Byzantine News

Divine Presence in the Eucharistic Theology of Nicholas Cabasilas, a doctoral dissertation, available online: This study focuses on the Eucharistic theology of the Byzantine theologian Nicholas Cabasilas (d. c. 1390). It examines the presence of the divine and its transmission in the Divine Liturgy. The results of the study indicate that, according to Cabasilas, man is able to partake in God in the liturgy, and thus to subjectively receive and participate in his presence to the world. In Cabasilas’ thought the presence of God is manifested in the liturgy on two major levels. There is, firstly, the level of divine presence which permeates the entire liturgy. It is based on the omnipresence of God, which is pre-eminently manifested in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Great events of the divine economy are to be contemplated and participated in throughout the Eucharistic liturgy in the outward forms and symbols of the rite. Secondly, the presence of God is given a concrete manifestat...

I served under emperor Heraclius. But I gave up and became a monk.I studied all pagan philosophers: Plato, Aristotle, and neoplatonists. I think the Chalcedonians were right: Jesus had a human and a divine will. But for my teachings they sent me into exile, far away in Georgia.

Armenia and the Council of Chalcedon. Click here to access the book

Eirini Afentoulidou, Philippos Monotropos' Dioptra and its Social Milieu: Niketas Stethatos, Nikollaos III Grammatikos and the Persecution of Bogomilism by Eirini Afentoulidou-Leitgeb Abstract This article aims to investigate the social milieu of Philippos Monotropos, author of the Dioptra. Explicit evidence on Philippos is scarce, but the comparison with contemporary texts allows some conclusions. Indeed, the way that Philippos treats Bogomilism indicates connections with imperial and patriarchal circles. Moreover, numerous parallels between the Dioptra and the Poem on Fast Days written by Nikolaos III Grammatikos shows that the Patriarch knew and ap­preciated the Dioptra very soon after its composition. The hypothesis that Philip­pos belonged to an educated, urbane ecclesiastical milieu is in accordance with the assessment of the Dioptra as a simplistic epitome of Christian humanistic theology – contrary to previous views that overemphasised its ascetic element.   Click her...