Recommended Readings

[Morgan]

Hi all,

Im new here and I wanted to post regarding my dilemma on which ascetical book to buy for my Christmas break. I have read on orthodoxwiki that The Ladder of Divine Ascent being labelled as the most theologically important work second only to the Bible (this is what Im looking for). In Bishop Kallistos intro in that book I glimpsed his recommendation of St Basil's Asketikon as the most major ascetic work -- is it? or is The Ladder the most major? This confused me as to which book I should get.     ---The Philokalia is out of my scope due to its immense size that would require a longer and more dedictaed period of time to study and it being a work composed from many writers rather than one.--- so please recommend one from the two mentioned above and mention why you chose it.

In Christ,

Morgan

[Morgan]

Bump!

[Ionnis]

My spiritual father had me read "The Ladder" about two years ago.  It requires a lot of spiritual guidance to get through it.  And one needs to be solid in their spiritual life, which includes attending the divine services regularly, doing your daily prayer rule, keeping the fasts, and other such things as prescribed by the Church and your spiritual father. 

And the Philokalia is probably a bad idea anyway, so just avoid it for a while. 

If you are looking for a good ascetical work, I'd recommend "Discourses and Sayings" of Abba Dorotheos.  With all of these works mentioned, it is good to remember that their primary audience was/is monastics and so the application for a layman is probably going to be different.

John

P.S.  Your profile says you are "Oriental Orthodox" but in the OCA.  Can you explain that?
 

[Morgan]

I am Coptic Orthodox to be more specific. The reasoon I specified OCA was because I live here in the US so I live under the Orthodox Church jurisdiction in the American region.


i understand that the applications of these works should be different for a layman, but I believe that Im ready to read it and other similar works. I am considering becoming a monk one day and wanted to know which work was the primiere choice for monasticism in the Eastern Orthodox realm.

In Christ,

Morgan

[Manalive]

I'm finding "St. Silouan the Athonite" by Archimandrite Sophrony to be an excellent read. Granted, I'm only a few chapters into it-- but it's worth checking into if you're interested/considering monasticism.

[Tags:]

OrthodoxChristianity.net > General Forums > Reviews > Topic: Recommended Readings