What Books Are You Reading?

rebecca · Post by **rebecca** » Tue 22 July 2003 1:02 pm

I am reading Fr. Seraphim Rose's book Genesis, Creation, and Early Man. It was actually compiled after his death from several essays and lectures . I found it to be very interesting, and well-researched and grounded in the teachings of the fathers (he quotes them extensively). He's not afraid to go against the modern intellectual trends, and to expose the theory of evolution for what it is: a philosophy, not a scientific fact, with profound implications. He very effectively explains the fallacies into which modern Christians fall when trying to reconcile seemingly sound scientific evidence (which isn't as good as the intelligentsia has lead us to believe) with the Biblical account of creation.

In short ( :mrgreen: ), I highly recommend this book.

Mary Kissel · Post by **Mary Kissel** » Tue 22 July 2003 1:12 pm

David,
Divine Ascent Press published The Blessed Surgeon. It is by ArchDeacon Vasiliy Marushchak and translated from Russian by Vassilyeva A. A. The U.S. Distribution is apparently through Conciliar Press.

MaryCecilia

rebecca · Post by **rebecca** » Tue 22 July 2003 1:12 pm

P.S. I also enjoyed The Brothers Karamazov. I read it (in English) for a Russian lit class. Dostoevsky expresses his doubts and questions about the faith through the character of Ivan. Though we hear the arguments of unbelievers, the believers still come through in a positive light. He touches on many important philosophical issues, not only of his day, but those common to all of humanity (such as how some people look for signs and miracles, rather than faith). I found the plot, characters, and dialogs to be compelling.

Justin Kissel · Post by **Justin Kissel** » Tue 22 July 2003 1:21 pm

Justin, I have that same illness! I picked it up while I was at college... I think my professors were trying to infect me because they kept giving me more and more to read on various subjects. My wife says "It must be a thing common to Justins.... but you're infecting me now too". One difference between her and I, though, is that I actually finish the half dozen I start (she's behind me sighing, hitting me, and saying "I finish books! I just take a break on some of them for a while, that's all")

Re: Dostoevsky, I must have missed something, because I got totally wrapped up in Crime and Punishment, but when it came time for The Brothers Karamazov, I just didn't get as caught up. Will give it another shot eventually

Re: Fr. Seraphim... I should be reading his book Nihilism shortly, does anyone have any thoughts on it? Does he come to roughly the same conclusions that St. Justin Popovich does, or does he approach the west with a different view/perspective?

bogoliubtsy · Post by **bogoliubtsy** » Tue 22 July 2003 2:05 pm

I'm currently reading:

The Orthodox Church in the History of Russia - by Dimitry Pospielovsky

The title does a decent job of explaining the theme of the book. Pospielovsky starts with a brief overview of Byzantium and particularly the concept of "Smyphonia", or the harmonious workings of Church and Sate. The Church/State symphony is a main theme as he moves onto Russia, going through the various developments and happenings of the Russian Church through the years. Towards the end of the book(I skipped ahead to see what he has to say about ROCOR) his views on ROCOR are ignorant and misinformed at best and outright lies and slander at worst. I mentioned this on another Orthodox forum and an OCA bishop(Tikhon) agreed that the author is certainly slanted in his views, but that he's so obviously slanted that not many take the ROCOR bashing passed off as scholarship very seriously. Overall though the book seems like a great historical resource.

Mary Kissel · Post by **Mary Kissel** » Tue 22 July 2003 5:09 pm

My thoughts on The Blessed Surgeon, the Life of St. Luke, ArchBishop of Simferopol.

I am halfway through the book and I thought I would write a little bit to let others know what I think about the book so far. I think this book gives good details about the struggles that St. Luke went through during the Communist era. It shows how the Orthodox church was struggling as well, for example because of the problems in Communist Russia the Church split in two. There was the "Living Church" as it's called in this book and the Orthodox Church. Unfortunately many attended the "Living Church" due to fear of the authorities at the time. I like this book because it gives details about his sufering without getting too gruesome and it also shows that he was a human being and that he made mistakes as well. For example it states that at one time after being tempted constantly about giving up his office as Bishop, he signed a letter stating that he would give it up, because he wanted to be a surgeon and he needed money and food to live. It also gives some examples of miracles that he performed on various sick people and it shows how God talked to him through dreams and various other ways. The book also shows his love for people and his patience with people, and how he would stand up for the Church no matter what it cost him.

I would reccomend this book to others. This is not a deep book and it is a quick read, it even has some pictures in it to show what he looked like, and others that he knew.

In Christ,
MaryCecilia

Justin Kissel · Post by **Justin Kissel** » Sat 26 July 2003 12:01 pm

Finished reading a couple books that I had been reading, and will finish another one today. However, a few days ago I began reading a new book: A Collection of Letters to Nuns by Saint Anatoly of Optina. I've only gotten through the first 21 letters or so (out of about 380 letters), so it's hard to say anything about the book thus far, other than it being interesting how forgiving Saint Anatoly is (with the first person being written to, at least). On the other hand, he seems to be mostly merciful/forgiving when speaking to individuals, but he can be very strict as well, like when he told all the nuns that if he came and found that things were in a state of disorder that he would disband them.