The line that separated Eastern Christendom from Western on the medieval map is similar to the "iron curtain" of recent times. Linguistic barriers, political divisions, and liturgical differences combined to isolate the two cultures from each other. Except for such episodes as the schism between East and West or the Crusades, the development of non-Western Christendom has been largely ignored by church historians. In "The Spirit of Eastern Christendom," Jaroslav Pelikan explains the divisions between Eastern and Western Christendom, and identifies and describes the development of the distinctive forms taken by Christian doctrine in its Greek, Syriac, and early Slavic expression.

"It is a pleasure to salute this masterpiece of exposition. . . . The book flows like a great river, slipping easily past landscapes of the utmost diversity--the great Christological controversies of the seventh century, the debate on icons in the eighth and ninth, attitudes to Jews, to Muslims, to the dualistic heresies of the high Middle Ages, to the post-Reformation churches of Western Europe. . . . His book succeeds in being a study of the Eastern Christian religion as a whole."--Peter Brown and Sabine MacCormack, "New York Review of Books"

"The second volume of Professor Pelikan's monumental work on The Christian Tradition is the most comprehensive historical treatment of Eastern Christian thought from 600 to 1700, written in recent years. . . . Pelikan's reinterpretation is a major scholarly and ecumenical event."--John Meyendorff

"Displays the same mastery of ancient and modern theological literature, the same penetrating analytical clarity and balanced presentation of conflicting contentions, that made its predecessor such an intellectual treat."--"Virgina Quarterly Review

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作為基督宗教思想史秦山北斗的帕利坎，在一九九八年正式改宗，加入了美國正教會，由一位信義宗牧師變成正教會平信徒。他本人坦率承認，返依正教會的行動與他寫作正教神學有關。在他的眾多著作中，尤以五卷本的《基督教傳統》最為膾炙人口，本書為此鉅著的第二卷：《東方基督教世界的精神》，其與眾不同之處在於，「別人是透過閱讀進入正教，而我卻是透過寫作進入正教」。

漢語學界的基督教研究，一直是以與基督新教相關的研究為主，對基督政教的研究則備受冷落。現有的相關中譯本，很少以思想史/教義史的角度去交代東方基督教世界的神學傳統。因此，本卷的中譯本問世為正教的研究提供了一快非常重要的踏腳石。