Khristianstvo na blizhnem Vostoke

4-21

Authors: German Krylov

Dwelling under Islamic rule for Christian churches meant that their heads functioned not only as religious leaders, but also as political representatives of ethno-religious groups, identifying themselves with particular churches. The church leaders in fact became ethnarchs, whose power spread on concrete ethno-religious groups. Namely the Coptic patriarchs were in charge of a significant religious minority, also marked with broad ethnic specificity. As autochthon Egyptians, the Copts kept their ethno-religious identity from being dispersed by the invasion of Arab-Islamic culture. This trait up till now defines the Coptic psyche. And up till now Coptic patriarchs function de facto as ethnarchs, although de jure they are but elected primates of the Coptic Orthodox Church, notwithstanding that the elections' results are confirmed by presidential decrees. The rise of religious-national self-consciousness of Egyptian Christians in the XXth century strengthened the authority of the church leaders and made the laic Copts listen with attention to every word uttered by the clergy. The existential problems of modernity inevitably touched upon the person's of group's perception of current developments, which included political perturbations. The evidently clear trend of politicization of religious authorities started to take shape, catalyzed by corresponding processes in Islamic world. This trend became particularly visible during the tenure of the Patriarch Shenouda III (1971–2012), when the church, having developed its moral and material resources, started to play active role not only within the Coptic community, but made its way into political arena as an influential actor.

31-40

Authors: Hieromonk Nicholas (Ono Shigenobu)

The article is dedicated to interesting events and decisions of the annual Councils of the Japanese Orthodox Church. The copies of the minutes of the Councils (Jp. 公会議事録 / Kokai-gijiroku) are in the archive of the Cathedral “Nikolai-do” in Tokyo. The article is focused on the study of these documents for the period from 1876 to 1891. In this period, they discussed significant issues for the Orthodoxy in Japan.

53-60

Authors: Hegumen Joseph (Maxim Kryukov)

The article outlines the author’s research of those aspects of the cult of St. Joseph the Betrothed, which deal with the place of his repose and burial. Reviewing the travel diaries of the most noted pilgrims who visited the Holy Land over the centuries, as well as the archeological data, the author describes the St. Joseph-related traditions which exist within the major Christian tradition and provides arguments in favor of the most probable theory of the location of his grave. The article accentuates the important role that the apocryphal literature has played in the formation of the believes concerning the repose of the saint. Additionally, the article reviews the views that the New Testament and the Church Fathers hold concerning the possible places of his generation and, consequently, the places of his ancestral burials. The article tells of some of the less known sites in the Holy Land, which rarely attract attention of the pilgrims or professional researches.