Here is a small book with the Maxims of Brother Lawrence. The book is set up so that you can absorb these maxims with short, easy readings each day over the course of one month, allowing you ample time to reflect and meditate upon each maxim.

Vladimir Solovyov (1853-1900), one of the greatest philosophers of the nineteenth century. He helped establish a rich tradition of Russian spirituality, inspiring a whole generation of thinkers, who followed his many-faceted spirit into diverse realms, bringing together philosophy, mysticism, theology, poetry, and powerful visionary experience with a trenchant social message. Solovyov was also a prophet, having been granted three visions of Sophia, Divine Wisdom. Less known in the anglophone world than Berdyaev (who was a pupil of his), Solovyov has a contribution of the first importance to offer to Western thought at its deepest level. Solovyov came from a rich and not yet fully understood tradition; his erudition was stupendous. Like his predecessors he was extremely sensitive to such problems as the religious meaning of history, of creativity, of culture. It is important to emphasize a general link between Solovyiev and preceding currents of Russian thought, for his Christian philosophy in a sense embraces them all. Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy sat at his feet. The differences between the Orthodox, Roman, and Anglo-Catholic and many of the Protestant Churches are not found in relation to the great dogmas or articles of the creed. Soloviev has a vital and unique message to Christians of all denominations; he offers a basis for reunion rarely suggested in Western Christianity, and this explains the motivation for this masterly study of Soloviev as playing a role in the Christian East similar to that played by John Henry Newman in the Christian West.

"Holy Fathers, Secular Sons" is the first study of the Orthodox clergy's contribution to Russian society. Prior to the 1860s, clergymen's sons were not allowed to leave the castelike clergy in large numbers. When permission was granted, they responded by entering free professions and political movements in droves. Challenging the standard view of educated pre-revolutionary Russians as largely westernized, secular, and patricidal, Manchester demonstrates that the clergymen's sons did retain their fathers' values. This was even true of the minority who became atheists. Drawing on the clergy's commitment to moral activism, anti-aristocratism, and nationalism, clergymen's sons believed they could, and should, save Russia. The consequence was a cultural revolution that helped pave the way for the 1917 revolutions.Using a massive array of previously untapped archival and published sources - including lively first-hand autobiographical writings of over two hundred clergymen's sons - Manchester constructs a composite biography of their childhoods, educations, and adult lives. In a highly original approach, she explores how they employed the image of the clerical family to structure their political, professional, and personal lives. Manchester's work provides a window into an extremely significant but little-known world of Russian educated culture, while also contributing to histories of lived religion, private life, and memory, as well as to debates over secularization, modernity, and revolution. "Holy Fathers, Secular Sons" powerfully challenges the assumptions that radical change cannot be inspired by tradition and that the modern age is inherently secular.Those interested in Russian history, the history of religion, and the relation of religion to politics will appreciate this important study.

Here is the book that converted C. S. Lewis from atheism to Christianity. This history of mankind, Christ, and Christianity is to some extent a conscious rebuttal of H. G. Wells' Outline of History, which embraced both the evolutionary origins of humanity and the mortal humanity of Jesus. Whereas Orthodoxy detailed Chesterton's own spiritual journey, this book illustrates the spiritual journey of humanity, or at least of Western civilization. A book for both mind and spirit.

In recent years there has been a gap in the market for a basic, modern introduction to the Orthodox faith. This book is progressive, whilst faithful to Orthodox teaching and practice. With enthusiasm and balance it covers the background and context of the Orthodox faith and churches, the traditional beliefs, the liturgy and prayer, the awareness of ecological issues.

The Church of the Holy Spirit, written by Russian priest and scholar Nicholas Afanasiev (1893-1966), is one of the most important works of twentieth-century Orthodox theology. Afanasiev was a member of the "Paris School" of emigre intellectuals who gathered in Paris after the Russian revolution, where he became a member of the faculty of St. Sergius Orthodox Seminary. The Church of the Holy Spirit, which offers a rediscovery of the eucharistic and communal nature of the church in the first several centuries, was written over a number of years beginning in the 1940s and continuously revised until its posthumous publication in French in 1971. Vitaly Permiakov's lucid translation and Michael Plekon's careful editing and substantive introduction make this important work available for the first time to an English-speaking audience.

