Byzantium and the Rise of Russia

Byzantium and the Rise of Russia PDF Author: John Meyendorff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521135337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
This book describes the role of Byzantine diplomacy in the emergence of Moscow in the fourteenth century.

Byzantium and the Rise of Russia

Byzantium and the Rise of Russia PDF Author: John Meyendorff
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521135337
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
This book describes the role of Byzantine diplomacy in the emergence of Moscow in the fourteenth century.

The Return of Holy Russia

The Return of Holy Russia PDF Author: Gary Lachman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1620558114
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 555

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Book Description
A history of how mystical and spiritual influences have shaped Russia’s identity and politics and what it means for the future of world civilization • Examines Russia’s spiritual history, from its pagan origins and Eastern Orthodox mysticism to secret societies, Rasputin, Roerich, Blavatsky, and Dostoyevsky • Explains the visionary writings of the spiritual philosophers of Russia’s Silver Age, which greatly influence Putin today • Explores what Russia’s unique identity and its history of messianic politics and apocalyptic thought mean for its future on the world stage At the turn of the 20th century, a period known as the Silver Age, Russia was undergoing a powerful spiritual and cultural rebirth. It was a time of magic and mysticism that saw a vital resurgence of interest in the occult and a creative intensity not seen in the West since the Renaissance. This was the time of the God-Seekers, pilgrims of the soul and explorers of the spirit who sought the salvation of the world through art and ideas. These sages and their visions of Holy Russia are returning to prominence now through Russian president Vladimir Putin, who, inspired by their ideas, envisions a new “Eurasian” civilization with Russia as its leader. Exploring Russia’s long history of mysticism and apocalyptic thought, Gary Lachman examines Russia’s unique position between East and West and its potential role in the future of the world. Lachman discusses Russia’s original Slavic paganism and its eager adoption of mystical and apocalyptic Eastern Orthodox Christianity. He explores the Silver Age and its “occult revival” with a look at Rasputin’s prophecies, Blavatsky’s Theosophy, Roerich’s “Red Shambhala,” and the philosophies of Berdyaev and Solovyov. He looks at Russian Rosicrucianism, the Illuminati Scare, Russian Freemasonry, and the rise of other secret societies in Russia. He explores the Russian character as that of the “holy fool,” as seen in the great Russian literature of the 19th century, especially Dostoyevsky. He also examines the psychic research performed by the Russian government throughout the 20th century and the influence of Evola and the esoteric right on the spiritual and political milieus in Russia. Through in-depth exploration of the philosophies that inspire Putin’s political regime and a look at Russia’s unique cultural identity, Lachman ponders what they will mean for the future of Russia and the world. What drives the Russian soul to pursue the apocalypse? Will these philosophers lead Russia to dominate the world, or will they lead it into a new cultural epoch centered on spiritual power and mystical wisdom?

Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond

Holy Fools in Byzantium and Beyond PDF Author: Sergey A. Ivanov
Publisher: OUP Oxford
ISBN: 0191515140
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 492

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Book Description
There are saints in Orthodox Christian culture who overturn the conventional concept of sainthood. Their conduct may be unruly and salacious, they may blaspheme and even kill - yet, mysteriously, those around them treat them with even more reverence. Such saints are called 'holy fools'. In this pioneering study Sergey A. Ivanov examines the phenomenon of holy foolery from a cultural standpoint. He identifies its prerequisites and its development in religious thought, and traces the emergence of the first hagiographic texts describing these paradoxical saints. He describes the beginnings of holy foolery in Egyptian monasteries of the fifth century, followed by its high point in the cities of Byzantium, with an eventual decline in the twelfth to fourteenth centuries. He also compares the important Russian tradition of holy fools, which in some form has survived to this day.

From Byzantium to Holy Russia

From Byzantium to Holy Russia PDF Author: Ivan Foletti
Publisher: I Libri Di Viella. Arte / Stud
ISBN: 9788867287529
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 282

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Book Description
Tracing the life and work of Nikodim Kondakov, a pioneer in the field of late Antiquity and Byzantium in eastern Europe, this biography is a true tale of adventure. It follows the complicated and challenging events in Kondakov's life before and after the Russian Revolution, from his humble beginnings to his university studies and analyzes his inspired creation of an innovative and precocious study of art history in Russia. From a brilliant and successful career to the trauma endured during the Russian Revolution, the story becomes one of wandering and dependence; nevertheless, and in spite of the shift in history and in his own life, Kondakov's studies sketch a vast geography of Late Antique and medieval culture from the Mediterranean to the Urals. The work approaches distant horizons, giving a glimpse of the migrations from Asia and the inception of medieval Europe with its Christian values; and it travels the paths of history along trails marked by artifacts and monuments. Reconstructing the personal and existential events in Nikodim Kondakov's life contributes to the understanding of a critical phase in the founding of art history and, more broadly, the histories of Russia and of the countries the scholar traversed during a long life filled with tribulations.

Military Saints in Byzantium and Rus, 900-1200

Military Saints in Byzantium and Rus, 900-1200 PDF Author: Monica White
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521195640
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
A comprehensive study of the process by which certain martyrs of the early church were transformed into military heroes.

