The Schmemann Corpus

A guide to what Schmemann actually wrote: the books in their real editions, the retitlings that have confused two generations of bibliographers, the principal essays with their correct journal names and dates, the posthumous publications, and the broadcast collections. This file exists because the Schmemann bibliography contains an unusual number of traps, and because several of them are reproduced in otherwise reliable catalogues.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (emigration)

Why a Bibliographical File

Schmemann published across four languages and three countries, several of his books appeared under different titles in different markets, one major work is a posthumous translation of a Russian manuscript, another is a posthumous abridgement made by his widow, and the journal in which most of his articles appeared changed its name in mid-career. The result is a bibliography in which the same book carries three titles, the same article carries two dates, and library catalogues do not always agree with the books themselves.

The Books

The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy (1963)

Translated by Lydia W. Kesich and published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1963; later reprinted by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press (St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, “Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann,” svots.edu, bibliography). A survey of Eastern Christian history from the apostolic age to the modern period, and the fruit of his first professional identity: he was trained as a church historian under A. V. Kartashev and taught church history for years before he taught liturgy (see St. Sergius and the Paris School).

For the Life of the World (1963; 2nd ed. 1973)

His most widely read book, and the one with the most confused publication history.

  • First published 1963 by the National Student Christian Federation, as the study book for the 19th Quadrennial Ecumenical Student Conference at Athens, Ohio (27 December 1963 – 2 January 1964). The commission is documented by C. Alton Robertson’s letter of 21 February 1963 in the NSCF papers at the Yale Divinity School Library (William C. Mills, “Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World: A Retrospective,” Logos 54, nos. 3–4 [2013]: 199–228).
  • Sacraments and Orthodoxy (Herder & Herder / Palm, 1965) is a retitled reissue of the same book.
  • The World as Sacrament (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1966) is another retitling.
  • The second edition of 1973 (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press) is the standard text; it is revised and expanded, and adds two appendices: “Worship in a Secular Age” (originally an address to the Eighth General Assembly of Syndesmos, 20 July 1971) and “Sacrament and Symbol.”
  • Translated into more than ten languages (Mills, Logos 54 [2013]: 201 n. 4, listing eleven).

[Corrected: the Library of Congress record for the 1982 SVS printing states that *For the Life of the World* is a revision of *Sacraments and Orthodoxy*. The sequence is the reverse: the 1963 NSCF book came first, and *Sacraments and Orthodoxy* (1965) and *The World as Sacrament* (1966) are retitlings of it. Mills's archival work on the NSCF papers establishes the 1963 priority.]

See The Book and Its Origin.

Introduction to Liturgical Theology (Russian 1961; English 1966)

His doctoral dissertation, defended at the St. Sergius Institute in Paris on 2 July 1959 (the date given in his own Russian preface). [Disputed: St. Vladimir's Seminary gives the defense date as 5 July 1959; Schmemann's own preface gives 2 July. Both dates are in circulation.]

Russian original: Введение в литургическое богословие (Paris: YMCA-Press, 1961). English: translated by Asheleigh E. Moorhouse, published 1966 by Faith Press (London) / American Orthodox Press in the Library of Orthodox Theology series, and subsequently reprinted by SVS Press. This is the technical monograph on which his scholarly reputation, and most of the criticism, rests (see The Ordo and the Byzantine Synthesis).

Ultimate Questions: An Anthology of Modern Russian Religious Thought (1965)

Edited by Schmemann; Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965 (svots.edu bibliography). His attempt to put the Russian religious renaissance before an English-speaking readership.

Great Lent (1969; rev. ed. 1974)

First edition SVS Press, 1969; revised edition 1974, which adds the appendix “Holy Things for the Holy: Some Remarks on Receiving Holy Communion,” pp. 107–133 — a text important to the frequent-communion argument.

[Corrected: "*Journey to Pascha*" is a **cover subtitle only** and does not appear on the title page. It is nonetheless the form in which the book is almost universally cited, including on the seminary's own bibliography page.]

Of Water and the Spirit: A Liturgical Study of Baptism (1974)

SVS Press, 1974. The method of Introduction to Liturgical Theology applied to the rites of Christian initiation, read as a single paschal movement completed in communion (see Of Water and the Spirit and Frequent Communion).

Liturgy and Life (1974)

Department of Religious Education, Orthodox Church in America, 1974 (svots.edu bibliography). A short catechetical work, written for parish use — a useful corrective to the impression that he wrote only for scholars and students.

Church, World, Mission: Reflections on Orthodoxy in the West (1979)

SVS Press, 1979. A collection of essays on the situation of Orthodoxy in the West, including the ecclesiological and missionary pieces from the years around the autocephaly (see An American Orthodoxy and the Recognition Dispute).

The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom (Russian 1984; English 1988)

Written in Russian in his last years and published posthumously as Евхаристия: Таинство Царства (Paris: YMCA-Press, 1984). English translation by Paul Kachur, SVS Press.

[Disputed: the English edition's date. The imprint is commonly given as **1988**, and a **1987** printing is also documented; the seminary's own bibliography page gives 1987. Citations in the literature use both, and this guide has not been able to resolve which is the true first printing.]

His mature and most personal theological work (see The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom).

