Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents

Abstract

Byzantine Monastic Foundation Documents (Vols. 1 to 5). Edited by JOHN THOMAS and ANGELA CONSTANTINIDES HERO (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, 2000; pp. xlix + 2021. N.p.). RELIGION and ideology defined Byzantium's identity and its role, in theory a directing one, in the wider world. It is hard to conceive that this most Roman of the sub-Roman successor states of the Late Antique empire would have resisted the manifold threats to which it was subjected, above all that from nascent Islam, without the assurance drawn from consciousness of an imperial past and without the confidence engendered by knowledge that the Orthodox faith guaranteed them divine protection. The true faith was sustained by the transmission from generation to generation of correct doctrine, by the regular celebration of the liturgy, and by lives lived in accordance with Christian precepts. The key role in raising the general moral standard and obtaining supernatural assistance was that of the massed ranks of monks who strove for moral excellence and committed their lives to worship, prayer and self-abnegation.