This study offers a new interpretation of twentieth-century Russian Orthodox theology by engaging the work of Georges Florovsky (1893-1979), especially his program of a 'return to the Church Fathers'.

Georges Florovsky (1893-1979) was one of the most prominent Orthodox theologians and ecumenists of the twentieth century. His call for a return to patristic writings as a source of modern theological reflection had a powerful impact not only on Orthodox theology in the second half of the twentieth century, but on Christian theology in general. Florovsky was also a major Orthodox voice in the ecumenical movement for four decades and he is one of the founders of the World Council of Churches. This book is a collection of major theological writings by George Florovsky. It includes representative and widely influential but now largely inaccessible texts, many newly translated for this book, divided into four thematic sections: Creation, Incarnation and Redemption, The Nature of Theology, Ecclesiology and Ecumenism, and Scripture, Worship and Eschatology. A foreword by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware presents the theological vision of Georges Florovsky and discusses the continuing relevance of his work both for Orthodox theology and for modern theology in general. The introduction by the Editors provides a theological and historical overview of Florovsky theology in teh context of his biography. The book includes explanatory notes, translation of patrisitc citations and an index.

After-Mission touches on on three questions.The first question is about self-perception and identity-formation strategies, and the various views that we have on the Protestants’ relation to their Arab Muslim Middle Eastern context. The second question, about the theological dimension, asks what kind of a theological discourse do the Protestants need to develop, and how do they need to re-form their own theological heritage, in such a manner that will allow them to heal the historical enmity and suspicion towards them from the Eastern Orthodox Christian community in the region? Finally, the third question touches on the Protestants’ future in the Arab Muslim Middle East by viewing this inquiry from a broader perspective that is related to all the Middle Eastern Christian communities’ presence and role in the Muslim-majority context. The question of identity formation, and the managing of difference without trapping it in the mud of ‘otherizing and self-otherizing’, will also be tackled, so that the theological dimension is integrated with the broader, multifaceted contextual one.

This present work examines the life and thought of Father Pavel Florensky (1882-1943), the one individual, who probably best, both in his personality and speculative output, incarnates the spirit of the religious renaissance, which occurred in Russia in the years immediately preceding the Revolution in 1917. His masterwork, The Pillar and Foundation of Turth, proved so influential that it has left an indelible mark on Russian religious thought right up until our own day. This book examines Florensky⿿s experimental methodology, his antinomic theory of truth, and, above all, his sophiological conception, which subsequently evoked much debate in Orthodox circles. This present work offers a way out of this controversy.

Coverage of Russian, Eurasian and East European issues.

As Russia entered the modern age in the nineteenth century, many Russian intellectuals combined the study of European philosophy with a return to their own traditions, culminating in the novels of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and in the religious philosophy of their younger contemporary, Vladimir Soloviev. This book explores central issues of modern Russian religious thought by focusing on the work of Soloviev and three religious philosophers who further developed his ideas in the early twentieth century: P. A. Florensky, Sergei Bulgakov, and S. L. Frank. Introduced and edited by Judith Deutsch Kornblatt and Richard F. Gustafson, the eleven essays place these thinkers in the contexts of both western philosophy and Eastern Orthodoxy, presenting a substantially new perspective on Russian religious thought. Florensky, Bulgakov, and Frank expanded on Soloviev's writings about the active relationship of humanity and divinity and his vision of the Divine Sophia, enriching his philosophy of a total unity grounded in the Orthodox doctrines of Incarnation and Transfiguration but expressed in the language of Western thought. The work of these four philosophers, this volume demonstrates, influenced virtually all aspects of twentieth-century Russian culture, and indeed, many aspects of Soviet culture as well, but also represents a rich philosophical tradition devoted to issues of divinity, community, and humanity that transcend national boundaries and historical eras. Included in Russian Religious Thought is an introduction, brief biographical information on Soloviev, Florensky, Bulgakov, and Frank, and afterword by scholar James Scanlan, who elaborates on the volume's aim to provide a thoughtful corrective, both to unexamined assumptions of past scholarship and to nationalist readings currently popular in post-Soviet Russia. -- from back cover.

Georges Florovsky was a major Russian intellectual and Orthodox churchman, a pioneer leader in the modern ecumenical movement who is now recognized as the most profound Orthodox theologian of the 20th century. This book offers: an account of his life, by Andrew Blane; essays and analyses of Florovsky's thought, by Marc Raeff and George Williams; a bibliography of Florovsky's work; and descriptions of the deposits of Father Florovsky's papers in the library collections of Princton University and St Vladimir's Seminary. It is intended as a research tool and also provides a comprehensive assessment of Florovsky, accessible to the general reader.