As Freud mentioned, "the first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization." From that haze of human history, many civilizations flourished, and equally many are today part of the cognitive field of the science of history. When the Church encountered the Greco-Roman civilization in the 1st century AD, it accepted elements that harmonized with its teachings, critically rejected those that were incompatible, and infused it with its spirit, fertilizing it. Based on the above, we could express the view that regardless of its divisions, Christianity created a civilization with two branches, the Orthodox and the Western.

The existence of a Christian civilization presupposes the existence of a Christianity in which one can discern the "sacred" from the "profane," contrasting orthodoxy with heresy. Theology has undertaken this role. Today's theological crisis has led many to consider the Christian discourse as exclusively "psychologically beneficial," referring to spiritual experiences, miracles, and impressive incidents, which often lead to the marginalization of Theology. This is a crisis that is particularly evident in modern Orthodox theology, which in the contemporary multicultural environment must discover, understand, and project its tradition as it engages in a religious and simultaneously cultural dialogue with other contemporary civilizations.

The existence of a Christian civilization presupposes the existence of a Christianity in which one can discern the "sacred" from the "profane," contrasting orthodoxy with heresy. Theology has undertaken this role. Today's theological crisis has led many to consider the Christian discourse as exclusively "psychologically beneficial," referring to spiritual experiences, miracles, and impressive incidents, which often lead to the marginalization of Theology.

This is a crisis that is particularly evident in modern Orthodox theology, which in the contemporary multicultural environment must discover, understand, and project its tradition as it engages in a religious and simultaneously cultural dialogue with other contemporary civilizations. This is a division between tradition and dialogue, which is not unknown in the recent history of not only Orthodox but also Western Theology. Patristic theology can contribute to resolving this situation.
Bearing in mind the aforementioned concerns and rejecting from the outset a theocratic perception of the type outside the framework of Christian civilization there is chaos, as historically outdated, we present aspects of Christianity with a series of studies included in this book.

These studies examine various topics of patristic theology, church history, as well as studies that explore the relationship of Orthodox theology with the environment, education, printing, libraries, new technologies, etc.

The first part of this book includes 17 studies, which focus on Greek and Latin Fathers. The second part includes 7 studies that deal with topics of church history.

The last of these brings to light unknown aspects of the history of the Lower Ecclesiastical Schools of Thessaloniki and Serres, as presented through the archives of the Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs. The third part of the book deals with issues of Environmental Education, within the framework of interdisciplinarity with the subject of religious studies. In the same context, issues concerning school libraries are presented. The special relationship of Christianity with culture is examined through two studies that explore the relationship of Theology with monastic libraries and the history of Greek printing. In the same context, that is, the multiple relationship of Christianity with new technologies, two studies examine the relationship of theology and informatics. In the fourth and final part of this book, the life, works, theology, and bibliography of 9 Fathers of the Church are briefly presented. These studies constituted entries for the Encyclopedic Biographical Dictionary of Byzantine History and Culture, edited by Professor Alexios Savvidis. Some of these texts were published in the corresponding English edition published by the publishing house "Brepols." The entirety of the texts in this book constitutes the small studies of the last 19 years of Anastasios Maras. Many of these studies have been presented at International Conferences, as well as in workshops, abroad or within Greece. Most of these studies have been published in scientific journals in volumes of conference proceedings. Finally, it should be noted that the book is taught to students in the second semester of the Higher Ecclesiastical Academy of Thessaloniki