This chapter concerns itself with the architectural context of Byzantine worship. Through selected examples from Late Antiquity and Byzantium, it traces the development of ecclesiastical architecture, its symbolism, and their theological significance. Starting with the church building in early Christian commentaries of Maximos the Confessor and Germanos of Constantinople, it follows Byzantine architectural developments through the transitional and middle Byzantine periods up to the final centuries before the fall of Constantinople.

Race had a key role in the construction of madness and literary value and thus in periodical production in asylums, especially in the United States. Contributing to a periodical enabled educated white patients not only to express their creativity, enlightenment, and agency, but to reclaim their citizenship, at least figuratively. The launch of the Meteor in 1872 by a former plantation owner and patient at the Alabama Insane Hospital, Joseph Alexander Goree, was an act of rebellion against the irony of losing his own liberty and rights once he was certified as insane. The periodical was part of a larger campaign of literary activity through which he demonstrated his erudition, high taste, and reason. Recasting himself as an ally and collaborator to the superintendent, Goree found empowerment in maintaining the high literary quality of his publication and keeping madness out of it. Yet, the Meteor was far from a homogeneous polished account of the asylum: during its irregular run, it embodied different viewpoints as well as Goree’s declining enthusiasm and growing discontent, as he realised that his project of self-empowerment would fail to earn him his freedom and rights.

Eschatology is the study of the Last Days, including the idea that at the Last Judgement, God will judge each human being who has ever lived. Starting with the biblical origins of eschatological thought, I explore several new developments in discourses from the Byzantine Christian tradition, focusing on theological and liturgical responses to concerns about the end of time and the salvation of believers. The doctrines of divinisation, universal salvation, millennialism and purgatory were developed in different ways in East and West. I contrast these theological responses with the popular eschatological visions found in apocalypses and saints’ Lives.

The Virgin Mary was a multifaceted figure in Byzantine theology. She played a central role in the incarnation of Christ since she provided him with his human nature. Her virginity, before, during, and after the birth bore witness to his ongoing divinity. Although Mariological doctrine did not receive systematic treatment in the Byzantine theological tradition, it was elaborated in liturgical texts. The Theotokos was described with the help of metaphorical and typological language, which associated her symbolically with creation, humanity, and a transfigured paradise, that is, spaces that were potentially receptive to God’s presence. As recent scholarship has shown, however, Byzantine Christians also encountered Mary as a female human person. Her maternal qualities, which came to be celebrated especially during and after the period of Iconoclasm (ca. 730–843), included tenderness, mercy, and sorrow – as displayed at the foot of the cross during Christ’s crucifixion. Historical accounts and miracle stories provide evidence of individual Christians’ visions of the Virgin Mary at shrines and churches in Constantinople. At both symbolic and personal levels, Mary, the Theotokos, remained accessible to Christians while representing the ideal model of the deified human person.

Starting from three main passages, the censuses, the priestly blessing, and the prophecies of Balaam, this chapter analyzes how blessing is brought forward at key junctures in the book, making blessing a key theological end in Numbers.

This chapter engages with the issue of voice and freedom of expression by interrogating the function of the patient-editor. It explores the stories of the known editors and printers of the unpublished Moon (1882) of the New York City Lunatic Asylum and the first two series of the Gartnavel Gazette (1853–54; 1855), produced and internally circulated in the Glasgow Royal Asylum. The archives associated with these publications offer a glimpse into the relationships that periodical publishing involved. They show that asylum periodicals emerged out of conflict, negotiation, and collaboration – perhaps not unlike other similar publications at the time. This case study reveals that forces other than institutional supervision were at work. The editors’ class-based aesthetics and individual preferences in selecting material for publication, as well as conflicts among patients impacted asylum periodicals. The study of this newspaper also offers evidence that, far from polished records of asylum life, asylum periodicals embodied tensions. Patients’ grievances did find a place in their pages, even if complaints and attacks were softened with humour and irony.

The Holy Mountain is a monastic state with a millennium-long history that has remained largely unchanged since the Byzantine period. Settled by monks in the eighth/ninth century, it began to flourish in the second half of the tenth century with the arrival of Athanasius the Athonite and the foundation of the Great Lavra. The Holy Mountain represents a microcosm of the Christian East since, with the Greek, Georgian, Russian, Serbian and Bulgarian monasteries. These monasteries played a significant role in their nations’ spiritual and cultural history. A Latin monastery whose monks followed the Benedictine rite also existed during the Byzantine period. The Holy Mountain played a decisive role in the standardisation of the Byzantine rite and its dissemination throughout the Orthodox world. It also left a lasting imprint on Orthodox theology thanks to the enormous contribution of the hesychast movement in the fourteenth century. In addition to their unique spiritual significance, the Athonite monasteries stand as important examples of Byzantine art and architecture and serve as repositories of immense collections of manuscripts, minor works of art and icons. Mount Athos is a monastic centre unique in the Christian world, and one that has significantly contributed to the cultural history and spiritual unity of the Eastern Church.