Looks like a must read ...
Encountering the Mystery: Understanding Orthodox Christianity Today

http://www.randomhouse.com/doubleday/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780385518130

This looks like a definite must read and a nice addition to any home library.

It got a very poor review in the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

http://pewforum.org/news/display.php?NewsID=14830

Without having read the book, and if the review is fairly accurate, I would certainly say I have to agree.

Ah, yes!

Slam the door before opening the pages.

Take the Media's word as Gospel, over that of a Patriarch.

The Wall Street Journal, exemplary custodian of Christian values,
using its pages to bash a Church leader. Not surprising.

May I suggest that these folks know a lot more about the price
of things in the markets, than of the value of anything.

At first glance, this book review seems to reveal nothing about the book.

Ms. Allen's remark that the environment has "only a tangential relationship to Orthodoxy" shows a lack of understanding not only about Eastern Christianity, but of the Incarnation and of our integrated spirituality.

It offends me when a writer uses "yadda, yadda, yadda"...That she fails to approach a fair point-of-view in reading the book offends me even more.

Why review a book if you are not at least somewhat familiar with its subject matter? If you have predispositions against a topic, a writer, or a faith, why bother? She says "Orthodox Christianity is not dead yet," as if it should have been or could be dead at any moment.

You don't go over to someone's house and greet their parents to say, "Ahhh, I see your mom isn't dead yet." That's not polite. Then saying "She's still kicking, look she blinked!" after that doesn't improve your lot.

It is very difficult to take her seriously.

Terry

http://www.touchstonemag.com/archives/article.php?id=04-04-015-f

This link from the thread "Modernism . . ." in the East and West section immediately comes to mind.

Most Western Christians reviewing a book by an Eastern Patriarch or theologian would probably come at it from this angle. The reviewer is into an area that she would have no idea about and her assumption is probably that Eastern Christianity is simply an ethnic version of Western Christianity. Unfortunately, that is the prevailing attitude one finds and it takes constant education to correct it.

In Christ,

BOB

The 'yadda, yadda, yadda' was rude, inappropriate and unprofessional to say the least, and it completely discredited the rest of the review which wasn't that that great, but wasn't that bad either.

Alice

Did you happen to see what book the reviewer wrote? Finding the Human Jesus, or some humanistic title like that.

Yes I did, but I am not reacting emotionally to the review, but objectively...her assesments about a secular Europe, a growing Islam, a dwindling Eastern Christianity, etc. are, unfortunately, true. Her 'yadda' blurb completely discredited the article as it revealed her disdain and lack of respect for the person of the Ecumenical Patriarch and was therefore, unprofessional journalism.

--Alice

Here it is

http://www.amazon.com/Human-Christ-Charlotte-Allen/dp/0745942350

I had never heard of her. Judging by these links, she appears to me to be a fairly conservative Catholic.

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/?p=382
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/155/story_15504.html

I found another link discussing the review in question here.

http://www.kendallharmon.net/t19/index.php/t19/article/9523/

Well, I put it on my Amazon wish list.

I received an invitation to review this book.
I have it posted on my website at http://orthotracts.org

The book will be available this week.

Peace,
Dismas

C. I. X.

Thank you Dismas for directing to a positive step. Why do many reviewing reviewers? Poor “ethnic church” defense. If you don’t like what they say don’t try to understand their reason in order to rectify the perception, question their reasoning putting them on the defensive. Is a retreat really better than a dialogue?

Here is a direct link to my review

http://www.orthotracts.org/myarticles/Understanding%20Orthodox%20Christianity%20Today.doc

I also have some videos available. Here is one of the EP explaining Orthodoxy

http://youtube.com/watch?v=lLXDVCtjAAI