Orthodoxy Books

The Orthodox Church: New Edition

Timothy Ware

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 70 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent study of the Orthodox Church 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I think this is an excellent book for those like me who want to know more about the Orthodox Church. I became orthodox myself some time ago but always wanted to undestand many things of the history of our Church so I think this is THE book.
I specially recomend it to those who consider the Orthodox Church a great mistery, something distant and very different of the western Church. You'll find out that exist a lot of differences between both churches but you will also realize there is so much in common.
If you are considering a book to learn more about the Orthodox Church, this your book.

A Must read for anyone willing to find the true Christianity 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A Must read for anyone willing to find the true Christianity. Reveals and explains the Orthodox Church the true and holy one settled by Christ and continued by the apostles and having no modern changes of faith or trends. The same true and holy faith as in the first centuries worshiped by the apostles.

Orthodox Church History 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I think Timothy Ware (Bishop Kallistos) presents a good concise history of Eastern Orthodoxy, as well as a balanced view of the "The Great Schism." Timothy's sentiments go beyond a mere intellectual appeal for Christian unity and suggest that we have both, East and West, been "grievously impoverished" by our separation. As he states (p.61),"The Greek east and the Latin west still need one another. For both parties the great schism has proved to be a great tragedy."

The Orthodox Way

Kallistos Ware

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 32 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Great for seekers! 5 out of 5 stars.
11 of 12 people found this review helpful.

This is one of Bishop Ware's best! It is a great intro to Orthodox Theology. However, do not expect to find much history or ritual details. It is mainly an introduction, and touches on the fundamentals. Being an ex-Vineyard Church youth pastor, I especially liked his spiritual approach to theology, which seems to have been lost by most western theologians. I found myself in tears and full of the holy spirit reading this book! It's a must read! -Yes, I am an Orthodox convert.

Editorial Review:

This book is a general account of the doctrine, worship and life of Orthodox Christians by the author of the now classic The Orthodox Church. It raises the basic issues of theology: God is hidden yet revealed; the problem with evil; the nature of salvation; the meaning of faith; prayer; death and what lies beyond. In so doing, it helps to fill the need for modern Orthodox catechism. Yet this book is not a mere manual, a dry-as-dust repository of information. Throughout the book, Bishop Kallistos Ware shows the meaning of Orthodox doctrine for the life of the individual Christian. Doctrinal issues are seen not as abstract propositions for theological debate but as affected the whole of life.

A wealth of texts drawn from theologians and spiritual writers of all ages accompanies Bishop Kallistos' presentation. They too reveal Orthodoxy not just as a system of beliefs, practices and customs but indeed as the Way.

ORTHODOXY

Gilbert, K. Chesterson

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Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

This book is meant to be a companion to "Heretics," and to put the positive side in addition to the negative. Many critics complained of the book called "Heretics" because it merely criticised current philosophies without offering any alternative philosophy. This book is an attempt to answer the challenge. It is unavoidably affirmative and therefore unavoidably autobiographical. The writer has been driven back upon somewhat the same difficulty as that which beset Newman in writing his Apologia; he has been forced to be egotistical only in order to be sincere. While everything else may be different the motive in both cases is the same. It is the purpose of the writer to attempt an explanation, not of whether the Christian Faith can be believed, but of how he personally has come to believe it. The book is therefore arranged upon the positive principle of a riddle and its answer. It deals first with all the writer's own solitary and sincere speculations and then with all the startling style in which they were all suddenly satisfied by the Christian Theology. The writer regards it as amounting to a convincing creed. But if it is not that it is at least a repeated and surprising coincidence. -- G. K. Chesterton

For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy

Alexander Schmemann

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Profound Sacramental Theology. A Must Read. 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.

I am Catholic. I began reading Orthodox theology about five years ago, after experiencing the Orthodox liturgy in the most dramatic and sublime manner possible: at Pascha vigil. It simply blew me away. In thirty years of weekly mass attendance I had never seen anything remotely approaching what I encountered that night.

