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Anastasios Yannoulatos, Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania, Traces from the Quest of the Transcendental. Collection of Religious Studies, Athens: Akritas Publications, 2004, 493 pages.

         The quest for the Transcendental, the “Holy”, the “Saint”, has been a basic human proclivity since the dawn of History until today, from the most primitive to more complex societies. Today there seems to be a particular interest in the way of life, the philosophical and religious ideas that flourished in various cultures. This book by Anastasios of Albania, though not a uniform structure, is a collection of studies concerning the above. That is, a collection of religious studies, a religious primer, which informs and enlightens the reader on religious traditions known, less familiar or even unknown. In order to respond, as the author himself states, to the demands of the University Chair, he did not limit himself to the study of bibliography, but sought to utilise the experience of various travels in many countries of all the continents, where the main religions flourish and even the direct personal meeting with followers and worship centres of different religions. According to the author, the better knowledge of other religions is not a gnosiological luxury, but a precondition for us to grasp the multifaceted religious phenomenon, the directions and forms that the quest for the Transcendental took, the quest for God, in the different longitudes and latitudes of the earth.

The book begins with introductory issues: the definition of Religion, the catholicity of the phenomenon, its meaning and essence, the types of religions, the dynamics of religions in our time, the relation of religion to ethics, science and art. He also deals with the significance of the science of religion, its history and trends.

The second part of the book contains studies on some of the leading religious personalities, such as Zarathustra, Buddha, Lao Tse, Confucius, Mencius, Mohammed , Nanak.

The next chapter examines some of the surviving religions, such as the African ones, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Islam, and Sikhism.

The fourth chapter includes some special issues, such as idolatry, mysticism, yoga and Orthodox Christianity, Christians and Muslims in Europe today, etc.

The book is lavishly illustrated, includes an index of terms and Greek and Latin names and closes with the author’s voluminous biographical and writing work.

Yagazoglou Stavros, Prolegomena to the Theology of the Uncreated Energies; A Study of St. Gregory Palamas, ed. Tertios , Katerini, 1992, pp. 123.

In this monograph the author examines the theology of St. Gregory Palamas under the spectrum of the existing nature of the uncreated divine energies in the theoptic (God-seeing) experience.

            After the preface, where the aims of the research are programmatically summed up, there is an Introduction, where the re-discovery of the saint’s theology by modern Orthodox theology, the academic disputes that were caused by the blooming of the palamic studies, as well as the “western anti-palamism” are described.

            In the second and main part of the book, there is a thorough examination of the theology of the uncreated energies. Initially, it is stressed that Palamas, adopting the previous theological tradition as well, comprehends the mystery of the divine existence under the simultaneous prism of unities and distinctions. Within this context and on a Trinitarian level, the author discusses the relationship between essence and hypostasis, where Palamas explicitly ascertains the undivided relationship, unity and at the same time distinction of the divine hypostases with the divine Essence. He also broaches the issues of the relations of divinity with necessity and the liberty in the birth of the Son and the procession of the Holy Spirit, but also its economic relationship with the created reality, the hypostatic idioms and the Monarchy of the Father.

            Once again, under the prism of unities and distinctions, comes next an approach to the theological discussion of Palamas about the relationship between the Essence and the Energies, as well as the Hypostases and Energies. The divine energies, according to Palamas, are substantial, as they emanate from the holy Essence, without being identified with it, and existing, as they are imparted to the creation through the divine hypostases, without again being identified with the faces or being self-existent.

            A reference to Christology follows, which constitutes the basis for the theology of the uncreated energies of St. Gregory, and the study culminates in the support of the existing and personal character of the divine energies.

            In the epilogue, it is conclusively stressed that the theology of the uncreated energies, which are distinguished without, however, being divided by the essence, is chiefly person-centred. Theoptic saints know God personally as Father, Son and Spirit, by means of the uncreated energies.

Yagazoglou Stavros, Communion of Theosis: The Synthesis of Christology and Pneumatology in the Work of St. Gregory Palamas, ed. Domos. Athens, 2001, pp. 456.

The latest anti-palamic critiques of western theology claim that the teaching of Palamas constitutes a neo-platonic metaphysics. Without any biblical or patristic basis, the theology of Palamas for a great number of western researchers is marked by a poor, almost non-existent, Trinitarian and Christological validation. As a result, the Faces of the Holy Trinity and especially Christ are disengaged and obscured by the work of the divine economy to the benefit of the “non-hypostatic energies” of the divine substance. The supposed “substantialism” of Gregory Palamas and other relevant anti-palamic imputations lead the author of this dissertation to the systematic investigation and highlighting of the organic relationship, which exists between the theology of the uncreated energies and the whole Trinitarian, Christological and pneumatological teaching of the archbishop of Thessaloniki in the frames of the biblical and patristic Tradition.

