Turning My Ph.D. Dissertation into a Book

The Grant would enable me to devote time to the editing and further research involved in turning my Ph.D. thesis into a book for publication. The title of my thesis, and the provisional title of the book, is Chasing Canon 15 of the First and Second Council in Constantinople (861): A Study of the Limits of Communion in the Byzantine Church (861- c.1350).

The first year of daily postings for This Day in the Life of the Church comes to an end on July 31. Having got used to the daily discipline which this has involved, I would like to transfer this discipline to my new project, and work on an almost daily basis on turning my thesis into a book, starting this August.

The thesis was written within the context of Byzantine Studies and will need some general adaptation to a wider audience to include members of ROCOR and of Orthodox Churches in general, for many of whom the central issue of Canon 15 has become a matter of contemporary concern. Further research will also be necessary, especially on recent invocations of Canon 15, but also to write an additional chapter on the Council of Ferrara and Florence in 1438–39. This Council addressed issues related to Canon 15, in the context of an attempt to reunite Christendom and especially to heal the breach between the Catholic Church and at what was called "the Greek Church", that is, the Church of the Byzantine Empire. This study will provide a significant extra perspective at a point in time almost exactly halfway between the Councils of Constantinople of 861 and the present day.

Dr. Anthony Hirst, Course Director of the International Byzantine Greek Summer School (hosted by Trinity College Dublin), and a long-standing friend and colleague of mine, has agreed to act as advisor during the editing of the thesis, for which he will charge a very modest hourly rate. I would like, at some stage in the process, outside of HTOS semester times, to go to London to work intensively with Dr. Hirst or, alternatively, to invite him to Jordanville to work with me there. In either case, traveling expenses would be involved.

My goal is to produce, within one year from August 1st 2024, a manuscript in a state more or less ready for publication. This means that I shall be “laying down another track” (to use a Russian metaphor) alongside my teaching at HTOS and in the online Pastoral School of the Chicago and Mid America diocese, running the ROCOR Studies website and Facebook group, and continuing my postings “This Day in the Life of the Church," although not on daily basis.

There will be some loss of income because I will not be so free as I have been to accept invitations to give lectures in various ROCOR parishes in the US. To cover the intensive editing and research work involved in this project, in addition to all my other activities, I estimate that I need to supplement my income by an average of $50 per day. Over 365 days this amounts to $18,250. I would also need to be able to pay Dr. Hirst for his time and for one of us to cross the Atlantic so that we could work together for a brief period. I need to feel confident that during the time of this project I will be able to continue to provide for my family.

During the year of editing and revision, I would make preliminary contacts with various academic publishers hoping to find one or more who would be interested in considering my book for publication.