Peace‐making Through the Blood of Christ: Insights from Nicholas Cabasilas and the Orthodox Tradition

Abstract This article treats Nicholas Cabasilas as an emblematic theologian of peace from the Orthodox tradition whose profound reflections on peace speak directly to our contemporary moment of turmoil. Writing amidst the untold upheavals of fourteenth‐century Byzantium, Cabasilas distills much of his inherited exegetical, ascetic, and liturgical tradition and marshals it to the cause of peace. The theology of peace he espouses neither reduces peace to the outward absence of violent conflict, nor spiritualizes it to the point of irrelevance for the pursuit of worldly peace. Taking his cue in particular from the opening lines of the Byzantine Divine Liturgy, he meditates with theological sophistication on the multiple levels of peace for which each must strive, and ultimately argues powerfully for the primacy of the blood of the Lamb as the true harbinger of peace, as well as the implications of this for Christian peace‐making. His vision is one that summarizes the best of the Orthodox tradition, and which ought to be harnessed now more than ever, at a time when confusion over the Orthodox understanding of peace has reached a peak.