(Preface to the book by prof. Chrysostomos Stamoulis “Sacred beauty”, Hilandar, Mount Athos, 2026)

Note: The preface was written before the death of Prof. H. Stamoulis)

Published by the Holy and Imperial Lavra, the Hilandar Monastery of Mount Athos Mount Athos Monastery Hilandar, and translated into Serbian by prof. Zdravko Peno, one of the most distinguished books of the modern dogmatic theology has appeared on the Serbian theological, and in general, cultural scene, the book “Sacred Beauty” by prof. Chrysostomos Stamoulis. The translator has tried to communicate the text into Serbian taking into consideration all the complexity of the language which the author uses in the present, but also in his other numerous works. Chrysostomos Stamoulis is a Dean and professor of dogmatics at the faculty of Theology at the state Artistotle University in Thessaloniki, where he has earned his title Doctor of Philosophy. He teaches the compulsory subject: Dogmatic and Symbolic Theology and the compulsory elective subjects: Philocalic Aesthetics of Orthodoxy, Theology and Film, Contemporary Atheism, as well as Science and Orthodox Theology. Apart from Greece and England, he has gained his theological education at the Faculty of Orthodox Theology in Belgrade. He is a student of and successor to the prominent dogmatist of our age Nikos Matsoukas. It is essential to emphasise that Stamoulis studied music as well, and as of 1991 is the principal conductor of the “St. John Chrysostom” Youth Choir and Orchestra in Thessaloniki. During a television appearance, Stamoulis with his characteristic coinage would say that the determinant: chalchidonic difist (διφυσήτης χαλκηδÏŒνιος) fits him, in the sense that since a very tender age he has been living both the theological and musical nature in one and the same person!

At the beginning of this review it is important to emphasise that the book “Sacred Beauty” presents the extremely important and sometimes forgotten fact, that in our modernity, orthodox theology is invited to a dialogue with the world, the arts, the other, i.e., it is not natural for theology to be limited to itself in a hermetically sealed circle that will only transform it into a ghetto, or in Matsoukas’s words, it will make a caricature of it causing numbness in the mutual acquaintance of theology and the external sciences. This is stated because according to prof. Panagiotis Ifantis, the value of this work is exactly in the successful confrontation with the difficult preconditions which inspired the birth of this book, and which show the pathological symptoms in the church organism. Namely, in certain church circles, it can very often be heard that an Orthodox Christian should not read other literature, apart from theological, should not listen to other music, apart from church music etc., therefore, in certain church surroundings there is depreciation of the beautiful, the orthodox majority develops a neurotic opinion, as opposed to the individual needs of the community, an opinion, which according to Ifantis, at times takes the shape of religious masochism and anit-community! Thus, another precondition for the occurrence of this book is the nightmarish division of theology and art! Not few people form the Church stand above the chasm that divides them from art, at the same time forgetting that from the first historic steps of the Church art has never ceased to accompany the Church with the obvious imprint of Truth in itself. Finally, as a precondition for the occurrence of this book is the forming of a claustrophobic spirituality, of an internally directed theology, theology with the view exclusively turned towards the past. The reader will realize that this book provides answers for the abovementioned problematizing, yet not in a theoretical manner, but answers based on experience. The book sparkles as much as with biblical and patristic literature, as with profane art, fishing in the sea of its truths and as Ifantis points out, on the one side manages to answer the demands of a documentary dogmatic research, and on the other, it gives value to the dialogue that is carried out between the theological experience and the authentic expressions of contemporary art.

Therefore, the book “Sacred Beauty” by prof. Chrysostomos Stamoulis, refers to the relationship Orthodoxy – beautiful; the Byzantine heritage and the western culture; the orthodox spiritual identity and the characteristics of the West. The polemic tone between pro- and anti-West allows the author to enter into a duel with various relevant issues such as, for instance, the relationship of Orthodoxy towards the profane culture, the relationship between certain present dynamics and the permanence of the tradition, the relationship between the Church and the world. Throughout the contents of the book Stamoulis provides patristically embedded answers as well as answers stemming from his experiences in aesthetics to the posed quieries and dilemas. The author talks about the aesthetics of the embodied Logos, but not as an ethically sentimental fact, but as a paradox, because, needless to say, the paradox is a characteristic of the orthodox holiness which in accordance with the contents of the book is always open to the surprise. As Stamoulis himself points out, he does not write anything new, but bases the content of this written word on the patristic tradition.

