Patristic Theology - The University Lectures of Father John Romanides


What is Orthodoxy? Is it a religion? What is the essence of Orthodox Tradition? What is theosis? What are the "two kinds of faith" and "two kinds of revelation"? Who is God-inspired and who is a theologian? Who is spiritually ill and who is healthy? What is "noetic prayer"? What is the difference between orthodoxy and heresy? What is the essence of God and what are His energies?

These and other such questions are answered in this unique volume of Fr. John Romanides' university lectures. These talks, originally given in 1983 to college freshmen, are vintage Romanides yet made simple and accessible for the average layman. This makes Patristic Theology the common man's "handbook" to Orthodox Dogmatic Theology and a companion volume to every believer's struggle for salvation.

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"Fr. John's lectures were not mere citations from Patristic texts, but an entrance into the Patristic spirit and experience through the Father's relationship with our Triune God in their hearts. On this basis . . . we can refer to a "pre-Romanides" period and a "post-Romanides" period in our universities, since he was the first person to enable academic theologians to understand the interconnection between the history and worship of the Orthodox Church as expressing the experience of the Church body and bearing witness to the life in Christ, and not as independent scholarly knowledge unrelated to the believer's struggle for salvation."

Protopresbyter George D. Metallinos
Dean of the Theological School
of the University of Athens

296 pages, beautifully illustrated