David J. Goa, A Regard for Creation: Collected Essays (Dewdney: Synaxis Press, 2008).
It often takes a few decades for an ancient tradition such as Orthodoxy to fully root, then bear the full foliage and fruit of such a deep rooting. There is little doubt that with the publication of A Regard for Creation: Collected Essays, by David Goa, the attentive reader cannot help but be held by the breadth, insights and grandeur of Orthodoxy as such a tradition speaks to our current questions.
There are many fine essays in this book that have been compiled from previous booklets, homilies and lectures. Each of the chapters, in different ways, probes and ponders the interaction between faith and public life at a variety of challenging levels, including, of course, a regard for creation, in the broadest meaning of that compelling word. There is an evocative and provocative approach in A Regard for Creation that draws the reader into the banqueting hall of the well spread table. Orthodoxy is presented in a way that cannot but hold and speak to the deepest longings of the heart and head.
There is little doubt that David has lingered long within the sacred shrine of Orthodoxy, and A Regard for Creation is the mature reflections on the sanest and soundest meaning of such a heritage.
There is no doubt that Orthodoxy in Canada has come of age with the many publications of Archbishop Lazar Puhalo (and others he has generously published), and David Goa’s A Regard for Creation makes it abundantly clear that Orthodoxy within Canada now has articulate and profoundly reflective theologians that have entered the public space and done so in a way that must be heeded and heard.
A Regard for Creation, I should think, should be must read by those within the Orthodox tradition and those curious about Orthodoxy at its thoughtful best.
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Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, Not by Bread Alone: Homilies on the Gospel According to Saint Matthew (Dewdney: Synaxis Press, 2008).
The is a variety of scholarly and devotional books in the publishing marketplace on the book of Matthew, and there is a long debate between the devotional and scholarly world about how to interpret and exegete such a text. The university and academy is often more concerned about intellectual rigour and the finest insights of historic higher and lower criticism. The devotional tradition tends to be more interested in the meaning and significance of the text for the heart and personal life journey.
It is from within the wisdom tradition of Orthodoxy that a more contemplative read of Biblical texts has emerged that evades both the scholarly and devotional approach to a reading and application of Biblical texts. Not by Bread Alone, by Archbishop Lazar Puhalo, stands very much within the Classical Orthodox tradition of contemplative exegesis.
There is no doubt that Archbishop Lazar Puhalo is the most published Orthodox theologian in North American, and he is certainly one of the wisest and most insightful. The short and succinct homilies in Not by Bread Alone amply illustrate why Archbishop Puhalo is one of the finest Orthodox contemplative exegetes today. The verses and chapters that are interpreted go straight to the pure gold of Matthew, then present such distilled wisdom to the listening ear, heart and head. Needless to say, the tome deserves many a meditative read and reread.
There are twenty-seven chapters in Not by Bread Alone, and chapters 1-26 deal with Matthew. Chapter twenty-seven is a short collection of homilies given over a period of years by Archbishop Puhalo in Juneau Alaska (1976), Pascha 2001, Pascha 2002, Pascha 2005 and Pascha 2007. The final chapter is a fine and fit way to crown the book.
Not by Bread Alone is a must read for anyone interested in how to read, interpret and internalize sacred texts in a way that leads to transformation and deification.
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H.C. Schlieper, The Schlieper Iconographic Handbook for Icons of THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY, THEOTOKOS (Dewdney: Synaxis Press, 2008).
The Western Tradition in its protestant form has had a nasty tendency to either ignore (at its best) or destroy (and its menacing worst) the vibrant and evocative iconographic tradition of Orthodoxy. The publication of THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY, THEOTOKOS, replete with black/white icons and text, tells the tales well, in a visual manner, of Mary, the Theotokos. Mary lived a life that few ever will, but in her Yes, she made it clear just what a mature Yes means to God.
H.C. Schlieper has done more than a superb job in his unfolding iconographic drama of unveiling and revealing to those that have eyes to read and see, and hearts and heads to welcome and receive just what Mary’s life can mean as an icon. Who were Mary’s parents, what did the Yes mean to both them and Mary, what was the pregnancy and birth like, the life of Jesus, his death and resurrection and Mary’s ongoing journey after the ascension of Jesus? How can we understand, in a fuller way, the deeper journey that Mary lived? The answers to such questions, in a simple and ascetic manner, come through loud and clear in THE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY, THEOTOKOS.
There are those that come to see more deeply into eternity and time through abstract arguments and logic. There are others (many more) who awaken within through photos, parables, narratives, images and icons. Those who stir within through the medium of icons, and a meditative pondering of them, will certainly be led into the life of Mary and God through H.C. Schlieper’s STHE LIFE OF THE VIRGIN MARY, THEOTOKOS.
Ron Dart
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