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Orthodox Christianity Volume I: The History and Canonical Structure of the Orthodox Church

About Specification

Foreword by His Holiness Alexei II, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

Translated from the Russian by Basil Bush

This is the first volume of a detailed and systematic exposition

of the history, canonical structure, doctrine, moral and

social teaching, liturgical services, and spiritual life of the

Orthodox Church. The purpose of this series is to present

Orthodox Christianity as an integrated theological and liturgical

system, in which all elements are interconnected. Theology is

based on liturgical experience, and church art including icons,

singing, and architecture is shaped by theology and the liturgy.

Theology and the services, in their turn, influence the ascetic

practice and the personal piety of each Christian; they shape the

moral and social teaching of the Church as well as its relation

to other Christian confessions, non-Christian religions, and the

secular world.

This volume begins with an account of the historical arc of

the Orthodox Church during the first ten centuries after

Christ s nativity, when the Christians of the east and west shared

a common history. In examining the second millennium, the

author, a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, delves

deeply into the life of Christianity in Russia, providing a case

study, as it were, of how Orthodoxy can infuse the literature, art,

and philosophy of an entire culture. He then goes on to discuss

the canonical structure of the Orthodox Church, describing the

emergence and development of diocesan structures, metropolias,

and patriarchates, as well as the contemporary structure of

world Orthodoxy and the principle of canonical territory,

which forms the basis of inter-Orthodox relations.