Khristianstvo na blizhnem Vostoke

4-32

Authors: Evgenii V. Palamarenko

This publication includes a little-known source on the history of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem and the Gornensky Convent in Ein-Karem. In 1950, Hieromonk Isaiah (Babinin) prepared a work on the history of the Gornensky Convent, which highlights many issues related to the New Testament history of the area near Jerusalem, the emergence of the Christian presence on it, its development, and after — the creation of monasteries on its territory, the main and the largest of which is considered the Gornensky Russian Convent, founded by Archimandrite Antonin (Kapustin) in 1871. The work pays considerable attention to the activities of the undivided Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem in the period from 1918 to 1948. Realizing the uniqueness of this period and the almost complete absence of research into the post-revolutionary period of the Mission's activities or the period of Palestine's rule by Great Britain under the mandate of the League of Nations, the work of Hieromonk Isaiah is the most valuable source of this period. It reveals the peculiarities of the Mission's activities, the life of the Gornensky Convent, gives characteristics to the events that took place, the personalities of the abbots and nuns of the Convent. Of particular value is the description of the main events in the life of the Russian Сhurch presence in Jerusalem after Patriarch Alexy I visited Palestine in 1945. It was after this visit that preparations began for the revival of the activities of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission, affiliated with the hierarchy from the USSR and whose chiefs were sent from the Moscow Patriarchate. As a resident of the Gornensky Convent, hieromonk Isaiah knew many details of the life of the Convent, with which he shares on the pages of his work.

46-64

Authors: Liliya N. Mantsevich

In the mid-19th century, France rediscovered Palestine. At that moment, not only France but also other European countries and the Vatican had their ambitions in this part of the weakened Ottoman Empire. For centuries, the images of the Crusaders and their struggle against les infidèles have shaped the vision of the Holy Land. These images nourished the belief in the right of France, the eldest daughter of the Church, to represent Christians in Palestine. French policy during this period was ambiguous. The government defended anticlerical and republican values and tried to reduce the influence of Catholics. In Palestine, on the contrary, the French leaders supported religious communities and organizations. One of the activities of religious actors was a pilgrimage. At the beginning of the 19th century, journeys to the Holy Land became a popular narrative for French novelists. It has also contributed to the popularity of pilgrimages. The Assumptionist Congregation organized a repentance pilgrimage to Palestine in 1882. That was the culmination of the French golden age in Palestine, both from a religious and political point of view. Representatives of all social groups took part in this pilgrimage, and its faith-based nature, free from the idle curiosity of travelers, was repeatedly emphasized by the organizers.

80-91

Authors: Vladimir A. Rozov

Sacred texts are distinguished by a number of characteristic features that separate them from other types of messages and draw the line between the sacred and the profane in the linguistic sphere. Special ways of expression evidentiality are among these properties, since the credibility of the information contained in sacred texts is guaranteed by their supernatural origin. There is no specially marked grammatical category of evidentiality in the classical Arabic language, but the corresponding meaning could be expressed through lexical and grammatical means. The features of the Arabic verb morphology play an important role in this expression. This is the use of perfect and imperfect verbal conjugation forms, as well as forms of verbal moods. These tools for expressing the category of evidentiality in the Quran serve to indicate the divine origin of the text, which, within the framework of the Islamic faith, is considered to be the direct speech of God addressed to people. This perception of the Quranic text distinguishes it from the scriptures of other Abrahamic religions. In addition, the Quranic text has performative functions in a number of cases, acting as a force capable of changing extra-linguistic reality. Understanding the nature and origin of ideas about the special properties of the Quranic text is an important step towards understanding the Islamic worldview, and this is extremely important for maintaining intercultural dialogue.

