| 1553-1558). Sarah Duncan’s book Mary I: Gender, Power, and Ceremony in the Reign of England’s First Queen is a superb resource in this area of research. Since Mary was the first crowned and anointed queen regnant in English history, her reign necessitated the development of new political language to legitimize and confer royal authority on a woman. To justify and legitimize this anomaly of female rule, a new formulation of sovereignty itself was necessary, since it was unprecedented for a woman to rule England. This new development was known as the theory of the “king’s two bodies”, or, for Mary and Elizabeth’s reigns, the queen’s two bodies. It recognized that the monarch has both a “body personal”, which was mortal, and could be female, and a “body politic” — the timeless, immortal Crown and Throne personified in and through the monarch, which passed from one monarch to his or her successor, and so forth, unto eternity. Fittingly, as kings were compared to Christ, Mary I was compared to the Queen of kings, the Virgin Mary, Queen of heaven, the chief intercessor for Christians. As Duncan shows, it was the oft-forgotten, largely marginalized Mary Tudor, not her half-sister Elizabeth, who invented the concept of the Queen regnant as Mother to her people and “married” to the Kingdom of England. Since, as an Orthodox Christian, I am fundamentally concerned with my own salvation and especially the world’s, and interested most in Christian monarchy as opposed to the monarchical traditions of other faiths, it is worth examining what the Holy Scriptures, the divine books assembled and compiled by the Holy Spirit acting through Christ’s Body, the Orthodox Church, have to say about government in general, and kingship in particular. Here are just a few examples from an article written here by Fr. Joseph Gleason: As Father Joseph Gleason notes in the same article , numerous further Scriptural passages mark kingship as a special vehicle or mechanism by which God communicates with His people Israel and His prophets: From Genesis to Revelation, monarchy is presented in a positive light, as God’s plan from the foundation of the world. |
| Tweet Нравится 25 New " Dead Sea Scrolls " Revealed Source: Live Science October 13, 2016 This scroll fragment preserves parts of the Book of Leviticus, in which God promises to reward the people of Israel if they observe the Sabbath and obey the 10 commandments. Credit: copyright The Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London, MS 4611 More than 25 previously unpublished " Dead Sea Scroll " fragments, dating back 2,000 years and holding text from the Hebrew Bible, have been brought to light, their contents detailed in two new books. The various scroll fragments record parts of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Ruth, Kings, Micah, Nehemiah, Jeremiah, Joel, Joshua, Judges, Proverbs, Numbers, Psalms, Ezekiel and Jonah. The Qumran caves where the Dead Sea Scrolls were first discovered had yet to yield any fragments from the Book of Nehemiah; if this newly revealed fragment is authenticated it would be the first. Scholars have expressed concerns that some of the fragments are forgeries . [ See Photos of the Dead Sea Scrolls Fragments ] These 25 newly published fragments are just the tip of the iceberg. A scholar told Live Science that around 70 newly discovered fragments have appeared on the antiquities market since 2002. Additionally, the cabinet minister in charge of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), along with a number of scholars, believes that there are undiscovered scrolls that are being found by looters in caves in the Judean Desert. The IAA is sponsoring a new series of scientific surveys and excavations to find these scrolls before looters do. The Dead Sea Scrolls The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered between 1947 and 1956 in a series of 11 caves by the archaeological site of Qumran in the Judean Desert, near the Dead Sea. During that time, archaeologists and local Bedouins unearthed thousands of fragments from nearly 900 manuscripts. Some of the Bedouin sold their scrolls in Bethlehem through an antiquities dealer named Khalil Iskander Shahin, who went by the name " Kando. " Shahin died in 1993 and his son William Kando now runs his business and estate. |
| In the Life of Fr George the theme of selfdefence by the Georgians against ‘false accusations’ regarding their heretical teaching emerges a few times, which supports the most important message put across in the Lives of the Athonites: that spiritual leaders, whether in Georgia, Antioch, or Mount Athos, are concerned with improving the existing translations of church service books and other spiritual writings. The Lives reflect the eagerness on the part of the Georgian spiritual fathers to cleanse existing translations of all possible mistakes or corruptions. Both texts testify that Iviron had an efficient scriptorium where translations were copied and sent back to Georgia as well as to the Georgian monasteries outside Georgia. Iviron was also known for its collection of Greek manuscripts – twelve copies of Greek texts copied in Iviron by the Greek monk Theophanes have been catalogued in various libraries around the world. These are predominantly texts of a dogmatic or ascetic nature translated by Euthymios into Georgian. Both Euthymios and George were translators of the highest class. Their texts often contain additional material, such as a list of contents with brief descriptions of the texts under discussion and commentaries. Today, Iviron possesses 2,192 Greek manuscripts, including a large collection of musical texts, and 94 Georgian manuscripts, of which 60 date from the period before the twelfth century. Thus there occurred a fortunate combination of circumstances, and the opportunities were used in an inventive way by the Georgians to maintain a large and prosperous community on Mount Athos for more than one hundred years. Iviron received strong support from the Georgian kings and nobility in Tao and Kartli, and repaid this by improving the Georgian church books according to the Constantinopolitan standard and providing spiritual nourishment for the Georgians in their own country and abroad. For these reasons one Georgian historian has named Iviron ‘the Georgian consulate in Constantinople’. 71 |