That unknown beauty both crushed and liberated me. It revolutionized my worldview.

I began reading everything I could on ecclesiology, Church history, liturgy, and Orthodox apologetics. For Orthodox thinkers I dug into Lossky, Fr. Meyendorff, Elder Ephraim, Archbishop Kalistos Ware, the Philokalia, Pere Clement, St. Gregory Palamas, the Desert Fathers, the Cappadocian Fathers, St. John Climacus, Solzenhitzen, so on & forth. It was all utterly amazing. I had had no idea.

This book though, is a standout even amongst such rarified company. Schmemann is simply stunning. From the first page he piles insight atop insight. I've given my copy of the book away, so I haven't got it in front of me. Still, from memory I can tell you that he takes and reveals to you blatantly obvious truths about the sacramental life that have been right in front of our noses all along. That all of creation is in fact Eucharistic, rent with power of the Resurrection. You will never approach the chalice with the same mind again, once you've read it.

Orthodox theology and spirituality is most often like this: limpid & fierce, uncompromising. Very bracing, in a culture as decadent and corrupt in it's thinking as ours.

Shamefully, only the very best in contemporary Catholicism - both in terms of liturgy and theology - can touch or exceed the Orthodox average.

That said, the tragedy of historical Orthodoxy is that has been unable to make an apologetic case for itself in the so called West. Ground as they were for so long under the heel of all those Arabs, Turks, Tartars and communists. Maybe those persecutions preserved the "East" from modernity, and are the reason the flame burns so clean, particularly in the Russian, Arab & OCA parishes I've visited? God scourges those he favors, after all.

The yoke is mostly cast off, though. This seems to me to be an Orthodox moment. Can they get their act together, throw the bushel basket off their lamp, and engage the world? If the Orthodox are the Catholic Church of the Creed, as virtually every Orthodox I've talked to has insisted, I demand nothing less. (Heh. Demand! Quelle cheek, huh?) Heretics are swarming the West. So where's our Tome of Leo? Where is it? Is there a bishop to equal Athanasius in the East? Or are the Orthodox going to succumb to secularism, now that they've slipped the Communist & Saracen yokes? Will rationalism, relativism, sloth, lust and avarice do them in too? Will suburbia demand organs and pews, shorter liturgies, prefab iconography, the abrogation of feasts & fasts, & the rest? Or will Slavic ferocity save them?

No matter, all irrelevant, it seems. Orthodoxy isn't even really on the cultural radar screen. The Orthodox take on Church history is just incomprehensible here, mostly because people have never heard any of it before. The categories and data are for the most part utterly foreign. Is this excusable?

Or is it simply as it was in Noah's time, foreordained that no one should care about the Ark? But didn't Noah warn the people, anyway?

Or are the Orthodox anointed with the Sign of Jonah? And is the West Nineveh?

Or are they - God forbid - simply petulant xenophobic schismatics with nothing relevant to share?

In any case, this book - as well as everything else I've read by Schmemann and other Orthodox authors - needs to become part of our common discourse.

The time is ripe. The harvest is now. We all need to be Orthodox. Just as we need to be Catholic. Not all Roman, but Orthodox Catholics.

Which isn't necessarily to say that there isn't a Petrine charism or primacy of power in the Church, as per Isaiah 22:15-25.. Nor is it to say that ultra-montagne papists don't have a hard historical lesson or fifty to learn along the lines of the Donation of Constantine affair.

Let there be polemics! Catholic Answers & Co. all need more of a challenge than shooting poor 'fundamentalist' fish in a barrel. Please! Help them! Their apologetics are sooo boring. Spot them 1 Tim. 3:15. The rest of their apologetic directed at the prots is sheer redundancy. Let's get down to nuts and bolts and excavate the meaning of that verse. It all boils down to that.

