Our good friend Denise Harvey has just released yet another wonderful new book. It is a new translation of what is generally regarded as Alexandros Papadiamandis’s finest work, The Murderess. The translation is excellent…highly recommended.

Do you live in LA? Do you like chant? Are you looking for a way to support Orthodox higher education? If so, then the Eikona concert in Pasadena this weekend may be just what you’ve been looking for! (If you end up going, please let me know how it goes!)

If you’ve never heard of Road to Emmaus Journal, you should head over to their website right now to learn more about their fine work!

I first met Mother Nectaria McLees (one of the journal’s main editors) about ten years ago, on one of her visits through Greece. She interviewed me and two other foreign students of theology regarding our experiences as students living in Greece (you can read the interview in the Winter 2003 issue). She interviewed me again a number of years later regarding my doctoral research on C.S. Lewis (Winter 2007 issue). Most recently, I interviewed Dr. Anestis Keselopoulos (author of Greece’s Dostoevsky: The Theological Vision of Alexandros Papadiamandis) for the journal (Summer 2008 issue).

What is the focus of the journal? It’s essentially a chronicle of the vibrancy of contemporary Orthodox faith around the world, written for Orthodox faithful who don’t have the opportunity to travel and experience these things first hand. On their About Us page, they describe themselves thusly:

Road to Emmaus’ first issue was published in the Spring of 2000, in response to a letter from a new American Orthodox convert from Wisconsin to Richard Betts and Mother Nectaria McLees, who, for a decade, had been living in and visiting countries with a heritage of traditional Orthodoxy:

“I feel as if I am living on a huge desert island. I am hungry to learn from traditional pious Orthodox Christians in countries where Orthodoxy is a part of their heritage – how they pray, how they raise their families, how they face ethical problems, how their thinking differs from mine, and how they live out Orthodoxy in their own homes and native countries. I cannot go on pilgrimage because I have small children, but my soul is hungry for contact. I’ve read dozens of books on Orthodox spirituality and history, but I’m looking for something more personal and contemporary – I want to KNOW Orthodox people around the world…”

The journal is a true labor of love, with most of its workers giving of their time and talents without compensation. The articles are very well written and researched, and aesthetically, the journal is a real work of art…the design and photography (archival or otherwise) is excellent. Road to Emmaus is a gem of a publication, and if you haven’t yet checked it out, I’d encourage you to do so!

Book Launched

It’s with great joy that I’m able to officially announce that Greece’s Dostoevsky: The Theological Vision of Alexandros Papadiamandis is now available! We’ve been hard at work promoting the book, and will continue to do so in the coming weeks. (Please tell everyone you know about it!)

Book Launch Sale

As you’ll notice on the book’s page, you can order the book for up to 50% off during the Book Launch Sale, which will last until October 17th.

The sale prices are as follows: retail: $18.70/book, bulk rate: $11/book (for 5 or more copies, mix & match if you’d like).

Blog Posts Launched

I have written a series of four blog posts regarding Greece’s Dostoevsky, which will be posted on other blogs over the coming weeks, according to the following schedule:

Blog Post #1: September 30^th, Byzantine, TX

Blog Post #2: October 4th, Eighth Day Books Blog

Blog Post #3: October 6^th, Bombaxo

Blog Post #4: October 11^th, Mystagogy

If you are interested in learning more about Alexandros Papadiamandis, and about the book, this is a good place to start!

Papadiamandis Conference

For those of you who are already fans of Greece’s Dostoevsky, you’ll be interested to learn that the Third National Alexandros Papadiamandis Conference began yesterday on the island of Skiathos. This is a particularly important year for the conference, since it’s the centenary of the writer’s repose.

“Art affirms all that is best in man – hope, faith, love, beauty, prayer…what he dreams of and what he hopes for… When someone who doesn’t know how to swim is thrown into the water, instinct tells his body what movements will save him. The artist, too is driven by a kind of instinct, and his work furthers man’s search for what is eternal, transcendent, divine – often in spite of the sinfulness of the poet himself.”

- Andrei Tarkovsky

As some of you may remember, I was very involved in helping Father Alexis Trader promote his new book, Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy.

I just became aware of another review of his book, posted on the Eighth Day Books blog.

From the review:

[I]t may be one of the most solid and useful “self-help” books of our time, because it draws discerningly upon both the proven methods of cognitive therapy (which follows from the ancient Stoic insight that it is not events that make us happy or unhappy, but our interpretations of them) as well as upon the ancient wisdom of two thousand years of spiritual practice, enriched and refined not in the research library or classroom, but in the monastic cell, the true laboratory of the human soul.

The reviewer provides what may be the most enthusiastic support for the book that I have yet seen:

Over the course of many years, this reviewer has become acquainted with hundreds of books on psychological and spiritual counsel and has found Fr. Alexios’ manual to be the best and most useful by far. Ancient Christian Wisdom and Aaron Beck’s Cognitive Therapy has the power to transform lives, and deserves to become a classic of spiritual reading.

Have you read Fr. Alexis’s book yet? What did you think?

“Because most people thirst for spiritual teaching, while those who are qualified and responsible do not undertake any provision for the care of this need,…it follows that many pious and well-disposed people become deluded, in good faith, hearing the Christian word wherever it may resound, even though it may be adulterated.”

“Like Dostoevsky, Papadiamandis looked deep into the human soul and found that its beauty and nobility depend not on the power of its intellect, or on the intensity of its desire, but on its genuine relationship with God.”

- Hieromonk Alexis (Trader)

“…Greece’s Dostoevsky [is] far more than a description of theological teachings contained within the literature of an important writer in modern Greece. It is a catechism. In fact, it is not only a catechism for those who know little about Orthodox liturgy and faith — it can also act as a compass for those who have some knowledge about Orthodox prayer and doctrine but are in need of criteria for evaluating authentic liturgical life today. In other words, this gift to America is both a catechism and a strategy for Orthodox evangelism that begins with the pulse of the heart of Orthodoxy—the liturgical life of the faithful.”

- Hieromonk Alexis (Trader)

“The theology hidden in Papadiamandis works is, in the final analysis, one of the Transfiguration, depicting the transformation of a group of people into the body of Christ, and of the simple piety of the humble and rejected into liturgy, spiritual glory, and truth.”

- Dr. Anestis Keselopoulos