| But the Orthodox presence in the West is also of increasing importance: the challenges that this raises for both Orthodox and Western Christians form the subject of the final chapter. We have endeavoured to touch on a broad range of subjects and, as a result, treatment of important ideas is often tantalisingly brief. It is a matter of particular regret that there is no space to explore aspects of " applied theology»: approaches to ethical issues, engagement with science, questions of Church and society. Several of the chapters do, however, contain enough references to this aspect of Orthodox thinking to make clear its importance ; and the select bibliography includes some further reading on this subject. Our practice in transliterating Greek, Russian and Serbian names generally follows accepted conventions so as to distract the reader as little as possible. Thus, we have followed the general practice among patristic scholars of latinising Greek names such as Evagrius or Maximus the Confessor. With more modern figures, however, we try to give a phonetic transliteration of the name, unless it is widely used in English in another form (thus Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain, but Florovsky rather than Florovskii). As Archimandrite Ephrem Lash points out in his chapter, the Orthodox Churches accept the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, as their scripture. We have therefore cited Psalms according to the numbers employed in the Septuagint, with the Hebrew numbers appended in brackets. In order to avoid confusion, we have used the names of Old Testament books familiar to readers from English translations of the Hebrew, such as 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings instead of 1–4 Reigns; again, however, we have added the Greek names of books at the first citation of each. We have endeavoured to include definitions of terms that might be unfamiliar. If a term is not defined when it is introduced, the reader " s first recourse should be to the Glossary. Failing that, the Index may turn up passages where the term is explained more fully. In the matter of «inclusive language», we should clarify that many Orthodox authors, writing in English, are accustomed to using »man» in an inclusive sense: this is equivalent to the Greek word «anthropos», a word which, depending on its gender, may refer to human beings of both sexes. There are contexts in which one can just as well speak of humans singly (»the human person»), or as a plurality («humans») or as a collective (»humanity»). But none of the circumlocutions for «man» fully conveys that sense, so important to Orthodox anthropology, of humankind personified as one unified creature – the one who falls in Adam, says »yes» to God in the Virgin Mary and is raised from the dead in Christ. |
| Furuli’s next quotation, which he places directly after the first, is taken from Against Apion 1,21 (§ 154), and begins: “This statement is both correct and in accordance with our books.” This might give a reader the impression that Josephus is still speaking of the 70yearlong desolate state of Jerusalem in Furuli’s preceding quotation. But, as stated above, the two quotations are from widely separated sections. Josephus is referring to his lengthy quotation from Berossus in the immediately preceding section (I,20, §§ 146153), in which Berossus gives the length of all the NeoBabylonian kings from Nebuchadnezzar to Nabonidus: Nebuchadnezzar 43 years, AwelMarduk 2 years, Neriglissar 4 years, LabashiMarduk 9 months, and Nabonidus 17 years. It is this chronology Josephus refers to when he immediately goes on to say that it “is both correct and in accordance with our books.” (Against Apion I,21, § 154) He then explains why it is correct: “For in the latter [the Scriptures] it is recorded that Nabuchodonosor in the eighteenth year of his reign devastated our temple, that for fifty years it ceased to exist, that in the second year of the reign of Cyrus the foundations were laid, and lastly that in the second year of the reign of Darius it was completed.” According to Berossus’ figures, there were ca. 49 years from Nebuchadnezzar’s 18th year until the end of Nabonidus’ reign. Because the foundation of the temple was laid in the 2nd year of Cyrus (Ezra 3:8 had been desolate for “fifty years” is in agreement with Berossus’ chronology. (For the textual evidence supporting the figure 50 in Against Apion, see GTR 4 , Ch. 7, A3, ftn. 30.) It is obvious that Josephus, in his works, repeatedly presents confusing and erroneous statements about the NeoBabylonian reigns and conflicting explanations of the period of Jerusalem’s desolation. It is only in his latest discussion, in which he quotes Berossus’ figures, that his statements can be shown to roughly agree with reliable historical sources. |
