Introduction to Byzantine Spirituality & Theology?

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Hello Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

I am Roman through -n - through! But, as of late, I have been deeply interested and called by God to study and internalize the East’s perspective and methodology of spirituality and to some extent theology. Problem is…where do I start? I am looking for a good, authoritative, survey of Orthodox/Eastern Catholic spirituality, and a few volumes by eastern spiritual masters that can give me a nice insight into thr forms of prayer and spirituality. I have been recommended to get the following volumes, but tell me what you think:

Path of Salvation (St. theophan the Recluse)
Gregory Palamas: The Triads
John Cassian: Conferences
John Climacus: The Ladder of Divine Ascent
Symeon, the New Theologian: The Discourses

What do you all think?
 
JER7177 said:
Hello Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

I am Roman through -n - through! But, as of late, I have been deeply interested and called by God to study and internalize the East’s perspective and methodology of spirituality and to some extent theology. Problem is…where do I start?
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Start by going to a Divine Liturgy! There is a saying, liturgy is catechesis. :cool:
 
JER7177 said:
Hello Brothers and Sisters in Christ!

I am Roman through -n - through! But, as of late, I have been deeply interested and called by God to study and internalize the East’s perspective and methodology of spirituality and to some extent theology. Problem is…where do I start? …

What do you all think?
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We say “the Liturgy is catechesis”. The best way to “study and intenalize” what you seek is to come and worship in our services and Liturgies which are abundant now in Great Lent. Apart from worshiping in the East reading will give you only a removed sense, out of context.
 
5Loaves said:
Apart from worshiping in the East reading will give you only a removed sense, out of context.
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To borrow another tradition’s analogy: it’s like pointing at the moon and looking at the finger instead of the moon.
 
I second the above notion that you attend the Divine Liturgy. Byzantine theology isn’t systematic so much as it is experiential with a systematic element.

As far as books are concerned, the ones that were recommended are certainly worth reading, but I think you will find Gregory Palamas’s Triads to be somewhat daunting and systematic. John Cassian is actually more Western, although he is certainly worth reading. His purpose was to take the monastic theology of the East and present it for a Latin audience.

For an introduction into Eastern/Byzantine spirituality I recommend the following:

Personal spirituality
The Art of Prayer: An Orthodox Anthology
Path of Salvation - St. Theophan the Recluse
The Prayer of Jesus - Ignatius Brianchaninov
Ladder of Divine Ascent - John Climacus

Liturgical/Corporate Spirituality
A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy - Nicolas Cabasilas
Life in Christ - Nicolas Cabasilas

For a modern presentation of Eastern and Oriental spirituality in general I recommend Tomas Cardinal Spidlik’s “Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook” Vol. 1, and if you’re really curious, Vol.2

For an introduction into Byzantine theology I’d say check out:

Byzantine Theology - Fr. John Meyendorff
Eastern Christianity: The Byzantine Tradition - Fr. Lawrence Cross
The Face of God - Archbishop Joseph Raya

You might also be interested in checking out the two catechetical series published by God With Us Publications.
 
One modern book I really enjoyed that introduced me to the eastern mind without doing so systematically was Schmemann’s “For the Life of the World”, I really couldn’t recommend it enough!
 
I’d personally recommend “The Orthodox Church” and “The Orthodox Way”, both by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware (you may also want to search Timothy Ware as the author here). It says Orthodox on the title, and “The Orthodox Church”'s history section is definitely from the Orthodox POV, but the second section about doctrine, liturgy and belief is certainly applicable to Byzantines of both Catholic and Orthodox sides. “The Orthodox Way” discusses in great length how Byzantines view God in Himself, His relationship with us personally, and His and our relationship to the world and people around us.
 
dcointin said:
One modern book I really enjoyed that introduced me to the eastern mind without doing so systematically was Schmemann’s “For the Life of the World”, I really couldn’t recommend it enough!
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+Father Alexander Schmemann is a wonderful writer. It’s been a while since I opened up For the Life of the World, a great book. But I know from other works of his that I’ve used more recently that he is one of the authors who quotes heavily from the Divine Liturgy and other services so he is directly using that “the Liturgy is the catechesis” in his writing. His son-in-law Fr Tom Hopko also relies heavily on prayers from the services in his excellent writings.
 
