Aspects of the Mind of Byzantium

Book excerpt: This volume addresses the important mediaeval dynamic of the competition between those sees from an imperial Romano-Byzantine perspective, that is, from the point of view of how the imperator-basileus and his deputy, the oecumenical patriarch, interpreted scriptural and ecclesiastical tradition, canon law, and Roman political theory to buttress the late Roman and Byzantine vision of imperial vicegerency in the Roman Christian mundus-oikoumene. In so doing, the essay serves as an advantageous foil for the insightfully argued and Roman Catholic-centred perspective of Anastos's close colleague at Dumbarton Oaks, Francis Dvornik, in the latter's study, Byzantium and the Roman Primacy.