The significance of the primacy is already planted firmly on the table. John Paul did that. Benedict is now throwing up huge signals, too. No one I heard remarked on the most interesting thing about his oh so terribly scandalous Regensburg speech. That quotation was not arbitrary. A pope does not accidentally quote Orthodox (Imperial!) sources.

I just know that all can be resolved and forgiven, if we only submit to each other in love and (re)adhere to our tradition. If the Arians were vanquished, why not our schism? As Paul re-embraced Peter? Forget Vatican III. Why not Nicea III?

I'm sure the Turks will accommodate us ..

The Harvest awaits. The gates of hell shall not prevail.

SS. Cyril & Methodius, SS Benedict & Anthony, SS Augustine & Athanasius,

Pray for us.

The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church

Vladimir Lossky

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This work gets at the heart of Christian mysticism 5 out of 5 stars.
37 of 39 people found this review helpful.

While this title appears on many recommended lists of books on Eastern Orthodoxy, it would not be easy reading for someone uninitiated to mystical Christian writings (from either the east or the west). It also helps to have at least a passing knowledge of Greek as many of the terms appear in Greek.

Lossky spends over half the book laying a foundation on the Eastern understanding of apophaticism (describing God by what He is not), asceticism, the Holy Trinity, uncreated energies of the Godhead, image and likeness, the "economy of the Son" and the "economy of the Holy Spirit," before discussing the goal of Christian mysticism which is theosis or union with God, the Divine Light. To me, the heart of the book is in the chapter on "The Way of Union," but it would be meaningless without the preceding chapters.

Lossky quotes profusely from the great mystical theologians of the Eastern Church, from various epochs and geographic locations to display the inherent unity of thought on mysticism in the Eastern tradition.

Readers who need an introductory work before tackling Lossky might want to try "The Illumined Heart" by Frederica Matthewes-
Green, "Beginning to Pray" by Anthony Bloom or "The Art of Prayer" by Igumen Chariton of Valamo.

Editorial Review:

In his classic exposition of the theology of the Church, Lossky states that the Eastern Tradition..."has never made a sharp distinction between mysticism and theology; between personal experience of the divine mysteries and the dogma affirmed bu the Church." The term "mystical theology" denotes that which is accessible yet inaccesible' those things inderstood yet surpassing all knowledge.

Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers (Penguin Classics)

Various

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Descriptive Insight of Early Christian Lives 4 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

'Early Christian Writings' is a collection of various epistles, as well as an account of the martyrdom of Polycarp, a religious leader for 1st century Smyrnea. The language is beautiful and eloquent, worthy of any Christian library. Literature is noncanonical, although professionally accepted as authentic 1st century Christian writing.

I wholesomely recommend this book to all peoples, and, were I a minister, would encourage my congregation to partake of the wondrous sustenance it bears for the soul.

Peace to you in His name,
RSM

Editorial Review:

The writings in this volume cast a glimmer of light upon the emerging traditions and organization of the infant church, during an otherwise little-known period of its development. A selection of letters and small-scale theological treatises from a group known as the Apostolic Fathers, several of whom were probably disciples of the Apostles, they provide a first-hand account of the early Church and outline a form of early Christianity still drawing on the theology and traditions of its parent religion, Judaism. Included here are the first Epistle of Bishop Clement of Rome, an impassioned plea for harmony; The Epistle of Polycarp; The Epistle of Barnabas; The Didache; and the Seven Epistles written by Ignatius of Antioch among them his moving appeal to the Romans that they grant him a martyr's death.

A Saint and His Lion: The Story of Tekla of Ethiopia

Elaine Murray Stone

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Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This is a lavishly illustrated children's book 5 out of 5 stars.
8 of 10 people found this review helpful.

The editorial review fails to mention that this is a lavishly illustrated picture book, with the drawings by Cecile Sharratt, who also illustrated Shalinar's Song, also published by Paulist Press.

Editorial Review:

Born in a tiny village to simple farmers in Ethiopia, Tekla was marked from birth to be someone special. However, after a fall from a tree crippled him, he seemed to have no future.