It can be said that “Sacred Beauty” embodies the search and living experience of the beauty that represent a timeless yearning of the human being. The book is comprised of three chapters. In the first part, Stamoulis reviews the opinions of Kostas Zouraris, who obviously discards aesthetics outside the borders of the eastern tradition. For Zouraris nothing else exists apart from philocaly! According to Stamoulis the time of writers that morph into omniscience is gone, and therefore it is creative to open room for dialogue among theology, culture and science, especially when it is about topics that are not tangible to the dogmatics and the Christian morality. Therefore, Stamoulis emphasizes that the division of East and West is ideological, and that such approach leads to estrangement and nihilism. Through a very different reading of the Nobel prize winner Giorgos Seferis (on whom Zouzaris wants to base his views), the author shows philocaly and aesthetics are closely connected in the way of life of Eastern Christianity. Stamoulis interprets the experiences of orthodox spirituality through the prism of aesthetic and defies the formulas that negate otherness. Prof. Ioannis Kurembeles thinks that for this reason Stamoulis chooses “The Journals” of protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann - to show the difference between the bureocratic theology and the living theology of the ascetically minded man. He chooses Schmemann to show that the perspective either or: either the body or the spirit, either asceticism or aesthetic, etc. has in the course of history brought about hereticism such as Bogomilism and others, that maximise their elements always at the detriment of unity. Schmemann lived the truth of Orthodoxy in the West and presented himself as carrier of the church experience that cannot imagine the senses outside of church life. Here we shall paraphrase Stamoulis, who states that for the asceticism to be truly Christian, and not an ideological caricature, it is bound to be “aesthetical”, and calls for this terminology not to seem daunting because the Christian mysticism should be “aesthetic”. Both the ascetic and the mystic have the same Church, and not different churches. Therefore, neither theology which insists on the beauty of the world, nor anyting else that refers to the whole should be lost! The crisis of Orthodoxy sometimes consists of the denial of the creative new, in feeling change as an attack on its identity, and therefore, of course, the greater fear of the fallen world, rather than the failings of Orthodoxy! That is why, Stamoulis ends the first chapter with the views of Matsoukas on the need of absence of theological exception, on the need of the existence of a unifying view i.e., the need to theologize in a holistic manner, because only unity and discernment are at the heart of theology, and not division.

The pinnacle of beauty is seen in the framework of patristic theology, but also in literature, providing a good chance for their mutual encounter. The names of the authors in the second chapter are so diverse that intertextuality functions as a literary process that discovers the depth of understanding of existence, which apart from theology can be reached by the great minds of art as well. Therefore, in this chapter, Stamoulis goes deeper into the ontology of patristic philocalia and aesthetics which turn towards the beautiful and the good; which act in the direction of preservation and protection of the unity of man with God. Saint Dionysius the Aeropagite, points this out with the saying “good is what is part of the beautiful…” For a serious dogmatologist the patristic testimony is always compulsory! Obviously, the first important stop is Saint Dionysius the Aeropagite. For this saint beauty is not an attribute, but a Person. God is beautiful, thus, it is love as well. Through the journey in the inspiring patristic texts Stamoulis points to the trustworthy teachings of Saint Gregory Palamas, Saint John of Damascus and Saint Maximus the Confessor, where they show interest not for the partitioned human, but for the human as a whole, for the soul and the body, the overall human being; they show interest not in the murder of the senses but in their transformation. Orthodoxy has the role of collecting the scattered in the catholicity of the Body of Christ, the Church! Its ultimate end is togetherness with the most Handsome, with beauty of the sons of mankind (Psalm 45.2)! Refering to the teaching оf the Saint Cyril of Alexandria, Stamoulis suggests that the loss of beauty primarily is the loss of unity with the Holy Spirit, powerlessness for unity with the Triune God. Therefore in this chapter, alongside the patristic tradition, Stamoulis, refers to Dostoyevski as well, and in context of the abovementioned that beauty is a Person, to the beautiful statement by Dostoyevski “Beauty will save the world”, as well as other significant names such as Thomas Elliot who from “in my beginning is my end” ends with “in my end is my begininig”! In accordance with Stamoulis, in the orthodox tradition, theology is an art of experience, an art of showing beauty, which originates from the heavens; art is not a product of the fall, thus depending on quality, direction and degree of conquest, it can act in the direction of saving mankind’s wholesomeness. Death cannot annihilate aesthetic truth because, actually, death does not exist! Christ defied death, and thus one cannot otherwise explain the healing of the blind, purification of the leppers, the miraculous presence of the holy relics. Therefore, the subject of interest, the main yearning is not just some base abstract unity, but unity with Christ!

