Late Antique Images of the Virgin Annunciate Spinning (original) (raw)

Eastern Christianity in Its Texts

Hovorun. Eastern Christianity in Its Texts (London: Bloomsbury), 2022

Surveying theological literature produced in the Christian East from the first through the 20th century, Eastern Christianity in its Texts explores different theological themes (analytical and mystical), genres (epistles, treatises, and poetry), and milieux (Greek, Armenian, Western and Eastern Syriac, Russian and Romanian). The book illustrates the evolution of the Orthodox thought, how it influenced and was influenced by intellectual, social, and political environments. It demonstrates a theology in context, and yet displays consistency in the traditions spread through different epochs and countries. The book is divided in five parts, each standing for an epoch with distinct features: formation of the Christian identity in the era before Constantine, golden age of theology in the period of Late Antiquity, the pinnacle of erudism and mysticism in the eastern Middle Ages, wrestling with the Modernity imported from the West in the 18th-19th centuries, and finally theological polyphony in the 20th century.

The Dormition of the Virgin between East and West

“The Dormition of the Virgin between East and West,” in Eclecticism in Late Medieval Visual Culture at the Crossroads of the Latin, Greek, and Slavic Traditions (conference proceedings, Princeton University, 2019), ed. Maria A. Rossi and Alice I. Sullivan, Berlin: De Gruyter, 179–98, 2022

Images of the Virgin Mary are of central importance in medieval Christian devotion. Her parallel cults in the Byzantine cultural sphere and Western Europe have been highlighted in a series of overarching monographs. The differences in the perception, iconography, and meaning of Marian images in the East and the West have also been explored in detail. However, the visual sources of the vast yet neglected territory that lies in between these two major poles, Central Europe, have attracted significantly less attention. This study sheds light on the diverse artistic heritage and unique cultural identity of this land through an investigation of an array of medieval wall paintings of the Virgin Mary from the northern highlands of the former Kingdom of Hungary, which today constitutes the territory of Slovakia. More specifically, I focus on murals of the Dormition of the Virgin (Koimesis, Assumption), a mysterious and potent moment in the Christian imagination, which stands on the fragile border of the earthly and heavenly spheres.

Bible, Church, Tradition: An Eastern Orthodox View (Volume One in the collected works of Georges Florovsky), by Georges Florovsky. Belmont, Massachusetts 02178, Nordland Publishing Company, 1972. $5·95

Scottish Journal of Theology, 1975

The Collected Works of Fr. Georges Florovsky will be published in English and will contain his articles in Slavic studies as well as in Church History and Theology which have previously appeared in Russian, German, French, Bulgarian, Czech, Serbian, Swedish and English. Each volume will be arranged thematically. Included in the Collected Works will be his two major works on the Church Fathers (The Eastern Fathers of the fourth Century and The Byzantine Fathers from the Fifth to the Eighth Century).