Phronema of our Fathers

In The Ecclesiastical Hierarchy , the 5th-century Christian theologian Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite outlines the visible Church as a sacred, vertically ordered system. Its purpose is to guide believers upward through material symbols and sacraments, facilitating their assimilation and union with God (known as theosis or deification)

In Hymns on Paradise: St. Ephrem the Syrian offers a deeply poetic and theological reflection on the story of Genesis 2 and 3, weaving rich imagery to reveal the profound connection between the material and spiritual worlds. Through 15 hymns, Ephrem invites readers to see creation as a sacramental witness to its Creator, where nature and Scripture work together to reveal God’s truth. With a Biblic...

This is a thoroughly practical manual of the spiritual life that focuses on the central goal of every Christian: discerning the will of God and struggling to mold our life to it, just as Christ “humbled Himself and became obedient” (Philippians 2:8). Saint John addresses fundamental questions: Why should we care about God’s will? What are the benefits in following His will? How do we avoid common...

Why do so many of us good Christians find our spiritual progress blocked? What can we do about the unconscious neurotic tendencies that warp our relations with others? How can we let go of the idealized image we have of ourselves? Drawing on the classic work Our Inner Conflicts by psychiatrist Karen Horney, Archimandrite Symeon shows how we are led to unhealthy attachments, slavish dependency, or...

By linking together a series of brilliantly chosen texts from the early centuries of the Church, the author lays bare the roots of the deeply mystical spirituality that has flourished among Christians throughout the ages.

Includes index and appendices. In 1794, the first Orthodox missionary monks arrived at Kodiak to fond what they believed would be an indigenous Orthodox Church in the New World. They recognized as integral to their mission the defense of Native people who were being abused, exploited and enslaved by an unjust regime. The mission understood its function in cosmic terms: to sanctify, here and now, t...

A collection of articles on prayer and the spiritual life, together with some of the author's own prayers. A moving testimony to the relevance of Christ, who, for Archimandrite Sophrony, is "all, and in all, the beginning and the ending" of all things.

A saint and Equal of the Apostles of our own modern times, St. Nikolai personifies the ethos of Orthodox Christian evangelism.  Many are familiar with his Grace-filled and  tremendously fruitful mission in Japan, but little has been available in English until now. This publication of Divine Ascent Press presents for the first time a collection of writings in English introducing the reader to St. N...

The Christological Controversy describes the turmoil of fifth-century Christianity seeking to articulate its beliefs on the person of Christ. The policies of the Theodosian dynasty and the conflicting interests of the patriarchal sees are the context of the controversy between Nestorius of Constantinople and Cyril of Alexandria, a bitter dispute that racked the entire oecumene. The historical anal...

There is a relatively small, but determined group of people who call themselves true Orthodox, or the Church in Resistance. Having separated themselves from the large body of Orthodox Churches, they accuse the leaders of Orthodoxy of steering the Church away from the Faith of the Fathers. These self-proclaimed defenders of Orthodoxy charge that the adoption of the Gregorian Calendar, more modern c...

Not until now has the ancient wisdom of Lao Tzu been presented alongside the otherworldly revelation of Jesus Christ in a way that encompasses the full significance of both. Avoiding the common pitfalls of religious syncretism, CHRIST THE ETERNAL TAO shows Lao Tzu’s Tao Teh Ching as a foreshadowing of what would be revealed by Christ, and Lao Tzu himself as a Far-Eastern “prophet” of the Incarnate...

From Metropolitan Philip, Primate, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America:The History of Orthodoxy in the New World can, we believe, be divided into three the first is the era of the second is the era of organization and the third is the present era of spiritual renewal and maturation. Father Theodore's present work, Christ in Our Midst, eloquently addresses the concerns of...

St. John Chrysostom delivered nine homilies on repentance in Antioch of Syria sometime between 386 and 387. With conviction and certitude, he preached that repentance was a necessity for both the sinner and the righteous man. This volume presents Chrysostom's homilies on repentance and includes a sermon on almsgiving that he preached in Antioch during the winter months in 387. Chrysostom's...