Posthumous Publications

  • Liturgy and Tradition: Theological Reflections of Alexander Schmemann, ed. Thomas Fisch (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1990). The most useful single volume for the student: it collects the programmatic essays and, importantly, reprints the whole 1968–69 exchange with Bernard Botte and W. Jardine Grisbrooke together with Schmemann’s replies (see The Liturgiological and Traditionalist Critique).
  • Celebration of Faith, 3 vols., trans. John A. Jillions (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press): vol. 1, I Believe (1991); vol. 2, The Church Year (1994); vol. 3, The Virgin Mary (1995). Sermons and talks, much of the material drawn from the Radio Liberty broadcasts.
  • The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann, 1973–1983, trans. and ed. Juliana Schmemann (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2000), 353 pp. The Russian Дневники 1973–1983 (Moscow: Русский путь, 2005) runs to 720 pp. — roughly twice the length. The English edition is an abridgement, and any argument from silence in it is unsafe (see The Journals).
  • O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?, trans. Alexis Vinogradov (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press). A short posthumous collection on death and Christian hope. [Disputed: the year of first publication is given variously in booksellers' records and could not be confirmed by this guide.]
  • Беседы на Радио «Свобода», 2 vols. (Moscow: PSTGU, 2009) — the surviving Radio Liberty talks in Russian; and in English A Voice for Our Time: Radio Liberty Talks, 2 vols. (Yonkers, NY: SVS Press, vol. 1, 2021; vol. 2, 2022). See Radio Liberty and Solzhenitsyn.

The Principal Essays

A caution first, which affects nearly every citation of his periodical work:

[Corrected: the seminary journal changed its name. Through **volume 12 (1968)** it is *St. Vladimir's **Seminary** Quarterly* (SVSQ); from **volume 13 (1969)** it is *St. Vladimir's **Theological** Quarterly* (SVTQ). Items from 1961–68 should be cited as SVSQ; a great deal of secondary literature retrofits the later name.]

  • “Theology and Eucharist,” SVSQ 5, no. 4 (Winter 1961): 10–23. His programmatic statement of the relation between the two. [Corrected: commonly misdated to 1965.]
  • “Problems of Orthodoxy in America,” in three parts: I. “The Canonical Problem,” SVSQ 8, no. 2 (1964): 67–85; II. “The Liturgical Problem,” SVSQ 8, no. 4 (1964): 164–185; III. “The Spiritual Problem,” SVSQ 9, no. 4 (1965): 171–193. The diagnosis behind the autocephaly project.
  • “Liturgical Theology, Theology of Liturgy, and Liturgical Reform,” SVTQ 13, no. 4 (1969): 217–224 — his reply to Grisbrooke, and the clearest short statement of what he thought he was doing. With the earlier “A Brief Response” to Botte, SVSQ 12, nos. 3–4 (1968): 173–174.
  • “A Meaningful Storm: Some Reflections on Autocephaly, Tradition and Ecclesiology,” SVTQ 15, nos. 1–2 (1971): 3–27. His defense of the 1970 autocephaly and the fullest statement of his ecclesiology of the local Church.
  • “Worship in a Secular Age” (1971 Syndesmos address), appended to the 1973 edition of For the Life of the World; and “Sacrament and Symbol,” appended in the same edition (see Worship in a Secular Age).
  • “Confession and Communion: Report to the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America,” 17 February 1972 — the practical document behind the eucharistic revival.

[Corrected: "Ecclesiological Notes," *SVSQ* 11, no. 1 (1967): 35–39, is sometimes cited as an autocephaly text. It is not about autocephaly. The autocephaly essay is "A Meaningful Storm" (1971).]

How to Read the Corpus

For a reader beginning: For the Life of the World (1973 edition, with the appendices), then The Eucharist, then Great Lent. For a student of the method: “Theology and Eucharist” (1961) and the Fisch collection, then Introduction to Liturgical Theology — read alongside the criticism, not before it. For the biography: the Journals, in Russian if possible. For the ecclesiology: “A Meaningful Storm” and Church, World, Mission.

See Also

References

  • St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. “Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann.” svots.edu. (The seminary’s own bibliography; source for Liturgy and Life, Ultimate Questions, the Celebration of Faith volumes, and the 1987 date for The Eucharist.)
  • Mills, William C. “Alexander Schmemann’s For the Life of the World: A Retrospective.” Logos 54, nos. 3–4 (2013): 199–228. (Archival work in the NSCF papers, Yale Divinity School Library; establishes the 1963 commission and priority.)
  • Fisch, Thomas, ed. Liturgy and Tradition: Theological Reflections of Alexander Schmemann. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1990.
  • Schmemann, Alexander. Introduction to Liturgical Theology. Trans. Asheleigh E. Moorhouse. London: Faith Press / American Orthodox Press, 1966. Russian original: Введение в литургическое богословие. Paris: YMCA-Press, 1961.
  • Schmemann, Alexander. For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy. 2nd ed. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1973.
  • Schmemann, Alexander. The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom. Trans. Paul Kachur. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1988 (a 1987 printing is also documented). Russian: Евхаристия: Таинство Царства. Paris: YMCA-Press, 1984.
  • Schmemann, Alexander. The Journals of Father Alexander Schmemann, 1973–1983. Trans. and ed. Juliana Schmemann. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2000. Russian: Дневники 1973–1983. Moscow: Русский путь, 2005.
  • Schmemann, Alexander. Great Lent. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1969; rev. ed. 1974.
  • Schmemann, Alexander. Church, World, Mission: Reflections on Orthodoxy in the West. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1979.
  • Schmemann, Alexander. The Historical Road of Eastern Orthodoxy. Trans. Lydia W. Kesich. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1963.
  • Schmemann, Alexander. A Voice for Our Time: Radio Liberty Talks. 2 vols. Yonkers, NY: SVS Press, 2021–2022. Russian: Беседы на Радио «Свобода». 2 vols. Moscow: PSTGU, 2009.