"So you want to marry a heterodox?"

(OCA) - A new book, Mixed Marriage: An Orthodox History by Priest Anthony Roeber, Professor of Church History at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, NY, “will surely become a standard work on the subject,” according to Archpriest John A. McGuckin, Visiting Research Professor at Oxford University and Emeritus Professor of Byzantine Christian Studies at Columbia University and Union Theological Seminary.

The volume—now available through Saint Vladimir’s Seminary [SVS] Press—explores historical documentation of incidents and practices regarding mixed marriages throughout the history of the Orthodox Church.

“Father Roeber’s excellent book offers a lucid and fascinating history of marriage and its relationship to the Church, the authority of the bishop, pastoral practice in relation to the administration of the Mysteries (how can a couple sharing in the sacrament of Orthodox marriage not be allowed thereafter to share in the Eucharist from which it flows?) and how that important, but often ill-defined term of oikonomia can address the issue of mixed marriage today,” said Father McGuckin. “The study’s strength is that it looks to the historical documentation of what happened in relation to mixed marriage in Orthodox past history, rather than following what is vaguely ‘supposed’ to have happened. Brilliantly and elegantly written, with a calm and surefooted perspective, it offers great interest for the specialist and layperson alike. This book will surely become a standard work on the subject.”

Father Anthony is the author of some 50 articles, six books, and three edited volumes. His most recent publications include the co-authored Changing Churches: An Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran Theological Conversation (Eerdmans, 2012) and Hopes for Better Spouses: Protestant Marriage and Church Renewal in Early Modern Europe, India, and North America (Eerdmans, 2013).