Analogio, Orthodoxy and popular tradition, issue 3 (2002), p. 163.
The 3rd issue of Analogio journal, quarterly edition of the Holy Metropolis of Servia and Kozani, has as its main topic the relation and osmosis between Orthodoxy and popular tradition. In the foreword, there is an introductive reflection on the tribute of the issue which is illustrated by the work of Christos Bokoros.
Initially, a short text of Dimitris Pikionis is re-published titled “Tradition and Architecture. The spirit of Tradition”. Nikos Matsoukas, in the text “The alive and creative spirit of Orthodoxy”, underlines the special character of the ecclesiastical tradition in the living continuity of the way of life of a community that is revealed by its artistic creations and intellect in an undivided and functional way. Also, he practices criticism against the extreme supporters of the Enlightenment and “Hellenism”.
Giorgos Fousteris, in his turn, suggests an “eschatological reading of tradition” in his text “From memory to expectation”. He locates an ideological idealization of the past in modern fashion and obsession with the “traditional”, cancelling the eschatological dynamics and the ecumenical prospect of the ecclesiastical life. He recommends release from scaremongering and phobias, self-criticism and penitence, baptism in the kenotic ethos of eucharistic life.
In the essay titled “From the city in the Church” Vasilis Xydias recounts the transcending of the gregarious racial sociability of blood relations in the traditional societies by the Greek culture, both the ancient one with the city and the mediaeval Christian Hellenism with the Church.
Traditions regarding St. Dionysios of Olympos and St. Nikanoras from western Macedonia are examined by Evaggelia Amoiridou in the article “Tradition, or the real and its transcending”, while Fr. Demetrios Charisiou, exposing “Folk traditions in the cemetery of the city (Kozani)”, highlights the “tradition of the Church for life and death”. Also, N.K. Moutsopoulos recounts the life of holy German of the monastery of Eikosifoinissa of Paggeon and the archaeological information of his grave.
Exploring the educational history of western-macedonian Hellenism, Anastasios Dardas deduces the active participation of Orthodoxy in the spiritual tradition and social dynamics. From her point of view, Zoi Godosi, in the study “On the occasion of the frescoes of the Holy Temple of John the Baptist in Siatista”, is led to the ascertainment of the non-static character of the traditional culture, even after the foundation of the Greek state.
“The folk tradition of Orthodoxy” is the topic of an interview that the chief-editor of the journal, Theophilos Abatzidis, took from Nikos Zias, while the Reverend Metropolitan of Demetria Mr. Ignatius Georgakopoulos, in the article “Islam and fundamentalism. Orthodoxy and globalization”, defines the theological parameters of facing the challenges that are set against Orthodoxy by the modern phenomena of globalization and fundamentalism, as well as the need for meeting and dialogue with other religions and especially Islam.
In a liturgical and ecclesiological study Nenad Milocevic explores historically and theologically the “eucharistic character of the services for the departed”, and stresses the preparatory and inseparable from the Divine Eucharist character of the funeral services and the memorials.
The journal is complemented with the usual material, Synaxarion, Idiomela and Bibliostasion.