Vassiliadis B. Petros, Orthodoxy at the Crossroads, “Church-Society-Ecumene” series, num. 4, Paratiritis publ. Thessaloniki 1992, 216 pages.
In the present volume Petros Vassiliadis presents to the Greek reading public eight studies, results of his personal concern about central issues regarding Orthodoxy in this crucial point in history, the beginning of the 1990s.
In the studies “Orthdoxy and Hellenism at the Crossroads”, “Orthodoxy and the West: The Introduction of Western Spirit in the Orthodox World” and “Orthodoxy and Islam” the author attempts an analysis of the dialectic relationship between Orthodoxy and Hellenism in the New Hellenic reality, with the West ahead of European unification in the European Union, but also with Islam which in this period attempts to make its presence felt dynamically in the international sphere, particularly though in Western European countries, in a period of general religious renaissance.
While addressing the above, with his article “Orthodox Theology at the Beginning of the 21st Century”, Vassiliadis attempts a synoptic approach of particularities and characteristic features of Orthodox Theology. Within this context he analyses the concepts of tradition, the triadic basis, pneumatology, the eschatological perspective of the Church, the significance of the theology of icons and the secular dimension of Orthodox theology.
In the article “Perspectives of Helladic Theology. Events and Trends in the Decade of the 1980s – Visions for the Decade of the 1990s” there is an analysis of the most important theological issues of the corresponding period.
The remaining articles address certain determinant issues of Orthodox identity, such as the deeper meaning of tradition (“Tradition and Freedom According to Saint Paul”), the nature of the liturgical dimension and the concept of sacraments (“Revelation and Liturgy”, “The Theological Comprehension of Sacraments in the Gospel According to John”) on the basis of biblical and liturgical tradition.