| Pondering on the fact that Christ wrote nothing, I am often prepared to acknowledge a certain providential quality in it. Because of this fact, approaching Holy Scripture from outside the Church can be logically carried to absurdity. This has virtually already been done by Rationalism, which, on the basis of Protestantism, has shown that there are no obstacles to the complete distortion of the Gospel and its replacement with one’s own inventions. Moreover, reason left to itself will not stop at the abolition of the very books of Holy Scripture. Indeed, what is the basis for recognizing these or other books as Holy Scripture and genuine Apostolic works? There can only be one answer to this question: our recognition of certain books as Holy Scripture and authentic Apostolic works is based solely on faith in the Church and on trust in the authority of the Church. The books of Holy Scripture were written by the Apostles and entrusted to the custody of the Church. The Apostles, and particularly the Apostle Paul, even gave special proof of the genuineness of their Epistles, providing them with their own handwritten signature. The custodian of the authentic Epistles and all the Apostolic writings was the Church. Only she could judge the Apostolic value of her property. After all, the Church expressed in her decisions her teaching on the composition of Holy Scripture. Thus we must recognize as the New Testament precisely those twenty-seven well-known books which were recognized as the New Testament by the Church. Blessed Augustine said: “Ego uero Euangelio non crederem, nisi me catholicae ecclesiae commouerat auctoritas.” “For my part, I should not believe the gospel except as moved by the authority of the Catholic Church.” These words of Augustine express a great truth. If there is no Church, there will be no Holy Scripture either. Protestants and sectarians seemingly recognize and revere Holy Scripture; but does not their recognition hang in thin air? Let Protestants or sectarians completely and sincerely think out the question: why do we recognize exactly these books as Holy Scripture? To refer to one’s personal opinion is to refuse to give a reasonable answer. |
| 4562. ПРАЗДНОВАНИЕ 60-летия Софийской Духовной Академии. 1984, 3, 56. 4563. ПИМЕН, патр. Приветственная телеграмма Святейшему Патриарху Болгарскому Максиму. (Поздравление с днем тезоименитства). – 1984, 4, 4. 4564. КИРИЛЛ, архим. День тезоименитства Предстоятеля Болгарской Церкви в Болгарском подворье в Москве. – 1984, 4, 50. 4565. И.Б. Праздник в Болгарском подворье в Москве. – 1984, 7, 63. 4566. КИРИЛЛ, архим. На храмовых праздниках в Болгарском подворье в Москве. – 1984, 10, 42. 4567. К. Визит высоких гостей из Болгарии. – 1984, 12, 58. 4568. ВИЗИТ Святейшего Патриарха Пимена в Болгарию на празднование 70-летия со дня рождения Святейшего Патриарха Болгарского Максима. – 1985, 1, 8. 4569. КИРИЛЛ, архим. 60-летие освящения храма – памятника святого благоверного князя Александра Невского в Софии. – 1985, 1, 51. 4570. ЕГО ЖЕ. Святые в земле Болгарской просиявшие. – 1985, 2, 56. 4571. ЕГО ЖЕ. Празднование в Болгарском подворье 40-летия освобождения Болгарии. – 1985, 2, 58. 4572. ТЕЛЕРАММА Святейшего Патриарха Болгарского Максима Патриарху Московскому и всея Руси Пимену. – 1985, 3, 3. 4573. КИРИЛЛ, архим. Тезоименитство Предстоятеля Болгарской Церкви. – 1985, 4, 61. 4574. ГАВРИИЛ, архим. Преподобный Иоанн Рыльский, чудотворец. – 1985, 5, 55. 4575. ПИМЕН, патр. Приветственная телеграмма Святейшему Патриарху Болгарскому Максиму. (Поздравление с днем тезоименитства). – 1985, 6, 2. 4576. ПРИВЕТСВЕННАЯ телеграмма Святейшего Патриарха Пимена настоятелю Болгарского подворья в Москве архимандриту Кириллу. (Поздравление с 1100-летием со дня блаженной кончины святого равноапостольного Мефодия). – 1985, 8, 61. 4577. КИРИЛЛ, архим. Мефодиевские торжества в Болгарском подворье. – 1985, 8, 61. 4578. ГАВРИИЛ, архим. С востока восходит солнце, с севера пришла свобода. – 1985, 8, 62. 4579. ВИЗИТ митрополита Старозагорского Панкратия в Москву. – 1985, 8, 63. 4580. ПИМЕН, патр. Приветственная телеграмма Святейшему Патриарху Болгарскому Максиму. (Поздравление с днем интронизации). – 1985, 9, 2. |
