The first issue of the “Corpus of Christian Texts and Researches”

The Moscow Theological Academy released the first issue of “Corpus of Christian Texts and Researches”, which is a supplement to the scientific journal “Bible and Christian Antiquity”.

The idea of ​​the «Corpus of Christian Texts and Researches» as a supplement to the journal «Bible and Christian Antiquity» came up while working on the second issue of the journal in summer 2019. It includes Russian translations of the Church Fathers and Christian authors’ legacy. This project assumed the use of all the currently available scientific methodology, critical researches of the original works and modern studies by both Russian and foreign authors.

The main aim of the project is to publish Russia translation of original texts of Church antiquity and the Middle Ages, and then create a unified corpus of Christian texts and researches. And some work considering ancient manuscripts and their existing editions has already done.

“The Corpus of Christian Texts and Researches” will include several series, and in some of them even sub-series. Now, there are Greek, Latin, Syrian, Coptic and Georgian series as well as “Modern Translations and Researches” and “Biblical Series”. The last one will be divided into three subseries, such as “Biblical studies”, “Jewish and Middle Eastern sources” and “Apocrypha”.

The contemporary Greek translation presented in the current publication makes the first volume of the “Corpus of Christian Texts and Researches” and the first issue of series “Contemporary Texts and Researches”. Within the first volume there are two more parts, which are expected to be released soon. The current volume includes translations from modern Greek of Athonite monks on the possibility of a dialogue between Orthodox Churches after the Council of Chalcedon (451) with the so-called pre-Chalcedonian Churches, which will undoubtedly be interesting and useful both for specialists and students.

The first issue of “Corpus of Christian Texts and Research” is the first part (of the planned three) of the translation into Russian from the Modern Greek of the book “The Theological Dialogue Between the Orthodox and the Anti-Chalcedonians (Past — Present — Future): An Athonite Contribution” (Ὁ Θεολογικός Διάλογος Ὀρθοδόξων καί Ἀντιχαλκηδονίων (παρελθόν — παρόν — μέλλον): Μία ἁγιορειτική συμβολή. Ἅγιον Ὄρος: Ἱ. Μ. Ὁσίου Γρηγορίου, 2018).

The Theological Dialogue Between the Orthodox Church and the Anti-Chalcedonian Christian communities (so-called Oriental Churches) was started in 1964, on the initiative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. The purpose of this was to find ways to heal the 1500-year schism. The Dialogue resulted in agreements in the form of three “Agreed statements” (1989, 1990 and 1993). This Theological Dialogue, in turn, caused a lively inter-Orthodox discussion, in which Holy Mount Athos took part in the person of its main administrative body, the Holy Community of Mount Athos, as well as individual Athonite fathers.

In 2018, in connection with the reactivation of the work of the Joint Theological Commission on the Dialogue between the Orthodox and the Anti-Chalcedonians, the Athonite monastery of Gregoriou undertook a reprint in one volume of all the texts compiled on Mount Athos in connection with the problem of the Dialogue. This 841-page edition was published under the title “The Theological Dialogue Between the Orthodox and the Anti-Chalcedonians (Past — Present — Future): An Athonite Contribution”.

Today, the Russian Orthodox Church is actively developing bilateral dialogues with the Oriental Churches. An indispensable help for the dogmatic component of these dialogues can be texts in which, at a high theological level, the main problems of the Orthodox-Anti-Chalcedonian Dialogue are identified and investigated. Such texts are the theological treatises and articles included in the Gregorian edition “The Theological Dialogue Between the Orthodox and the Anti-Chalcedonians (Past — Present — Future)”. Their translation into Russian is intended to help those who participate in the Dialogue or are responsible for making decisions on behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church to delve deeper into the theological problems of the Dialogue. It will also be useful to all those who are interested in Christological issues around the IV Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon and its interpretation in various Christian denominations.

Previously published Russian translations of fragments of this collection were included in the new edition with the necessary corrections.

The first part of the translation of the book “The Theological Dialogue Between the Orthodox and the Anti-Chalcedonians (Past — Present — Future): An Athonite Contribution” includes the translation of the Introduction to the publication by Hierom. Loukas of Gregoriou (2018), as well as the collection “Are the anti-Chalcedonians Orthodox?” (first publication 1995) with the texts of the Holy Community of Mount Athos and the Athonite Fathers for the period 1991–1995.

The Introduction contains the main ideas of the entire publication; it “will enable the simple reader (non-specialist) or specialist researcher who did not observe the development of the intra-Orthodox dialogue around the agreements of the Joint Commission on Theological Dialogue from the very beginning, to understand the reasons why we believe that this Theological Dialogue should be continued on new grounds and with new goals”.

Chapter 1 sets out a brief history of the Theological Dialogue, with a description of its main characteristics, trends and problems. Chapter 2 is devoted to the resumption of the Dialogue. It examines new views and theories, in particular, the theory of “miaphysitism”. Chapter 3 is devoted to the history, methodology and goals of the contribution of Mount Athos to the Intra-Orthodox dialogue on the anti-Chalcedonian problem.

The texts included in the collection “Are the Anti-Chalcedonian Orthodox?” are:

1) Prologue by Archim. George (Kapsanis).

2) Letter of the Holy Community of Mount Athos with a blessing for publication.

3) “Judgement of the Commission of the Holy Community of Mount Athos on the Dialogue between the Orthodox and Anti-Chalcedonians” (02/01/1994), which expresses warnings and fears about the theological and ecclesiological deviations of the “Agreed Statements”.

4) “Memorandum of the Holy Community of Mount Athos regarding the Dialogue between the Orthodox and Anti-Chalcedonians” (May 14/27, 1995), which exposes the theological and ecclesiological deviations of the Joint Commission of the Dialogue.

5) Article by the abbot of the monastery Xeropotamou, Archim. Joseph, “Orthodoxy and Anti-Chalcedonians” (1991).

6) Significant theological work “Contribution to the Intra-Orthodox Dialogue about the «orthodoxy» of the anti-Chalcedonians” (June 1994).

7) “The Hymnology of the Church concerning Orthodox Christology and the anti-Chalcedonians” (December 1994), which presents evidence of the church Hymnology about the heresy of anti-Chalcedonians.

8) “Our debt to speak the truth in love” (July 1995), which expresses a protest against the use of orthodox titles and epithets concerning the non-Orthodox.

9) “The planned «purge» of the liturgical texts of the Church” (September 1995), which proves the inappropriateness and unacceptability of the proposal of the Joint Commission on the “purge” of liturgical texts from expressions that may seem offensive to the anti-Chalcedonians.

Deacon Sergiy Kozhukhov, Associate Professor of the Moscow Theological Academy, Chief Editor of the Series.
M.A. Vishniak