118-143

Authors: Nikolay N. Lisovoy

This article was first published in a small-circulation collection edited by the researcher of the Orthodox hesychasm, the creator of the concept of synergistic anthropology S.S. Horuzhy (1941–2020), the news of whose sudden death came on September 22, 2020, when these lines were written. With him N.N. Lisovoy communicated, although the views of these two scientists, who were educated as physicists, but who deeply studied the Orthodox hesychast tradition, did not always coincide. In July 2018, during one of my visits to Nikolai Nikolaevich to receive communion at home, I asked him to give something for publication in the journal "Christianity in the Middle East" from what I had written earlier. He handed over a photocopy of this article, apologizing that the work written in the "pre-computer era" is not available in electronic form. He believed that this work of his is relevant for the modern Orthodox reader, but in fact is inaccessible to him. As an Orthodox theologian N.N. Lisovoy is little known, although he can be called one of the brightest theologians of the last quarter of the 20th century, which is proved by the publication offered below. As he himself believed, as an Orthodox thinker, he developed thanks to his work in the Publishing Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, where he worked freelance since 1969 under the leadership of Metropolitan Pitirim of Volokolamsk and Yuryevsk. Few people know that N.N. Lisovoy is the author of a significant part of articles from the "green" Menaion, published by the Publishing Council of the Moscow Patriarchate in the 1970s-1980s. These articles were dedicated to great holidays, the memory of icons of the Mother of God and saints. He also prepared for publication in Germany a review of the history of Russian theological science, which was published only in 2002 in one of the volumes of Theological Works. In 1998, the TV program "Orthodox Calendar", dedicated to the Transfiguration. In 2003 he became the author of a film about this holiday in the series "Resurrection" of the "Volga-Film" studio (Samara). The theme of light-like energies ascending to God, the invisible light that revealed itself to the saints and ascetics, especially worried N.N. Lisovoy. He especially drew attention to this topic in his works (printed and on television) about St. Sergius of Radonezh, Seraphim of Sarov and St. John of Kronstadt. It is no coincidence that he lists the names of all three in the published article. For Nikolai Nikolayevich, the experience of the Transfiguration was not something distant; he revealed the experience of communion with Russian saints. And he himself, as a man of deep spiritual life, a poet, a prayer man and an ascetic of church science, we believe, spoke of the vision of divine light-like energies not only speculatively, but also experimentally.

4-74

Authors: Irina Yu. Smirnova

The article presents a reconstruction of the events in the Malabar diocese of the Syro-Jacobite Church related to the arrival in Travancore in 1825 of the official representative of Patriarch Ignatius George V Mar Athanasius Abed al Massiha, who was appointed to the Malabar department, and which arose in connection with this conflict in the Syro-Jacobite community. Based on the materials of the Kings College archive in Cambridge, such aspects of the history of the church-missionary presence in British India were studied as interfaith contacts between hierarchs and clergymen of the Church of England and the Syro-Jacobite Church, the interaction of representatives of the Church of England, the Church Missionary Society, the British Administration and the Government of the Principality of Travancore on Malabar coast. The internal problems of the Malabar Church, which served as prerequisites for church disorder, were studied. The article shows that the "Malabar affair" 1825–1826 was important for further British colonial policy, as the experience of missionary work in Travankor was used to develop the concept of the Anglo-Prussian bishopric in Jerusalem, the activity of which, according to the ideologists of British politics, was to extend not only to the Holy Land, but also to the entire Middle East region.

91-101

Authors: Besik Khurtsilava

The door to the present Church of the Holy Sepulchre (or the Church of the Resurrection of Christ) appeared during the reign of the Crusaders in Jerusalem. In fact, this (this is a metal frame) has not changed for centuries. Only the wood panel of the outer surface of the door has been replaced several times over the past centuries. Once, in 1514, Beena Cholokashvili, ambassador of King George II of Kakheti (1464–1513), initiated this modification. This fact is also mentioned in an Arabic historical document dated January 23, 1514. According to one version, despite the fire that occurred in the church in 1808, metal locks on the doors were also not replaced. According to another version, this happened later, during the Ottoman rule, in the first quarter of the XVI century. Georgian historical sources ("Kartlis Tskhovreba", "Dzegli Eristavta") tell us that in the middle of the 14th century the key to the Holy Sepulchre (the tomb of Jesus) or, possibly, the entire Church of the Holy Sepulchre belonged to the Georgians. This information is confirmed in his notes by the German pilgrim Ludolf von Sudheim (+1341). Since the conquest of Jerusalem by the Sultan Salah ad-Din (1187–1193), two Muslim families — Judeh and Nussaiba have appeared in the orbit of the Church of the Resurrection. They, by tradition, are still responsible for protecting the church door and its key. However, according to the Nussaiba family tradition, these responsibilities have been assigned to them since the reign of caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab (634–644). The historical documents available in their family archive do not give rise to a statement about the existence of such a fact in such an early period. All these documents show only the presence of the indicated functions from the time of Ottoman rule in Palestine.

134-154

Authors: Michail N. Uryasov

The publication contains translations from French of the documents that made up the correspondence of the hospice Management in Jerusalem with French manufacturing enterprises and credit institutions. The correspondence concerns the purchase of materials and the granting of loans related to the construction of the Nicholas farmstead in Jerusalem in 1903–1904. The Foreword to the publication that contains the information from the journal of the meetings of the building Committee created to guide the construction of a farmstead, which was part of architect A.E. Elkin, and management employees N.G. Mikhailov, N.I. Alekseev and A.F. Henken.

