Compendium of Theosophical Teaching and Ethics
At the end of 1851, the philosopher Theophilos Kairis was still relentlessly persecuted for his ideas. At the same time, he completes the printing of an anonymous book in London, which had been brewing for many years, as he aspires to summarize in a systematic way the doctrine of his worldview, of Godliness, which he himself had introduced into Greek society since the 1830s. this work, in fact, additional and indirect answers are given to his accusers. But when her copies Epitome of theological teaching and ethics they arrive in Greece, are confiscated at the customs and their circulation is prohibited, with the result that the last work of the persecuted scholar remains almost unknown to this day.
Η Epitome reissued here for the second time, based on one of its few surviving copies. The present edition, which takes place on the occasion of the completion of one hundred and seventy years since the death of the great Greek thinker, gave the occasion to study both the correspondence of Cairo and the other available sources in a targeted manner, so as to highlight the publishing adventure of his works in London, combined with various unseen aspects of his persecution in Greece. Its reissue Epitomy it allows the modern reader and scholar to explore in detail aspects of the theosophical system in its most mature form, and adds a new chapter to our knowledge both of the philosopher's iconic personality and struggles, and of the censorship of ideas that began to be imposed by Church a few decades after the establishment of the new Greek state.
The scientific god
A rare anti-clerical text by an Egyptian Cypriot from 1935 comes to light again through the Lux Orbis Book Series.
ΤIn 1935, the publication of a book causes a disturbance in the Greek community of Egypt. The Scientific God by the essayist Antonis Christodoulou carries out a fierce attack against Christianity and its representatives, at the same time exalting the role of science and the progress it brings about in the evolution of human civilization. The author's pen is sharp and stormy. He deals with the conflict between Hellenism and Christianity during the first post-Christian centuries, searches for a meaning behind the teachings of the biblical texts that could benefit modern man, highlights the rapid developments in various scientific branches of his time and tries to make a prediction for a future religion of science.
The complaint addressed to the Patriarchate of Alexandria and asking for the banning of the book, fortunately is not heard. Despite all this, the work promoted for its time remains for nine, almost, decades in the oblivion of Greek Cypriot letters. The Lux Orbis Book Series proudly brings the pioneering thought of Antonis Christodoulou, a Cypriot cosmopolitan thinker of the 1930s, a worthy successor to the ideas of the radical neo-Greek Enlightenment, to the present.
"I refer to the cold-hearted and disinterested thinkers, those who make up the rational part of the people and who
if they explore their subconscious, it is impossible not to find there some penetrating doubt about what others have been taught until now about God".
The True History of the Church
ΤIn November 1933, the police raided central bookstores in Athens and proceeded to confiscate the publication of an author's work that had been released a few days earlier. There had previously been a related complaint by the Holy Synod, which demanded the absolute ban of the book.
The true history of the Church by Kostas Apekas is the first attempt to write a critical history of the Greek Church, through a Marxist prism. On a political and social level, it reflects the anti-clerical climate of the interwar period, which to a large extent is expressed through an unprecedented, for the data of Greek society, popular anti-clericalism.
Picking up the thread from the great tradition of the Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment, Apekas presents the exploitative character of the Church and the interests it represents, analyzing its role in the Byzantine and especially in the Ottoman state. He describes its political and ideological challenge by the liberal radical enlighteners during the Greek Revolution and highlights its new role, immediately after the creation of the new Greek state, as an ideological mechanism of the new ruling bourgeoisie, as it began to conservatise and compromise with the pre-revolutionary dominant elements.
The Lux Orbis Series brings to light yet another extremely rare edition, which unites the precursors of the Neo-Hellenic Enlightenment with unknown aspects and events of the 20th century.
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