30 - Book Review: "The Eastern Schism: A Study of the Papacy and the Eastern Churches During the XIth and XIIth Centuries" by Steven Runciman

 

 

The Eastern Schism:
A Study of the Papacy and the Eastern Churches During the XIth and XIIth Centuries

Published by Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1955, 190 pages.

By Steven Runciman

Reviewed by Georges Florovsky
Church History, Volume 26, Issue 2, June 1957, pp. 181-182.

The break between Byzantium and Rome was probably the major tragedy in the history of Christendom. It is inaccurate and misleading to speak of the Eastern Schism. The term suggests that there was "One Church," from which the East broke away, at a certain date, or rather was breaking away gradually and persistently. It is precisely what the West finally came to believe. It is natural that the East finally took the opposite view and came to believe that there was actually a "Western Schism." Strangely enough, both views are accurate and correct, from the historical point of view. What actually happened was the disruption of Unity, and both "separated" parts of Christendom are, in a certain sense, "schisms." In any case, it is so from the purely historical point of view. In spite of all tensions and divergences, conspicuous and provocative as they might have been, the Christian world in the XIth century was still "one world," and people both in the West and in the East, did firmly believe in this "unity." There was still "one universe of discourse," much as its scope and character might have been already obscured on both sides. Paradoxically, it was precisely this presupposition of "unity" that precipitated the "schism." The Western "Drang nach Osten," of which the Crusades were the most spectacular expression, was inspired precisely by this basic conviction that the "Christian World" was one, and consequently had to be "united" and "unified."

29 - Book Review: "Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H.P. Lovecraft

 

 

The Annotated Supernatural Horror in Literature

Published by Hippocampus Press, New York, 2000, 172 pages.

By H.P. Lovecraft
Edited with Introduction and Commentary by S.T. Joshi

 

H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937), the most important American supernaturalist since Poe, has had an incalculable influence on all the horror-story writing of recent decades. Although his supernatural fiction has of late been enjoying an unprecedented fame, it is still not widely known that he wrote a critical history of supernatural horror in literature that has yet to be superseded as the finest historical discussion of the genre, titled Supernatural Horror in Literature. This extraordinary work is presented in this volume in its final, revised text, annotated with a helpful Introduction and Commentary and Bibliography.

28 - Book Review: "Christian Apology" by St. Athanasios Parios

 

Ἀπολογία Χριστιανική (Christian Apology)

Published by Γρηγόρη, Athens, 2015, 312 pages.

By Saint Athanasios Parios

Reviewed by John Sanidopoulos

 

First published in 1798, the Christian Apology of St. Athanasios Parios (+ 1813) is published with this translation for the first time in Modern Greek (which will hopefully be soon translated into English), with a helpful Introduction by the late Protopresbyter Fr. George Metallinos.

St. Athanasios was one of the leaders of the Kollyvades Movement, which originated on Mount Athos in the 18th century as an effort to restore traditional Orthodox practices and opposed unwarranted innovations. His books are mostly a patristic approach written to answer specific needs and challenges of his time, for the benefit and education of the Orthodox flock.

27 - Book Review: "Columbus & Cortez, Conquerors for Christ"

Columbus & Cortez, Conquerors for Christ

New Leaf Press, 1992, 304 pages.

By John Eidsmoe

Reviewed by John Sanidopoulos

Did Christopher Columbus exploit the people of America – or did he evangelize them? Did Hernando Cortez subjugate the people of Mexico – or did he liberate them?

These are two of the questions posed by John Eidsmoe, a U.S. Reserve Air Force Lt. Colonel, who serves as a law professor at Faulkner University. Columbus & Cortez, Conquerors for Christ counters what Eidsmoe terms “the assault on Western culture” by media elites and liberal scholars on American university campuses. Eidsmoe surmises that this attack on culture is in actuality an attack on values – the biblical values upon which our nation was founded.

26 - Book Review: "History of the Byzantine State"

History of the Byzantine State

New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press, 1957. 543 pp.

By George Ostrogorsky

Reviewed by Georges Florovsky,
Harvard Divinity School

Church History: 
Studies in Christianity and Culture

(Volume 28, Issue 1 March 1959, pp. 96-97)

This book by Professor Ostrogorsky, of Belgrade University, needs no lengthy introduction. Since its first appearance in 1940, in German, it has been commonly acknowledged as a standard manual in the field. The text has been revised several times by the author, for edition in German, French, and English, and brought up to date. In the present American edition a fine selection of illustrations is added, arranged by Professor Charanis, in cooperation with Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, and also a new set of historical maps. The book is elegantly produced.