Philokalia—The Eastern Christian Spiritual Texts

"Filled with centuries of wisdom.... Wonderfully explains and simplifies this difficult [text]." —Religious Book Club "An invaluable treasury of wisdom…. Offers a simple guide to the way (through one's heart) and means (through prayer) of arriving from the spiritual starting-point (of repentance in the heart) to the wonderful destination (of stillness and salvation) found in the love of divine beauty." —John Chryssavgis, author of Light through Darkness: The Orthodox Tradition “Successfully acquaints the reader with [the Philokalia's] origins, context, import and influence.” —American Vedantist “Fully accessible to professional theologians, lay Christians and spiritualists alike. An invaluable addition to spirituality and Christian literature shelves.” —Midwest Book Review “Like water in the desert … invites us not only to go deeper into the life of prayer but takes us off the treadmill of endless self-invention. A clearly and beautifully annotated text that will make the Philokalia accessible to a new generation of readers. A gift for our time.” —Fr. Alan Jones, dean, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco; author of Soul Making and The Soul’s Journey “[An] authoritative resource…. Will go far toward making one of the great treasures of Eastern Christian spirituality accessible to followers of Christ in the West.” —Frederica Mathewes-Green, author of The Illumined Heart and Facing East “Eastern Orthodox Christian teachings on prayer, watchfulness and stillness have much to say to the Quaker tradition.” —Quaker Life