Books by Peter Bouteneff
The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology, 2008
Christian Orthodoxy has never restricted its doctrine of salvation to a single plane. Rather, the... more Christian Orthodoxy has never restricted its doctrine of salvation to a single plane. Rather, the answers to the questions of how we are saved, and even what it means to be saved, rest simultaneously in multiple dimensions or paradigms. Salvation is understood as theosis ('deification'), as communion, as illumination of understanding, as freedom from captivity; it is achieved through Christ's Incarnation, his divine-humanity, his teaching, his sacrifice on the Cross, the Church. Yet the registers within which we consider salvation are distinct only in human logic, where each must be discussed within its own boundaries: in truth they are thoroughly interdependent and distil to one reality. What unites all Orthodox thinking about salvation is the total focus on Jesus Christ. Christ is 'the way, the truth, and the life' (Jn :); we know no other name by which we may be saved (cf. Acts :). He is our salvation. But it goes the other way as well: our thinking about Christ centres on salvation. All of the patristic, conciliar and liturgical formulations about the person of Christsome of which are abstruse and technical, some of which were arrived at through martyrdomare ultimately concerned with our salvation. The pursuit of an understanding of the person of Christ utterly consumes Christian thinking precisely because everything is at stake. It is a matter of eternal life and death. This chapter will therefore maintain a double focus: on soteriologyreckoning on salvationand on Christologyreckoning on Christ: two sides of the same coin. THE NEED FOR SALVATION The first point to establish about salvation is that we need it. To many, whether believers or not, this is already obvious. We need not look far into the world or into our own selves to know that the world, and we human beings first and foremost, are not well. To a Christian, the idea that this
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The Oxford Handbook of Early Christian Biblical Interpretation, 2019
Adam and Eve, who barely appear in the Bible after they are introduced in the book of Genesis, se... more Adam and Eve, who barely appear in the Bible after they are introduced in the book of Genesis, serve a short but important list of functions within early Christian writing. They represent Christ and Mary, respectively, among other typological readings of the Paradise narrative. They also stand for all of humanity, partly by virtue of their location at the top of the human genealogy, and partly because their acts in the garden are commonly universalized to represent the sins of each and all. The understanding of their sin as resulting in an original guilt passed on through the generations is by no means a common one in early Christian writing. The question of their historical existence is not foreign to some
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Listeners have often spoken of a certain mystery in the way the Arvo Pärt evokes spirituality thr... more Listeners have often spoken of a certain mystery in the way the Arvo Pärt evokes spirituality through his music, but no one has taken a sustained, close look at how he achieves this. This book examines the powerful interplay between Pärt's music and his own deep roots in the Orthodox Christian faith -- a relationship that has born much creative fruit and won the hearts of countless listeners across the globe.
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Papers by Peter Bouteneff
Fordham University Press eBooks, Dec 30, 2023
Dionysius advocates an active unknowing as the way to union with God. It is effectively a subvert... more Dionysius advocates an active unknowing as the way to union with God. It is effectively a subverting of the nous/intellect. Yet the subversion of the nous takes a conscious act of the nous itself. It is an active inactivity. Human reason is necessary in order to short-circuit human reason.
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Fordham University Press eBooks, Dec 1, 2020
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Adam and Eve, who barely appear in the Bible after they are introduced in the book of Genesis, se... more Adam and Eve, who barely appear in the Bible after they are introduced in the book of Genesis, serve a short but important list of functions within early Christian writing. They represent Christ and Mary, respectively, among other typological readings of the Paradise narrative. They also stand for all of humanity, partly by virtue of their location at the top of the human genealogy, and partly because their acts in the garden are commonly universalized to represent the sins of each and all. The understanding of their sin as resulting in an original guilt passed on through the generations is by no means a common one in early Christian writing. The question of their historical existence is not foreign to some of the ancient authors—nor does it really preoccupy any of them—but it does not receive a straightforward or consistent answer.
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WCC Publications eBooks, 2001
Orthodox participation in the World Council of Churches has always been a paradox -- enthusiastic... more Orthodox participation in the World Council of Churches has always been a paradox -- enthusiastically committed and yet plagued by complaints. This situation has lately reached crisis proportions: two Orthodox churches have withdrawn their membership; more threaten to follow. Is this an 'Orthodox problem'? Or is there something fundamentally wrong with the ecumenical machinery? In this book, two theologians -- one an Orthodox and one a Lutheran -- engage in an extended dialogue to illumine some of the issues and possible ways forward. The issues they discuss fall squarely within the agenda of the Special Commission on Orthodox Participation in the WCC, which was created in Harare in 1998.
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Union Seminary Quarterly Review, 2012
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Listeners often speak of a certain mystery in the way that Arvo Part evokes spirituality through ... more Listeners often speak of a certain mystery in the way that Arvo Part evokes spirituality through his music, but no one has taken a sustained, close look at how he achieves this. Arvo Part: Out of Silence examines the powerful interplay between Part's music and the composer's own deep roots in the Orthodox Christian faith-a relationship that has born much creative fruit and won the hearts of countless listeners across the globe.From the Introduction:Conversations about this remarkable music, especially by its more avid listeners, often feature a "my first encounter with Arvo Part" story. On our way toward an immersion into that world, I thought I would give you mine so that you might know whose company you are keeping as you read this book.I actually met the man before encountering his music. It was during the early 1990s: Part and I found ourselves visiting the same monastery for a week, where a mutual friend made sure to introduce us. Part was, after all, a famous composer, and I had earned degrees in both music and theology. But as it was, I had never knowingly heard a note of his music. I had not actually even heard of him. We spent hours walking together and talking on themes of mutual interest, among them the phenomenon of "Holy Foolishness" on which I had just written a thesis. At one point I asked him about his music, what it was like, what kinds of instrumentation he employed. He chatted about it with no pretense or fanfare: "Sometimes I write for choir, sometimes for orchestra. Or the organ ..." I had the sense that if he was famous-and it turned out that by this time, he really was-he was probably enjoying the opportunity to talk to someone who was neither an awestruck admirer nor a jaded music critic. I enjoyed his company immensely, but what did his music sound like? What were the chances that I would even like it?
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Arvo Pärt, 2020
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International Journal of Systematic Theology, 2021
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Aristotle Papanikolaou and George Demacopoulos, eds., Faith, Reason, and Theosis, 2023
Dionysius advocates an active unknowing as the way to union with God. It is effectively a subvert... more Dionysius advocates an active unknowing as the way to union with God. It is effectively a subverting of the nous/intellect. Yet the subversion of the nous takes a conscious act of the nous itself. It is an active inactivity. Human reason is necessary in order to short-circuit human reason.
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Brill | Schöningh eBooks, Jun 10, 2022
Fr Sorin Şelaru (Bucharest, Romania) takes up an expression often used by HB Patriarch Daniel of ... more Fr Sorin Şelaru (Bucharest, Romania) takes up an expression often used by HB Patriarch Daniel of Romania in his writings which deepens the ecclesial vocation of theology as “the science of salvation and everlasting life.” For this purpose, the author underlines the theological mission of episcopal ministry as presented in the Church canons, confessions, and the Liturgy of the Church. He emphasizes the relationship between dogma and experience, the apophatic dimension, and the spiritual character of the theology lived as a humble exercise in expressing the inexpressible and directly linked to the experience of prayer, ascetic and sacramental life in the Church.
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Books by Peter Bouteneff
Papers by Peter Bouteneff