39 - Book Review: "Christ, Our Way and Our Life: A Presentation of the Theology of Archimandrite Sophrony" by Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou

 Christ, Our Way and Our Life: 

A Presentation of the Theology of Archimandrite Sophrony

By Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou

Published by Stavropegic Monastery of St. John the Baptist, 2012, pp. 368.

Book Reviewed (from the Greek text) by:
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
(source)

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

 

Archimandrite Zacharias Zacharou, with whom we have known each other for twenty-five years, with a strong and sincere friendship, who is a monk at the Honorable Forerunner Monastery in Essex, England, sent me some time ago his first book, which he published, titled "A Presentation of the Theology of Elder Sophrony", and which is an extension of the thesis he submitted to the Theological School of the University of Thessaloniki.

The day I received the book, I immediately recognized it in the mass of mail, opened it, and read its prologue. I was deeply moved, because he referred to the theology of the late Father Sophrony, a great Elder of our time, whom I enjoyed for about twenty years, through his theological books, co-liturgizing with him at the Holy Altar, personal conversations and the unique live communication that I had with him in the Sacred Monastery of the Honorable Forerunner during the summer months. But I considered it "sacrilege" to study this book among the various activities I was involved in and immediately wrote a letter to announce its receipt. Among other things I wrote:

38 - Book Review: "The Asia Minor Catastrophe: 50 Questions and Answers" by Angelos Syrigos and Evanthi Hatzivasiliou

Μικρασιατική Καταστροφή, 50 ἐρωτήματα καί ἀπαντήσεις

 

The Asia Minor Catastrophe: 50 Questions and Answers

By Angelos Syrigos and Evanthi Hatzivasiliou

Published by Pataki, 2022, pp. 255.
(Currently only available in Greek.)

Book Reviewed by:
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou
(source)

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

 

We are passing through the hundredth year since the Asia Minor Catastrophe and many events are taking place commemorating those events, with a responsible evaluation, so that it turns out to be a positive event for all of us.

Already last year (2021) we celebrated the anniversary of two hundred years since the beginning of the 1821 revolution, which was full of victories and defeats, tensions and peace, sorrows and joys. However, the Asia Minor Campaign and Catastrophe offers us only sorrows, it is a trauma, not only in our historical memory, but also in our historical body itself.

37 - Book Review: "Patristic and Scholastic Theology and Their Environment" by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos

Πατερική και Σχολαστική Θεολογία και το Περιβάλλον τους: 

Με βάση τις προφορικές παραδόσεις του π. Ιωάννου Ρωμανίδη

Patristic and Scholastic Theology and Their Environment: 

Based on the Oral Traditions of Fr. John Romanides

By Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou

Published by Monastery of the Nativity of the Theotokos (Pelagia), 2021, pp. 672.
(Currently only available in Greek.)

Book Reviewed by:
Petros Pitsiakkas
Philologist - M.Ed. - Director of the 2nd Lyceum of Nafpaktos
(source)

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

The new book of His Eminence the Metropolitan of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou Mr. Hierotheos, Patristic and Scholastic Theology and Their Environment with the subtitle "Based on the Oral Traditions of Fr. John Romanides", offers an analysis of the meeting of Orthodox theology with modern religious and ideological movements. It is a book that presents, on the one hand, patristic theology, which is empirical and is based on the revelation of God to the Prophets, Apostles and Fathers, which highlights the great value of Orthodox theology and, on the other hand, the scholastic theology of the west, which deviates from prophetic, apostolic and patristic theology by relying on philosophy and tries to understand God by reason.

36 - Book Review: "The 'Model Kingdom' and the Great Idea: Aspects of the National Problem in Greece (1830-1880)"

 

Το "Πρότυπο Βασίλειο" και η Μεγάλη Ιδέα

The "Model Kingdom" and the Great Idea:
Aspects of the National Problem in Greece (1830-1880)

By Elli Skopetea

Published by Polytepo in Greece, 1988, pp. 456. 

(Currently only available in Greek.)

Book Reviewed by:
Metropolitan Hierotheos of Nafpaktos and Agiou Vlasiou 

(source)

Translated by John Sanidopoulos

With the title The "Model Kingdom" and the Great Idea and the subtitle Aspects of the National Problem in Greece (1830-1880), Elli Skopetea has written an amazing book, which is a mirror of the era after the liberation of Greece from the Turkish yoke.

This is the doctoral dissertation of the author, the purpose of which is "to record and, as far as possible, to codify the perceptions about the Greek nation and its 'destiny', as they were formed in Greece during the first decades of its independence" (p. 13). The author relied first on the press of the time, then on the periodical press and then on the eponymous major scholars "but with emphasis on those points that connect them to the minor ones, and not those that distinguish them" (p. 15).

35 - Book Review: "Eastern Christendom: A Study of the Origin and Development of the Eastern Orthodox Church" by Nicolas Zernov

 

Eastern Christendom: 

A Study of the Origin and Development of the Eastern Orthodox Church

Published by G.P. Putnam and Sons, New York, 1961, 326 pages.

By Nicolas Zernov

Reviewed by Georges Florovsky

Slavic Review, Vol. 24, No. 4 (Dec., 1965), p. 745-747.

 

Unless they are written by great masters, books of such wide scope and compass are seldom based on original research and scrutiny of primary sources. On  the other hand, authors of such comprehensive surveys in their dependence upon the critical assessment by others of source material must be well acquainted with the contemporary state of scholarship in the field. To write such a survey, especially for the ordinary reader, who is usually unable to check the reliability of what is presented to him, is a difficult and responsible task. The book of Dr. Zernov is no more than a compilation; nevertheless he often allows himself to pass judgment on controversial issues and to offer sweeping generalizations which call for resistance from scholars.