammenfassung

This article proposes a reassessment of the development of Ḥaredism, that is, the application of strict, maximalist, commandment-oriented Judaism to increasingly large lay publics, in light of confessionalization processes in Europe. Whereas historiographical and sociological convention locates the sources of Ḥaredism within the development of 19th century orthodox Jewish responses to the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), Reform, and secular Zionism, this article argues that Ḥaredi structures and practices preceded these movements, and, in some cases, influenced their development. The basis for the priority of Ḥaredi identities to Jewish secular identities is rooted in the social disciplining and religious engineering of Jewish societies in the early modern era, until just before the Haskalah, and beyond. This disciplining was predicated on the imposition of religious, social, and ascetic education systems on growing segments of the population. Ḥaredism as a concept and as a phenomen...

This article proposes a reassessment of the development of Ḥaredism, that is, the application of strict, maximalist, commandment-oriented Judaism to increasingly large lay publics, in light of confessionalization processes in Europe. Whereas historiographical and sociological convention locates the sources of Ḥaredism within the development of 19th century orthodox Jewish responses to the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskalah), Reform, and secular Zionism, this article argues that Ḥaredi structures and practices preceded these movements, and, in some cases, influenced their development. The basis for the priority of Ḥaredi identities to Jewish secular identities is rooted in the social disciplining and religious engineering of Jewish societies in the early modern era, until just before the Haskalah, and beyond. This disciplining was predicated on the imposition of religious, social, and ascetic education systems on growing segments of the population. Ḥaredism as a concept and as a phenomenon emerged in 16th century Safed (Ottoman Palestine); there, previous Jewish ascetic patterns were reworked, reorganized and structured under the aegis of the print era, and became a basis for mass, super-regional education. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Ḥaredi religiosity steadily percolated through European Jewish societies by means of works of personal ethic and conduct that were written, printed, and reprinted many times, in Hebrew and Yiddish, through works that enumerate the commandments, and through popular works that make the Jewish halakhic code, Shulḥan Arukh, accessible to the masses by abridging or reworking it. Starting in the early 19th century, with the mediation of the Ḥasidic and Lithuanian religious movements, this process massively penetrated broad strata of society.

Table of Contents of my doctoral dissertation on the history of the Bulgarian Orthodox in the USA, Canada and Australia that includes:

1. The main history of the Bulgarian Diocese in North America and Australia from its foundation in 1907 to its reunification in 1990 in reference to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
2. The Conflict between the Bulgarian Diocese under the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and the rival Bulgarian Diocese under Archbishop Kyril Yonchev in the Orthodox Church in America (OCA).
3. The Inter-Orthodox and Inter-Christian relations of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church and its Diocese in North America and Australia, and the decisions and proposed solutions to the problem of the Diaspora in the aftermath of the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church (2016).
4. The individual parish histories of the parishes of the Bulgarian Diocese in North America and Australia from 1907 to 1990

The Orthodox Church in America is one of many Orthodox jurisdictions that currently exists among the Orthodox faithful in the American diaspora. The fact that there are currently multiple “ethnic” Orthodox jurisdictions within the same geographical area is legally unacceptable within the legal framework of the Orthodox Church as its canon law specifically dictates that every individual ecclesiastical jurisdiction must exist in one specific geographical location. This problem was further exacerbated after the Moscow Patriarchate, along with a small number of independent Churches in Soviet satellite states, granted the OCA a disputed and controversial autocephaly in 1970.

In order to better grasp the events that led up to this autocephaly, as well as the conflict that would occur in the aftermath, the subject will be broken down into four sections for greater clarity. The first section will begin with a brief historical account of the Metropolia (the former OCA) and the events leading up to its autocephaly; the second will focus on the historical documents of the autocephaly and give a summary of their content; the third section will comprise of two rival theological viewpoints from Fr. Alexander Schmemann and Professor Panagiotes Trempelas; and the final section will give an account of the actions of the OCA, the controversial jurisdictions under it, and its current standing today.

Anglicans, Old Catholics, and Orthodox have been engaged in dialogue with each other practically since the beginnings of the ecumenical movement. This paper survey the findings of these three dialogues on the subject of Tradition and compares them to each other, concluding that even though these dialogues have developed compatible and dynamic understandings of Tradition, these understanding have not yet led to the removal of certain obstacles between the Churches involved.

ENGLISH ABSTRACT
This brief contribution aims at exposing in a succint way the procedures used by scribes from Southern Italy to distinguish the different constituent parts of the Byzantine euchologion: prayers, rubrics, diaconal interventions. The analysis starts from the most ancient manuscript, the Barberini Euchologion (8th century), the only manuscript we preserve written in capital letters. Hereafter we describe the changes introduced by the advent of the minuscule handwriting in the book layout from the 10th-12th centuries.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RÉSUMÉ FRANÇAIS
Cette note expose de manière succincte les procédés utilisés par les copistes de l' Italie méridionale pour distinguer les différents éléments constitutifs de l' euchologe byzantin (prières, rubriques, interventions diaconales, etc.), en commençant par le plus ancien d' entre eux, l' Euchologe Barberini (VIIIe siècle), seul oncial conservé, et en décrivant les modifications que l' avènement de la minuscule a introduites dans la présentation du livre entre le Xe et le XIIe siècle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
RESUMEN ESPAÑOL
Esta nota expone de modo sucinto los procedimientos utilizados por los copistas de la Italia meridional para distinguir los diferentes elementos constitutivos del eucologio bizantino (plegarias, rúbricas, intervenciones diaconales, etc.), empezando por el más antiguo de ellos, el Eucologio Barberini (siglo VIII), el único conservado en uncial, y describiendo las modificaciones que el advenimiento de la minúscula introdujo en la presentación del libro entre los siglos X y XII.