Greek/Eastern Orthodox

I have seen some of the work put out by the Roman Church councils.....How about some from the other side....I would like some of the theology or councils books from the Eastern church....are there many out?

If there are some reccomendations.....please pass them along....I do have some Christmas Credit still

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MJ. Smith

Teacher mode: It is beneficial to think of three major branches: Western (Roman), Byzantine (Greek) and Eastern (Assyrian) Churches. The latter split is 5th century, the middle 11th century.

For the Byzantines, here is a list of the councils and synods that you should do searches on:

from http://mb-soft.com/believe/txw/orthcoun.htm:

Council in Constantinople local Council, 1082 AD

Convened regarding John Italus.
Condemned those who seek to discover exactly how the Word was joined
to His human substance; Greek doctrines of the soul, heaven, earth, and
creation; the destruction of the soul
after death; those who say that creation is eternal or immutable;
those who do not accept the miracles of Christ, the Theotokos, and all his
saints; those who think Greek philosophy
true; that creation is not the result of God's free will; the
pre-existence of souls; those who deny that creation is created ex
nihilo; those who say that hell is temporary
or that all of creation will be restored; and those who understand
the Kingdom of Heaven to be temporary.

Synod of Blachernae, in Constantinople local Synod, 1157 AD

Convened regarding Basilakes and Soterichus.
Condemned those who say Christ offered His sacrifice to the Father
alone, and not to himself and to the Holy Spirit; those who say the sacrifice
of the Divine Liturgy is only
figuratively the sacrifice of Christ's body and blood; those who deny
that the sacrifice in the Liturgy is one and the same as that of Christ on
the cross; those who say men were
reconciled to the Son through the incarnation and to the Father
through the passion; those who think the deification of Christ's humanity
destroyed his human nature; those who
deny that his deified human nature is worthy of worship; those who
say that, since the human nature of Christ was swallowed up into Divinity,
his passion was an illusion;
those who say that characteristics of Christ's human nature
(creaturehood, circumscription, mortality, and blameless passions) exist only
hypothetically, when one considers Christ's
human nature in abstraction, and not really and truly.

Council in Constantinople local Council, 1166 AD

Convened regarding Constantine the Bulgarian.
Condemned those who maintain that 'My father is greater than I'
refers only to Christ's human nature, taken in abstraction and who explain
the statement in various ways, one of which
is that the statement refers to the fact that Christ's human nature
retained its properties in the hypostatic union.

Second Council of Lyons Failed 'reunion Council', 1274 AD

Motivated by a desire of popes to gain recognition of primacy and by
a desire of emperors to receive material and martial aide. Emperor Michael
basically compelled the few Orthodox
bishops in attendance to rubber-stamp papal claims. Rejected
throughout the East and regarded as meaningless. Emperor Michael's sister
stated: 'Better my brother's empire should
perish than the purity of the Orthodox faith.' Repudiated by
Michael's successor.

Council at Constantinople local Council, 1285 AD

Convened regarding the Procession of the Holy Spirit.
Clarified the teaching on the Holy Spirit's origin.

Statement

It is recognised that the very Paraclete shines and manifests Himself
eternally by the intermediary of the Son, as light shines from the sun by the
intermediary of rays ...;
but that does not mean that He comes into being through the Son or
from the Son.

Council at Constantinople - Ninth Ecumenical (Imperial) Council, 1341, 1349, 1351 AD

Convened regarding Barlaam the Calabrian and Acindynus.
Condemned Barlaam the Calabrian and
Acindynus. Condemned those who think the light of Christ's Transfiguration
was an apparition, or the essence of God and those who do
not believe the divine light is the uncreated grace and energy of God which
proceeds from God's essence; those who do not
recognise the undivided distinction between God's essence and his energy;
those who deny the energy of God is uncreated; those who
say the distinction between energy and essence implies that God is not simple
and uncompounded; those claim the term 'Godhead' should
only be applied to the essence of God, and not to the divine energy; and
those who maintain the Divine Essence can be
communicated.