Sailing from Byzantium

Sailing from Byzantium PDF Author: Colin Wells
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553901710
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 370

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Book Description
A gripping intellectual adventure story, Sailing from Byzantium sweeps you from the deserts of Arabia to the dark forests of northern Russia, from the colorful towns of Renaissance Italy to the final moments of a millennial city under siege…. Byzantium: the successor of Greece and Rome, this magnificent empire bridged the ancient and modern worlds for more than a thousand years. Without Byzantium, the works of Homer and Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle, Sophocles and Aeschylus, would never have survived. Yet very few of us have any idea of the enormous debt we owe them. The story of Byzantium is a real-life adventure of electrifying ideas, high drama, colorful characters, and inspiring feats of daring. In Sailing from Byzantium, Colin Wells tells of the missionaries, mystics, philosophers, and artists who against great odds and often at peril of their own lives spread Greek ideas to the Italians, the Arabs, and the Slavs. Their heroic efforts inspired the Renaissance, the golden age of Islamic learning, and Russian Orthodox Christianity, which came complete with a new alphabet, architecture, and one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions. The story’s central reference point is an arcane squabble called the Hesychast controversy that pitted humanist scholars led by the brilliant, acerbic intellectual Barlaam against the powerful monks of Mount Athos led by the stern Gregory Palamas, who denounced “pagan” rationalism in favor of Christian mysticism. Within a few decades, the light of Byzantium would be extinguished forever by the invading Turks, but not before the humanists found a safe haven for Greek literature. The controversy of rationalism versus faith would continue to be argued by some of history’s greatest minds. Fast-paced, compulsively readable, and filled with fascinating insights, Sailing from Byzantium is one of the great historical dramas–the gripping story of how the flame of civilization was saved and passed on.

Byzantium and the Slavs

Byzantium and the Slavs PDF Author: Dimitri Obolensky
Publisher: RSM Press
ISBN: 9780881410082
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
The essays which comprise this book aim to identify and discuss aspects of the Byzantium heritage, whose principal beneficiaries were the Greeks, the Slavs and, most prominently, Russia. These 12 studies divide into three groups: the first is concerned with general aspects of Slavo-Byzantine relations; the second deals with the specific features of the acculturation process; and the third, which includes among others Russia's Byzantine Heritage is concerned with the contacts between Byzantium and medieval Russia.

Holy Foolishness in Russia

Holy Foolishness in Russia PDF Author: Priscilla Hart Hunt
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780893573836
Category : Christian hagiography
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"This richly illustrated volume’s innovative intersciplinary approaches and engagement with the newest scholarly literature presents a new basis for exploration of holy foolishness [iurodstvo] in Russia as a unique expression of national identity. Its articles elucidate the genesis, nature, and development of the foolishness in the medi[e]val period and its on-going significance as a broadly cultural and religious paradigm. Sweeping in its scope, this volume is poineering in several respects: addressing holy foolishness from its Byzantine origins to postmodern, contemporary Russia, it offers innovative explorations of hagiographical, historical, poetic, and liturgical apsects of writings about such seeminal holy fools as Andrew of Constantinople, Isaakii of Kiev Caves Monastery and Kseniia of St. Petersburg; the first English translation of A. M.Panchenko’s classic study of holy foolish phenomenology, 'Laughter as Spectacle'; and new discussions of miniatures accompanying the text of St. Andrew’s vita. Further, it addresses foundational moments in the institutionalization of holy foolishness: the Church calendar commemorations of holy fools inherited from Byzantium; the first Russian holy foolish narrative; the genesis of the Intercession cult in the vita of Andrew the fool; the first holy foolish vita with verifiable facts about the protagonist’s life; the first canonized Russian female holy fool, Kseniia of St. Petersburg; and comprehensive treatments of holy foolery’s culturological significance for Leningrad underground poets, Soviet and post-Soviet performance art, and postmodern thinkers. The volume’s innovative interdisciplinary approaches and engagement with the newest scholarly literature assure its broad appeal to students and teachers of Russian culture, and of comparative, and religious studies, and offer a new basis for exploration of this spiritually and culturally complex phenomenon"--

The sensual icon

The sensual icon PDF Author: Bissera V
Publisher: Penn State Press
ISBN: 0271035846
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 346

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Book Description
"Explores the Byzantine aesthetic of fugitive appearances by placing and filming art objects in spaces of changing light, and by uncovering the shifting appearances expressed in poetry, descriptions of art, and liturgical performance"--Provided by publisher.

The Making of Holy Russia

The Making of Holy Russia PDF Author: John Strickland
Publisher: Holy Trinity Publications
ISBN: 0884653471
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 438

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Book Description
This book is a critical study of the interaction between the Russian Church and society in the late 19th and early 20th century. While other studies exist that draw attention to the voices in the Church typified as liberal in the years leading up to the Revolution, this work introduces a wide range of conservative opinion that equally strove for spiritual renewal and the spread of the Gospel. Grounded in original research conducted in the newly accessible libraries and archives of post-Soviet Russia, this study is intended to reveal the wider relevance of its topic to an ongoing discussion of the relationship between national or ethnic identities on the one hand, and the self-understanding of Orthodox Christianity as a universal and transformative faith on the other.