One of the less formal but most important functions of parish ministry entails providing counseling to parishioners in need of sympathetic hearing and understanding advice from someone they personally know and trust. "Jesus Wept" provides a theological, psychological, and doctrinal foundation of the Eastern Orthodox Christian view of death that counselors can pass along to help the bereaved place the decedent's passing into proper spiritual context. It also discusses the psychological, functional, and spiritual aspects of the Eastern Orthodox funeral services. Author Gregory P. Wynot, Sr. focuses on the especially traumatic circumstances connected with the death of a family member or loved one and details the stages of dying and the grieving process. He also discusses how to diagnose and categorize different kinds of grief as well as how best to approach specific situations. Finally, Wynot looks at the impact of bereavement counseling on the counselor, who must find a delicate balance between being a "spiritual father" and psychological "caregiver." Also included are resource appendices and a bibliography for further reading. "Jesus Wept" is an invaluable resource that can ease the burden of what is certainly one of the most challenging tasks any counselor is called upon to perform.

As Anna Bowman Dodd (1855-1929), a New York travel writer and journalist, journeyed to Istanbul with the American Ambassador to France she embarked on a detailed account of the city and its people. Interested in documenting the changes in Turkey brought about by the "embrace" of modernity and progress, she considers Turkish women's rights, harems and marriage, the management of the household, education, slavery, the Sultan's reign, and nationalist movements in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. She caters to the American market for Orientalism but is also reflexive about its employment, both invoking and undercutting stereotypes as she addresses the "Eastern Question."

Is matter, in respect of alteration, an evil cause? It is thus proved that it is not more evil than good. For let the beginning of the, change be from evil. Thus the change is from this to good through that which is indifferent. But let the alteration be from good. Again the beginning goes on through that which is indifferent. Whether the motion be to one extreme or to the other, the method is the same, and this is abundantly set Forth. All motion has to do with quantity; but quality is the guide in virtue and vice. Now we know that these two are enerically distinguished. But are God and matter alone principles, or floes there remain anything else which is the mean between these two? For it there is nothing, these things remain unintermingled one with another. And it is well said that if the extremes are intermingled, there is a necessity for some thing intermediate to connect them.

Sergei Bulgakov, born in Russia in 1871, was one of the principal Eastern theologians of the twentieth century. At the age of thirty he was appointed professor of political economy at the University of Kiev. After a crisis of faith, Bulgakov declared himself an unbeliever in 1888, but in a slow process he moved from Marxism to Idealism, and then from Idealism to a rediscovered Orthodoxy. By the time of the two Revolutions of 1917, Bulgakov was one of the best known Orthodox theologians in Russia. In 1918 he was ordained priest, and fled Moscow in danger of imminent arrest. Arriving in Paris in 1925 he was to live and work there until his death in 1944, his life inextricably bound up with the Russian theological institute, Saint-Serge, of which he was a founder member and subsequent professor, rector and dean. In this timely work, Aidan Nichols introduces the life and work of Bulgakov and provides a systematic presentation of his dogmatic theology. 'The present book has appeared at exactly the right moment. Alike in Russia and in the West, we are witnessing a veritable "Bulgakov renaissance" . . . this is the first comprehensive and systematic survey of his theology in English.' Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia 'As research on Bulgakov by Catholics and Protestants as well as Orthodox grows in volume, it is a great help to have this authoritative, comprehensive guide. I hope it will encourage further study and assimilation of one of the most searching and moving as well as one of the most complex of modern theological minds.' Dr Rowan Williams, Archibshop of Canterbury Aidan Nichols, OP, is an English Dominican of Blackfriars, Cambridge. He has written thirty books, chiefly on aspects of Catholic theology and theological history, but also on Eastern Orthodoxy and Anglicanism.

There have been many books written about the Eastern Orthodox Church, covering its history, worship, and spirituality. At the same time that the Orthodox Church has emerged from oppression in Eastern Europe, revealing a spiritual depth able to with stand genuine evil, it has also begun to attract members in Western Europe and North America, disappointed in the superficiality and materialism into which Western Culture has declined. Children of the Promise tells of those whose Orthodox vision is that of the West transformed rather than denied: Western Christian practice returned to the Orthodox faith that shaped the Western exprience for a thousand years.

