No comments about The Lives of the Holy Apostles: Saints Peter, Paul, Andrew, James ... from the Menology of St. Dimitri of Rostov in Russian and the Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church in greek.

No comments about Byzantine Hermeneutics and Pedagogy in the Russian North: Monks and Masters at the Kirillo-Belozerskii Monastery, 1397-1501.

1 comments about The Icon Handbook: A Guide to Understanding Icons and the Liturgy Symbols and Practices of the Russian Orthodox Church.

1. Coomler's handbook is a collection of common icon patterns (line drawings, usually presented backwards or mirror-image) with short decriptions (some better than others).
   
   This book is not a theology of iconography, nor is it a devotional work. It's a reference text, a pattern book which may be used to identify icons & iconographic themes, read and interpret common iconographic symbols, etc. It can be extremely helpful when understood and used correctly, especially when supplemented with good theologies of iconography and devotional works.

No comments about Manjava Skete: Ukranian Monastic Writings of the Seventeenth Century (Cistercian Studies Number 192).

No comments about The Russian Orthodox Church: A Contemporary History.

No comments about Vladimir Soloviev: A Russian Newman (1853-1900).

2 comments about The Meaning of Icons.

1. Among the many books on icons, this is one of the oldest still in print. Why has it become a classic? Because it was written by one of the greatest twentieth century theologians, Vladimir Lossky, and by one of the greatest 20th century iconographers,Leonide Ouspensky who spent the whole of his artistic life in France painting icons and frescoes. Their approach is unique not only because of their deep experience of the Orthodox faith, but also because of the way they decided to describe the colour prints reproduced in this volume. What we have here is a superb commentary in the form of selection of poetry from the feasts during which these icons are placed in the middle of the church. Much of this Byzantine hymnography has no parallel in the West. It is what is heard in the eastern Christian church throughout the liturgical year which this volume beautifully illustrates both in word and image. The authors' feeling for the uplifting prayer of which icons play such a vital part is genuine and rarely found in any other book about the iconographic tradition. All Christians and many non-Christians will appreciate their respectful presentation of the revelation of God to man as it is presented in this book.



2. About icons and their meaning I already had (and read) a lot in the Russian language, but until now I didn't have content and illustrations in one hand. That's for me the meaning of the Meaning. It is short, gives the theological and canonical information about the role of the icon in Eastern Orthodoxy from inside, the themes are worked out and clearly arranged, the illustrations are big and beautyful. So, I am very glad that I sought for it and bought it.

2 comments about A Long Walk to Church: A Contemporary History of Russian Orthodoxy.

1. This book will open your eyes to what the real issues were, when and where for the Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century. Davis is relatively sympathetic to the ROC, but he doesn't hold any punches when there IS a criticism to be made. Davis spends quite a bit of time crunching numbers, but he also takes the time for anecdotal descriptions, too. This is very readable and insightful! Side note: He seems a little naive and starry-eyed about Gorbachev's support for the Church, but that might just be my reading too much into it.



2. If you're interested in what's going on in the church in Russia today, Davis provides both the background and the contemporary perspective. Thoroughly annotated with 100 pages of end notes, this book combines statistical analysis of the church's fluctuating fortunes with reports from Communist and other annals and Davis' own observations from visits to hundreds of churches.
   
   Its academic approach, while thorough, makes it less accessible to the casual reader interested in the subject, which is why I gave it only 3 stars. I'd like to see Davis return to this subject with a book aimed at the general reader. Based on my visits to 4 Moscow churches within walking distance of each other and to a couple of Old Believers churches, I think there's a story waiting to be told of the variety of approaches to Orthodox belief and practice that are active in Russia today.

No comments about Russian Orthodox Bible for Children with Illustrations.

No comments about A History of Russian Christianity: Tsar Nicholas II to Gorbachev's Edict on the Freedom of Conscience.