Description
In Salute the Everlasting Day Chrysostom Koutloumousianos transcends time, location and culture to bring two great minds together. Preeminent sixth century hymnographer of the Greek-speaking East, Romanos the Melodist, and the most enthralling poet and preacher of early modern England, John Donne, meet in passionate dialogue. The poets’ similarities and divergences are explored, their poetic and theological brilliance demonstrated in a comparative context, and unravelled are the mysteries of human existence, along with the connection between the eschatological Kingdom and the transfiguration of the human being in this present life.
Using direct quotations from their literary corpus, as well as tailoring to the needs of a living dialogue, and elaborating on their teachings, Koutloumousianos presents the first comparative study of Romanos the Melodist and John Donne in all its sensitivity and beauty, capturing their shared vision for contemporary society.
About the Author
Chrysostom Koutloumousianos is the abbot of the Holy Monastery of Faneromeni in Naxos, Cyclades. He previously spent thirty-five years as a Senior Elder at Koutloumous Monastery on Mount Athos.
He holds a BA in English Literature and a BA, MA and PhD in Theology from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He has had research grants at several academic institutions in the U.K. and has authored multiple books and articles on monasticism and patristics, including The One and the Three (James Clarke & Co., 2015).
Contents
Foreword by Andrew Louth
Prelude
A Future Creature
An Eschatological Perspective
The Prophet, the Mystic, the Poet
Towards the Kingdom
Repentance and Kenosis
Deaths and Resurrections
Time’s Transfiguration
Deferral
Ascesis and the Heart
Love
Participation
Endorsements and Reviews
This unusual book juxtaposes the thought of two great poets and prophets (English and Byzantine) in the imagined context of a conversation on the meaning of time, death, and eternity. Father Chrysostom reveals his own deep understanding of their complex messages, which interact in remarkable ways. The book is creative, inspiring, and thought-provoking in its unusual approach to two separate, but entwined, Christian literary traditions.
Mary B. Cunningham, Honorary Associate Professor, University of Nottingham
Salute the Everlasting Day recreates a conversation between Christian poets. By using the words of Romanos the Melodist, a sixth-century Byzantine deacon and John Donne, an English Protestant poet, Father Chrysostom imagines them pondering the mysteries of faith in Donne’s Deanery at St Paul’s London. As for Dante and Virgil in the Divine Comedy, the differences between them enrich the dialogue on faith’s manifestation in the world.
Miri Rubin, Professor of Medieval and Early Modern History, Queen Mary University of London