An Eastern Orthodox Christian perspective on eschatology. Read a balanced, well-researched treatment of the end times, interpreted from the Christian East by faithful Orthodox saints, martyrs, and Spirit-filled Fathers of the Faith. Historic Christian teaching on the rapture, the millennium, the state of Israel, and the role of the Church in the last days is something quite different from what is commonly taught in the pop religion of today's evangelicalism.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

This rich anthology offers new insight into an ancient form of Christianity still little understood in the West. An introduction to the rich diversity of the six "Ancient and Oriental Orthodox" churches - Egyptian Copts, Armenians, Syrians, Indian Malankara, Ethiopian, and Eritrean - through their distinctive tradition of prayer and worship, it provides both a survey of the history and theology of these Eastern Orthodox traditions as well as an anthology of their personal prayers, blessings, and liturgical prayers. The collection highlights the distinctiveness of Eastern Christian spirituality along with its connections to Western theology and worship.

Elizabeth I divided her episcopate at the outset of her reign between Geneva reformers and bishops who looked to the Fathers of the Early Church. Thereafter in the Church of England there would always be divines who were drawn to the orthodox East. Such men suffered mightily in the 17th century at the hands of the Puritans and then Whigs when these gained political power, and their suffering impelled them more and more to 'look to the east'. This book traces the fortunes of that quest, through the study of Greek texts, involvement in the intricate politics of the Near and Middle East, deprivation and isolation in the Nonjuror schism and finally the rejection by the Greek Patriarchs of requests for Orthodox Communion in the 1720s. It is a sad story involving much pain, but the steadfastness of the participants may have much to teach embattled churchmen today and inspire Orthodox readers to look with freah eyes at an attempt at unity whihc fialed as much through the weaknesses of the Orthodox Church at that time as from the inadequacies of those who wished to join them.

This volume includes 12 lectures on all the branches of the Eastern Church, with an introduction on the province, the methods and the advantages of the study of Church History, by the Stanley, Canon of Canterbury or Regius Professor of Church History at Oxford.

An English translation of the Daily Offices of the East Syriac, used today by the Assyrain Church of the East, the Chaldean Church, and the Syro-Malabar Church. (World Religions)

Israel expected the Messiah to be a conquering hero who would liberate the Jews from their Roman servitude. But instead, Christ came as a suffering servant to liberate all mankind from slavery to sin. The Gospel of Mark records Christ's public ministry as a journey to the Cross, yet-paradoxically again-as a time of vigorous action when His miracles astounded the multitudes, and His boldness infuriated His foes.About the commentary series This commentary was written for your grandmother. And for your plumber, your banker, and the girl who serves you French Fries at the nearby McDonald's. That is, it was written for the average layperson, for the nonprofessional who feels a bit intimidated by the presence of copious footnotes, long bibliographies, and all those other things which so enrich the lives of academics. It is written for the pious Orthodox layman who is mystified by such things as Source Criticism, but who nonetheless wants to know what the Scriptures mean.

Using the Seven Ecumenical Councils as backbone, Hore provides the reader with an overview of the Greek Orthodox Church. Writing in an era when the Oxford Movement was reaching a wide array of Anglicans with the forgotten connections with orthodoxy, Hore presents a sympathetic view of Byzantine Christianity. Following the trials and difficulties of the early church after it received imperial approval, a sketch of the Greek Church, including the "separatist" Churches, emerges.

In this unique volume, a new and distinctive perspective on hotly debated issues in science and religion emerges from the unlikely ancient Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition.

Alexei Nesteruk reveals how the Orthodox tradition, deeply rooted in Greek Patristic thought, can contribute importantly in a way that the usual Western sources do not. Orthodox thought, he holds, profoundly and helpfully relates the experience of God to our knowledge of the world. His masterful historical introduction to the Orthodox traditions not only surveys key features of its theology but highlights its ontology of participation and communion. From this Nesteruk derives Orthodoxy's unique approach to theological and scientific attribution. Theology identifies the underlying principles (logoi) in scientific affirmations.

Nesteruk then applies this methodology to key issues in cosmology: the presence of the divine in creation, the theological meaning of models of creation, the problem of time, and the validity of the anthropic principle, especially as it relates to the emergence of humans and the Incarnation.

Nesteruk's unique synthesis is not a valorization of Eastern Orthodox thought so much as an influx of startlingly fresh ideas about the character of science itself and an affirmation of the ultimate religious and theological value of the whole scientific enterprise.