Orthodoxy For Beginners

A Guide for the Perplexed

Monks preparing the Kolyva for the Feast of the Dormition, Mount Athos. Photograph by the author.

It’s been about three and a half years now since I was baptised in the River Shannon. This is a long time, and also no time at all. It’s certainly not long enough to learn how to be a Christian - but then that’s probably not something we ever have enough time for. Towards the end of his life, Saint Sophrony of Essex was approached by an excitable convert who had just been baptised. ‘Father!’ he said, ‘I’ve just become an Orthodox Christian! ‘How nice for you,’ the Saint is said to have replied, ‘I have not yet learned to become one myself.’

I wrote an essay about my unexpected journey to Christianity in 2021, called The Cross and the Machine, which has become probably my most widely-read essay ever. This might say something about currents in the culture. I’ve not yet written an equivalent essay about why I chose (or was directed to) the oldest, and the original, Christian Church, that of the Orthodox faithful. I’ve had a skeleton version of just such an essay sitting around for over a year, but I haven’t managed to complete it. Perhaps there’s too much to say, or perhaps I don’t know how to say it, or am not supposed to say it yet, or ever. Something isn’t working, anyway.

In the meantime though, I’m often approached by people who, like me a few years back, are interested in Orthodoxy and want to find out more. They ask me what books they should read, or if there are any resources I recommend. So I’ve decided to put together a little package of what I consider to be useful resources for inquirers at the beginning of their journey.

There is nothing authoritative about this list: consider it a simple offering from one beginner to another. We Orthodox are not so big on the ‘authoritative’ thing anyway, which is one of the things you learn on coming into the Church. Orthodoxy is much less about the correct ‘dogma’, in the Roman Catholic sense, than it is about acquiring the correct phronema. This is harder to learn, and you can’t learn it from a book. You can learn some things from books though, which is why I’ve compiled this selection.

Finally, let me say something that ought to be obvious but might not be: none of this is an alternative to seeking out Orthodox Christianity in practice. If you are interested in the Orthodox faith, don’t imagine that you’ll find it on YouTube (you’re more likely to find counterfeit versions there) or even in the pages of a good book. There’s no substitute for plucking up the courage to go along to a Divine Liturgy one Sunday and seeing what happens. If you are taken by the experience, and it seems to speak to the call inside you, stay around and talk to the priest afterwards. Again: see what happens when you do.

In the meantime, I hope these offerings will be useful. If readers have suggestions of their own to add to the list, feel free to leave them in the comments below.

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INTRODUCTORY BOOKS

I’m a book man, of course. I have thousands of the things, but I’m going to recommend just six that I found useful at the start. Some are practical, some more theological or even mystical.

• The Mountain of Silence, by Kyriakos Markides
  Probably the first book I read on what Orthodoxy is about at the level of the spirit, I found this both revealing and entrancing, and still do.

• Wounded By Love, by St Porphyrios
  One of my favourite books of all time, this compendium of the wisdom and life of St Porphyrios, who died just a few decades ago, is a thing of understated beauty and true wisdom.

• Welcome to the Orthodox Church, by Frederica Mathewes-Green
  Frederica is the best contemporary English-language writer for Orthodox inquirers, and this book is an accessible but detailed introduction to how the Church works and what it believes.

• The Orthodox Faith, by Father Thomas Hopko
  Another comprehensive, and contemporary, guide to what this Orthodox thing is all about, and how it works. There is an online version available for free here.

• The Way of a Pilgrim
  Possibly fictional, possibly not, this classic account of a Russian pilgrim’s search for the secret of prayer conveys the heart of Orthodoxy beautifully. See my review here.

• Thinking Orthodox, by Eugenia Scarvelis Constantinou
  This is a fairly deep book, but I found it an enlightening introduction to the tricky notion of the Orthodox phronema.

ON PRAYER AND PRACTICE

I’m not the man to ask for prayer advice, let alone guidance on living a good Orthodox life, but here are some books that have helped me understand what that life should look like.

