Books and Websites to learn more about the East

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PazzoGrande

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I’m a Latin but I admire the East greatly and I’d like to learn as much as I could, about all of the Eastern liturgy and customs down to the types of garments Easterners use.

I’ve always gone to Catholic schools but teaching about the East has always been neglected (I didn’t even learn about it till I was 20, and even then I learnt about it on my own and not in class). There isn’t a functioning Eastern Catholic parish I can visit here, the closest we have being an Ukrainian Catholic Community that hasn’t even had a priest to serve in years. I visited a Coptic Orthodox Parish which was great, but I’d like to learn about the other Eastern Churches. Bookstores like Borders and Barnes I’ve gone to don’t have books on it at all.

Could you point me in the right direction by giving me websites and names of books where I could read up about it? I’m looking for sources that can explain things to a Latin who didn’t grow up with the same customs.
 
I can really only recommend stuff on the Byzantine Churches.

As far as vestments and liturgical traditions are concerned, I recommend Patriarch Gregorios III’s Introduction to the Liturgical Services and Their Symbolism in the Eastern Church. It’s from a Byzantine perspective, so it won’t really tell you anything about the vestments and Liturgies of the other Eastern and Oriental traditions.

A couple of general introductions to Byzantine Christianity that I’ve enjoyed are Eastern Christianity: The Byzantine Tradition and Image, Symbol, and Mystery: An Eastern Christian View of the Sacraments, both by Fr. Lawrence Cross. Also Liturgy: Model of Prayer - Icon of Life by Fr. Robert Taft, S.J. is an amazing little book.

All of the above are available from Eastern Christian Publications - ecpubs.com

Finally, the best introduction to Eastern/Byzantine spirituality, in my opinion, is The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology available from Amazon.

Hope that helps some in your search. 😃
 
I love ‘The Art of Prayer’! Reading it now. Besides those already mentioned, I’d suggest two websites by the Society of St. John Chrysostom, an organization devoted to mutual understanding between Roman Catholics, Eastern Catholics and Orthodox. I’m a member myself:
www.ssjc.org
www.lightoftheeast.org
Ssjc is also currently offering PDFs of the Byzantine Divine Office. They intend to make it a subscription service, but for now, the PDFs are free.

When I asked a Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest about books, he suggested these, in order from basic intro to more advanced. He’s also having us read ‘Come, Follow Me’ by Justin Rose, a Melkite. The starred ones I own/have read. Some Orthodox authors, like Ware and Schmemann, will take the occasional dig at Western Catholic theology, but they explain Byzantine theology very well.
  • Light for Life, Part One: The Mystery Believed. *Pittsburgh, PA: God With Us Publications, 1994.
  • Light for Life, Part Two: The Mystery Celebrated. *Pittsburgh, PA: God With Us Publications, 1994.
  • Light for Life, Part Three: The Mystery Lived. *Pittsburgh, PA: God With Us Publications, 1994.
    Saato, Father Fred, American Eastern Catholics, Pittsburgh, PA: God With Us Publications, 2005.
    With Eyes of Faith: An Introduction to Eastern Theology, Pittsburgh, PA: God With Us Publications, 1994.
  • Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Way. New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999.
    Shown to be Holy. McKees Rock, PA: God With Us Publications, 1990.
    Ouspensky, Leonid and Lossky, Vladimir. The Meaning of Icons , *Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989 .(1999?)
    Raya, Archbishop Joseph. The Face of God. McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania: God With Us Publications, 1984.
*More advanced:
  • Schmemann, Alexander. The Eucharist: Sacrament of the Kingdom. New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1988.
  • Evdokimov, Paul, Ages of the Spiritual Life, *St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998.
  • Evdokimov, Paul, The Art of the Icon: a Theology of Beauty, Oakwood Publications, 1990. (9.99 Kindle/nook,too!)
    Ouspensky, Leonid, Theology of the Icon (2 vols.), St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1992. 45 B&N
    Bobrinskoy, Boris. The Mystery of the Trinity. New York: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1999. 22 B&N
    Baggley, John, Doors of Perception, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995.
 
