Mount Athos The Sacred Bridge

Most of the papers included in this volume were first presented at a conference convened by the Friends of Mount Athos at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, in 2003. Mount Athos is the principal surviving centre of Orthodox monasticism and the spiritual heart of the Orthodox world. The aims of the conference were to draw attention to the historic importance, the spirituality, and the religious legacy of the Holy Mountain and to shed light on the contribution made by Athonite monasticism not only to worldwide Orthodoxy but also to Christianity at large. Many of the papers focus on particular individuals who from the fourteenth century to the twentieth have exemplified the spiritual traditions of Athos and whose memory as spiritual fathers, confessors, and ascetics continues to inspire their successors today.

An affectionate testament to Mount Athos, the Holy Mountain, after 30 years of activity of the Friends of Mount Athos00Mount Athos, the home of Orthodox spirituality and monasticism, has been in existence for at least 1200 years. Home to over 2,000 monks, in twenty glorious monasteries filled with treasures, the peninsular is undergoing a transformation and renewal of faith.00In 1956 there was a proposal to build hotels on Mount Athos. Today it hosts up to 1,000 pilgrims every day! Why? This book will help explain this extraordinary place, the current resurgence, the growing population of monks, the sense of purpose, the love and affection that are so much part of the environment.00This wonderful story, with a preface by HRH Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, is told through the recollections of the Friends of Mount Athos, an organisation that has, for thirty years, provided support for the institutions, landscape and people. Here are the stories of enchantment from over forty people of different nationalities, customs and beliefs.00In addition to the text, there are a collection of special photographs and maps.00Peter Howorth and Chris Thomas are long time members of the Friends of Mount Athos and veterans of multiple path-clearing pilgrimages to the Holy Mountain which is how they met. Despite living on opposite sides of the planet, their mutual passion for the planet, geography, pilgrimage and of course Mount Athos has underpinned their collaboration.

"This is the first full-length comparative study of the music of the Christian and Jewish liturgies. It is designed to show the liturgical and musical interdependence of Church and Synagogue during the first millennium of the Christian era and to highlight the series of cultural exhanges between East and West that occurred during those centuries. With a wealth of scholarly evidence, the author tells the story of the development of the Christian forms of worship, both Eastern and Roman. At the same time he explains the modifications made in Jewish ceremonies and rituals, in areas where Jews and Christians lived side by side, with resulting exchange in both directions, from Church to Synagogue as well as from Synagogue to Church. Professor Werner first examines Jewish practices of worship at the time of the beginnings of Christianity and then traces the spread and modifications of these ancient Jewish, and even pre-Jewish, conceptions of sacred music and ritual as they were adapted by various Christian groups. Historical, philological, and musicological scholarship is used to discover the complex interrelationship between Christian and Hebraic elements in prayer books, poetry and psalmody, hymns, devotional music, and all the other aspects of sacred liturgy. Professor Werner has used many sources previously neglected and has reexamined those already available. Scholars of theology, liturgy, and music, and historians as well, will find much that will stimulate further research, and all interested in the formation of the religions of the West will stand to profit from this scholarly work on the interplay of two great religious movements." --Jacket.

The Handbook takes as its subject the complex phenomenon of Christian monasticism. It addresses, for the first time in one volume, the multiple strands of Christian monastic practice. Forty-four essays consider historical and thematic aspects of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican traditions, as well as contemporary 'new monasticism'. The essays in the book span a period of nearly two thousand years—from late ancient times, through the medieval and early modern eras, on to the present day. Taken together, they offer, not a narrative survey, but rather a map of the vast terrain. The intention of the Handbook is to provide a balance of some essential historical coverage with a representative sample of current thinking on monasticism. It presents the work of both academic and monastic authors, and the essays are best understood as a series of loosely-linked episodes, forming a long chain of enquiry, and allowing for various points of view. The authors are a diverse and international group, who bring a wide range of critical perspectives to bear on pertinent themes and issues. They indicate developing trends in their areas of specialisation. The individual contributions, and the volume as a whole, set out an agenda for the future direction of monastic studies. In today's world, where there is increasing interest in all world monasticisms, where scholars are adopting more capacious, global approaches to their investigations, and where monks and nuns are casting a fresh eye on their ancient traditions, this publication is especially timely.

A compelling overview of the Orthodox world, covering the main regional traditions of Orthodox Christianity and the ways in which they have become global.

The conceptual territory of religious tourism is fluid. While recreation and leisure-based motivation and behaviors are evident in religious tourism, this volume reiterates its rootedness in tenets from religious traditions and pilgrimages. Using fresh perspectives on place-stories, rituals, performances, that are central to pilgrimage and sacred sites, essays in this volume explain contemporary expressions of religious tourism and illustrate the dynamic nature of religious tourism as an ecosystem embedded in religious practices, rituals and performances. The explanations will benefit researchers and practioners alike and they can find numerous examples that show the significance of religious tourism for sustainable development of destinations.

This book looks at Eastern and Western monasticism’s continuous and intensive interactions with society in Eastern Europe, Russia and the Former Soviet Republics. It discusses the role monastics played in fostering national identities, as well as the potentiality of monasteries and religious orders to be vehicles of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue within and beyond national boundaries. Using a country-specific analysis, the book highlights the monastic tradition and monastic establishments. It addresses gaps in the academic study of religion in Eastern European and Russian historiography and looks at the role of monasticism as a cultural and national identity forming determinant in the region.