For over four hundred years the Orthodox Church was the church of Christianity. This excellent book accurately spells out the differences between the Christian experience in the early church and Christianity in the Western world. It successfully points us back to the basics that made that early church so powerful. In the process I found that my understanding of the faith as something primarily between God and me was very skewed. Having come to understand how the early Christians lived out the faith in covenant community rather than as individuals has redirected my life,and made the bible much more understandable. As a result, I have a much deeper walk with God than I would ever have considered possible. While it may be a primer for those well steeped in the Orthodox tradition, it was a book that took several readings simply because our Western culture is not inherently communal as was the Biblical culture in which Christianity flourished. Anyone who seriously wants to grow in their Christian walk would find this a fount of knowledge and information that can seriously open one's eyes as to just how much more is available to them than most Christians presently experience.

Share/Like this Review?