ORTHODOX PERSPECTIVES ON MISSION (original) (raw)

A Selected Bibliography of Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology

International Bulletin of Mission Research, 1977

This listing is offered with the hope that it will encourage the Kovach, Michael George. "The Russian Orthodox Church in Rus study of the Eastern Orthodox Church and, in particular, of Or sian America." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh,. thodox missions. A few notes of explanation may be helpful. 1957. Pp. iv, 290. Included are histories of Orthodox mission work, especially in the A history of the Aleutian-Alaskan mission. first section, because no book-length treatment of Orthodox mis Orthodox Church in America. The Orthodox Church in America sion theology has yet appeared and the histories give the theologi Its Mission to America. Syosset, New York: American Or cal framework in which Orthodox missions were undertaken. thodox Church, 1975. Pp. 59. General works on the Orthodox Church and Orthodox theology The working papers and documents preparatory to the Fourth are omitted because references to mission in these works are All-American Council. Shows the self-understanding of the limited to a few pages. The journal Porefthendes was for a little AOC with regard to missionary work and witness. more than a decade the publication of the Inter-Orthodox Mis sionary Center, "Porefthendes," Athens, Greece. Publication of Spiridon, Archimandrite. Mes Missions en Siberie. Translated by the journal has been suspended, but the back numbers demon Pierre Pascal. Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1950. Pp. 156. strate the creative thinking done by the Orthodox connected with A critical review of Orthodox missionary work by an Or the Center. Porefthendes was published. in identical Greek and thodox missionary. English editions, the English edition being cited exclusively be Smirnoff, Eugene. A Short Account of the Historical Development low. The writer would welcome critical comments and suggested and Present Position of Russian Orthodox Missions. London: additions to the bibliography. Rivertons, 1903; reprint ed., Willits, Calif.: Eastern Orthodox Books, n.d. Pp. xii, 83. I. Books, pamphlets, and dissertations. Valuable missionary history and record of missionary princi pies.

Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology

International Bulletin of Missionary Research, 1984

W h en Protestants and Roman Catholics look at the Eastern veals better the relation between the Church as fullness and the Orthodox Church's mission history, they are often puz Church as mission than the Eucharist, the central act of the zled. They find some missionaries to admire." some practices to Church's leifurgia, ... The Eucharist is always the End, the sacra question.? and much that is difficult to comprehend. The general ment of the parousia, and, yet, it is always the beginning, the start viewpoint seems to be that the Orthodox mission experience "is a ing point: now the mission begins."? chapter in the history of the expansion of the faith, but is of little relevance today. Since the late 1950s, however, there has been con

“New Wine into Old Wineskins?: Orthodox Theology of Mission Facing the Challenges of a Global World”

Regnum Studies in Mission are born from the lived experience o f Christians and Christian communities in mission, especially but not solely in the fast growing churches among the poor o f the world. These churches have more to tell than stories o f growth. They are making significant impacts on their cultures in the cause o f Christ. They are producing 'cultural products' which express the reality o f Christian faith, hope and love in their societies.

Russia's Mission in the World: the Perspective of the Russian Orthodox Church

“Problems of Post-Communism”, 2019

This paper presents a reconstruction of the Russian Orthodox Church’s narrative on mission, including the evolution and most characteristic features of its content and context. The notion of mission employed in this article combines components of both messianism and missionism. In short, mission is understood as the conviction that a certain community (state/nation) is exceptional and that this exceptionality manifests itself in its special destiny (Russian: osoboe prednaznachenie). As such, it represents a specific component of the identity of a state. In contemporary Russia, mission is seen as a crucial attribute of civilizational distinctiveness and of a major power.

Mission(s) and Politics: An Orthodox’s Approach

Politics, Society and Culture in Orthodox Theology in a Global Age

continue to exhibit a premodern mentality. This image of Orthodoxy is readily cultivated by conservative circles even within Orthodox Christianity but is almost more pronounced in Protestant Christianity, for example, where Orthodoxy is quickly and easily viewed in this way. This overlooks the fact that the challenges posed to Christianity today as a whole by postmodernity, secularisation, and globalisation, need to be dealt with urgently in Orthodox Christianity as well and are indeed being actively discussed. Drawing attention to this is also one of the intentions of this volume of essays. These challenges include questions such as the compatibility of the Orthodox Church and its theology with modern moral concepts and democratic values or the acceptance of human rights in Orthodoxy. While such questions used to be quite often met with great scepticism in Orthodox churches and were deliberately left ambiguous, things began to change in recent times when it became clear with, among other things, the publication in March 2020 of the document For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church. The document was composed by a special commission of Orthodox scholars appointed by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and blessed for publication by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This highly significant document, already translated into fifteen languages, addresses-along with its social sensitivity and its concern for inclusion-contemporary social and moral issues, challenges, and other issues in an unusual way for the Orthodox Church. These issues include poverty, racism, human rights, democratic values, reproductive technology, new forms of marital and family life, and the environment.10 They are issues that are ever-present on a 9 Cf. the recent "Declaration" by eminent Orthodox theologians who oppose the "