| Although the veneration of Frideswide was never nationwide, many pilgrims went to her shrine in Oxford and the holy wells associated with her. Cases of healing from blindness, deafness, dumbness, paralysis, various sorts of swellings, leprosy, dropsy, arthritis, ulcers, stones, sciatica, intestinal diseases, fever, barrenness, mental illnesses and insanity were recorded in great numbers. Kings and queens visited her shrine too, for example Henry III, Edward I and Catherine of Aragon. Members of the royal family helped this site develop as a center of learning. St. Frideswide " s Church in Frilsham, Berks (photo by Shaun Ferguson from Wikimapia.org) St. Frideswide " s well in Frilsham, Berks (taken from Mapio.net) Today St. Frideswide is venerated especially by the Orthodox, also by Catholics and Anglicans. A twelfth-century parish church, standing on the site of a Saxon church, with a holy well in the village of Frilsham in Berkshire is dedicated to Frideswide. But the most popular destination is Binsey—a hamlet just to the northwest from Oxford, where there is a twelfth-century St. Margaret’s (St. Marina’s) Church with a holy well which appeared, as was said above, through the prayers of Frideswide. The church interior is very simple but the atmosphere of prayer, warmth and holiness is felt there by those who visit it. Alice Liddell The holy well is officially dedicated to St. Margaret of Antioch, but it is popularly known as “St. Frideswide’s well”. It is the prototype of the “treacle well” in the book Alice’s Adventures in the Wonderland ! (The author of this book, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), known under his pen name Lewis Carroll, was a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church College in Oxford—where St. Frideswide’s relics still rest at the cathedral. His books were inspired by Alice Liddell (1852-1934), a daughter of the then dean of Christ Church). There are regular Orthodox pilgrimages to this well and the annual blessing of its waters by the local Russian Orthodox community. There are modern Orthodox icons of the holy mother Frideswide; she is depicted on stained glass windows of many churches in Oxfordshire and even beyond (for example, Gloucester Cathedral), her statues can be found in a number of churches. A modern parish church in the town of Milton Keynes in county Buckinghamshire is dedicated to her. Frideswide is even venerated in France with the name “Frewisse”. Her statue can be found inside St. Vedast’s Church in the village of Bomy in the Pas-de-Calais departement. Once there were also a chapel and a fountain dedicated to her in this spot, though the origins of this veneration are unknown. But let us now talk of the veneration of this holy woman in the city of Oxford. |
| Patriarch Euthymios (r. 1375–1393), the last Bulgarian patriarch before the Ottoman conquest ended the Bulgarian patriarchate for the second time, ardently promoted hesychastic mystical prayer. He also initiated and led a great pan-Slavic literary revival, based on a return to the original Greek sources and to the original translation work of Saints Cyril and Methodius. On July 17, 1393, the Bulgarians were vanquished in battle by the Ottoman Turks. Bulgaria, like Serbia, became completely integrated into the Ottoman realm. The Bulgarians did not regain their independence until the early 20th century. Liturgical Developments Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos of Constantinople (r. 1353–1354 and 1364–1376) consolidated the adoption by his Church of the monastic typikon of the Saint Sabbas Monastery in the Holy Land. This helped stabilize the Church’s worship patterns to such an extent that the order of worship in the Church in the 14th century was virtually the same as it is today. In his Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, Saint Nicholas Cabasilas gave a symbolical interpretation of the liturgy that is still applicable today. The liturgical commentaries of Saint Symeon of Thessalonica (d. 1429), which also provide detailed information about Church worship, are also still relevant. Saint Symeon’s writings reveal that at this time in the marriage service, the Holy Eucharist was still being given to the bride and groom if they were Orthodox Christians, and the blessed “common cup” was given only to those who were not allowed to receive Holy Communion in the Church. And for the first time, the prothesis (proskomedia), as a separate rite preceding the liturgy of the Word, appeared in the liturgical books. The West The West in the 14th century saw the “Babylonian Captivity” of the Papacy in Avignon, France (1309–1377), when the Papacy became virtually subject to the kings of France. Then, in the very next year after the return of the Papacy to Rome, the “Great Papal Schism” began, with two rivals claiming to be the legitimate Pope. And from 1409 to 1414 there were three rivals all claiming to be the true Pope. These humiliating developments helped lead to the rise of the Conciliar Movement, which became a powerful force in the Western Church in the next century. |
| The Menaion contains explicit commemoration, however, of numerous Old Testament figuresprophets, kings, and othersthe theological implication being that, after Christ " " s descent into Hell, they, as well as those who pleased God in the new dispensation, are alive in Him. 3. Hymnology The introduction of massive hymnology in the «cathedral» rite is generally connected with the name of Romanos the Melode. There is very little historical evidence showing the reasons why the kontakia by Romanos and his imitators were very soon replaced, in Byzantine liturgical cycles, by different types of hymnography, but it may be assumed that the kontakion had to face monastic opposition. Although it dealt primarily with Biblical themes and often paraphrased Biblical texts, the kontakion nevertheless constituted a substitute for the Biblical psalms or canticles themselves, and encouraged the use of music which the monks considered too secular. The long poetical pieces of Romanos of course had no organic place in the increasingly rigid and strictly Biblical framework of vespers, matins, and other liturgical units as they were being elaborated in the monastic Typika. Yet the fact that Romanos» poetry, though explicitly Chalcedonian and Cyrillian, generally stood aloof from the great Christological disputes of the sixth and seventh centuries may also have contributed to the emergence of a hymnography more distinctly theological and doctrinal than the kontakia. The original ascetic opposition of many monastic centers against hymnographical creativity did not persist. By the fifth century, Auxentios (in Bithynia ca. 470) was composing troparia, short poetical pieces of two or three sentences, sung according to the pattern of Biblical psalmody and probably in conjunction with Biblical psalms or canticles. 