Ages of the Spiritual Life

Rating:
Summary: beautiful look at Christian spirituality thru history
Review: As co-translator of this book, an Evdokimov scholar and Orthodox priest, it's a joy to share the insight of this lay theologian of our time. This is a challenging,rich journey through our century's crisis of faith,Christian spirituality's development,especially monasticism's gifts, and how authentic spiritual life can be lived today.

Rating:
Summary: good introduction to Orthodoxy
Review: This book, written by a russian lay theologian, introduces Orthodoxy, as lived and practiced in ancient centuries, to modern man. It is a good introduction to the ancient orthodox christian faith. The author describes well the idea of interiorized monasticism. As an Orthodox, what I did not like about this book are the somehow comprimising ideas of Edokimov with western philosophers and scholars.

Rating:
Summary: good introduction to Orthodoxy
Review: This book, written by a russian lay theologian, introduces Orthodoxy, as lived and practiced in ancient centuries, to modern man. It is a good introduction to the ancient orthodox christian faith. The author describes well the idea of interiorized monasticism. As an Orthodox, what I did not like about this book are the somehow comprimising ideas of Edokimov with western philosophers and scholars.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Book, Poor Revision
Review: This is a superb book, unparalleled actually, as an exposition of Orthodox spirituality that speaks to the modern age. Unfortunately, this edition is a revision of an older translation (published in 1966 as "The Struggle With God"). This revision is inexplicable; all the revisers seem to have done is flatten Evdokimov's prose. The earlier version is much more fluid and vigorous and lyrical. Also, and most annoyingly, the revisers made no effort to correlate the footnotes to existing English sources, but simply repeat Evdokimov's references to French translations of Patristic and other theological works. Lazy and irresponsible. There are also a fair number of unattributed quotations, and any scholar worth his salt would have gone through the effort of tracking them down, if only for the sake of making a "revision" of the book which is an improvement in terms of usefulness. So... on the whole, I'd say -- the book is indispensable for contemporary Orthodox, but you should try to find the older edition.