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      • Trusted Partner
        Literary studies: classical, early & medieval
        July 2013

        Monasticism in late medieval England, c.1300–1535

        by Martin Heale

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        December 2020

        Transfiguring medievalism

        by Cary Howie, Anke Bernau

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      • Travel writing
        May 2005

        Riding to Jerusalem

        by Bettina Selby

        People have made their way to Jerusalem in many ways. Some have ridden in triumphantly as conquerors, others have come humbly on foot as pilgrims. Today many arrive cocooned in package holiday coaches. Bettina Selby did it the hard way - on a bicycle called Evans. Following the routes of the Crusaders and the early pilgrims across Europe, through Turkey, Syria and Jordan meant a long, very tough mountainous journey, but one of great natural beauty, and with endless opportunities to meet the peoples of those countries. It was a route that led past many of the most fabulous sites and cities of the ancient world - such as Byzantium, Troy, Pergamon, Palmyra, Petra, and finally, Jerusalem itself. Riding to Jerusalem combines the author’s perceptions and reflections with her sense of humour and keen relish of adventure. Not since reading Patrick Leigh Fermor have I enjoyed a travel book in which people and places, past and present are so vividly woven together Country Living

      • Orthodox & Oriental Churches
        August 2015

        Modern Othodox Thinkers

        From the Philokalia to the Present Day

        by Andrew Louth

        A lively and perceptive account of the lives, writings and enduring intellectual legacies of the great Orthodox theologians of the past 250 years. This book explores and explains the enduring influence of some of the world's greatest modern theologians. Starting with the influence of the Philokalia in nineteenth-century Russia, the book moves through the Slavophiles, Solov'ev, Florensky in Russia and then traces the story through the Christian intellectuals exiled from Stalin's Russia - Bulgakov, Berdyaev, Florovsky, Lossky, Lot-Borodine, Skobtsova - and a couple of theologians outside the Russian world: the Romanian Staniloae and the Serbian Popovich, both of whom studied in Paris. Andrew Louth then considers the contributions of the second generation Russians - Evdokimov, Meyendorff, Schmemann - and the theologians of Greece from the sixties onwards - Zizioulas, Yannaras, and others, as well as influential monks and spiritual elders, especially Fr Sophrony of the monastery in Essex and his mentor, St Silouan. The book concludes with an illuminating chapter on Metropolitan Kallistos and the theological vision of the Philokalia.

      • December 2021

        Moralia et Ascetica Armeniaca

        The Oft-Repeated Discourses

        by Abraham Terian

        The twenty-three discourses presented in this volume have a long textual history that ascribes them to St. Gregory the Illuminator of Armenia (d. 328), a prevalent view that lasted through the nineteenth century. Armenian scholarship through the last century has tended to ascribe them to St. Mashtots‘, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet (d. 440). In his critical introduction to this first-ever English translation of the discourses, Terian presents them as an ascetic text by an anonymous abbot writing near the end of the sixth century. The very title in Armenian, Yačaxapatum Čaŕk‘, literally, “Oft-Repeated Discourses,” further validates their ascetic environment, where they were repeatedly related to novices. For want of answers to introductory questions regarding authorship and date, and because of the pervasive grammatical difficulties of the text, the document has remained largely unknown in scholarship. The discourses include many of the Eastern Fathers’ favorite theological themes. They are heavily punctuated with biblical quotations and laced with recurring biblical images and phraseology; the doctrinal and functional centrality of the Scriptures is emphasized throughout. They are replete with traditional Christian moral teachings that have acquired elements of moral philosophy transmitted through Late Antiquity. Echoes of St. Basil’s thought are heard in several of them, and some evidence of the author’s dependence on the Armenian version of the saint’s Rules, translated around the turn of the sixth century, is apparent. On the whole they show how Christians were driven by the Johannine love-command and the Pauline Spirit-guided practice of virtuous living, ever maturing in the ethos of an in-group solidarity culminating in monasticism.

      • January 2020

        Inquiry about the Monks in Egypt

        by Rufinus of Aquileia, Cain

        From September 394 to early January 395, seven monks from Rufinus of Aquileia’s monastery on the Mount of Olives made a pilgrimage to Egypt to visit locally renowned monks and monastic communities. Shortly after their return to Jerusalem, one of the party, whose identity remains a mystery, wrote an engaging account of this trip. Although he cast it in the form of a first-person travelogue, it reads more like a book of miracles that depicts the great fourth-century Egyptian monks as prophets and apostles similar to those in the Bible. This work was composed in Greek, yet it is best known today as Historia monachorum in Aegypto (Inquiry about the Monks in Egypt), the title of the Latin translation of this work made by Rufinus, the pilgrim-monks’ abbot. The Historia monachorum is one of the most fascinating, fantastical, and enigmatic pieces of literature to survive from the patristic period. In both its Greek original and Rufinus’s Latin translation it was one of the most popular and widely disseminated works of monastic hagiography during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Modern scholars value it not only for its intrinsic literary merits but also for its status, alongside Athanasius’s Life of Antony, the Pachomian dossier, and other texts of this ilk, as one of the most important primary sources for monasticism in fourth-century Egypt. Rufinus’s Historia monachorum is presented here in English translation in its entirety. The introduction and annotations situate the work in its literary, historical, religious, and theological contexts.

      • Christian spirituality & religious experience
        February 2015

        Lectio Divina

        by Enzo Bianchi

        The Bible is an ancient, enigmatic text from a culture vastly different from our own and most of us find it hard to read: how then can we understand its importance in the church, and how can it enrich our lives? Central to Lectio Divina is the conviction that to read the Bible faithfully and prayerfully is to learn an art. It is also to be in community, and to enter into dialogue with the God who speaks to each of us through the biblical page. Enzo Bianchi touches on some of the key insights in the history of Christian biblical interpretation - from the brilliant thinker Origen in the third century, to the development and refinement of historical criticism and related approaches in the modern era. He explains how to do lectio divina and understand its four 'moments' - lectio, meditatio, oratio, contemplatio. This is not simply a book about how to approach to the Bible, because Scripture ultimately wants to lead us beyond itself - to the truth and mystery of Christ that can never be captured fully in the written word.

      • Christian ministry & pastoral activity
        October 2014

        Another Christ

        Re-envisioning ministry

        by Andrew D. Mayes

        Growth in Christlikeness is a goal for all Christians and especially for those in leadership. But the images of Christ that have become the institutional norm refer to a model of pastoral ministry that seems to allow no scope for innovation or eccentricity. In this riveting book, Andrew Mayes explores how the first century setting of Jesus reveals his identity as builder; hermit; rebel; mystic; reveller; jester; iconoclast; revealer and enigma; liberator; traveller; and mentor, brother and trail-blazer. The aim of Another Christ is to encourage us to see how these images can inform the practice and spirituality of leadership today, and to this end, each chapter ends with a set of penetrating questions and ideas for further reading.

      • Bible readings, selections & meditations
        October 2014

        Seeing Jesus

        And Being Seen by Him

        by Christopher Cocksworth

        Recommended reading for Lent, this book paints compelling portraits of Gospel characters who saw and responded to Jesus, with a special emphasis throughout on the role and example of Mary. The Rt Revd Christopher Cocksworth encourages us to reflect on how we see Jesus, how he sees us, and how to see the world as he sees it.

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