The Acts of the Early Church Councils

"The volume importantly addresses this major lacuna by honing in on and analysing previously ignored and variegated textual practices that were utterly instrumental for these councils to effectively take place. * Mario Baghos, Classical Review * This monograph is the result of incredibly careful reading, often between the lines, of vast and complex sets of documents, and Graumann successfully builds a compelling picture of how the final acta produced by councils were the result of manifold influences, procedural moves, decisions and omissions, and priorities and personalities. This book will be of great interest to scholars of ancient record production, ecclesiastical politics, and conciliar history. * Young Richard Kim, Church History * The book's structure, organized by themes and topics, does lend itself to some overlaps and repetitions, and there is a wide variance in chapter length that makes the flow uneven at times. Nevertheless, this monograph is the result of incredibly careful reading, often between the lines, of vast and complex sets of documents, and Graumann successfully builds a compelling picture of how the final acta produced by councils were the result of manifold influences, procedural moves, decisions and omissions, and priorities and personalities. This book will be of great interest to scholars of ancient record production, ecclesiastical politics, and conciliar history. * Young Richard Kim, Oxford Early Christian Studies * The book's structure, organized by themes and topics, does lend itself to some overlaps and repetitions, and there is a wide variance in chapter length that makes the flow uneven at times. Nevertheless, this monograph is the result of incredibly careful reading, often between the lines, of vast and complex sets of documents, and Graumann successfully builds a compelling picture of how the final acta produced by councils were the result of manifold influences, procedural moves, decisions and omissions, and priorities and personalities. This book will be of great interest to scholars of ancient record production, ecclesiastical politics, and conciliar history. * Young Richard Kim, Church History * ... after reading the book one cannot avoid appreciating the roles of secretaries and stenographers of church councils, who are now recognised as playing a more central role than has been assumed hitherto. * Turhan Ka¸car, Istanbul Medeniyet ¨Universitesi, Bryn Mawr Classical Review * To put it bluntly: the christological doctrinal decisions of the councils of Ephesus (431) to Constantinople (680/81) required a procedural ""framing"". Or again to put it another way: Convincing Theologie based on professential bureaucracy. Thomas Graumann addresses this issue in his monograph, in which numerous preliminary work from a decade and a half has been incorporated. * Peter Gemeinhardt, Dr. Professor of Church History at the Faculty of Theology at Georg-August-University of G¨otting, Theology Review 119 *"