Encountering the Mystery

Starred review from January 14, 2008
Although the 16-year reign of the patriarch of the Orthodox Christian communion has largely gone unnoticed in America, this new book should serve to raise his profile considerably. Like some of his Western counterparts, the popes of Rome, Bartholomew has used his position to speak out against the ravages of the global economy and has been an eloquent advocate for environmentalism. In his new book, he mines the mystical theology of Orthodoxy, which relies heavily on saints like Gregory of Nyssa and the New Testament, to paint a picture of a world transformed and renewed by Christianity. The chief principles that underlie this world are prayerfulness, asceticism and humility. Bartholomew understands the cultivation of virtue as having both personal and global dimensions, as when he writes, “et us treat everything with proper love and utmost care. Only in this way shall we secure a physical environment where life for the coming generations of humankind will be healthy and happy.” As a citizen of Turkey, Bartholomew has also been committed to Christian-Jewish-Muslim dialogue and is believable when he says, “t is not religious differences that create conflict between human beings.” More than anything else, this book shows that all who are committed to social justice have a friend in the Orthodox patriarch.

March 1, 2008
The growth of Orthodox Christianity in the United States, like that of Islam, is one of the most important phenomena in religious life today and also one of the phenomena about which most readers are least informed. Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, has stepped up to try to remedy our ignorance with this relatively brief and quite accessible book. Not so much a systematic account of Orthdox theologyand also not intended to persuade or convertit can hardly be bettered as a reader's first guide to what those new neighbors in the Christian cul-de-sac might be thinking. For most collections.

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2008
As patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew (n' Demetrios Archondonis) is the ecumenical patriarch of the Orthodox Church, its spiritual leader and chief ambassador to the world. From the beginning of his patriarchate in 1991, Bartholomew has stressed dialogue among Christians and between Christianity and other religions, and environmental issues, and discussion of both bulks large in this book. Opening the book is abrief exposition of Orthodoxy and its distinctions, consisting of a historical pr'cis and explanations of Orthodox architecture, liturgy, and icons; theology; monasticism; and spirituality and sacraments. Bartholomewsfour pageson the sacraments as a means of encounter and communion with God are perhaps themost brilliantin an illuminating book. Moving on to his environmental message, Bartholomew stresses human relations with nature as a manifestation of sacramental living that is indisseverable from just social relations that encompass rights of conscience, personal freedom, tolerance, the mitigation of poverty, and peacemaking. Since the collapse of communism in much of Orthodoxys homeland, Western interest in it has burgeoned. This rich book can only augment and focus that interest.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)