| 95 Irenaeus calls Victor’s attention to Florinus’ books, ‘that for the sake of your reputation you may expel these writings from among you, as bringing disgrace upon you, since their author boasts himself as being one of your company. For they constitute a stumbling-block to many, who simply and unreservedly receive, as coming from a presbyter, the blasphemy which they utter against God’ (Fragment 51, ANF; Syriac Fragment 28). 96 It was not, then, simply that Irenaeus disapproved of the contents of Florinus’s writings–he disapproved of the contents of any number of heretical books, as we know from Against Heresies. Florinus’ books were not rival Gospels; they were not books which were in any sense contenders for inclusion in the canon. What was it, then, that moved Irenaeus to advise that Victor ‘expel’ these particular books from his midst? Evidently it was that Florinus was still passing himself off as a presbyter of the Roman church in fellowship with Victor, thus gaining for himself an illegitimate endorsement, as well as bringing notoriety to the church in Rome. This fits a pattern noticed by Irenaeus and confirmed by other evidence, that Valentinians considered themselves free to confess in public the doctrines of the mainstream church but to teach in private things which were diametrically at odds with them (AH 3.15.2). Irenaeus requests that Victor ‘expel’ this man’s writings from his midst. Irenaeus’ words may mean that if some of Florinus’ books should have somehow slipped into the Roman church’s library, they ought to be removed. Perhaps Victor would go as far as to issue a public disavowal of the writings and a warning to house churches in fellowship with Victor not to read or be taken in by them. Yet not even here is there any instruction, much less any ‘demand’, to destroy these books. At this point in history, as Raymond Starr points out, even the emperor had trouble pulling off such a demand. Because books were all copied by hand and privately circulated, ‘suppression or official discouragement could never be entirely successful nor were they expected to be. When a book was removed or barred by order of the emperor from the imperial public libraries, the author would be disgraced, but his writings were not destroyed, since they could still circulate in private hands.’ 97 Needless to say, no church – not Irenaeus’s church in Lyons nor the church in Rome – had anything resembling the kind of imperial power (the kind which would later be exercised against Christians by the Roman government) to search out private copies of a detested book, seize them, and destroy them. In sum, Irenaeus did not demand that congregations destroy any Gospels, alleged apostolic letters, or revelations he had not ‘chosen’ for them. Sex, Lies, and Anti-heretical Tracts |
| In it many prayers for various occasions were introduced, composed deliberately for that edition, of which several are very close in content to prayers of the Roman Catholic rituale, and, furthermore, explanatory articles were inserted before the texts of the rites, which were entirely in the style of Western scholastic science of that time, in particular, with an indication of “intention, form and matter” of each of the Mysteries. All of this was not essentially an expression of latinization, but might only indicate an attempt to eliminate defects for which their opponents reproached them, and in certain cases to emphasize the difference between Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism. Nevertheless, these devices set a distinctive seal upon the character of the Kievan editions, which subsequently proved to be a stumbling-block in the matter of the correction of the books in Moscow. In those years at the outset of the 17th century, when Orthodox western Russia was experiencing a bitter, tumultuous era of suffering and conflict with the ecclesiastical union that had been promulgated, Muscovite Russia was groaning under the blows of the Time of Troubles. No sooner had Moscow recovered from the turmoil, than the question of the correction of the ecclesiastical books was placed before its hierarchy, and with it another question analogous to that experienced by western Russia: according to which books should this “correction” be made? The problem of correcting the books proceeded in a particularly acute and painful manner. Under Patriarchs Philaret, Joasaph and Joseph no solution was reached: corrections were carried out in an unorganized manner, according to the old manuscripts, in the course of half a century; the inadequacy of such an arrangement was clear to many. In Moscow the Kievan books were regarded with suspicion. At one point, books printed in Kiev were solemnly committed to the flames in one of Moscow " s squares. The hope of receiving corrected books thus devolved upon the Greek East. |
