Most of the papers included in this volume were first presented at a conference convened by the Friends of Mount Athos at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, in 2003. Mount Athos is the principal surviving centre of Orthodox monasticism and the spiritual heart of the Orthodox world. The aims of the conference were to draw attention to the historic importance, the spirituality, and the religious legacy of the Holy Mountain and to shed light on the contribution made by Athonite monasticism not only to worldwide Orthodoxy but also to Christianity at large. Many of the papers focus on particular individuals who from the fourteenth century to the twentieth have exemplified the spiritual traditions of Athos and whose memory as spiritual fathers, confessors, and ascetics continues to inspire their successors today.

"This is the first full-length comparative study of the music of the Christian and Jewish liturgies. It is designed to show the liturgical and musical interdependence of Church and Synagogue during the first millennium of the Christian era and to highlight the series of cultural exhanges between East and West that occurred during those centuries. With a wealth of scholarly evidence, the author tells the story of the development of the Christian forms of worship, both Eastern and Roman. At the same time he explains the modifications made in Jewish ceremonies and rituals, in areas where Jews and Christians lived side by side, with resulting exchange in both directions, from Church to Synagogue as well as from Synagogue to Church. Professor Werner first examines Jewish practices of worship at the time of the beginnings of Christianity and then traces the spread and modifications of these ancient Jewish, and even pre-Jewish, conceptions of sacred music and ritual as they were adapted by various Christian groups. Historical, philological, and musicological scholarship is used to discover the complex interrelationship between Christian and Hebraic elements in prayer books, poetry and psalmody, hymns, devotional music, and all the other aspects of sacred liturgy. Professor Werner has used many sources previously neglected and has reexamined those already available. Scholars of theology, liturgy, and music, and historians as well, will find much that will stimulate further research, and all interested in the formation of the religions of the West will stand to profit from this scholarly work on the interplay of two great religious movements." --Jacket.

The Oxford Handbook of Christian Monasticism addresses, for the first time in one volume, multiple strands of Christian monastic practice. Forty-four essays consider historical and thematic aspects of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican traditions, as well as contemporary 'new monasticism'.

A compelling overview of the Orthodox world, covering the main regional traditions of Orthodox Christianity and the ways in which they have become global.

The conceptual territory of religious tourism is fluid. While recreation and leisure-based motivation and behaviors are evident in religious tourism, this volume reiterates its rootedness in tenets from religious traditions and pilgrimages. Using fresh perspectives on place-stories, rituals, performances, that are central to pilgrimage and sacred sites, essays in this volume explain contemporary expressions of religious tourism and illustrate the dynamic nature of religious tourism as an ecosystem embedded in religious practices, rituals and performances. The explanations will benefit researchers and practioners alike and they can find numerous examples that show the significance of religious tourism for sustainable development of destinations.

This book looks at Eastern and Western monasticism’s continuous and intensive interactions with society in Eastern Europe, Russia and the Former Soviet Republics. It discusses the role monastics played in fostering national identities, as well as the potentiality of monasteries and religious orders to be vehicles of ecumenism and inter-religious dialogue within and beyond national boundaries. Using a country-specific analysis, the book highlights the monastic tradition and monastic establishments. It addresses gaps in the academic study of religion in Eastern European and Russian historiography and looks at the role of monasticism as a cultural and national identity forming determinant in the region.

Mount Athos has been exercising its magnetic attraction on monks and pilgrims for over a thousand years. Many of the papers collected here are concerned with aspects of pilgrimage to Athos and the effect that a visit to the Mountain has on pilgrims' lives.

Explores the role played by Athos in the spread of Orthodoxy and Orthodox monasticism throughout Eastern Europe and beyond.

The essays collected in Jewish Roots of Eastern Christian Mysticism intend to honor Alexander Golitzin, a scholar known for his keen attention to the Jewish matrix of Eastern Orthodox spirituality. Following Golitzin's insights, this Festschrift explores influences of Jewish apocalypticism and mysticism on certain early and late Christian authors, including Irenaeus, Origen, Evagrius of Pontus, Pseudo-Dionysius, and Symeon the New Theologian. Special attention is given to Jewish theophanic traditions regarding the beatific vision of the divine Glory (Kavod), which profoundly shaped Eastern Christian theology and liturgy. This volume demonstrates that recent developments in the study of apocalyptic literature, the Qumran Scrolls, Gnosticism, and later Jewish mysticism throw new and welcome light on the sources and continuities of Orthodox theology, liturgy, and spirituality