Bishop Hilarion Alfeyev, The Mystery Of Faith: An Introduction to the Teaching and Spirituality of the Orthodox Church , London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 2002, pp. 267

At a time when the Russian Orthodox Church is subject to a good deal of criticism, often not at all well informed, it is particularly valuable to have this clear and balanced statement of its understanding of the Christian faith, from the pen of one of its outstanding younger bishops.

The book is based on lectures given at the Moscow Theological Academy in 1992, but evidently expanded and revised since then. During the 1990s, the author studied in Oxford for his doctorate under the guidance of Bishop Kallistos Ware, then served for some time in the foreign-affairs department of the Moscow patriarchate.

He was made bishop at the beginning of 2002, and is now the representative of the patriarchate at the European Community in Brussels.

After a brief opening chapter, “Search for Truth”, the book takes us steadily through the main points of Christian doctrine: God, the Trinity, the creation, the human person, Christ, the Church, sacraments, prayer, deification and the life of the age to come.

It may, at first sight, seem strange that there is no separate discussion of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, but, to some extent, the fact that the Trinitarian nature of theology is stressed makes up for it.

On questions on which Orthodox theologians tend to be divided among themselves, Bishop Hilarion’s position is often mediating. Whereas on the question of the ordination of women, for instance, he is firmly negative, on the question of the attitudes of the Churches of the West, he is decidedly more open than some of his contemporaries.

“To regard today’s Catholics and Protestants as ‘pseudo-churches’ is totally alien to the spirit of the ancient Church Fathers . . . Their understanding of the divisions among Churches was much more dynamic and multi-dimensional and much less rigid,” he writes.

Each chapter of the book is followed by a short collection of texts by eminent Orthodox writers, both ancient and modern. It is characteristic of Bishop Hilarion that he insists on the intimate interaction of prayer and theology.

Two great mystics of the first millennium are well represented: St Isaac the Syrian and St Symeon the New Theologian. Among our contemporaries are Archbishop Anthony Bloom and St Silouan the Athonite.

The book has been well translated and is attractively presented. The publishers are to be congratulated on producing it at such a reasonable price. It deserves to be widely read.

Canon A. M. Allchin
Honorary Professor of the University of Wales, in Bangor
Church Times, 31.01.2003