Not that I'm looking for a systematic theology on E.O., which I'm assuming doesn't exist. However, I figure there is/are resources within Logos that can be helpful.
I do have this resource: The Orthodox Way: Revised Edition
mm.
Hi there, Milkman, have you already skimmed through these base packages? https://www.logos.com/compare/packages/Orthodox
I'll take a look. Thanks.
I have two systematic theologies by Eastern Orthodox authors. One follows roughly the classical structure, the other one is a bit more basics and takes a bit more freedom in the categories covered.
Elements of Faith: An Introduction to Orthodox Theology | Logos Bible Software
Contents
Translator’s Introduction Prologue 1. “Positive” Knowledge and Metaphysics
2. The Problem of God a. The religious beginning b. The search for truth c. The personal relationship d. Choice of goal and route
3. Faith
4. Apophatic Knowledge a. Dogma and heresy b. The limits of experience c. Apophaticism d. Figurative language e. Greek philosophy and Christian experience
5. God as Trinity a. The Biblical testimony b. The philosophical challenge c. The linguistic “flesh” of truth d. Essence and hypostasis e. The person f. The experience of relationship g. The revelation of life h. The lifegiving principle i. Freedom and love
6. The World a. The scientific worldview b. The “logical” composition of matter c. Natural energies d. Natural theory e. “Mediator”—“microcosm” f. Ascetical apprenticeship g. Use of the world
7. Man a. Image b. Soul c. Rationality—free will—dominion d. Person e. Scientific language f. Ecclesial language g. Life after death h. The distinction between the sexes i. The power of love j. The fall k. Consequences of the fall: nakedness l. Consequences of the fall: guilt m. Consequences of the fall: the tragedy of creation n. Consequences of the fall: anxiety before death o. Consequences of the fall: the “coats of skin”
8. Jesus Christ a. The scandal b. Self-emptying c. “Without confusion” and “without division” d. Perfect God and perfect man e. Theotokos f. Historical co-ordinates g. “Source” and “sources” h. Willing death i. “Ransom” and “redemption” j. The Risen One k. The general resurrection l. The “eighth day”
9. The Church a. Called—gathered b. Paschal meal c. Renewal of life d. Pentecost e. Existential transformation f. “Transubstantiation” and “symbol” g. Mysteries h. The ecclesiastical hierarchy i. Synods, primacy and authority j. Religious alienation
10. Orthodoxy a. Apophaticism and ritualism b. Heresy and catholicity c. The criterion of orthodoxy d. The Greek contribution e. The Western deviation f. The historical change g. The Westernization of the East h. Orthodoxy and the West today
Index
St Vladimir’s Seminary Press Orthodox Christianity Series (4 vols.) | Logos Bible Software
The whole collection is contained in Orthodox Starter. Here's the TOC just of vol. II.
Table of Contents
Foreword by His Holiness Patriarch Alexei IIPreface
PART ONETHE SOURCES OF ORTHODOX DOGMA
1 Scripture and Tradition 2 The Holy Scripture in the Orthodox Church 3 The Contents of the Bible. Biblical Criticism 4 The Contents and Authority of Tradition. The Legacy of the Holy Fathers
PART TWOGOD
5 The Revelation of a Personal God. Theology and Knowledge of God 6 God in the Old Testament The Name of God and the Glory of God The Spirit of God, the Word of God, the Wisdom of God Prophecy of the Messiah
7 God in the New Testament The New Testament: A New Revelation of God Jesus Christ—God Incarnate The Name of Jesus The Holy Spirit
8 God in the Works of the Eastern Church Fathers The Incomprehensibility of God Unity and Trinity The Trinity: Formation of Dogma The Names of God The Qualities of God. God and Evil. Divine Providence The Love of God The Essence and Energies of God The Divine Light The Procession of the Holy Spirit
PART THREETHE WORLD AND MAN
9 Creation 10 Angels 11 The Devil and Demons 12 Man Primordial Man Body, Soul, and Mind The Fall and Predestination toward Salvation
PART FOURCHRIST
13 The Incarnation 14 Christ: The Second Adam 15 Two Natures, Two Energies, Two Wills 16 The Passion and Death of the Savior. The Dogma of the Redemption 17 The Cross of Christ 18 The Descent into Hades 19 The Resurrection of Christ 20 Salvation as Deification
PART FIVETHE CHURCH
21 The Unity of the Church. The Body of Christ 22 The Holiness of the Church. The Bride of Christ 23 The Conciliarity of the Church 24 The Apostolicity of the Church. Hierarchy and Clergy 25 The Veneration of the Saints 26 The Theotokos
PART SIXESCHATOLOGY 27 Death as a Way to Eternity 28 The Second Coming of Christ 29 The Universal Resurrection 30 The Last Judgment 31 Posthumous Retribution 32 “New Heaven” and “New Earth”
AbbreviationsBibliographyIndex
Another one is
Orthodoxy by Paul Evdokimov
From the description on Amazon (which is more extensive than the product description page):