Splagchnizomai said:
Start by going to a Divine Liturgy! There is a saying, liturgy is catechesis. :cool:
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5Loaves said:
We say “the Liturgy is catechesis”. The best way to “study and intenalize” what you seek is to come and worship in our services and Liturgies which are abundant now in Great Lent. Apart from worshiping in the East reading will give you only a removed sense, out of context.
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Great minds think alike, LOL!!! We were posting at the same time. I was posting from my phone and didn’t look at CAF again until just now. 🙂

I’m also a big fan of the interviews Catherine Alexander did a few years ago with the monks of Holy Resurrection Monastery “Who are Eastern Catholics?” with Fr. Maximos PART 1 and PART 2
Eastern Catholic with Fr. Abbot Nicholas PART 1 and PART 2
Fasting in the Byzantine Church Year and Feasting in the Byzantine Church Year with Fr. Moses AKA Monk Moses of CAF. 😃
 
5Loaves said:
Great minds think alike, LOL!!! We were posting at the same time. I was posting from my phone and didn’t look at CAF again until just now. 🙂

I’m also a big fan of the interviews Catherine Alexander did a few years ago with the monks of Holy Resurrection Monastery “Who are Eastern Catholics?” with Fr. Maximos PART 1 and PART 2
Eastern Catholic with Fr. Abbot Nicholas PART 1 and PART 2
Fasting in the Byzantine Church Year and Feasting in the Byzantine Church Year with Fr. Moses AKA Monk Moses of CAF. 😃
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They in fact are great video’s; I learned a lot from our holy friends!
 
I just wanted to update this thread to get it back on the front page. There is a lot of great information and resources in it!
 
For a basic and authoritative intro to Eastern Spirituality, check out Cardinal Spidlik’s books on Eastern Spirituality published by Cistercian Publications. 👍 They are quite excellent.
 
As many have said, going to as many services as you can (Vespers, Orthros and Liturgy minimum) is the best introduction.

Lots of good recommendations here, but I think starting with the simplest and most basic is best. The Life of the World, The Face of God are excellent.

My priest specifically told our parish bookstore to stock Metropolitan Kallistos’ “The Orthodox Way” and only that book as a catechism. That’s always a good recommendation.

However, I think Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev’s “The Mystery of Faith” is better, in the sense that it covers more and is more readable. (a case where the student outdid his teacher - Met. Hiliarion was Met. Kallistos’ student!)

Finally, I think the very best introduction, if one can accept a narrative/travelogue over a straight catechism, is Kyriakos Markides’ “The Mountain of Silence”. This is “the Real Thing” as far as I’m concerned.

amazon.com/The-Mountain-Silence-Orthodox-Spirituality/dp/0385500920
 
What do you all think of Robert F. Taft, SJ? He wrote “Through their own eyes: Liturgy as the Byzantines saw it” and many other scholarly books and tracts concerning Byzantium.
 
rciadan said:
What do you all think of Robert F. Taft, SJ? He wrote “Through their own eyes: Liturgy as the Byzantines saw it” and many other scholarly books and tracts concerning Byzantium.
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That’s a good book, but not introductory. More an academic work, and I wouldn’t put it in a liturgy 101 class. It is quite readable, though. The book of his I’d use for any liturgy 101 class is the Liturgy of the Hours book.
 
I wish that there were maybe a subforum in the Eastern Catholic section for Eastern spirituality. I find that most of the posts on here tend to be debates, which is fine, because it’s good to be able to defend one’s beliefs, but I for one am very interested in the spirituality like theosis for example.

Does anyone think that would be a good idea or would there just be overlap?
 
TrueLight said:
I wish that there were maybe a subforum in the Eastern Catholic section for Eastern spirituality. I find that most of the posts on here tend to be debates, which is fine, because it’s good to be able to defend one’s beliefs, but I for one am very interested in the spirituality like theosis for example.

Does anyone think that would be a good idea or would there just be overlap?
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TL - FWIW and IMHO …

The stated purpose of this subforum is to promote discussion of Eastern Catholicism: “Its practices, heritage, and role within the universal Church”.

Yet, I often find this sub-forum to be the designated place for debate between Latin Catholics and Orthodox, and the Eastern Catholic viewpoint gets squeezed in the middle.

I also seek a good outlet to discuss Eastern Christian spirituality within a Catholic forum, but all too often find that they are not all that welcoming. Frankly, one has better success with the topic of Eastern Christian spirituality on Orthodox forums.

Admittedly my view may be a bit tainted by very recent experience here, as the last few weeks have seen some rather disappointing posts from fellow Catholics (and, of course, the normal level of crossfire between our Latin Catholic brethren and our Orthodox brethren),

Perhaps it is up to the Eastern Catholic contributors here to keep ths discussion centered around topics germain to Eastern Catholics, and to fostering better understanding of its place both in the Catholic Communion and in the ecumenical dialogue with the Orthodox Churches. :gopray:
 
ByzCathCantor said:
I also seek a good outlet to discuss Eastern Christian spirituality within a Catholic forum, but all too often find that they are not all that welcoming. Frankly, one has better success with the topic of Eastern Christian spirituality on Orthodox forums.
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That’s too bad.

Just to be clear, on a personal note I am very interested in Eastern spirituality that does not conflict with Catholic dogma.

Now when it comes to the theology that does conflict, I am interested in learning about that too just because I love learning, but it should always be clear whether something goes against Catholic dogma or not.
 
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