Anthony Bloom (1914–2003)

I found this to be a useful book to me, but not always one that I agreed with; not surprising for me, as I am a person of prayer: but I’m not a Christian.

He is interesting to read as someone from an earlier decade, kinda free of digital dementia; his family life sounds almost comically respectable, if that makes sense: like I do have a feeling that his father really was a “good man” in a sense with substance, and not just the comic sense, but whenever he reports his father’s show more sayings, when you stop to think about it, it just sounds…. Off.

Christians always love to say that they don’t have politics or that politics don’t matter to them—in other words, “this is who we are and this is what we’re going to do, and it’s not up for discussion, so just get used to it”: which is what “this is not political” basically usually means, when in reference to matters of public import; and obviously Christians are a group of public import: they are in the community and they come from history, and they love to brag on that. Anyway, I did find his politics to be, implicitly sort of, middle-problematic, though not evil or horrible or whatever. It does sound like he had an interesting life, though. He was a person of action, and not just words. Mostly Christian books are written by highly educated people, members of the elite, even when they cover “beginner” stuff, and this fits in snugly with that pattern.

The light sprinkling of the lore of the saints of earlier centuries was nice. In general, it is nice that he often, if not every single time, has pretty good ideas about prayer, has experience with the spiritual life, and thinks carefully about using words, rather than mechanically multiplying words to no good purpose, as is common in more commercial writing in all subjects. Not to say that no very long book is ever good, but many a 250 page book has to be stretched out far beyond anything the author actually had to say, to reach a certain “look” in terms of average length: and that is clearly not what happens here. And he thinks, so he can say surprising things at times—sometimes things you wouldn’t expect to hear, from one of you people, if I may use that phrase; although at times he is somewhat conformist.

Before I discard my marked up copy, I will transfer quotes along with my comments to printed pages I’m typing out at the library, maybe two dozen pages. For personal use. Examining the relevant astrology and numerology, and doing a few tarot readings, about him and his book, was very interesting. show less

I think this was a profound and concise account of prayer, and I got so much out of it!

A short and simply amazing book. For Orthodox Christians, a wonderful guide for developing your relationship with God. For non-Orthodox, a beautiful and concise introduction to the Orthodox spiritual life. This book should be one of the first books that inquirers, catechumens, and other interested parties read when coming to the Orthodox Church. If your friends ask you about Orthodoxy -- hand them this book.

Assigned reading for 1st year students at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, made a lot of sense to me then. We are always beginners, there are no experts when it comes to prayer.