The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity. Edited by KEN PARRY.

Abstract

This is the second volume of a projected three-part survey of the churches of Eastern Christendom. (The first part, a dictionary, was published in 1999 and the third will be a collection of primary sources.) It consists of twenty-four essays, providing accounts of the different national and regional church traditions and then of the liturgy, iconography, architecture, and hagiography of the churches. It provides a full and detailed account of the various forms of Christianity which developed in the East, and has many merits. It is exhaustive, including all the churches of the Eastern tradition, of whatever christological standpoint, and also Greek Catholic churches, and in addition the extension of these communities into the West. The presentation of the material in essays devoted to the different regions helps the reader to grasp the variety and richness of Eastern Christianity, and presents clear accounts of traditions often overlooked, such as the Arabic-speaking churches or the churches of China. Some of the contributors come from the churches which they describe, with the result that many of the essays present fresh and at times unexpected features, such as the clear account of Serbian nationalism, the somewhat critical discussion of the relation of church and state in Greece, or the history of ecclesiastical debates in Russia. It needs to be said that this is not a book about the Orthodox Church as a unified concept, so there are no general articles on Orthodox history, theology, or spirituality, or on topics such as the revival of the hesychast tradition following the publication of the Philokalia or the theology of the Russian diaspora. These gaps will prevent the book becoming the authoritative survey which the publishers intend, but the sheer breadth and detail of the presentations make it an invaluable and fresh survey of a large and complex topic which will become an indispensable reference work.