Saint Theophan the Recluse’ 19th century book “Unseen Warfare” is a classic of Orthodox literature, but it is a very difficult read, both because of some archaic language and styling and because it is just very profound material written by a great spiritual warrior. Father Sparks has refashioned the book into three books — “Victory […]

This small volume (114 pages) by an Orthodox archbishop is one of my very favorite books, and since it doesn’t seem to make into the church bookstores as much as I think it should, I’ll put in a word in time for Christmas buying.
The Amazon.com review of their book on tape version says: […]

On February 15, 1987, I was chrismated into the Orthodox Church at St. Nicholas Church in Los Angeles. It was a small intimate affair. Metropolitan Philip ordained 60 or so priests, then chrismated and served me my first eucharist, as he did to a couple hundred of my nearest and dearest friends and fellow travelers. […]

I managed to find this dandy little item at a bookstore once, and I’ve been sold on them ever since. “The Daily Lives, Miracles and Wisdom of the Saints and Fasting Calendar” is a spiral-bound daily calendar lets you start the day with a little something to think about and other bits of help. In […]

Greg the Resourceful Husband managed to find this out-of-print gem, and I’m glad to say you can find it here at Alibris, which is turning out to be an invaluable source of hard-to-find books. Published in 1950, it’s a much-needed compendium of Russian Orthodox writings from nine different periods, going in chronological order from the […]

A book that I have on Orthodox history says, in talking about late 19th- early 20th-century Russia, “As the Russian Church neared the time when it would be put to its severest test, the grace of the Holy Spirit became abundant. Among charismatic Christians a special place belongs to Fr. John of Kronstadt.”
That “specialness” is […]

What the heck, might as well talk about the Harry Potter book for a minute. It takes my mind off the terrible problems of the day and you can probably only find reviews in 3,000,005 other places on the Web.
So I’ll start off by saying that this one really doesn’t take your mind off the […]

When a friend told me there was a series of mystery novels set in Emperor Justinian’s Constantinople, I was tickled pink. I like mystery novels and a series like the Brother Cadfael mysteries makes me think that the Byzantine Empire at its 6th century golden age would be a fascinating setting. When I heard the […]

Michael Crichton fans won’t be disappointed with his latest. For those who have loved “Andromedra Strain”, “Jurassic Park” and the other, what, 300? or so books he’s written, you’ll find his trademark edge-of-your-seat thriller with pages and pages of enough scientific back-story to make you think that if it hasn’t happened yet, it could at […]