This is the definitive biography in English of one of the most famous and best-loved saints of the Orthodox Christian church. Russian by birth, St. Seraphim, (c. 1759-1833) has often been compared with St. Francis of Asissi in the West, both being known largely for their unique relationships to animals and their palpable love of all people. Beyond granting us a rich telling of this man s luminous...

The Correspondence between the Tubingen Theologians and Patriarch Jeremias II of Constantinople on the Augsburg Confession. Augsburg and Constantinople was the crowning achievement of the late Very Reverend Father George Mastrantonis, a distinguished Orthodox clergyman and prolific author. First published in 1982, this book remains a work of vital interest to scholars of all faiths. The correspond...

Since the early days of the Church, Christians have struggled to come to terms with Christ's words of peace and His example of peace. In Christ's life, as recorded in the New Testament, it is striking that He neither killed anyone nor summoned any of His disciples to kill. Indeed, the final miracle Christ performed before His execution was to heal an enemy's wound, an injury caused by the Apostle...

The Byzantine liturgy, with its beauty, its richness, and its depth, intrigues, inspires, and fascinates a great number of today s Christians; and yet it remains for many almost inaccessible if not incomprehensible. The Typikon, the liturgical book that contains the order of the liturgical celebration, is complex, whence the necessity of decoding it both for recent converts and for cradle Orthodox...

One of the greatest orators of his age, St. Gregory the Theologian (also known as Gregory Nazianzus), is considered among the most central of Church fathers. His work, and that of St. Basil the Great, did much to win the day for the Nicene Creed (by God’s grace) and to secure its completion at the first Council of Constantinople, where the Creed received its final and present form. He is not as ea...

Our venerable father Mark the Ascetic thrived in the year 430. He was a disciple of Saint John Chrysostom, according to Nikephoros Kallistos (vol. 2, bk. 14. ch. 53), and was a contemporary of Saint Nilus and Isidore of Pelusium, who were famous ascetics. Diligent in the study of the Scriptures, he wrote many discourses full of abundant learning and spiritual benefit. Of these, 32 are mentioned by...

The primacy of the bishop of Rome, the pope, as it was finally shaped in the Middle Ages and later defined by Vatican I and II has been one of the thorniest issues in the history of the Western and Eastern Churches. This issue was a primary cause of the division between the two Churches and the events that followed the schism of 1054: the sack of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, the appoin...

It is impossible to understand either the New Testament doctrine on marriage, or the very consistent practice of the Orthodox Church without seeing Christian marriage in the context of the Eucharist ... The very notion of marriage as a sacrament presupposed that a man is not only a being with physiological, psychological, and social functions, but that he is a citizen of God's Kingdom, i.e., t...

This is a revised and expanded version of a book that has appeared in French, Italian, and Greek. It focuses on themes central to Eastern Christian worship and spiritual life and serves as an introduction to the series of six volumes of Bishop Kallistos' collected works. The opening chapter recounts the author's journey to Orthodoxy. The next two chapters provide profound and illuminating...

“For He hath looked upon the lowliness of His handmaiden; for, behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.” —(Luke 1:48 ) A right understanding of Mary, the Mother of God is essential for a right understanding of Jesus Christ, the incarnate Son of God. When her image is distorted, the image of her Son also becomes distorted. This concise little book is a classic exposition of ho...

n this book, Oliver Clement comments on three traditional prayers. The first, which is known to us all, is the ""Our Father."" The author's intention is not to rival prestigious works but to discern, within the depths of the text itself, a Trinitarian revelation, the ways of communion--the ""prayer of fire"" of which St John Cassian spoke. There follow t...

St Maximus the Confessor (c. 580-662) beautifully expounds the meaning of the Divine Liturgy in this work, which had a profound influence on the subsequent tradition, beginning with St Germanus of Constantinople (PPS 8). Maximus' vision of the liturgy contemplates the interpenetrating relationships of all things with each other and with Christ, in whom all things cohere. The church building an...