Selected Articles on Orthodox Pastoral Theology, Religious Education and Spiritual Life: English Translations

Abstract

This collection contains full English translations of 21 Bulgarian publications by Ivaylo (Ioan) Vasilev on Orthodox pastoral theology, care of souls, religious education, monasticism, church history, and the spiritual challenges of technology and artificial intelligence. It includes two separately published versions of the Kancho Genkov study. The translations were prepared on 8 October 2026 with AI assistance at the author’s request, using Orthodox terminology selected by the author. Notes explain key Bulgarian and Greek theological terms, including instruction in the faith, catechesis, didachē, and education of the natural person. These translations have not undergone independent scholarly peer review. The deposit includes 21 complete article texts in UTF-8 Markdown, the agreed terminology glossary, a source manifest with identifiers and SHA-256 checksums, editorial notes recording discrepancies preserved from the original texts, and an English diagram. The ZIP contains the entire collection. A Markdown reader supporting footnotes is recommended. Coauthorship is acknowledged in the individual texts: The Church and Her Struggle against Epidemics through the Centuries was coauthored with Emil Paralingov; The Holy Metropolis of Plovdiv: A Partner of Schools in the Diocese in Establishing the Subject Christianity—Orthodoxy was coauthored with Nedka Cholakova. Original Bulgarian publications date principally from 2019–2025. Source publication years and identifiers are listed in the manifest; the date of this deposit refers to the English translation collection. Original publication credits and references are retained in the translations.