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New Series. Publications continue to feature prominently in the Australian scene. The Centre for Early Christian Studies, Australian Catholic University has just announced a new monograph series, Early Christian Studies. The aim is to provide a variety of resources for students and scholars of the post-Apostolic Age down to 800 CE that are made available swiftly and are readily affordable (for more information on the series see under Reviews and Resources below). The first volume in the series, a translation of a substantial portion of the homilies of Proclus of Constantinople by Jan Barkhuizen, will be of interest to early Byzantine scholars. Expected publication date: November 2000. Keep an eye on the Centre's web site for information on its release.
Welcome, Ken Parry. After losing several of our more senior researchers to retirement or positions in the UK, it's pleasing to be able to report that the Australian scene is now benefiting from reverse migration, with the arrival to our shores of Ken Parry, formerly at University of Manchester. Ken works primarily in the middle Byzantine period and introduces himself as follows:
"Before coming to Australia from the UK in January this year I taught theology and religious studies at the University of Manchester. Over the years I have taught courses on historical theology, early Christianity, Byzantine and Eastern Christianity, Byzantine theological texts, icons and iconoclasm, religion and philosophy in late antiquity, and the ancient religious cultures of the silk road. I am now Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University.
My area of research relates to early Christian and Eastern Christian thought and practice with a special interest in Byzantine iconology and iconoclasm. I have published on the writings of such Byzantine iconophiles as John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite and the Patriarch Nikephoros, and I am currently completing a book entitled From Idolatry to Iconoclasm: Attitudes to Images in Late Antiquity, to appear in the series Religion and the Arts (Cassell). I am also interested in the interface between philosophy and theology in late antiquity and in Byzantium, Eastern Christianity and the encounter with other religions, and Western perceptions of Eastern Christianity.
I was chief editor and contributor of over one hundred entries to the Blackwell Dictionary of Eastern Christianity published in August 1999. This was the first of its kind in the English language and presents the entire spectrum of Eastern Christianity from the beginnings to the present. It includes a comprehensive index and has line-drawings illustrating some of the main Byzantine icons. It has articles from fifty contributors and is to be published in paperback in April 2001. I am planning to follow it up with a Companion to Eastern Christianity which will offer in-depth introductions to all the Eastern Christian traditions. I am also intending to edit a Reader in Eastern Christian Studies in the near future. This will be aimed at those wanting a ready source of translated texts for teaching Byzantine and Eastern Christianity, particularly texts relating to church history and theology.
Among my recent publications are entries on Barlaam of Calabria, Nicolas Berdyaev, Sergius Bulgakov, Byzantine Iconoclasm, John Chrysostom, John of Damascus, John Meyendorff, Photios, and Symeon the New Theologian, for the Dictionary of Historical Theology, ed. Prof Trevor Hart, published by Paternoster Press, September 2000, and among my forthcoming publications is a paper entitled "Byzantine and Melkite Iconophiles under Iconoclasm", to appear in Porphyrogenita: Essays in Honour of Julian Chrysostomides, ed. Prof Judith Herrin et al. and to be published by Porphyrogenitus in 2002.
I am presently researching two topics in ninth-century Byzantium, the revival of interest in Aristotelianism and in the Antiochene exegetes. I am also preparing a commentary and new translations of the definitions of the iconoclastic councils of 754 and 815, a study of an iconophile tract by Eustratios of Nicaea, and a study of the treatise Contra Manichaeos by John of Damascus. I am also to contribute articles on the iconoclast emperors Constantine V and Theophilos for the De Imperatoribus Romanis project.
I should say that since arriving in Australia I have been made to feel most welcome and I very much look forward to meeting colleagues at various conferences and gatherings in the future." (Ken's email address is: kendee@bigpond.com).
