Economou Christos, New Testament and Culture, Pournaras Press, Thessaloniki 2003, pages 312.
The book contains eighteen articles, which are characterized by an internal unity, since they refer to the contribution of the New Testament to culture in an inter-cultural and inter-religious society, such as the modern one. Most of the articles are lectures and propositions in conferences.
The first article is an assessment and presentation of the conclusions of the World Conference meeting of Religions and Cultures of the Cultural Institute of the Kykkos Holy Monastery that took place in Lefkosia, Cyprus from the 8th until the 11th of March 2002. The second is an intervention by the author in the same conference, with its topic the role of religions in society either as agents of peace or as sources of conflicts.
The third article is a lecture on the position of the New Testament on the problem of the relation between religions and cultures in the modern globalized society of the 21st century. The fourth study is an approach to social and political problems from a Christian point of view, in a prospect of dialogue with the other religions.
The fifth article, which is a proposition in a conference, refers to the effect of the New Testament on the national martyrs of Cyprus. The sixth article of the book is the Synaxarion of the invasion, as the author also characteristically mentions, and has as its background the biblical theology and the culture of Cyprus. The seventh article refers to the prospective of Christianity in Cyprus in the third millennium. The eighth article is an interview in the Cyprian newspaper “Simerini” (Today’s news) and is about the foundation of a School of Theological and Cultural Studies in Cyprus. The ninth article deals with the contribution of the Holy Scripture to culture and the tenth is a sociotheological approach to the contribution of the Holy Scripture to the problem of the poor and despised of this world.
The eleventh article refers to the presentation of the exactly similar edition of the code of John s’ (19th) Kantakouzinos in Cyprus, Athens and Thessaloniki by the Holy Monastery of Vatopedion and the publishing house “EPHESOS”. The twelfth article is about volunteerism and the thirteenth refers to the contribution of the Pauline anthropology to civilization. The fourteenth article deals with globalization and the fifteenth is an intervention to the ecclesiastical crisis of Cyprus.
The sixteenth article deals with the Church of Cyprus, its vision and perspective in the 21st century, while the seventeenth is about the social character of the Gospel and, besides everything else, constitutes the author’s position on the issue of the election of the Archbishop in Cyprus. The last article is about the contribution of Saint Neophytos to the theological literature and the culture of Cyprus.
The book has an appendix at the end, which includes interviews and reviews on the work of the author.