# 3 1994

SUMMARY

     An Obituary for one of our authors Fr. Gleb KALEDA who died on the 1st of November, 1994, opens the third issue of the journal "Alpha and Omega". Fr. Gleb's article "The Shroud of Turin - the Sign of Contradictions," in the second issue of the journal was the last publication of his life.
     The section "Biblical Studies" contains a paper by Fr. Mikhail DRONOV, "Biblical Thought and the Language of the Icon," Fr. Andrej KURAEV's "Reflections on the first Chapter of Genesis", and a referat of the book "Edgar von Hennecke u. a. Die neutestamentlichen Apocryphen. T(binphen" ("The Apocryphic Gospel") prepared by Petr MALKOV. In the next section, "Patristic Exegesis," we print the second part of Tatjana A. MILLER's article "The Byzantine Exegesis II. The Fathers of the Church in II-III centuries". It is followed by Alexander L. DVORKIN's paper "The Old Testament as a Christian Scripture in the Writings by St. Justin the Philosopher and Martyr".
     A group of articles in the section "Church in History" includes a discussion of the ecumenical movement by ANTHONY (Bloom), Metropolitan of Sourozh, in his works on Christian unity. "The Day of All Saints of Russia who are Known and Unknown. Feast of the Russian Orthodox Church" is one of the last sermons delivered by Fr. Gleb KALEDA. Fr. Alexander Schmemann's article "The Church after the Apostles" offers a sketch of Church life until the middle of the second century. Fr. Ioann MEYENDORFF in his "Life worth of Living" describes shortly the life and works of his colleague, the famous theologian Fr. Alexander SCHMEMANN. In her essay "Human Love," Mother MARIA (Gysi) discusses problems of family and sexual life in the Christian perspective.
     The section "Church in Eternity" contains an essay by Yegor S. KHOLMOGOROV. The author attempts to reconstruct the historical background of the X century and some significant points in the life of St. Olga, the first Christian Princess of Old Russia.
     The section "Church Culture" includes a sermon by Fr. Ioann SVIRIDOV dedicated to St. Andrej Rublyov, the iconographer, and a paper on the iconography of the Nativity of Christ by Yelena LUKOVNIKOVA.
     Six poems by a young poet, Anastasia BAIZDRENKO are published in this issue. She tries to express deep spiritual feeling in connection with Biblical motives. The poems are accompanied by comments by A. ZHURAVLYOV.
     The last section is composed of a review and digest of the journal "Sourozh," a note by Nikita POLYAKOV on the course of Bible translation at the Vrije Universiteit (Amsterdam), and a letter to the Editorial Board from Mr. A. SERGEEV who puts under discussion the liturgical usage of Russian Synodal translation of the Bible.