Theodore the Stoudite The Ordering of Holiness [Hardcover]

This is the first modern study in English of the life and thought of the ninth-century Byzantine theologian and monastic reformer, Theodore the Stoudite. Cholij analyses Theodore's letters and religious writings in context and reaches new conclusions concerning the religious and secular issues which engaged him in controversy.

1.Part 1. BiographyLife and Times of Theodore the Stoudite
2.Part 2. Principles of OrderObedience and Authority
3. Church and Emperor
4.Part 3. Principles of HolinessRites of Sanctification
5. Baptism, Eucharist, and Heresy
6. Sanctification of Lay Person and Monk
General Conclusions

Roman Cholij's intelligient and engaging biography of Theodore makes accessible a wider knowledge of this fascinating indvidual. A book of seemingly effortless scholarship and clarity This book is essential reading for historians interested in eastern and western monasticism. Cholij has presented here an immensely thoughtful, stimulating, and readable account of an individual who, in Cholij's estimation, is important more as a reflection of ninth-century Byzantine views than as an innovator or original thinker, and whose career should be seen more centrally as that as a politician. In short, this is a wonderful book. --Church History