We are pleased to be publishing, in this issue of IJSCC, three of the significant number of papers originally read at the Volos Academy for Theological Studies, during the proceedings of The witness of Orthodoxy in the West: A conference of thanksgiving in honour of Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia (all papers published in Greek, by Volos: Ekdotike Demetriados, 2018). We have also included the response given by the Metropolitan himself. We are most grateful to Dr. Pantelis Kalaitzidis, Director of the Volos Academy, for enabling us to publish the following papers and to Dr. Chrysostomos Stamoulis for his review of the Greek version of the collection of papers offered and mentioned above, as edited by Dr. Kalaitzidis and Dr. Nikolaos Asproulis, Deputy Director of the Academy and published in book form in 2018.Footnote
Papers:
(1) The witness of Orthodoxy in the West.
Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia
(2) Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, between the Neo-patristic Synthesis and the Russian Religious Renaissance: An example of the reception of the patristic tradition.
Nicolaos Asproulis.
(3) Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia as dogmatic theologian.
Norman Russell (whom we also thank for translating into English papers which were originally written and delivered in Greek and which are published in this issue of IJSCC)
(4) Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia as Historian of the Eastern Orthodox Church.
Dimitrios Moschos
Review
Pantelis Kalaitzidis and Nikolaos Asproulis (eds). Η μαρτυρία της Ορθoδοξίας στη Δύση: Σύναξις Ευχαριστίας προς τιμή του Мητροπολίτη Διοκλείας Κάλλιστου Ware [translation of book title: The witness of Orthodoxy in the West: A conference of thanksgiving in honour of Kallistos Ware, Metropolitan of Diokleia]. Published in Greek, Volos: Ekdotike Demetriados, 2018.
Chrysostomos Stamoulis
We are indebted to Metropolitan Kallistos himself for making available his own response to all the honours he received from the many papers addressed to him during the conference. We wish him εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη, Δέσποτα, to continue the theological and spiritual influence he has had on so many of us, and hope that the publication of the above material may be the beginning of more co-operation between this journal and the Volos Academy.
Other contents of this issue
Other articles include Emanuel Pranawa Dhatu Martasudjita’s examination of the Meaning of Sunday Mass for Catholic Christians in Indonesia, Brandon Gallaher’s account of Ecumenism as Civilisational Dialogue and two articles which review research topics in formation: Religion and Foreign Policy: a Case for Embracing Baltic Orthodoxy, from Jeremy Lamoreaux, and Scandinavian Perspectives on Ecclesiology and Ethnography from Jonas Ideström.
For publication in IJSCC in 2020
This journal was first published in November 2001, and its first issue, edited by Bishop Geoffrey Rowell, commemorated the 200th anniversary of John Henry Newman’s birth. Early next year, IJSCC will mark his canonisation by publishing some of the papers given at an international seminar organised recently in Westminster Abbey by Canon James Hawkey, Canon Theologian of the Abbey and a member of our Editorial Advisory Board.
We shall also be publishing material from the 2019 meeting of AAR (American Academy of Religion), held in late November this year in San Diego, where the work of Professor David Brown, a member of our Editorial Advisory Board since 2001 and a contributor to our first issue and to many more since, has been given recognition for the third time, this time in the form of a book panel entitled ‘New Horizons in the Theologies of Music’ and hosted jointly by the Christian Systematic Theology and Music and Religion Unit.
Awet Andemicael (Yale University) introduced and presided at the session. The panelists were Antonio Alonso (Emory University); Kutter Callaway (Fuller Theological Seminary); Heidi Epstein (University of Saskatchewan) and Christoph Schwoebel (University of St Andrews). David Brown (University of St Andrews) responded.
The book discussed was David Brown and Gavin Hopps, The Extravagance of Music (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018) ISBN 978-3-319-91817-4, described as follows in the blurb:
Arguing against approaches that limit the religious significance of music to an illustrative function, The Extravagance of Music sets out a more expansive and optimistic vision, which suggests that there is an ‘excess’ or ‘extravagance’ in both music and the divine that can open up revelatory and transformative possibilities. In Part I David Brown argues that even in the absence of words, classical instrumental music can disclose something of the divine nature that allows us to speak of an experience analogous to contemplative prayer. In Part II Gavin Hopps contends that, so far from being a wasteland of mind-closing triviality, popular music frequently aspires to elicit the imaginative engagement of the listener and is capable of evoking intimations of transcendence.
The book itself contains endorsements on the back page from Carol Harrison (Oxford) and Paul Mealor (Aberdeen) and on an inside page from Maggie Dawn (Yale), June Boyce-Tillman (Winchester) and Richard Viladescau (Fordham).
Later in 2020, issues will focus on a wide variety of topics, including a number of international articles on Thomas Becket, martyred Archbishop of Canterbury, in commemoration of the 800th anniversary of the transfer of his relics to a new shrine 50 years after his death in 1170.
Notes
The Editorial Preface exists to draw researchers and all readers’ attention to the contents of each issue of IJSCC and to flag up material which is due to be published in future issues or to give details of calls for papers we have also put out on Twitter and elsewhere. It is accessible free of charge to anyone who logs in to the IJSCC website, and the easiest entry is via https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjsc20/current.