Eastern Catholic Studies and Texts Submission Guidelines

Pentecost. Mosaic from the Greek Abbey of Santa Maria di Grottaferrata near Rome, 12th cent. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
Chronological scope

1000 AD to the present

Research areas of interest include but are not limited to:
  • Relations between the Papacy and Eastern Christians starting with the medieval period
  • Byzantine and medieval Latin theologians debating church union with Rome
  • Church unions of the 16th to 18th centuries and their protagonists
  • The role of Eastern Catholics in the confessionalization and modernization processes in early modern and modern Central and Eastern Europe
  • Eastern Catholics in the Habsburg and the Russian Empires, 18th to early 20th centuries
  • Eastern Orthodox thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries who debated the idea of union with Rome
  • Eastern Catholics under the twentieth-century totalitarianism
  • Public and political role of Eastern Catholic Christians in post-totalitarian societies
  • History of Eastern Catholics in West Asia and North and East Africa
  • History of the Syriac Catholic communities in India in the missionary, ecumenical, and interreligious context
  • Dogmatic, liturgical, and canonical aspects of the Eastern Catholic Churches
  • Eastern Catholic Christianity as a factor in Catholic-Orthodox ecumenical relations
  • Eastern Catholic diaspora in both Americas, its past and present

Guidelines for Submission

The requirements for studies and for texts are similar but not identical. Both are explained below.

Stage 1)

For the first stage of a proposal, we ask you to write to John Martino, [email protected], who will send you the CUA Press Author Questionnaire. This form will provide a dozen or more questions that allow you to fully identify the project and make the case for its publication. For monographs or collected works, it asks for the curriculum vitae of each main author and/or editor and a table of contents.

For translations, we would further ask for:

  • A sample translation of 2–5 double-spaced pages, along with footnotes.
  • A copy of the original text corresponding to the sample.
Stage 2)

If the series editors and the Press determine that the proposal warrants invitation, we would then invite you to submit a manuscript for review. For monographs, collected works, or other forms of original scholarship, this would mean a completed manuscript with complete references.

For translations, a partial manuscript is acceptable for evaluation under the following conditions:

Prospective translators should aim for an introduction of approximately 15,000-30,000 words and a main text between 30,000 and 130,000 words. If you expect to go outside these parameters, please let us know—an extended introduction or a multi-volume translation are possible in some instances, although the text(s) in question must merit such a treatment. The inclusion of the original language alongside the English translation is likewise not positively excluded, but a case must be made for such an extraordinary treatment.

Hence, a Stage 2 proposal will consist of:

  • A complete introduction, or else a sample (10 or more double-spaced pages) of an the introduction, including footnotes, with an outline of the remainder. You should aim for the complete introduction to be between 15,000 and 30,000 words.
  • A complete bibliography.
  • A sample translation of 20–25 double-spaced pages, along with footnotes.
  • A copy of the original text corresponding to this longer sample.

In either case (studies or texts), the manuscript deemed sufficient for evaluation will be judged by at least two scholars, usually from the Editorial Board of the series. On the basis of their evaluations and those of the series editors, the Press will accept or decline the publication of the project in consultation with the Editorial Committee of the Press as needed. Acceptance of a project may be conditional upon the fulfillment of recommendations for revision, or you may receive a suggestion to revise and re-submit your proposal for further consideration.

Upon full acceptance of the project, we will draw up a contract between you and the Press and establish a date by which the completed typescript—title page, contents page, introduction, full text with notes, and bibliography—are due. We do not assign a projected date for publication of the work until the entire typescript is in our office and we deem it ready for production. Even then, one should keep in mind that publication dates are projections and not guarantees.