"The appearance in 1965 of Orthodoxy, a masterpiece of synthesis, was a landmark in religious publishing and earned for its author a doctorate of theology from the Institut Saint-Serge in Paris. Paul Evdokimov here circumvents all scholastic theology on the one hand, and the traditional approach of the 'Dogmatic' theologians on the other, to develop an original synthesis of Orthodox theological thinking. Although he constantly quotes the Fathers, he does so creatively, so as not simply to repeat them, but to incarnate their spirit in our own time and for our future. In addition, he enriches Patristic thought by bringing to bear on it the two great movements that have occurred in Eastern Christianity: the theology of the divine energies in the 14th century which enlightened our understanding of the material world and human culture; and the Russian religious philosophy of the first half of the 20th century with its prophetic intuitions, its Pentecostal understanding of the modern world, and its vital eschatology. A theological approach in which the human intelligence progresses by an ascesis of repentance, of the great conversion of the heart, metanoia, is here set forth so as to show, or rather celebrate, the theosis or deification of the whole human person.... An understanding we might call eucharistic, gathering together and clarifying the experience of life in the Church, an understanding inseparable from the golden chain of holiness, including the holiness of intelligence, which the Church venerates in those whom she calls the 'Fathers." (From the Foreword by Olivier Clement, Author of The Roots of Christian Mysticism)
Preface to 1979 Edition
Editor’s Preface to the English Edition
Historical Introduction
1. Introduction 1. Hellenism 2. Social Character 3. The Place of Interpretation 4. Theandrism, the Principle of Balance 5. The Awareness of God 6. Mystical Knowledge 7. Efficient Cause and Formal Cause 8. Monasticism 9. The Experience of Ascesis 10. Liturgical Theology 11. Hesychasm 12. Syntheses 13. The Sad Parting of the Ways 14. Slavonic Byzantium
2. Byzantium after Byzantium 3. Pro Domo Sua
Part One: Anthropology
1. The Eastern Premisses of Patristic Theology 1. Patristic Theology 2. The Theological Method of the Fathers 2. Anthropology 1. Introduction 2. The Biblical Account of Human Nature 3. The Biblical Notion of the Heart 4. The Human Person 5. Freedom 6. The Image of God 7. The Difference Between Image and Likeness 3. Beginnings and Ends 1. The Creation 2. Nature Before the Fall 3. The Fall and the Economy of Salvation 4. The Anthropology of Deification Anthropology, Liturgical or Doxological 5. Asceticism 1. Synergy 2. The Ascetical Life 3. The Passions 4. The Ascetic Way 6. Mystical Experience 1. Theosis and the Holy Spirit 2. Perpetual Prayer 3. Restraint and the Mystical State 4. The Mystic Mountain
Part Two: Ecclesiology
1. Refining the Question 2. The Visible and the Invisible 3. The Church: Its Origins and Meta-Historical Nature 4. The Church in God 5. The Theandric Connection 6. Institution and Event 7. The Church, a Sacramental Community 8. Eucharistic Ecclesiogy 9. One, Holy 10. ‘Rock of Offence’ (Matt. 16:17–19) 11. The Trinitarian Aspect of Ecclesiology 12. The Doctrine of the Trinity 13. The Filioque 14. The Christological Aspect 15. The Church, the Body of Christ 16. The Pneumatological Aspect 17. The Mariological Aspect of the Church 18. The Cosmic Aspect 19. The Notes of the Church 20. The Unity of the Church 21. The Sanctity of the Church 22. The Catholicity of the Church 23. The Conciliar Structure of the Church 24. The Councils 25. The Apostolicity of the Church 26. The Priesthood 27. The Divine Origin of the Priesthood 28. The Priesthood of Order and the Royal Priesthood 29. The Missionary Action of the Church
Part Three: The Faith of the Church
1. Doctrine 1. The Apophatic Aspect of Doctrine 2. Development of Doctrine 3. Symbolic Books 4. The Creed 2. The Doctrinal Task of the Councils and their Legacy 3. Canon Law 4. The Bible 1. Reading In Christ: The Orthodox a Priori 2. The Bible and the Tradition 3. Problems of the Inspiration of the Scriptures 5. In Dubiis Libertas 6. Tradition
Part Four: The Prayer of the Church
1. The Category of the Sacred: Sacred Time, Sacred Space, the Temple 1. The Sacred 2. Sacred Time 3. Sacred Space 4. The Construction of the Sacred: The Temple 2. An Introduction to Icons 1. The Theology of Glory 2. The Martyrology of the Icon 3. The Doctrinal Significance of the 7th Council 4. The Theology of Expression 5. The Fate of the Icon in the West 6. The Theology of Presence 7. Signs and Symbols 8. The Icon and the Liturgy 9. Divine Art 10. Modern Art and the Present State of the Icon 11. Interpretation of the Icon of Rublev 3. The Liturgy 1. Introduction 2. The Liturgy, Type of All Prayer 3. The Content of the Liturgy 4. The Eternal and the Temporal 5. The Dramatic Action 6. The Eucharist 7. The Miracle of the Eucharist 8. The Sacrificial Nature of the Eucharist 9. The Epiclesis 10. The Liturgy 4. The Sacraments 1. Introduction 2. The Eucharist 3. Grace 4. The Mystery of Predestination 5. The Sacrament of Baptism. Entry into the Church 6. The Sacrament of Anointing with Chrism 7. The Sacrament of Confession 8. The Sacrament of Marriage 9. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick
Part Five: The Eschaton or the Last Things
1. The Church in the World and the Last Things 1. The Church and the World 2. The Holy Spirit in the Last Times 3. The Theology of History 4. The Church, the Eschatological Community 2. Eschatology 1. The Heavenly Expectation of the Saints 2. The Parousia 3. Mysterium Crucis 3. Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy 1. The Historical Dimension 2. The Eschatological Plane 3. The Importance of Ecumenism Today 4. An Urgent Task 5. The Charismatic Dimension of the Church 6. The Orthodox Presence 7. Holiness
A systematic theology is probably too much to ask of Orthodox thought :-)
However, check out Introducing Eastern Orthodox Theology by Andrew Louth.
I'm also hopeful that we will eventually get Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Michael Pomazansky. Don't let the dry-sounding title fool you--it's anything but and definitely my favorite book on Orthodox theology.