Council of Ferrara Failed 'reunion Council', 1438 AD;
moved to Florence, 1438 - 1443

Motivated by a desire of popes to gain recognition of
primacy and by a desire of emperors to receive material and military
assistance. Began in Ferrara, was subsequently
transferred to Florence. Primary focus: Filioque. Ended
with most Orthodox bishops accepting addition of Filioque, claims of papal
primacy, and accepting
Latin notion of Purgatory. Upon return to East, most
bishops renounced agreement which had been forced on them by Emperor
John. Soundly rejected by Orthodox
faithful throughout Roman Empire and Slavic areas.
Officially repudiated by Constantinople Patriarchate in 1472.
Served as model for Roman Catholicism's Uniates.

Convened regarding various Roman Catholic beliefs.

The 1583 Synod of Jerusalem condemned the following:
1. those who do not believe the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone
in essence, and from Father and Son in time;

2. those who believe the Lord Jesus Christ used unleavened bread at the
Last Supper;

3. those who believe in Purgatory;

4. those who believe the pope, rather than the Lord Jesus Christ is head
of the Church;

5. those who use the Gregorian calendar and its new Paschalion.

In addition, this synod re-affirmed adherence to the decisions of Nicaea I
(Ecumenical/Imperial #1 (AD 325)).

Council at Iasi (Romania) local Council, 1642 AD

Re-affirmed as 'genuine parts of scripture': 1 Esdras (3 Esdras in
the Vulgate), Tobit, Judith, three books of the Maccabees, Wisdom,
Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira),
Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah. Approved revised version of
Confession of Peter of Moghila corrected for its Roman Catholic
errors (purgatory, the claim that the change
in the eucharistic bread and wine occurs at the 'words of institution'.

Council of Jerusalem - Pan-Orthodox Council 1672 AD

Convened regarding Cyril Lukaris.
Condemned Calvinism of Cyril Lukaris. Re-affirmed procession of the
Holy Spirit from Father alone. Condemned 'justification through faith alone'.
Explicitly listed
Wisdom, Judith, Tobit, The History of the Dragon, Susanna, Maccabees,
and Sirach as 'genuine parts of Scripture'. Denied unregenerate man is
totally depraved.

Statement

We believe a man to be not simply justified through faith alone, but
through faith which works through love, that is to say, through faith and
works. ...

But we regard works not as witnesses certifying our calling, but as
being fruits in themselves, through which faith becomes efficacious, and as
in themselves meriting,
through the Divine promises, that each of the faithful may receive
what is done through his own body, whether it is good or bad.

Council at Constantinople local Council, 1755 AD

Convened regarding Baptism.
Decreed that all Westerners -- Latin or Protestant -- had invalid
sacraments and were only to be admitted into the Orthodox Church through
Baptism.

Council at Constantinople local Council, 1772 AD

Convened regarding Purgatory.
Condemned the innovation of purgatory.

Statement

We the godly, following the truth and turning away from such
innovations, confess and accept two places for the souls of the dead,
paradise and hell, for the righteous and sinners,
as the holy Scripture teaches us. We do not accept a third place, a
purgatory, by any means, since neither Scripture nor the holy Fathers have
taught us any such thing.
However, we believe these two places have many abodes ...
None of
the teachers of the Church have handed down or taught such a purgatory, but
they all speak of one
single place of punishment, hades, just as they teach about one
luminous and bright place, paradise. But both the souls of the holy and the
righteous go indisputably to
paradise and those of the sinners go to hades, of whom the profane
and those who have sinned unforgivably are punished forever and those who
have offended forgivably and
moderately hope to gain freedom through the unspeakable mercy of God.
For on behalf of such souls, that is of the moderately and forgivably sinful,
there are in the Church
prayers, supplications, liturgies, as well as memorial services and
almsgiving, that those souls may receive favour and comfort. Thus when the
Church prays for the souls
of those who are lying asleep, we hope there will be comfort for them
from God, but not through fire and purgatory, but through divine love for
mankind, whereby the
infinite goodness of God is seen.

Council at Constantinople local Council, 1819 AD

Endorsed the teaching of the Kollyvades monks (frequent communion,
the empirical experience of hesychasm against metaphysical speculations and
rationalism, etc.)

Council at Constantinople local Council, 1872 AD

Convened regarding Phyletism.
Condemned Phyletism, the heresy that the organisation of the Church
should be along racial (ethnic) lines in the same geographical
area.