PazzoGrande said:
I’ve always gone to Catholic schools but teaching about the East has always been neglected (I didn’t even learn about it till I was 20, and even then I learnt about it on my own and not in class).
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As Mark Twain said, “Don’t let schooling get in the way of your learning.” 😃

There were probably many things that your Catholic education “neglected” – even within the Latin Church. There is so much to cover in the Latin Church that it seems quite possible that it would be difficult to cover the ECC and its deep history, culture and practices.

Imagine asking a Jesuit detailed information about the Dominicans, Carmelites, etc. 😉
 
‘The Philokalia’, ‘The Way of a Pilgrim’ and ‘The Saying of the Desert Fathers’ are an excellent introduction to eastern mysticism. ‘Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit’ by St. Photius and ‘An Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith’ by St. John Damascene are excellent books on eastern theology.
 
The way to know us is to attend services. 🙂 But it sounds like there are no ECC nor Orthodox in your area.

I like Bread & Water, Wine &, Oil: An Orthodox Christian Experience of God, by Archimandrite Meletios Webber for it’s simplicity without being simple or superficial. I’ve misplaced my copy but one of the reviews give the breakdown of the books two parts:
The book is divided into two parts. The first, “Life is a Mystery,” discusses the mind, heart, mystery, our relationship with God, distraction and prayer, making a sanctified effort, the sanctification of time, sacred places, and icons and the incarnation. The second part, “The Mysteries of the Church,” discusses the Mysteries (often called “the sacraments”) including birth and baptism, chrismation, Holy Communion, confession and forgiveness, anointing of the sick, marriage and ordination.
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The first section alone is worth the purchase price of the book, and shows clearly how an Orthodox Christian mindset (or rather “heart”) is different in many ways from what we may have learned in Western Christianity. At first I had trouble seeing how the second part of the book connected to the first, but in the end it works together beautifully.
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St. Elias UGCC has a YouTube channel and an excellent website. You mentioned clerical garb. They have a good section on that which I can’t seem to access that at the moment, maybe someone else can.

Holy Resurrection Monastery has also begun to tape their services to view on line. Maybe Fr Moses will jump in with a link to those. 🙂 And the YourWordFromTheWise interviews with the HRM monks are all great. I don’t have time to link to all of them now: “Who are Eastern Catholics?” Part 1 & 2, Eastern Catholic Theology Part 1 & 2, Fasting in the Byzantine Church Year and Feasting in the Byzantine Church Year.
 
5Loaves said:
St. Elias UGCC has a YouTube channel and an excellent website. You mentioned clerical garb. They have a good section on that which I can’t seem to access that at the moment, maybe someone else can.

Holy Resurrection Monastery has also begun to tape their services to view on line. Maybe Fr Moses will jump in with a link to those. 🙂 And the YourWordFromTheWise interviews with the HRM monks are all great. I don’t have time to link to all of them now: “Who are Eastern Catholics?” Part 1 & 2, Eastern Catholic Theology Part 1 & 2, Fasting in the Byzantine Church Year and Feasting in the Byzantine Church Year.
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I’m building the content on our website. There’s still a long way to go to get it where I want it to be, but some of these basics are already there, like vestments under the clergy heading. I’m working on a new page with an introduction to Eastern Catholicism for visitors so that information isn’t live but will be soon.

St. Sophia UGCC Resources
 
CDB1718 said:
I’m building the content on our website. There’s still a long way to go to get it where I want it to be, but some of these basics are already there, like vestments under the clergy heading. I’m working on a new page with an introduction to Eastern Catholicism for visitors so that information isn’t live but will be soon.

St. Sophia UGCC Resources
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Well done, sister!

Re vestments, Khouria Krista West, an ecclesiastical tailor for over fifteen years, also has a very good podcast on Ancient Faith Radio, The Opinionated Tailor. This includes episodes where she reads “from her book on Orthodox vestments, discussing the ancient garments of Greece and Rome and their transformation into Orthodox Christian liturgical dress,” but all the other episodes are worthy of a good listen. 👍
 
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