Saint Nicodemus, the Hagiorite (1748–1809)

As the back of the book says, the Philokalia is the most important book other than the Bible for Orthodox Christians, and it is truly amazing. The glossary at the back of this book helps a lot, and contains explanations of many very important Orthodox beliefs and terms. The only complaint I have is that I wish the translators and editors would have included St. Nikodimos' comments on the various writings he compiled within this English edition. It seems that they would have been very helpful and retaining them would have remained true to the original compilation by Ss. Nikodimos and Markarios.… (more)

These texts, which have a spiritual rather than dogmatic focus, provide in many ways the best hermeneutical key to the rest of Patristic theology, certainly in its Greek form; they complement and complete and explain the better-known treatises of the great Fathers; and many of them are brief and uncomplicated. The whole collection provides also an encyclopaedia of the development of the spirituality in the Eastern Church of the Jesus Prayer over the whole millennium from the period of the Desert Fathers to the late middle-ages, culminating in the teachings of Gregory Palamas: this context shows his works, in particular, to be entirely consonant with the main-stream of Orthodox tradition. In these texts characters like Maximus the Confessor and Simeon the New Theologian come alive, too, with a spiritual vibrancy which still speaks today. The translations are elegant, unfussy, and accessible - and the whole collection is an example of the very greatest spiritual maturity.… (more)