Phronema of our Fathers

Preface - "Meanings in Gospel discourse are formulated in the Holy Spirit and therefore with enduring value and a view to eternityl. Every teaching, parable, story and description, as well as every phrase, every words, and every 'detail' contained in the Gospel of Christ is of greatest depth and significance. These are not exhausted by a mere superficial interpretation, the most our o...

This work by Nicholas Cabasilas is a remarkable product of Byzantium's last great flowering of theology. At a time when secular humanism was increasingly asserting man's complete autonomy, Cabasilas proclaimed that man's true life lies not in himself, but in Christ. For him, man's redemption in Jesus Christ is not just a matter of history, which can be elucidated simply by scholarl...

Mother Maria Skobtsova died on Good Friday, 1945, in Ravensbrück concentration camp near Berlin. The “crime” of this Orthodox nun and Russian refugee was her effort to rescue Jews and others being pursued by the Nazis in her adopted city, Paris, where in 1932 she had founded a house of hospitality. "Mother Maria is a saint of our day and for our day; a woman of flesh and blood possessed by th...

The good things of this world intoxicate a person; vanity despoils the soul and the mind, and sobriety is lost. The most wise Ecclesiastes understood that the soul is not capable of finding peace and perfect wisdom in this world. And though the meaninglessness of the world oppresses a person, inattentive people fail to notice the terrible maelstrom into which we are all caught up. The only escape...

Over twenty years ago, Professor Kesich wrote The Gospel Image of Christ: The Church and Modern Criticism. This completely rewritten and enlarged book represents the fruit of Professor Kesich's lifetime interest in the study of "biblical criticism." He has added chapters regarding the dating and chronology and the history of the gospels, reevaluating the Gnostic gospels and the title...

Confronting and Controlling Thoughts, According to the Fathers of the Philokalia by Anthony Coniaris Published by: Light and Life Orthodox spirituality places great emphasis on thoughts (logismoi) since everything we do begins in the mind. The Fathers of the Philokalia have much to teach about confronting and controlling thoughts. Since the average person experiences 4000 thoughts each day, the ex...

A Star in the Heavens: The Life of Father John of Valamo Igumen Panteleirnon has composed a vivid account of Father John's life and way of thinking based on the staretz' vast correspondence, an account which also gives as an insight into the history of the Valamo brotherhood up to the late 1950's.

Professional theologians have long recognized Fr Dumitru Staniloae as the most influential and creative Romanian theologian of the 20th century. A pioneer in his country's religious renaissance, he has fought for almost half a century to free theology from a routine scholasticism, and spirituality from mere sentimentality. Yet in the West Staniloae has been known more by reputation than by his...