Khristianstvo na blizhnem Vostoke

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 The most valuable of them are unpublished and relatively recently declassified documents of the State archive of the Russian Federation Fund "Council for The Russian Orthodox Church under the Council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.