Orthodox ecclesiology doctrinally and historically requires that all authority in the church be expressed by the bishop. The unity of authority, based upon the laying on of hands, is the lived expression of the oneness and catholicity of the church. American Orthodoxy, however, does not have such an authority structure, especially on the parish level. This study explores the divergence of practice from doctrine in the American church. The study concludes with a theological discussion of the problematic nature of parish congregationalism in Orthodoxy. It points toward the already-realized...

The common ground between Bellah, Giddens, and Habermas - the meaningful position the Subject has/should have in constructing the social reality - brings to light a transition in the sociological theoretical arena, if we take into account the different theoretical roots of each scholar - Functionalism (Bellah), Positivism (Giddens), and Neo-Kantian (Habermas).

This work is an ethnographic essay that undertakes thick description of the development of a Black Holiness-Pentecostal body by examining its religious life from within. It goes on to sketch lines of continuity within the larger church.

Adrian Fortescue (1874-1923) was recognized as one of England’s foremost authorities on Eastern Christianity and helped to shape the English-speaking world’s understanding of the Eastern Churches. This book is a critical examination of his writings on the subject, analyzing what he said about the Eastern Christian Churches and highlighting his insights into key questions. It focuses on Fortescue’s understanding of the schisms and his thoughts as to how reunion can come about. The book concludes by comparing Fortescue's perspective to later advances in theology and historical scholarship...

The present work takes up the neglected quest for a theory of ritual and methodology of analysis that recognizes and traces the contours of ritual dynamic structure. The resulting fresh approach provides a controlled framework for interpreting rituals belonging to various cultures and for identifying bases of comparison between them. The first part builds a theory and definition of ritual and a corresponding methodology for analyzing specific rituals in terms of their activities and the meanings attached to those activities. The second part illustrates this methodology and its usefulness for...

This project was inspired by years of nurture and ministry in the church upon which the study focuses. With roots going back to the historic African American Church, it offers a window into early growth, the development of crucial theological positions, institutional development within the American Church of the twentieth century, and emerging patterns for worldwide Christianity in the twenty-first century. The struggle within this project is against a background of misunderstanding. Given the pejorative biases in earlier studies against African American Christianity in general, and...