A Landmark Release: St. Hilarion’s Bible, Church, History

On January 26, 2026, Uncut Mountain Press released the second volume of the collected works of the New Hieromartyr Hilarion Troitsky. I had been anticipating its release since reading the first volume, On the Dogma of the Church in 2022. This second volume, titled Bible, Church, History: A Theological Examination, is a compilation of essays written by St. Hilarion on these topics. The collection is an apologetical tour de force, revealing the deep erudition of the saint.

For our rapidly growing Church—now being taken seriously by American Protestant and Catholic apologists for the first time—Bible, Church, History equips the faithful with the tools necessary to dismantle arguments against the Church advanced by Western Christian apologists.

Construction

When the book arrived, I was immediately struck by the industry-leading quality of the text and binding. The hardcover is cloth-bound, handsomely decorated with a gold-embossed title and images on the front cover and spine, all protected by a green slipcover. The binding is Smyth-sewn, ensuring the book can be read and reread by several generations.

The front and endpapers are decorated with images of the world-renowned Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius, the spiritual heart of the Russian Church and a fitting tribute to the author himself. The Baskerville typeface is easy to read, even during long sessions, and is printed on bright white paper that handles notes and highlighting without bleed-through.

As a leading academic engaging with the elite of German biblical criticism, St. Hilarion’s notes are extensive; in places, an entire page may be devoted to them. Where his citations are available in English, the editors have provided those sources. Biblical citations throughout are taken from the King James Version (KJV), except where the text must be corrected to reflect the Russian used by St. Hilarion, and liturgical references are drawn from editions produced by Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Boston.

The text thus maintains not only an accurate translation of the original materials but also a poetic and reverent tone for the English reader.

I would also like to take a moment to thank the translator and editors. The average reader often fails to grasp how difficult it is to translate such a complex work. One must possess not merely a mastery of two languages, but also a command of the theology and terminology of both. This is no small feat, and Fr. Nathan Williams deserves our thanks and prayers not only for completing this 544-page translation, but for doing so exceptionally well.

St. Hilarion is often given to sarcasm and idiom, and Fr. Nathan’s translation successfully conveys these in clear English, preserving the original’s rhetorical force. The editing is equally impressive; I can’t recall a single meaningful typo throughout the text.

Contents

As noted above, the book covers a wide range of topics related to Scripture, the Church, and history. Each essay engages a particular issue prevalent in theological circles of the time—circles overwhelmingly dominated by German scholarship, whose influence remains with us today.

St. Hilarion’s work thus provides the modern reader with a deeper understanding of biblical history and theology, the life of the Church, and related subjects, while equipping them to respond to arguments commonly advanced by Protestants and Catholics in contemporary America. As an Orthodox island in a sea of Western Christendom (or what remains of it), this is of no small importance. I, for one, believe the timing of this translation is nothing short of providential.

Several chapters stood out to me in particular. The first, titled “The Old Testament Prophetic Schools: An Essay in Biblical History,” explores the biblical evidence for the formation and life of prophetic schools in the Old Testament. St. Hilarion engages with leading Protestant scholarship of his time, identifying both its errors and its valuable insights. He also draws on early Christian and Jewish sources to present a more complete picture of what is occurring in the text.

What might initially seem like a purely academic exercise proves deeply illuminating. In the course of reading, one not only gains a clearer understanding of the biblical text but also perceives in these prophetic schools a kind of proto-monasticism—revealing a continuity from Samuel, Elijah, and Elisha to John the Forerunner, Anthony the Great, and beyond.

This chapter is followed by “The Chief Principles of the Old Testament Priesthood and Prophecy.” In many ways, this essay expands upon the first, offering a broader view of the respective roles of priest and prophet within the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. It helps the reader better understand the life of the Old Testament Church and to perceive the clear continuity between that era and our own—the fulfillment of what was laid down before.

This, in turn, enables the reader to develop a more organic understanding of Scripture and to more easily dismiss the weaker arguments of self-described Orthodox theologians working within Jesuit or secular academic frameworks.

Honorable mentions include Chapter 4, “The Triunity of the Divinity and the Unity of Humanity,” and Chapter 6, “Repentance in the Church, and Repentance in Catholicism.” However, one chapter in particular captured my attention: Chapter 9, “Theology and the Freedom of the Church (On the Objectives of the War of Liberation in the Field of Russian Theology).”

In this essay, St. Hilarion elaborates on what has come to be known as the “Latin Captivity” of Russian theology. He provides a thorough historical account of its development and offers a clear and concise definition of the term, helpfully correcting common misunderstandings often promoted by those seeking to discredit the Russian Church.

Tracing the historical roots of this “captivity,” St. Hilarion shows how the subjugation of Ukrainian Orthodoxy within Roman Catholic kingdoms, together with the Union of Brest, gave rise to Latin-influenced schools and apologetics. These systems, developed in part to counter Jesuit arguments on their own terms, led to a flourishing of theological literature that eventually impressed the court in Moscow. This, in turn, resulted in the importation of Kievan hierarchs, theologians, and monastics into the broader Russian Church.

Yet this was a double-edged sword. Alongside intellectual gains came the gradual adoption of Latin methods, terminology, and certain ecclesiastical practices. These influences, carried from Ukraine into Russia, were met with concern by many Russian hierarchs and monastics. Within a century, Kievan figures occupied many of the most important positions, and the formerly Greco-Slavic schools of Muscovy were transformed into Slavo-Latinic institutions.

The Patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem warned against this trend, urging the Tsar to prioritize Slavonic learning—or, if a foreign language must be studied, to favor Greek, so that the Fathers might be more deeply understood. They were openly skeptical of Kievan hierarchs and what they viewed as deviating from Orthodoxy, even cautioning against their elevation to the episcopacy in the domains of the Tsar. Patr. Dositheus of Jerusalem is particularly scathing in his assessment of Orthodoxy in Ukraine, and the text offers extensive quotations.

But what, precisely, constituted this Latin influence? St. Hilarion identifies it primarily as the adoption of a scholastic mindset, along with the Latin language that accompanied it. Yet he is careful to note that, despite the dominance of these methods in theological academies, the true treasury of Orthodox theology remained the Church’s liturgical life, continuing to guide both clergy and faithful alike.

Much has been written about the “Latin Captivity” in our own time. St. Hilarion’s essay stands both as a corrective to false narratives and as a call to continue the work of freeing Orthodox theology from uncritical dependence on Western models—without discarding what may still be useful in refuting heretical doctrines.

Conclusion

It is difficult to recommend this book highly enough. Certainly, it’s a contender for the most important Orthodox publication of 2026. ***Bible, Church, History is a work that every Orthodox Christian serious about his faith.

Given its depth, length, production quality, and the immense labor behind it, the $45 MSRP is more than justified. Indeed, “the worker is worthy of his wages.”

St. Hilarion Troitsky stands among the greatest biblical scholars and theologians of the twentieth century, and this volume deserves a place on the shelf of every serious Orthodox Christian. Once again, Uncut Mountain Press has rendered a tremendous service to the English-speaking faithful by making these works available.

Ben Dixon is Editor-in-Chief of the UOJ-USA. Follow him on Twitter.

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