Justin A. Mihoc and Leonard Aldea, eds.

, A Celebration of Living Theology:

A Festschrift in Honour of Andrew Louth, London: Bloomsbury T&T Clark,
2014, 260 pp.
This edited collection like the similarly-titled 2012 conference hosted by
the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University has been
offered as a grateful celebration of the life and legacy of Fr Andrew Louth,
Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies in his long-time
academic home on Durhams theology faculty. Renowned for his diligent
translations and commentaries on St John of Damascus and credited with
launching significant shifts in the ways that contemporary scholarship
reckons with early Christianity through the publication of his early work
Discerning the Mystery (1983). In short, Louth has helped redefine
Orthodox studies by teaching a whole generation of scholars to hear the
voices of ancient Christianity in fresh and generative ways. Indeed, Lewis
Ayres introduction aptly credits him in this way: As a scholar Andrew
Louth both stands in a venerable tradition and is a herald of something
new. This volume then seeks to chart the expanse of his career with its
various sections dedicated to each strand of his work: Patristic theology,
Post-Nicene theology in Byzantium, the dialogue between Eastern and
Western Christendom in the late Middle Ages, Modern Theology, and
Patristic theologys future. In addition to the topics under consideration,
students of Louths legacy would be hard-pressed to find a more wideranging and formidable cast of respondents to his work. These are some of
the most accomplished international scholars in the field, and the most
notable among them include John Behr, Kallistos Ware, and John Milbank.
Theology students at any level of study will find this collection an invaluable
entry point for Louths remarkable body of work as well as an immensely
helpful window into the richness of Orthodox theology today.
Taylor Worley, Ph.D.
Union University