166-180

Authors: Anna M. Novotortseva

The article is devoted to the study of the biography of the future Metropolitan of Yaroslavl and Rostov John (Wendland) during his civil service as a geologist and teacher in Central Asia, and then as a Church diplomat in the middle East. The content of the article is based on previously unpublished, not so long ago declassified and not introduced into scientific circulation archival materials of the State archive of the Russian Federation, as well as unique sources of personal origin — memoirs of contemporaries of Bishop John and his letters to his spiritual father, Archbishop Gury (Yegorov) from the personal archive of his spiritual daughter, journalist E.L. Mezhennaya.

214-225

Authors: Pavel S. Ilyushin

The article is devoted to the informational publication of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations “Information Bulletin”, which was published between 1965 and 2009, and which covered the external activities of the Russian Orthodox Church. The article provides a source-based review of the “Information Bulletin”, and analyzes its specific component — the interreligious interaction of the Russian Orthodox Church.

4-27

Authors: Hegumen Nikon (Denis S. Golovko)

Many aspects in the history of the Russian land in Jericho (Palestine) bought by Archimandrite Antonin Kapustin have recently been studied in detail. The novelty of this paper lies in the attempt to examine the significance of the Russian property in the Holy Land on the basis of its three main aspects: as places connected with events of the Sacred History, as lands that provide hospices and premises for pilgrims, and finally, as lands suitable for agricultural development and source of revenue. The study is based on materials from the State Archives of the Russian Federation, as well as previously unpublished materials from the Property Archive of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem (Moscow Patriarchate). It offers a research on the exact location of the “tower of Zacchaeus” in Jericho, a detailed chronology of the Russian site and the location of an ancient Byzantine church ruins discovered there by Archimandrite Rafail Trukhin. The article also studies episodes that led to accusations of Archimandrite Leonid Sentsov by the Patriarch of Jerusalem before the Russian Holy Synod, and the developments of this issue. It describes the history of the site after 1917 under the control of the ROCOR, the circumstances of its transfer back to the Moscow Patriarchate in 2000, and its current status.

71-96

Authors: Anna M. Novotortseva

The article contains a detailed chronological description of the external political conditions, as well as the internal and external Church situation in the USSR and the Middle East at the turn of 1958–1959, in which the future Metropolitan of Yaroslavl and Rostov, as well as the Bishop of Podolsk, John (Wendland), served in the Church and diplomatic service. The content of the article is based on materials from various documentary complexes, especially valuable of which are sources of personal origin — six letters of Bishop John to his spiritual father, Archbishop Guriy (Egorov) from the personal archive of his spiritual daughter, journalist E.L. Mezhennaya. Unpublished documents of the State archive of the Russian Federation and the articles and essays in the «Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate» are also valuable material in terms of building the entire chronology of events.

111-125

Authors: Pavel V. Bochkov

The article discusses the biographical data of the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, having academic degrees of candidates of secular jurisprudence, bearing their obedience in various countries of the canonical presence of the Russian Orthodox Church. Combining their scientific secular jurisprudence practices with the ministry of the Church, these clergy use their talents to collaborate in secular science and religious experience.

131-148

Authors: Nikolay N. Lisovoy, Alexander V. Nazarenko

Published below screenplay about St. Olga published below was completed by N.N. Lisovoy no later than April 6, 2005. The script is based on a text published by N.N. Lisovoy using materials from his closest friend, Doctor of Historical Sciences Alexander Vasilyevich Nazarenko in 2007 in the almanac “Klionia”. In the script of N.N. Lisovoy reconstructs both the era itself and the specific events of St. Olga, especially in detail – held in July-October 969 of St. Olga in Constantinople. Nikolai Nikolaevich, given the peculiarity of the scenario genre, as it takes the reader (so that the director of the film could transfer the viewer) to Constantinople in 969, describing not only the memorable places visited by St. Olga, but also painting the characters, words and deeds of the saint and her interlocutors.

4-23

Authors: Hegumen Nikon (Denis S. Golovko)

The article explores two of the main land properties of the Russian Orthodox Church in Hebron (Palestine) – the so-called “Christian Ruins” and the compound of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in honor of the Holy Forefathers with the Oak of Mamre – in their church-archaeological, historical and legal aspects. The topic of Russian possessions in the Holy Land, in the territory of three states – Israel, Palestine and Jordan – is gaining new relevance today thanks to the continued publication of previously unreleased archival materials from the collections of the Russian State Historical Archive and the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Empire, as well as the unpublished property corpus of the Archive of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem of the Moscow Patriarchate. Materials from these collections, among them the little-known letters of the founder of the Russian Palestine Archimandrite Antonin Kapustin, have served as the basis for this study. The article explores the motives for the purchasing and the dramatic details connected to the initial registration of property rights on these lands by Archimandrite Antonin and his associates, describes the results of archaeological research conducted there in the second half of the 20th century, as well as the facts of recent history connected to the recognition of legal status of the Russian property in Hebron.

