Recent Developments in the Balkans: Summary and Comment

In this paper, I will summarize several reports about achievements by United Nations organizations and the Kosovo Force [hereafter KFOR] in the Balkans during 2001. My summary will also include, from the same period, other reports about areas of concern in which these organizations have shown scant interest, despite pleas from leaders and representatives of the peoples in the region. The latter resulted in an unusual letter from the head of the Keston Institute in which he reflected on some of the failures, a letter from which I will present extended portions. Following that, I will add some reflections of my own on the issue, as a historian of Eastern Europe

Advice from St. Maximos Confessor for Contemporary Macedonians

All three of our monotheistic religions rely on the divine Word, written for us: for Jews in the Tanakh, for Christians also in the New Testament, and for Muslims as well in the Qur’an. For all our disagreements with each other, we recognize a common rootedness in a tradition of faith finding its beginning in Abraham, for Jews carried forward by the patriarchs and Moses, for Christians fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and for Muslims culminating in Muhammed. Consequently, even in the midst of the tensions that have separated our faiths over the centuries and have contributed recently to the tensions notable in your beautiful land, our religions have enough common heritage that we should be able to listen to and, it may be hoped, appreciate each other – with a view to finding ways both to honor our own religious faith and yet also to honor those who do not share it. For this, we need to try to find emphases and approaches to which we can all resonate. One of these may be found in a declaration which all three of our religions have heard and emphasized. All three of our monotheistic religions rely on the divine Word, written for us: for Jews in the Tanakh, for Christians also in the New Testament, and for Muslims as well in the Qur’an. For all our disagreements with each other, we recognize a common rootedness in a tradition of faith finding its beginning in Abraham, for Jews carried forward by the patriarchs and Moses, for Christians fulfilled in Jesus Christ, and for Muslims culminating in Muhammed. Consequently, even in the midst of the tensions that have separated our faiths over the centuries and have contributed recently to the tensions notable in your beautiful land, our religions have enough common heritage that we should be able to listen to and, it may be hoped, appreciate each other – with a view to finding ways both to honor our own religious faith and yet also to honor those who do not share it. For this, we need to try to find emphases and approaches to which we can all resonate. One of these may be found in a declaration which all three of our religions have heard and emphasized

Book Review: God’s Spies: The Stasi’s Cold War Espionage Campaign inside the Church

Review of Elisabeth Braw, God’s Spies: The Stasi’s Cold War Espionage Campaign Inside the Church. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2019. $25.00 (hardcover). ISBN: 978-0-8028-7525-9