196 This style of hymnography served as the alternative for the long and independent kontakia of Romanos. Short troparia, or stikhera, were composed to be sung after each verse of the regular Biblical texts accepted as parts of vespers and matins, rather than as independent liturgical services. Complete series of troparia were written to accompany the ten Biblical canticles of matins. These series received the convenient appellation of canon, or «rule.» They often include, after the sixth ode, a vestigial remnant of a kontakion of Romanos, while parts of the same kontakion are paraphrased in other stikhera or troparia (Nativity services, for example). Thus a few short pieces of Romanos» poetry were kept in the liturgical books after the final adoption, in the ninth or tenth century, of the new patterns of hymnography. Palestinian monks of the Lavra of St. Sabbas (Andrew, who later became bishop in Crete, John of Damascus, Cosmas of Maiuma) seem to have played, in the early-eighth century, a decisive role in the reform, which was in fact a compromise between the original Biblical strictness of the monastic rule and the free lyricism of Romanos. |
| Bede & modern assessment of Theodore In 1966 I was in Patmos for Easter and had the opportunity to converse with the Elder Amphilochios Makris: ‘In Britain, you have the great saint Theodore’ he said. My theology degree from Oxford had not informed me about this ‘great saint’, so when next I could, I read what Bede had to say about him. A man of learning ‘both in sacred and secular literature’, he and his companion Hadrian ‘attracted a large number of students, into whose minds they poured the waters of wholesome knowledge day by day’. The heart of this knowledge was the holy Scripture, but it included poetry, astronomy and languages; the students became ‘as proficient in Latin and Greek as in their native tongue’. Bede describes an archbishop of enormous energy, travelling the length and breadth of Britain, consecrating new bishops, presiding over synods, establishing new dioceses, negotiating with kings, ensuring discipline and order, beautifying liturgical life, and always, and everywhere developing the level of learning. ‘Never had there been such happy times as these since the English settled in Britain.’. Until 20 years ago, commentators felt unable to comment on Bede’s glowing assessment. In his posthumously published ‘Historical Commentary’ on Bede, Wallace Hadrill can say “we know nothing of Theodore’s books or library”. But the work of Bischoff, Lapidge & Stevenson, published in the 1990s, has caused a dramatic change, and confirms Bede’s glowing assessment. In 1936 the late Bernhard Bischoff visited the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan in search of manuscript materials in that library pertaining to Virgilius Maro Grammaticus. The research led him to an eleventh centure compendium of biblical materials in that library bearing the shelfmark M.79 sup. Among the contents of this manuscript, lying adjacent to the excerpts of Virgilius which had first attracted his attention, were several series of unprinted Latin biblical commentaries, and he noted that they contained references to Theodore and Hadrian, and included glosses in Greek and Old English, as well as quotations from a wide range of unusual Greek patristic authors Bischoff immediately recognised the extraordinary importance of these biblical commentaries ..... |
| Spiritual apathy may seem less immediately troubling to parents than a child’s outright rejection of faith, but the end result is often the same. Boredom can end up being a quiet faith killer that parents unintentionally foster in their own home. Need help fighting spiritual boredom? In my next post, I’ll offer ideas for reinvigorating your family’s spiritual life. Reprinted with permission from Natasha Crain. Natasha is a national speaker, author, and blogger who is passionate about equipping Christian parents to raise their kids with an understanding of how to make a case for and defend their faith in an increasingly secular world. She is the author of two apologetics books for parents: Talking with Your Kids about God (2017) and Keeping Your Kids on God’s Side (2016). Natasha has an MBA from UCLA and a certificate in Christian apologetics from Biola University. A former marketing executive and adjunct professor, she lives in Southern California with her husband and three children. She writes at www.natashacrain.com . Tweet Donate Share Code for blog 4 Ways Parents Bore Their Kids Out of Christianity Natasha Crain The highlight of my summer was a family RV vacation to Kings Canyon National Park. Behind our campground flowed a gorgeous river that I returned to multiple times over the course of our trip. Each time I went, I sat and pondered the “big questions” of life. There’s something about the majesty of ... Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. |
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