Recommended reading

The Orthodox Way

The most ancient name for Christianity, Metropolitan Kallistos reminds us, is 'the Way' (cf. Acts 19.23;24.22), and it is precisely as the journey that this word implies that he presents the tradition of Orthodox Christianity, its teachings and its practices. The result is not an abstract presentation of 'Orthodoxy,' an outside look at, or description of, its dogmatics, rituals, and ascetic disciplines, compared to and contrasted with others, but an invitation to enter into the way, to begin the journey—and to do so always, into eternity—into the mystery of God through the living experience of the Orthodox Church.

The Orthodox Church

Since its first publication fifty years ago, Timothy Ware's book has become established throughout the English-speaking world as the standard introduction to the Orthodox Church. Orthodoxy continues to be a subject of enormous interest among western Christians, and the author believes that an understanding of its standpoint is necessary before the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches can be reunited. In this revised and updated edition he explains the Orthodox views on such widely ranging matters as Ecumenical Councils, Sacraments, Free Will, Purgatory, the Papacy and the relation between the different Orthodox Churches.

For the Life of The World

In For the Life of the World Alexander Schmemann suggests an approach to the world and life within it, which stems from the liturgical experience of the Orthodox Church. He understands issues such as secularism and Christian culture from the perspective of the unbroken experience of the Church, as revealed and communicated in her worship, in her liturgy—the sacrament of the world, the sacrament of the Kingdom.