Christ, The Alpha and Omega

Publication Data: Alhambra, CA: Sebastian Press, 2007
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 256
Dimensions (l × w × h): 22.8 cm × 15.1 cm × 1.6 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations, full-color illustrations, bookmarker
ISBN-13: 978‒0‒9719505‒2‒8
ISBN-10: 0‒9719505‒2‒0

   
Bishop Athanasius Yevtich
Edited by the St. Herman of Alaska Monastery

Number 1 of Contemporary Christian Thought Series

“This God-inspired hymn, ‘O Gentle Light’ (Φῶς Ἱλαρόν, Svete Tikhiy), which we sing today at Vespers and which our Church sings at every evening service, is a sacred evening hymn of the early Christian Church of the East. St. Basil the Great, the Archbishop of Caesarea and of this whole Cappadocian plateau (the central southeastern part of Asia Minor), calls this hymn the ‘early evening thanksgiving’ (ἐπιλύχνιος εὐχαριστία). He also cites this hymn of the early Christians in his renowned work On the Holy Spirit (chapter 29), where he wrote about the Holy Tradition of the early Christian Church of the East, which clearly testifies to a God-given faith in the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. St. Basil mentions that this same hymn was sung by one of the early martyrs for Christ who was from these regions of Cappadocia and Syria. According to an ancient tradition, which is mentioned by St. Basil, this hymn is attributed to the holy Hieromartyr Athenogenes, who, with his disciples, was martyred for Christ during the reign of Diocletian (at the beginning of the fourth century) on July 16, in the Armenian city of Sebaste not far from Cappadocia. St. Athenogenes was held in high esteem in Cappadocia, and his image is frequently found painted on icons in Cappadocian churches and carved in stone, as we have observed. The traces of martyrdom for Christ, which continues to this day, are evident from these churches, too.”
—“1 O Gentle Light”

CONTENTS

PART I
   1. O Gentle Light
   2. The Holy Fathers and the Holy Scriptures
   3. Christ—The Land of the Living
PART II
   4. Christ on Earth—The Land of the Living
   5. Anthropology of Hesychasm
   6. The Creation of the World and Man
PART III
   7. The Holy Sacrament of Baptism: Entrance into and Living in the Church
   8. Liturgy and Spirituality
   9. Eschatological Dimensions of the Church
   10. The Eschata in Our Daily Life
PART IV
   11. Between the “Nicaeans” and “Easterners”: The “Catholic” Confession of St. Basil
   12. Icon and Incarnation in the Holy Fathers and St. John Damascene
   13. The Teaching of St. John Damascene on the Most Holy Theotokos: Orthodox Theotokology
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   14. Socialism and the Ecclesial Community: A commentary on a text of Dostoyevsky
   15. The Mystery of Touch: Holy Relics in Serbia—A True Physical Love. An Interview
      List of Sources
      Index