BYZANTINE THEOLOGY

HISTORICAL TRENDS

AND DOCTRINAL TOPICS

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus

Translated by: John Meyendorf. Byzantine Theology, Fordham University Press, USA, 1974. Translated from English by Vladimir Marutik.

The publication was carried out with the assistance and consent of the organization "Religious Books for Russia", USA.

This monograph is a synthesis of Byzantine Christian thought. Having acquainted the reader with all its complexity, the author presents him with the Byzantine worldview: a view of man and his destiny – deification; the ability to transcend "Western captivity"; the ability to survive and survive despite unfavorable historical circumstances. After reading the monograph, the reader may find himself receptive to the basic tenets of Byzantine thought, which in our time, when there is such a need to restore the integrity of Christianity itself, seems surprisingly modern and appropriate.

© Fordham University Press, USA, 1974 © Rays of Sophia, 2001

GRATITUDE

Special thanks go to Fr. Edwin A. Cousin (Society of Jesus), Visiting Editor of Fordham University Press. Fr. Edwin has spent a great deal of personal time, energy, and extraordinary awareness in working to improve this text. The author is grateful to Fr. Walter J. Berghardt (Society of Jesus), who read the manuscript of the book and made a number of very valuable remarks.

The author is grateful to Prof. Jaroslav Pelikan of Yale University, who provided the author with proofs of the second volume of his monumental work "Christian Tradition" with permission to quote the said volume.

THEM.

Introduction

The Main Features and Main Sources of Theology in Byzantium

It would take centuries of struggle and superhuman efforts to transcend Hellenism, freeing it from natural attachments and ethnic and cultural constraints, before Hellenism would finally become the universal form of Christian Truth.

Vladimir Lossky. The Vision of God, 581