| As a source of the teaching of the faith, the Church puts them in a secondary place and looks on them as an appendix to the canonical books. Certain of them are so close in merit to the Divinely-inspired books that, for example, in the 85th Apostolic Canon (The “Apostolic Canons” or the “Canons of the Holy Apostles” are a collection of 85 ecclesiastical canons or laws handed down from the Apostles and their successors and given official Church approval at the Quinsext church Council (in Trullo) in 692 and in the First Canon of the Seventh Ecumenical (787). Some of these canons were cited and approved at the Ecumenical Councils, beginning with the First Council in 325, but the whole collection of them together was made probably not before the 4th century. The name “apostolic” does not necessarily mean that all the canons or the collection of them were made by the Apostles themselves, but only that they are in the tradition handed down from the Apostles (just as not all the “Psalms of David” were actually written by the Prophet David). For their text, see the Eerdmans Seven Ecumenical Councils, pp. 594–600. The 85th Apostolic Canon lists the canonical books of the Old and New Testaments.) the three books of Maccabees and the book of Joshua the son of Sirach are numbered together with the canonical books, and, concerning all of them together it is said that they are “venerable and holy.” However, this means only that they were respected in the ancient Church; but a distinction between the canonical and non-canonical books of the Old Testament has always been maintained in the Church. The Church recognizes twenty-seven canonical books of the New Testament. (These books are: the Four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John; the Acts of the Apostles; the Seven Catholic Epistles (one of James, two of Peter, three of John, one of Jude); fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul (Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First and Second Thessalonians, First and Second Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews); and the Apocalypse (Revelations) of St. |
| 1985c Review of Patrick Sherry, Spirit, Saints and Immortality , New York: Macmillan/Albany, NY: SUNY Press, 1984, Theology 88 (March), pp.151-153 1986 Books (edited and translated) 1986a (tr. with Andrew Louth, John Saward and Martin Simon) Hans Urs von Balthasar, The Glory of the Lord: A Theological Aesthetics , vol. 3: Studies in Theological Style: Lay Styles , Edinburgh: T&T Clark/San Francisco: Ignatius Books (booklets and pamphlets) 1986b (ed. with Terry Tastard and Janet Morley) Poverty, Obedience and Chastity: A Re-appraisal , Jubilee Group Easter Lectures 1986, London: The Jubilee Group; including ‘Poverty’, pp.1-13 Articles and Lectures 1986c ’Arius and the Meletian Schism’, Journal of Theological Studies ns 37.1 (April), pp.35-52 1986d ’Balthasar and Rahner’, in John Riches (ed.) The Analogy of Beauty , Edinburgh: T & T Clark, pp.11-34; reproduced as ‘Balthasar, Rahner and the Apprehension of Being’ in Wrestling with Angels , pp.86-105 1986e ’Barth, War and the State’, Oxford Conference in Commemoration of the Centenary of the Birth of Karl Barth, 18-21 September; reprinted in Nigel Biggar (ed.) Reckoning with Barth , Oxford: Mowbray, 1988 pp.170-190; reproduced in Wrestling with Angels , pp.150-171 1986f ’Introductory Memoir’ in Geoffrey Paul, A pattern of faith: An exposition of Christian doctrine , Worthing: Churchman 1986g ’Language, Reality and Desire in Augustine’s De doctrina’, paper presented at The Sacred Word: Religious Theories of Language conference, Department of Religious Studies, University of Lancaster, in July; published in Literature and Theology 3.2 (July 1989), pp.138-150 1986h ’Trinity and Revelation’, Modern Theology 2.3 (April), pp.197-212; reprinted in On Christian Theology , pp.131-147 Book Reviews 1986i Review of Anthony Kenny, A Path from Rome: An Autobiography , London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985, Theology 89 (May), pp.237-238 1986j Review of Kurt Rudolph, Gnosis: The Nature and History of an Ancient Religion , San Francisco: Harper & Row/Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1983, Journal of Theological Studies ns 37.1 (April), pp.202-206 |