37-46

Authors: Yaroslav V. Sovgira

The beginning of 2020 was marked by the growth of interest to one of the most important stories of persecution of Syrian Christians – abduction of the metropolitans of Aleppo. The source was the publication of the journalist investigation of Mansur Salib. This article is intended to clarify the problem. Thus, we introduce the biographical facts about metropolitan of Aleppo Paul (Yazigi) (Orthodox Church of Antioch) and Gregorius Yohanna (Ibrahim) (Syrian Jacobite (or Syrian Orthodox) Church), which allow to understand the scale and the significance of their persons. In the article, we present brief overview of the situation on Christians in Syria in 2011–2013, especially in context of the facts of abductions and murders of the clergy. In conclusion, the results of a study of the possible motives of the abductors and the perpetrators of the abduction are presented.

55-73

Authors: Hilarion (Dani) Bechara

The Patriarch of Antioch Gregory IV (Haddad) played an important role in achieving harmony between different sectors of society. At that time, there was an urgent need for this, since everyone in the East was mixed: Christians and Muslims, Ottomans and Europeans, crusaders and defenders, angry and embittered, politicians and peasants. As a result of this, principles were lost and people became hardened, trying to achieve their interests on the one hand, and to get a piece of bread on the other. Love and good relations – that is what Patriarch Gregory achieved between the sons of this era, and our grandfathers, who were his contemporaries in his last days in Lebanon and Damascus, testified to this. However, the patriarch remembered the events that took place with the Apostles, when people in Antioch were first called Christians, and therefore he guarded this truth with all his faith, so that no one would later say that the Christians themselves left Antioch.

4-12

Authors: Anna M. Novotortseva

The article is devoted to the characteristic of the sources on the middle East period of service in 1958–1960 of the outstanding person, in the past the scientist-geologist, candidate of geological and mineralogical Sciences, the secret monk and spiritual son of Metropolitan Guria (Egorov), member of the Alexander Nevsky brotherhood, the scientist, theologian, Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church-Metropolitan John (Wendland). The analysis of the source base showed that it is quite complete and representative, diverse and available for study; it includes several groups. The most valuable of them are unpublished and relatively recently declassified documents of the State archive of the Russian Federation Fund "Council for The Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of Ministers of the USSR: 1943–1985" and partially published sources of personal origin from the personal archive of the spiritual daughter of Metropolitan John (Wendland), journalist, public figure E.L. Mezhennoy. At the same time, a great deal of factual material on the interesting period of his Eminence's life and Ministry was collected through a systematic study of the publications in the Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate for 1958–1960.

21-35

Authors: German L. Krylov

This article, based exclusively on traditional Islamic sources, focuses on Christian neighbors of the Islamic prophet and their influence on him. At least two of them – Muhammad’s wife Hadija and her cousin Waraqa – are documented by the Islamic tradition to be at the origin of Islam, as they have been the first to hear Muhammad’s striking story about an angel forcing him to utter the first verses of what would be later called Al-Qur’an. Their role was crucial for the future of the new religion, as they were those who ascertained Muhammad of his prophetic mission. Waraqa’s decease was meaningfully succeeded by the expressive pause of revelations that repeatedly brought Muhammad to the brink of suicide. As the revelations continued, Muhammad was frequently seen by his Meccan countrymen in the company of Christian slaves. Naturally, the Meccans suspected him to adopt the stories of those strangers; the fact that Muhammad energetically and yet flimsily denied in his verses. With all the differences, Islam dogmatically is the closest religion to Christianity and contains numerous allusions to the narrations of the Bible and Christian apocrypha suggesting that Muhammad’s early interaction with Christians has by no means been fruitless.

43-51

Authors: Svetlana А. Lavrenova

The subject of this research is the work of the Interreligious Working Group on the provision of humanitarian assistance to the population of Syria in the period from 2017 to 2019. The paper discusses the history and goals of the creation of the Working Group, the composition of its participants, completed projects, as well as further plans and prospects for the activities of this structure. Particular attention in this article is given to humanitarian aid actions carried out in Syria under the leadership of the Working Group. During the period of the Inter-Religious Working Group, it implemented a number of humanitarian projects: round tables and consultations were held with the participation of the leadership and representatives of the Syrian and Lebanese faiths, visits of the Working Group members to the region took place, five consignments of humanitarian aid were formed and delivered to Syria.