The teachings of St Symeon (949-1022) created much controversy in Byzantium and led to his short-lived exile to Asia Minor in 1009. This book examines St Symeon from within the Byzantine mystical tradition, looking at him as both a highly personal and a very traditional ecclesiastical writer. For the first time in modern scholarship, this study explores St Symeon's attitude to Scripture and to church worship; his relations with his spiritual father, Symeon the Studite; and the Studite tradition in general.

St Symeon the New Theologian and Orthodox Tradition (Oxford Early Christian Studies)

History

Alfeyev, Hilarion

Europe

Clarendon Press

This in-depth study on the realm of death presents a message of hope held by the first generation of Christians and the early church. Using Scripture, patristic tradition, early Christian poetry, and liturgical texts, Archbishop Hilarion explores the mysterious and enigmatic event of Christ s descent into Hades and its consequences for the human race. Insisting that Christ entered Sheol as Conqueror and not as victim, the author depicts the Lord s descent as an event of cosmic significance opening the path to universal salvation. He also reveals Hades as a place of divine presence, a place where the spiritual fate of a person may still change. Reminding readers that self-will remains the only hindrance to life in Christ, he presents the gospel message anew, even in the shadow of death.

Christ the Conqueror of Hell: The Descent into Hades from an Orthodox Perspective

Religion & Spirituality

St. Vladimir's Seminary Press

This is the third volume of a detailed and systematic exposition of the history, canonical structure, doctrine, moral and social teaching, liturgical services, and spiritual life of the Orthodox Church. The purpose of this series is to present Orthodox Christianity as an integrated theological and liturgical system, in which all elements are interconnected. Theology finds its expression and is shaped in the liturgical experience and church art including icons, singing, and architecture. The services, in their turn, influence the ascetic practice and the personal piety of each Christian; they shape the moral and social teaching of the Church as well as its relation to other Christian confessions, non-Christian religions, and the secular world. Volume One focused on the history and canonical structure of the Orthodox Church, Volume Two on the fundamental teachings of the Church, grounded in Scripture and Tradition. This third volume delves into the unique aspects of Orthodox art as expressed in its architecture, icons, and liturgical music. This includes a detailed examination of the theology of icons and their historical use by the Church through the centuries. The last section traces the importance and liturgical function of music as it developed in both Byzantine and Slavic Orthodoxy.

Orthodox Christianity: The Architecture, Icons, and Music of the Orthodox Church (3)

St Vladimirs Seminary Pr

It has been said that Jesus Christ is always actual, and at the same time always anticipating actuality. This is something that Metropolitan Hilarion has made abundantly clear in his monumental six-volume study. As he observes, throughout history there has never been a person about whom so much has been written; and yet the Metropolitan has himself found many new ways to restate, in fresh and vivid terms, the ancient truths about the Savior. This is a remarkable study that deserves to be read with close attention.

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching: The Beginning of the Gospel (1)

"In this fourth volume of the series Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev explores the parables of Jesus, drawing both on the Churchs two millennia of interpretive history, as well as the most promising fruits of modern biblical scholarship. Every single parable is examined in this broad context, and profound meaning is found in the original context, in the Churchs reception history, and in our own contemporary situation"--

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol. 4 - The Parables of Jesus

SPCK Publishing