Books about the East

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I’ve got a growing interest in Eastern Catholicism/Orthodoxy. Does anyone have books they would recommend as an introduction to Eastern liturgy, spirituality, history, etc? Thanks!
 
SammyJankis90 said:
I’ve got a growing interest in Eastern Catholicism/Orthodoxy. Does anyone have books they would recommend as an introduction to Eastern liturgy, spirituality, history, etc? Thanks!
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Read any books by Kalistos Ware, Vladimire Lossky, and John Meyendorff. These are all Orthodox Christians but they are the ones that will be recommended by most eastern Catholics as well because they view their faith as being the same.

If you want to see what the Syriac Christianity has to offer read books by and about St. Ephrem. The Luminous Eye: The Spiritual World Vision of Saint Ephrem, by Sebastian Brock is good. Check out books about Isaac the Syrian (or Isaac of Nineva).
 
Add Alexander Schmemann to the list too. Many of his books are commentaries on the Orthodox liturgical life and they are very good. One of my favorite books is For the Life of the World, by Schmemann. Great Lent: Journey to Pascha is a great book, and so is Of Water and the Spirit.
 
Meyendorff, Schmemann, and Ware are all fantastic, as mentioned above. I would be cautious with Lossky as, what I’ve read of him, he tends to generalize East vs. West too much and simply repeats many cliches that have little to no grounding in a genuine understanding of Western theology. I’ve known several Orthodox scholars who are skeptical of his work at worst, and indifferent at best.

For some Eastern Catholic books, that are also sometimes recommended among Orthodox faithful and clergy, I recommend the “Light and Life” catechetical series published by “God With Us” publications. Also, pretty much anything by Archbishop Joseph Raya is fantastic, but especially The Face of God.

Other than that I would strongly urge regular participation in the Byzantine liturgical life, which includes Vespers, Orthros/Matins, and Divine Liturgy. That’s where you’ll really learn the most and learn to “put on” the mind of the (Byzantine)East, so to speak. 😛
 
Read The Fount of Knowledge, written by John of Damascus. The third book contains almost anything you would want to know about the Christian faith up until the iconoclast controversy, while the first book serves as a primer to help the beginner understand the language used by Eastern Christian writers.
 
Cavaradossi said:
Read The Fount of Knowledge, written by John of Damascus. The third book contains almost anything you would want to know about the Christian faith up until the iconoclast controversy, while the first book serves as a primer to help the beginner understand the language used by Eastern Christian writers.
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I’ve been looking for that one. Do you have a link to it?
 
I use Archbishop Raya’s Face of God and Ware’s The Orthodox Way in my introductory college class in Byzantine Christianity. They are both excellent introductory books. Fr. Lawrence Cross also has a nice introduction called Eastern Christianity: The Byzantine Tradition that I have also used in the past.
 
The Sacred Books of the East is an enormous project undertaken by Max Müller and various authors from 1879 and 1910. The groups work was published by Oxford University Press and to this day many of the translations are the only ones existing or the most precise.
 
THERE ARE MANY BOOKS FOR BYZANTINE(RUTHENIAN, ETC) AND HERE ARE A FEW-- The Eastern Catholic Churches–An inroduction to their worship and spirituality. Joan L. Roccasalvo. THE LITURGICAL YEAR of the Byzantine-Slavonic Rite by Basil Shereghy.
Finding a Hidden Church-- Rev. Christopher Zugger. The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom by Basil Shereghy. Also go to www.metropolitancantorinstitute.com and find many others besides-- music. Hope this helps many out there.
 
Diak said:
I use Archbishop Raya’s Face of God and Ware’s The Orthodox Way in my introductory college class in Byzantine Christianity. They are both excellent introductory books. Fr. Lawrence Cross also has a nice introduction called Eastern Christianity: The Byzantine Tradition that I have also used in the past.
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Just ordered The Orthodox Way and considering Archbishop Raya’s book next…

Thanks for the suggestions
 
I find it really sad that there isn’t a single book about Eastern Catholicism all together, in common reach, that has information about all the Sui Juris’ and that explains rites and such. I was at Barnes and Nobles a few days ago studying for a class and i thought I’d just ask if they had any books on Eastern Catholicism. I went up to the counter and when i said Eastern Catholicism the woman looked at me like I made the word up. When she searched up “Eastern Catholicism” she told me the closest thing she could find was Easter…

I just find that pretty sad right there, I feel like Eastern Catholics are neglected so much. If you ask Latin Catholics a majority of them will have no idea what an Eastern Catholic is. I’ am Latin Catholic my self and the only reason I really know about Eastern Catholics is because im a Kerala Christian, and we have two Major Archiparchal Sui Juris’ at our door step, Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara Catholics and in some form Knanaya Catholics. I really feel, it should be required that one day priests of the Latin Rite explain to us, maybe in a sermon? about Eastern Catholicism.
 
The problem is “Eastern Catholicism” is such a broad term. Even among the equivalent Orthodox Churches, they aren’t lumped into such a big group. The Eastern Orthodox would have their own book, and among the Oriental Orthodox I do not know if there would be one book that could even lump them together. How familiar is the Coptic Church with the Syro-Malankara or Syro-Malabar Church? And the Armenians again are a bit different.

There are books that are broad brushstrokes about Eastern Catholicism. But you can already get that information for free on the internet. The Wikipedia entry for Eastern Catholic Churches is an excellent intro for people who have no idea what Eastern Catholic Churches are. If you want to dive in deeper, you have to find books for each specific Rite, perhaps even each specific sui juris.
 
Sh12 said:
I find it really sad that there isn’t a single book about Eastern Catholicism all together, in common reach, that has information about all the Sui Juris’ and that explains rites and such. I was at Barnes and Nobles a few days ago studying for a class and i thought I’d just ask if they had any books on Eastern Catholicism. I went up to the counter and when i said Eastern Catholicism the woman looked at me like I made the word up. When she searched up “Eastern Catholicism” she told me the closest thing she could find was Easter…

I just find that pretty sad right there, I feel like Eastern Catholics are neglected so much. If you ask Latin Catholics a majority of them will have no idea what an Eastern Catholic is. I’ am Latin Catholic my self and the only reason I really know about Eastern Catholics is because im a Kerala Christian, and we have two Major Archiparchal Sui Juris’ at our door step, Syro Malabar and Syro Malankara Catholics and in some form Knanaya Catholics. I really feel, it should be required that one day priests of the Latin Rite explain to us, maybe in a sermon? about Eastern Catholicism.
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The Eastern Christian Churches – A Brief Survey (7th edition)
cnewa.org/default.aspx?ID=123&pagetypeID=9&sitecode=HQ&pageno=1

Inter-Ecclesial Relations Between Eastern and Latin Churches: A Canonical-Pastoral Handbook by Dimitri Salachas and Krzysztof Nitkiewicz and translated into English by George Dmitry Gallaro
clsa.site-ym.com/store/view_product.asp?id=315681

Comparative Sacramental Discipline in the CCEO and CIC, edited by Francis J. Marini
clsa.site-ym.com/store/view_product.asp?id=315555&hhSearchTerms=eastern
 
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