Visitors of Ellopos Blog ask to know what books would be more appropriate for them in order to gain a better understanding of the Orthodox spirituality. I would not classify this question as ‘illegal’, but it contains something repulsive, suggesting the idea that we can understand Orthodoxy from a book.<\/p>\n
A book may help at the right time, to some extent, and again, not everyone, but one who can get such an assistance. Which book that might be, depends on age, general interests, character, etc., in conjunction with the conditions above. Saying these I’d like to warn parents in particular, to not think that if something prevents their child, this must be certainly the lack of study or ignorance of the ‘best’ book, in order for them not to be tortured how to turn their child’s attention to the reading of a book.<\/p>\n
If, weighing the circumstances, they infer that a book would indeed be useful to their child or friend, then, as a general counsel, I would suggest the giving of books that they read and admire themselves – not what an ‘expert’ recommends, because with a gift we convey also our own relationship with this gift, so that even on a good book, if we give it being ourselves irrelevant, we graft our irrelevance onto it. I remind that we don’t discuss about medical or legal knowledge, but for things that do not have their substance objective.<\/p>\n
Another important rule is not to give to an atheist or enemy of faith and religion, works of the Fathers, no matter how much we admire these works. The very fact that these works come immediately from a religious environment, would make them appear to their recipient as ‘fanatical’ and unreliable, if not completely insignificant. This would harm the value of the Fathers in the mind of such persons, so that even if they changed their mind later on, a depreciation would continue to exist, probably for a long time.<\/p>\n
We don’t talk with anyone about issues we consider as valuable, but only with those we are absolutely certain they will respect what we respect, they will share the same feelings, and even then, only at the right time, and rarely.<\/p>\n
It is evident from these, that I can not recommend books as gifts to others. To whoever have the question stated at the beginning, seeking to support themselves, I’ll try to talk about books that I would give them if I knew them, and according to my specific knowledge about them. To an atheist who, despite his atheism, would ask to be ‘informed’ about Orthodoxy, I would suggest the reading Plato. If even Plato fails to make him understand that atheism is identical with stupidity, why should I expect for him to find a better help elsewhere? On the other hand, if his lack of thinking made him despise Plato, at least I saved him from despising the major, namely Orthodoxy.<\/p>\n Faithful coming from Western forms of Christianity, would probably like to read for Orthodoxy a book which takes into account (even silently) the differences between Orthodoxy and Catholicism or Protestantism. Such a book is Schmemann’s, For the Life of the World. This book has the additional benefit of an emphasis upon the Orthodox ecclesiastical experience, an emphasis that tends to be somehow restricted to the sacraments, but still is based on a substantial understanding and cultivates conditions proper to make one realize that faith is not a reward of individualistic performance.<\/p>\n Some consider Florovsky to be more important than Schmemann. If we judge according to the number of books or to the ‘scientific’ elaboration, Florovsky might indeed prevail, but he often tends to say a lot of words for things that can and should be said in a few words.<\/p>\n Staniloae is unequal, and even tends to some scholasticism at times. However, all three are significant and can be useful, so that, if my friend had already a somehow ‘scholastic’ nature, I would probably suggest to him Staniloae instead of Schmemann, if he had an encyclopedic nature, maybe I would give him Florovsky rather than the other two.<\/p>\n Sophrony Sakharov, although modern, is closer to the Byzantine tradition, which may work as an advantage or as a disadvantage, according to person and time. For the Byzantine tradition itself, the anthology and translation (in modern Greek) of Hymns written by St. Symeon the New Theologian<\/a> transmits its highest meaning and aspiration, which is the most immediate and bold relationship with God a man can enjoy.<\/p>\n Many things can be learned from the Byzantine Icons, thinking about and with them, but even by just having them in the same room with us, if we come near them with devotion. The books of Lossky and Ouspensky on the Icons are useful too. For an example of reading an Icon, have a look at this post, what an Icon told me about Christmas and Easter<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the end I would say that nothing can replace the live conversation with someone who knows what we want to know, a conversation one can have in the parish, or even at a forum on the Internet, but with the inevitable limitation as well as risk of how rare it is to find a suitable person for such discussions. Visitors of Ellopos Blog ask to know what books would be more appropriate for them in order to gain a better understanding of the Orthodox spirituality. I would not classify this question as ‘illegal’, but it contains something repulsive, suggesting the idea that we can understand Orthodoxy from a book. A book may help at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_disable_autopaging":false},"categories":[8,5,16,13,10,4],"tags":[55,650,3068,3070,3069,134,53,3071,3067,258,238,3072],"class_list":["post-1105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church-of-greece","category-education","category-greek-art","category-greek-history","category-orthodox-christianity","category-plato","tag-faith","tag-florovsky","tag-introduction-to-orthodoxy","tag-lossky","tag-orthodox-books","tag-orthodox-spirituality","tag-orthodoxy","tag-ouspensky","tag-religion-works","tag-sakharov","tag-schmemann","tag-staniloae"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1105\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ellopos.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nCf. OnLine: Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church<\/a><\/p>\n
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\nCf. OnLine: Schmemann, A History of the Orthodox Church<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"