Selected works on the Christian Fathers and Orthodox Christianity        


Summertime has grown to be a time when some Canadians take a "break" from God, and avoid church over the warmer months. What better time is there - while on vacation, or enjoying the warmer weather at home - to at the same time build up our faith and understanding of the Church? The list below provides an introductory collection of good books for Christians interested in knowing more about the teachings and practice of the early Church, Orthodox Christianity today, and questions of living a countercultural Christian life. They are thought-provoking, well researched, and make no attempt to create innovative new theories to sell themselves.        


GENERAL TITLES        

What the Church Father Say About... (Vol. 1 and 2) - by George W. Grube        

Unseen Warfare: The Spiritual Combat and Path to Paradise - by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain / St Theophan the Recluse; ISBN 0-913836-52-4 St. Vladimir's Seminary Press 1978        

Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics)- ISBN 0-14-044475-0        

The Way of A Pilgrim - R. M. French (transl.) - ISBN 0-06-063017-5        

The Philokalia - Sts Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and Makarios of Corinth - (4 Volumes) ISBN 0-571-13013-5        

The Orthodox Way - Bishop Kallistos (Timothy) Ware - ISBN 0-913836-58-3        

The Orthodox Church - Bishop Kallistos (Timothy) Ware - ISBN 0-14-014656-3        

Available from Regina Press1-800-636-2470 - www.reginaorthodoxpress.comPO Box 5288, Salisbury MA 01952        

Dictionary of Early Christian Beliefs - by David Bercot, Editor - ISBN 1-56363-357-1        

The Complete Book of Orthodoxy - by George W. Grube - ISBN 1-928553-03-0        

Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion - by Frank Schaeffer ISBN 1-928653-09-X        

The Way: What Every Protestant Should Know about the Orthodox Church - by Clark Carlton ISBN 0-9649141-2-3        

Canadian distributor of most titles listed here:Alexander Press - Dr. John Hadjinicolaou2875 Douglas Ave., Montreal QC, H3R 2C7(514) 738-4018 - http://www.alexanderpress.com        

Many other titles appropriate to the faithful reader are available. Father Geoffrey would be pleased to discuss expanding the list. Please feel free to call him.        


WRITTEN FOR YOU        

St. John Chrysostom goes so far as to say that a Christian who doesn't read spiritual books can't be saved. Why? Because the world, whose spirit we absorb unconsciously many hours a day, is so strong that we will almost automatically follow its ways unless we are consciously filling our minds and hearts with Christian impressions.        

Innumerable books exist for this purpose, both in Russian and English: first of all the Holy Scriptures and Orthodox commentaries on them. Then the Lives of Saints and recent ascetics; "My Life in Christ" by St. John of Kronstadt; "Unseen Warfare" by St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain and Bishop Theophan the Recluse; the Spiritual Instructions of St. Abba Dorotheos; the Homilies of St. Macarius the Great; the Orthodox service books; the "Lausaic History" and the Lives and Sayings of the Desert Fathers, which are just as fresh now as when uttered 1.500 years ago; Lives of Russia's New Martyrs; Archbishop Andrew's "The One Thing Needful."        

"If you have a spark of Christian fervor in you, you will be surprised how much your soul will be refreshed by reading books like these; they will give you a taste of that otherworldliness without which the Christian soul withers and dies, especially in our worldly times."        


- taken from the lectures of Righteous Father Seraphim Rose