The volume contains the first complete translations of the Epistle to Foma and the lessons and sermons of Kirill, as well as an entirely new rendering of the Sermon on Law and Grace. Simon Franklin prefaces the texts with a substantial introduction that places each of the three authors in their historical context and examines the literary qualities as well as textual complexities of these outstanding works of Rus' literature.

Ilarion, Klim Smoljatic, and Kirill of Turov are remarkable for their personal and literary achievements. Franklin prefaces their work with a substantial introduction that places each of the authors in historical context and examines the literary qualities, as well as the textual complexities, of these outstanding examples of Rus' literature.

This volume consists of two of the oldest texts of Kievan Rusʹ the Izbornik of 1076 and Grigorij the Philosopher's Homilies on All the Days of the Week. These rhetorically artistic and sophisticated homilies provide a unique picture of an early Kievan preacher and of the moral needs of his Rusʹ audience.

The Reading and Preaching of the Scriptures in the Worship of the Christian Church is a multivolume study by Hughes Oliphant Old that canvasses the history of preaching from the words of Moses at Mount Sinai through modern times. In Volume 1, The Biblical Period, Old begins his survey by discussing the roots of the Christian ministry of the Word in the worship of Israel. He then examines the preaching of Christ and the Apostles. Finally, Old looks at the development and practice of Christian preaching in the second and third centuries, concluding with the ministry of Origen.

The authors included in this volume, Ilarion, Klim Smoljatic and Kirill of Turov, are remarkable for both their personal and literary achievements. Simon Franklin prefaces the texts with a substantial introduction that places each of the three authors in their historical context.

This book provides a thorough survey and analysis of the emergence and functions of written culture in Rus (covering roughly the modern East Slav lands of European Russia, Ukraine and Belarus). Part I introduces the full range of types of writing: the scripts and languages, the materials, the social and physical contexts, ranging from builders' scratches on bricks through to luxurious parchment manuscripts. Part II presents a series of thematic studies of the 'socio-cultural dynamics' of writing, in order to reveal and explain distinctive features in the Rus assimilation of the technology. The comparative approach means that the book may also serve as a case-study for those with a broader interest either in medieval uses of writing or in the social and cultural history of information technologies. Overall, the impressive scholarship and idiosyncratic wit of this volume commend it to students and specialists in Russian history and literature alike. Awarded the Alec Nove Prize, given by the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies for the best book of 2002 in Russian, Soviet or Post-Soviet studies.