• Guidelines for Prayer, by Matthew the Poor
  Matthew the Poor was a Coptic monk from Egypt, and this thin compendium about prayer life is maybe the best book on prayer I’ve ever read. I still read it daily.

• Beginning to Pray, by Anthony Bloom
  Another thin volume, this book by the English Orthodox Metropolitan is full of useful practical advice for beginners (which means most of us.)

• Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, by Elder Thaddeus
  If, like me, you live in your head, the deceptively simple wisdom of the Serbian monk Elder Thaddeus might give you some ideas about how to escape.

• Way of the Ascetics, by Tito Colliander
  First published in Swedish in the 1960s, this pocket-sized compendium of advice about how to live an ascetic life packs a punch on every page.

• Short Trip to the Edge, by Scott Cairns
  Scott Cairns is an American poet, and this story of his visits to Mount Athos in search of the key to living an Orthodox life is relatable and instructive.

DAILY READING/SAINTS LIVES

I find it useful to have a few books I can dip into daily for little snippets of wisdom and advice. If you start each morning with a few paragraphs from some of these, it can put you in a good frame of mind for the day ahead.

• Patristic Breviary, by Thomas Spidlik
  Every day, this little book offers a short nuggets of advice taken from the Church Fathers.

• Orthodox Saints of the British Isles, by John (Ellsworth) Hutchison-Hall
  For the British and Irish among us, this four-volume book of saints’ lives is a treat. Each date offers us the saint(s) of the day, and his or her story. I read an entry every morning.

• Travelling Companions, by Christopher Moorey
  Another good daily read, this book contains short entries about saints’ lives in alphabetical order, covering both the famous and the obscure from around the world.

• Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit, edited by Herman Middleton
  Subtitled ‘Lives and Counsels of Contemporary Elders of Greece’, this book does what it says on the cover, and is worth dipping into when you need a dose of spiritual guidance.

ONLINE RESOURCES

I advise caution when engaging with Orthodox resources online. As in every other area of life, anyone can post anything they like, and claim it’s the truth. Consequently, some of the ‘Orthodox’ material you will find online is misleading, passion-led or political. As the Serbian YouTuber Bojan, whose channel is one of the few I do recommend, put it in one of his videos: ‘The Internet is good for transmitting information and scandal, but bad for transmitting wisdom.’ There is some wisdom (And information) to found in the following, though.

• Ancient Faith
  Ancient Faith is an American Orthodox clearing-house for books, radio channels, podcasts and other resources, all of which are accessible and many of which are worth your time.

• Father Stephen Freeman
  For my money, Fr Stephen is one of the wisest and most penetrating contemporary Orthodox voices around. He’s also highly critical of modernity and has a dry sense of humour, which hits the spot for me. His blog and podcast should be required reading and listening.

• Pencils and Prayer Ropes
  Bojan, a reader in the Serbian Orthodox Church, who also happens to be a talented cartoonist, hosts this YouTube channel about Orthodox life and teaching. There are some entertaining videos for beginners and inquirers.

• Mull Monastery
  From the sister institution to the Irish monastery in which I was baptised, Fr Seraphim Aldea, Abbot of Mull Monastery, offers personal reflections on Orthodox life which I often find honest and useful.

• Journey to Orthodoxy
  This American site offers a compendium of stories from all sorts of people, from Buddhists to pagans to atheists to Catholics, about their journey to the Orthodox Church.

• Orthodox Teaching of the Elders
  This site is just as the name says: short videos, featuring teachings straight from the mouths of Orthodox saints and elders.

• Protecting Veil
  Dr Herman Middleton, one of whose books I recommended above, runs this channel, on which he interviews contemporary Orthodox figures. Declaration of interest: I’m one of them, but don’t let that put you off.

• Death to the World
  The title enough ought to be enough to attract you, but I also recommend the content. Death to the World is in fact an old-style ‘zine’, produced by a group of Orthodox monks and laypeople who emerged from the Punk scene, and are now using its language (and to some extent imagery) to speak about the saints and the Church Fathers. It was one of my ways in to Orthodoxy.

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