| B) PAPERS, CHAPTERS 1) E. Kontizas, M. Kontizas, E. Nicolaïdis, " Description and performance of the photographic camera of the 1.2 m Kryonerion telescope " , Memoires of the National Observatory of Athens, serie I, no 19, 1981, p. 1-9. 2) E. Nicolaïdis, " Le développement de l " astronomie en U.R.S.S. " , Proceedings of the 16th International Congress of the History of Science, Bucarest, 1981, p. 43. 3) K. Alyssandrakis, P. Lantos, E. Nicolaïdis, " Coronal structures observed at metric wavelength with the Nancay Radioheliograph " , Proceedings of the 4th European meeting of Solar Physics, ESA SP 220, 1984. 4) K. Alyssandrakis, P. Lantos, E. Nicolaïdis, " Coronal structures observed at metric wavelength with the Nancay Radioheliograph " , Solar Physics, v. 97, 1985, p. 267-282. 5) E. Nicolaïdis, " Η επιλογ της γνωστικς λης: βιβλα των φυσικν και θετικν επιστημν του ελληνικο Διαφωτισμο " , [The selection of knowledge : books of science of the Neohellenic Enlightenment], Ta historika, Νo 4, 1985, p. 423-430. 6) E. Athanasiades, D. Dialetis, E. Nicolaïdis, " Μια στατιστικ προσγγιση της γνωστικς λης μσα απ τα βιβλα των θετικν επιστημν στο αινα του Διαφωτισμο " , [A statistical approach of the content of the books of science of the period of the Enlightenment], Larisa 1985, p. 47-56. 7) E. Nicolaïdis, " Η υποδοχ των δυτικν θετικν και φυσικν επιστημν στη Ελλδα την περοδο του Διαφωτισμο: μια προσγγιση μσω του ντυπου βιβλου " , [The reception of European science in Greece during the Enlightenment : the printed books], Οι φυσικς επιστμες στην Ελλδα και ιδιατερα στη Θεσσαλα πριν την επανσταση, Larisa 1985, p. 40-45. 8) E. Nicolaïdis, " Κρτος και θετικς επιστμες: Η περπτωση της αστρονομας στη Σοβιετικ Ενωση ως το θνατο του Στλιν " , [State and Science : the case of astronomy in USSR until the death of Stalin], Ο Πολτης, τ. 69-70, 1985, p. 55-63. 9) E. Nicolaïdis, D. Dialetis, E. Athanasiadis, " Τυπολογα των βιβλων των θετικν και φυσικν επιστημν του προεπαναστατικο αινα (1700-1821) " , [A typology of the books of science of the pre-revolutionary century (1700-1821)], Τετρδια Εργασας Νο 8, Κντρο Νεοελληνικν Ερευνν, 1986, σ. 7-38. |
| For this particular purpose an embassy headed by Arsenius Sukhanov was twice equipped and sent to the Near East. On this second journey, Sukhanov purchased about five hundred manuscript books which are the adornment of the Moscow Synodal (now Patriarchal) Library. However, Sukhanov brought back a negative impression of the East under the Turkish Yoke – the impression that pure Orthodoxy had already been violated there. In particular, Arsenius Sukhanov conveyed the news that, not long before Nikon had ascended the patriarchal throne, the monks of all the Greek monasteries of Mount Athos had assembled in synod and condemned the making of the sign of the Cross with two fingers as heresy; furthermore, they had burned the old style Muscovite liturgical books then located in the Athonite monasteries. Thus, no irreproachable texts for the correction of the liturgical books were found, until Patriarch Nikon made his definitive statement. Under the influence of trustworthy hierarchs of the East, Patriarch Nikon ordered the correction to be made according to the Greek books. These books were all of the Venetian edition. Thus, for example, the Euchologion of Moscow was corrected in accordance with the Venetian Euchologion of 1602. It was found necessary to select Kievans as correctors, for only they had the necessary preparation for the task at hand and, of primary importance, knew Greek well enough. As it turns out, they merely, so to speak, duplicated the work that had already been done in Kiev. Naturally, the work was reduced to repetition, or even to simple transcription of the Kievan translations. Patriarch Nikon " s abrogation of the old hand-written books and old “unwritten” rites, such as the two-fingered sign of the Cross and clockwise procession around the church, provoked a tempest. Its result was a schism within the Russian Church – the schism of the Old Believers (or Old Ritualists). Despite this storm, all the changes and corrections did enter into the life of the Russian Church. |