In the third part, referring to the teachings of the achimandrite Sofronius (Saharov) but also to the works of N.G. Penditzikis, Stamouls suggests that the philocalic aesthetics is theology of beauty, pointing out that true art ascends to the Creator, Who unites everything. This book speaks of God’s beauty, the beauty of Orthodoxy. The author speaks of integrating authentic creations of the human spirit in our theological vision of life and the world, in order for holiness to become more impressive, more attractive, more interesting to man than sin. Since he is not afraid of the bipolarism East-West, he continues with the parallel reading of the mystic theologist of the 20^th century, the venerable Porphyrios the Kafsokalyvite and the aesthetic theory of Theodor Adorno, in accordance with the fact that apophatic theology does not contradict cataphatic theology. In this part, Stamoulis refers to the contemporary orthodox theology as well, which is characterized by fragmentation and unilateralness. It has already been mentioned that for him the aesthetics of the embodied Logos is a paradox and not a fragment, thus, according to Ioannis Kourembeles, Stamoulis does not run in circles to sell the paradox here or there, but, in accordance with Stamoulis: both here and there! In Stamoulis’ work there are no traces of apologetics, which sometimes is a feature of certain dogmatologists, on the contrary, he insists on joining the nuances of Orthodoxy in a common denominator of the ecumenical nature of God. His work is not a dogmatically dry and insensitive voice. His work is open to everyone.

In the appendix of the book titled “Saints and poets, maybe…” the title of which is borrowed from the theatrical work “Our town” by the playwright Thornton Wildler, Stamoulis addresses the readers through the prism of the teachings of Saint Cyril of Alexandria, reminding them of the forgotten word: surprise; reminding them of the small things in life, whose fullness of feeling and living leads to the experience of “philocalic aesthetics”. Thus, it is a book in which the saints and poets are on a joint journey, discovering the connection of the true sacredness with true poetry in order to articulate the expression “philocalic aesthetics”. The book “Sacred Beauty”, leads to understanding that beauty is inseparable from sacredness! The poet Kiriakos Haralampidis says that the content of the book carries in itself an initiative and represents a scandal for the formal theological thought and the frowning aesthetic dogmatism. In this book Stamoulis marries philocaly and aesthetics in a documented manner, enabling encounters with saints and artists who during their lifetime have embodied and announced with their works the breakthrough of philocaly and aesthetics.

In one of his texts “Art of theology and theology of art”, Stamoulis poses the question: what is art? He immediately answers that art is related to the beautiful; on the level of creation, and creating. Authentic art does not create anything without reason and does not act without sense. Theology, just as art, discusses the personal joint existence of man with God and with the neighbour, iconizing the community of the personalites of the Holy Trinity. Stamoulis also refers to Philip Sherard, who points out that the artist, as an icon and impersonation of the constant Artist, God, lives God’s  energies, lives the revelation and enlightens and transforms the world that surrounds him with his way of life and creation.

For a long time, orthodox theology acted in isolation, cut off from the beautiful and all that it leads into existence. This book reunites theology and art in order to show the orthodox theology of beauty.

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