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Today’s Episode of the Hunger for Righteousness Podcast is about one of my new favorite saints, St. Theodora. I enjoyed learning about her so much that I read two books about her and consulted two more, in addition to reading a few articles and other sources. Theodora’s rise to power in the 6th century from humble means to empress of Byzantium is all the more extraordinary because she never forgot where she came from—in fact, she used her power to help everyone who felt as powerless as she once did.
Sadly, I was dissatisfied with most of the books about her. Two of them rely too heavily on a very much discredited but salacious account of her and Justinian’s rule by an unsavory fellow named Procopius. Because Procopius also wrote the official history of the empire under Justinian, many historians have assumed the veracity of another account he wrote called the Secret Histories, which completely and spitefully malign both Justinian and Theodora, but especially Theodora. The best history book from the ones I read in terms of sifting fact from fiction about Theodora herself is David Potter’s book, Theodora: Actress, Empress, Saint. I quoted a little bit from this book on the episode.
However, because of her and Justinian’s involvement in the Chalcedonian theological controversy, all of the books mischaracterize or even get non-Chalcedonian theology completely wrong, INCLUDING David Potter’s book. When it comes to any explanation of the theology of the Oriental Orthodox churches, it is better to read from Oriental Orthodox sources.
On the podcast, I mentioned a very important article by Susan Ashbrook Harvey, about the different narratives around St. Theodora. It is called “Theodora, the Believing Queen.” Ashbrook-Harvey is much better versed in Syrian Orthodox Church theology. Here article is worth a read, and you can download it here:
Stay tuned later this week for a newsletter with more Lent resources and a book giveaway!
May we fast an acceptable fast.
Phoebe Farag Mikhail
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