| San Diego Union, Sept. 2, 1979. Loehr, Franklin, Diary After Death, Pillar Books, New York, 1976. Matson, Archie, Afterlife: Reports from the Threshold of Death, Harper & Row, New York, 1977. Monroe, Robert A., Journeys Out of the Body, Anchor Books (Doubleday), Garden City, New York, 1977. Moody, Raymond A., Jr., Life after Life, Mockingbird Books, Atlanta, 1975. – Reflections on Life After Life, A Bantam-Mockingbird Book, 1977. Muldoon, Sylvan and Carrington, Hereward, The Phenomena of Astral Projection, Samuel Weiser, New York, 1972. Osis, Karl, and Haroldsson, Erlendur, At the Hour of Death, Avon Books, New York, 1977. Powell, A. E., The Astral Body, Theosophical Publishing House, Wheaton, Ill., 1972 . Psychics, by the Editors of Psychic Magazine, Harper & Row, New York, 1972. Sherman, Harold, You Live After Death, Fawcett Books, New York, 1972. Smith, Susy, Life is Forever, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, New York, 1974. – Out-of-Body Experiences, Dell Publishing Co., New York, 1969. Spraggett, Allen, The Case for Immortality, New American Library, New York, 1974. Swedenborg, Emanuel, Heaven and Hell, tr. by George F. Dole, Swedenborg Foundation, Inc., New York, 1976. Trobridge, George, Swedenborg: Life and Teaching, Swedenborg Foundation, New York, 1978. Van Dusen, Wilson, The Presence of Other Worlds, Harper & Row, New York, 1973 . Walker, Benjamin, Beyond the Body: The Human Double and the Astral Plane, Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1974. Weiss, Jess E., The Vestibule, Pocket Books, New York, 1977. Wheeler, David R., Journey to the Other Side, Ace Books, New York, 1977. ATTEMPTS AT CHRISTIAN APPROACHES AND EVALUATIONS – MOSTLY EVANGELICAL PROTESTANT Baker, H. A. Visions Beyond the Veil, Whitaker House, Monroeville, Pa., 1973. Brooke, Tal, The Other Side of Death, Tyndale House, Wheaton, Ill., 1979. Eby, Richard E., Caught Up into Paradise, private printing, c. 1978. Ernest, Victor H., I Talked with Spirits, Tyndale House, Wheaton, Ill., 1975. Faust, Floyd, Life Death Life, The Upper Room, Nashville, Tenn., 1977. |
| By the end of the nineteenth century, the problem of understanding liturgical texts had already become recognized as serious. St. Theophan the Recluse (+1894) wrote, " Something needs to be done about a matter affecting all of Church life. And there is a matter of that nature, a very needed thing. I am referring to a new, simplified, clarified translation of Church service books. All our liturgical hymns are instructive, deep, and lofty. In them is the entire science of theology, and all Christian moral teaching, all consolation and all warning. Whoever pays attention to them can do without all other instructive Christian books. Meanwhile, a large part of these hymns are completely incomprehensible. This deprives our Church books of the fruit that they could produce, and does not allow them to serve those aims which they were assigned and do possess. Therefore, a new translation of the service books is needed without delay. We need to start doing it now, tomorrow, if we do not want to bear the reproach for this defect and be the cause of the harm that comes from this. One of the factors that drive the Orthodox to Stundism (a Protestant biblical study movement that gained popularity in the German colonies of nineteenth century Russia) is precisely the incomprehensibility of Church hymns… A new translation of liturgical books [should be] begun. Let them begin to translate all the books over again… Translate not into Russian, but into Church Slavonic. There has already been experience in this… And they were both reverent and understandable. " Many others shared St. Theophan's views—bishops, priests, and laypeople. In the " Review of diocesan bishops regarding Church reform " (1905–1906), compiled during the period of preparation for the Local Council of the Russian Church, many noted that it is necessary to make the Church services more understandable to laypeople. Thus, St. Tikhon, as Patriarch of All Russia, wrote, " It is important that the Russian Church have a new Slavonic translation of the service books (the current ones are outdated, and in many places, incorrect), which could forestall the demands of certain people to serve in the everyday Russian language. " |
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