GOD'S GIFTS

God’s Gifts

Theology of the Gift and the Gift of Theology

Introduction

Preface

1. Theology of the Gift

1. Meaning of the Gift

2. The Creation, the Incarnation and the Family as Gifts
    from God

3. The Gift as a Cross and the Cross of the Gift

2. The Theological Thunderstorm in the Book of Job

1. Introduction

2. Content of the Book

3. Messages in the Book

4. Three Kinds of Theology

5. Some Extracts from the Book

6. Conclusions

3. The Mystery of the Divine Eucharist in Apostolic
    Times

1. The Last Supper according to the First Three Evangelists

2. The Link between Holy Communion and the Entire Theology of the Church, according

    to St John the Theologian

a) The Washing of Feet and the Last Supper

b) Christ’s Teaching at the Last Supper

c) Christ’s High-Priestly Prayer

d) The Link between Light, Communion between
    Christians, and Holy Communion

e) The Eschatological Divine Eucharist

3. The Divine Eucharist in the First Church Community
     in Jerusalem, according to the Acts of the Apostles

4. The Charismatic Church of Corinth

a) Celebrating the Divine Eucharist and Preconditions
    for Taking Part

b) Determining the Typikon for Spiritual Gifts at the
    Divine Eucharist

Conclusion

4. Christian Asceticism in Everyday Life

1. The Maccabean Youths

2. “By Common Acknowledgement Pious Reason is
    Absolute Ruler of the Passions.”

3. Dealing with Thoughts, according to Fr Paisios

4. Discussion after the Talk

a) Spiritual Watchfulness

b) Finding Suitable Spiritual Fathers

c) Noetic Prayer

d) Elder Sophrony’s Teaching on Prayer and the
    Inverted Pyramid

e) Fr John Romanides on Thoughts and Noetic Prayer

5. “He who is Holy, Let him Be Sanctified still”

1. “He who is Holy”

2.“Let him Be Sanctified still”

3. Manifestations of Sanctity

4. Contemporary Saints

6. The Spiritual Transcendence of Contemporary
   Problems

1. The Terms Transcendence, Transcendentalism and
     Transcendental Principle

2. Three Current Issues that Influence the Realm of the
    Church

a) Relativism

b) Contemporary Scientific Findings

c) Human Rights

3. The Christian Approach to Contemporary Problems

a) In Prison in Philippi

b) Messages from St Paul’s Epistle to the Philippians

7. “The Spiritual and Heaven-Scaling Ladder”

1. Introductory Remarks

2. The Steps of the Heaven-Scaling Ladder

a) Setting out to Ascend the Mountain of the Lord

b) Different Stages of the Heavenly Ascent

c) The End of the Heaven-Scaling Ladder

8. Participation in the Mystery of the Cross and
    Resurrection of Christ according to St Maximus the
    Confessor

1. St Maximus the Confessor’s Teaching on Curing
     Human Beings

2.  Christ’s Cross and Resurrection in our Life

a) Christ’s Last Passover

b) The Alliance between Pilate, Herod and the Jews

c) The Inscription in Three Languages on the Cross

d) Christ’s Crucifixion, Burial and Resurrection

e) The Lord’s Tomb

f) Pascha, the Passing over of the Word into the Nous

Conclusion

9. The Pastoral Ministry according to St Nektarios
    Bishop of Pentapolis

1. Qualities Required of Shepherds of the Church

a) “Religious Qualities”

b) “Natural and Acquired Intellectual Qualities”

c) “Physical Qualities”

2. Pastoral Ministry to Nuns

10. Metropolitan Sebastian of Dryinoupolis,
     as I Knew him

1. Diocesan Preacher in the Holy Metropolis of Ioannina

2. Metropolitan of Dryinoupolis, Pogoniani and Konitsa

3. The Brotherly Love between my two Spiritual Fathers

4. Fr Sebastian as an Orthodox Patriot

11. The Ever-Blessed Metropolitan Nektarios of Petra

1. The Autobiography of the Metropolitan of Blessed
     Memory

2. Our Correspondence during his Illness

12. Fr Moses of the Holy Mountain as a Traditional
     Theologian, from his Unpublished Letters

1. “A Hazy Newfangled Theology”

2. “Genuine Theological Message”

3. “The Saving Orthodox Tradition”

4. “The Thinking of the New Holy Fathers”

5. “Purification, Illumination and Deification”

6. “Splendid Hierarch of the Church of Greece”

7. “Hesychast of the Holy Mountain and a Great Empirical
     Theologian of the Twentieth Century”

8. “Truly Great Theologian”

9. “Unsullied Orthodox Ethos”

13. Sotiris Tattis, First Chanter

1. My Recollections of Sotiris Tattis

2.The Ten Commandments of the Church’s Unwritten
   Typikon for Chanters

3. Chanting in Church according to St Paisios

14. Charilaos Taliadoros and “Sacred Psalmody”

15. “A Journey from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity”

1. The Author’s Biographical Details

2. The Revelation of Christ

3. Becoming a Protestant

4. His Journey to the Orthodox Church

5.The Meaning of Salvation

a) Sin – Forgiveness

b) Ancestral Sin

c) Man’s Salvation

d) Heaven and Hell

Conclusion

16. A Significant Encounter with Three Blessed People
     in Crete

1. Eldress Galatia

2. Fr Theodoros, Hermit and Cave-Dweller

3. Elder Anastasios of Koudoumas