            Furthermore, because the particular problem of the relationship between Christology and Pneumatology has always described almost all of the theological differences between East and West, the orthodox theological testimony of Palamas is presented.

            The second axis of the problematic has to do with the ascertainment of some internal difficulties in the recent orthodox thought about the correct consideration of the relationships between Christology and Pneumatology. Some, mostly Russian, theologians and intellectuals, trapped in a previously formed climate of “Christomonism” in the Western Church and theology with a consequent belittlement of the Face and work of the Holy Spirit, put forward as a singular characteristic of Orthodoxy the priority of Pneumatology at the expense of Christology. Vl. Lossky went even further to the theological development of two independent Economies, of Christ and the Holy Spirit, the relationship of which is marked by an antithetical tension, which distinguishes the institutional from the charismatic element in the life of the Church.

            The impact of these positions will bring to the forefront of modern Orthodoxy a series of theological and pastoral problems, which are related to the antagonistic relationship between the institutional and the charismatic element of the Church.

            The study of Palama’s texts takes into account the biblical and patristic theology, the previous Tradition, the positions of the hesychastes and the anti-hesychast theologians, as well as the comparison and juxtaposition with Western theology.

            The dissertation, apart from the introduction, contains the following three chapters: A. The Revelation of the Sacrament of the Holy Trinity, B. The Economy of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit, C. The Synthesis of Christology and Pneumatology.

            In its conclusions, it is stressed that, for the first time in the frames of modern theological research on the teaching of Palamas, his theology about the uncreated energies is thoroughly presented through Trinitology, but also though the reciprocal association of Christology and Pneumatology.

            In this way, the modern anti-palamic criticism of the western theological thought is systematically revoked and judged as arbitrary and totally unsubstantiated. The orthodox view of Palamas on the use of the icon of the Holy Spirit as “eros” in Triadology is analyzed and manifested. The common and singular work of the Faces of the Holy Trinity in the Economy of salvation is stressed. There is also a systematic presentation of the mutuality and demarcation, which characterizes the relationship between Christology and Pneumatology, both on the level of amorphous (αϊδια) theology and  the sacrament of the incarnate Economy, as well as the constitution and structure of the Body of the Church.

            It is claimed that in the Orthodox teaching of Palamas, there is no priority between Christology and Pneumatology in all aspects of Ecclesiology, but only mutual synthesis and clear demarcation.

            There is a presentation of the vastly important teaching of Palamas on the singular work of the Holy Spirit in divine Economy from the primeval creation to the eschata of the Kingdom.

Based on the synthesis of Christology and Pneumatology, the author proves the organic coincidence and unity between Sacramental life and ascetic synergy of the members of the Body of the Church and highlights the central role of the Sacraments of Baptism and Holy Eucharist in the mystery of human theosis.

Witness of Orthodoxy, 1971, Hestia Publ., 187 pages.

In the foreword of this collective volume Elias D. Mastrogiannopoulos synoptically presents his philosophy, while in the essay titled “The Catholicity of Orthodoxy – Sobornost or the Depths of Irrationality” the Hiero-monk Amphilochios Radovic, presents the vicious circle of human endeavour to recover the lost catholicity and proposes the catholicity of the Church’s truth as a response to the depths of irrationality and absurdity.

Iakovos Mainas, in his article titled “The Orthodox Ecclesiastical Phronema” (esprit, creed) juxtaposes the Church’s truth to various ideologies, in the backdrop of today’s cultural crisis. He examines certain misunderstandings of the ecclesiastical sermon, the world theory, the fear of the secular and secularisation, while defining the theological presuppositions of Orthodox ecclesiastical phronema.

The Hiero-monk Athanasios Yevyic approaches the Christian Orthodox ethos theologically, as emanating from the truth of the Cod-man hypostasis of Christ, as an ethos of primarily christological reference and from this triadic, pneumatological, ecclesiastiacal, liturgical and conclusively salvational nature.

“Orthodox Witness for Education” is the issue examined in the essay by Konstantinos Grigoriadis. Once he examines the crisis in modern education, he analyses the catholic truth of the Orthodox witness as a contribution to transcend the pedagogical crisis.

In the last essay of this collective volume titled “Three Biblical Pressupositions to the Problem: Orthodoxy and Politics”, Panagiotis Nellas lays the groundwork for Christian theorising of politics on a ecclesiastical, Christological and pneumatological basis using Gospel themes and once he clarifies the relationship of the Church with society upon the tension between history and eschatology, he defines the Holy Trinity doctrine as the political ideal of Orthodoxy. That is, the balanced relationship between a common life and the preservation of the personal freedom. Christians are called upon to realise this ideal, acting prophetically within the world, en route to the Kingdom of God.