Despite his disability, Tekla longed to become a priest. On his way to study at a monastery, he encountered a wounded lion. Overcoming his fear, he bandaged the lion's paw and continued on his journey. His kindness was repaid when later this very same lion not only spared his life, but invited him to mount on his back so that he could transport him. The two set out to convert the wild Galla tribesmen to the Christian faith.

Tekla's story of persistence, kindness, and courage, set in the exotic background of 13th-century Ethiopia, will capture the attention of young children, as well as those who read to them.

Faith of the Early Fathers: Three-Volume Set

William A. Jurgens

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Indispensible for anyone interested in early Christianity 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is the best--the very best--of all the collections of the sayings of the early fathers. The choices are superb. The explanations of the translations are direct and clear and the short biographies that introduce each author include every drop of information you need.

Want to look up 1 Clement? Jurgens includes a biography with all the facts listed, plus speculative information: "Whether or not he was Peter's convert, as the Pseudo-Clementines would have it..." p 8). And in the footnotes: "This is the first time the word 'layman' was used in Christian literature" p 13).

The depth of the information, the perfect choices are remarkable. You might be able to live without these three volumes, but studying the early fathers without them would be much, much more difficult.

Most thorough 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Without exception the best collection of early church teachers. In addition to the writings of the early church is a thorough general index but more than that an invaluable doctrinal index to find the seeds of virtually every doctrine imaginable. Do not presume to understand early church history without this reference. All three volumes are ideal but, at the very least, get volume 1. Do not learn church history by other sources, return to the original documents and rediscover the church that Jesus Christ founded. You will be richly rewarded in what you find.

The Philokalia, Volume 4: The Complete Text; Compiled by St. Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain & St. Markarios of Corinth

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 34 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Worth waiting for! 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Excellent text of the writings of the early Christians. I'd recommend it, and the rest of the series, to anyone who wants to know how the Church started and what it actually believed.

My only problem with the order was that it took so long to arrive. It was one delay after another.

Editorial Review:

The Philokalia is a collection of texts written between the fourth and the fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Orthodox Christian tradition. First published in Greek in 1782, then translated into Slavonic and later into Russian, The Philokalia has exercised an influence in the recent history of the Orthodox Church far greater than that of any book apart from the Bible. It is concerned with themes of universal importance: how man may develop his inner powers and awake from illusion; how he may overcome fragmentation and achieve spiritual wholeness; how he may attain the life of contemplative stillness and union with God.

Compiled by Bishop Kallistos Ware

The fourth volume of The Philokalia

Volumes I through III are also available.

The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology

Igumen Chariton

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Total reviews: 16 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

You Have to Have Heart 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

This is a classic book on how to pray with mind and heart. It is used by our church for a weekly class discussion and review. The popularity of this class is highly rated by those attending.

For getting prayer from the heart in your life, this is a great beginning.

A Treasure 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

A beautiful book full of amazing treasures of spiritual insight.Reading this book and books of today on prayer do not seem to be even about the same subject. This authur is communing with God not looking for "a personal relationship with Jesus"

Simplicity Itself 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

in as few words as possible i would like to say that this is like a bible for me - i have just started reading it and already i can feel the sheer power in its utter humility - the way in which the use of prayer is explained to be the essence of any method or practice is unique in it's directness - i have not read a book on Christian Prayer or any Christian book for that matter which covers simply and unswervingly, what i call, the Heart of All Religion - i have always been scared by the word 'orthodox'...until now - now i understand what the word means to me - i recommend this book over any other like it - i guarantee you will not be displeased - now for the practice...

"Pray without ceasing" (5:17)

Editorial Review:

A spiritual anthology drawn from the Greek and Russian traditions, concerned in particular with the most frequently used and best loved of all Orthodox prayers--the Jesus Prayer. Texts are taken chiefly from the letters of Bishop Theopan the Recluse, along with many other writers.