A book which deepens one's understanding of Orthodox Christianity. ( )

"In the beginning was the Tao, and the Tao was with God, and the Tao was God." That sentence, the opening of the Gospel of John translated from the Chinese version into English, says it all. Hieromonk Damascene does here what the Church Fathers of the first through fourth centuries did with their ancient Greek heritage: he takes up the ancient spiritual wisdom of the Chinese and uses the insights of long ago to illuminate the New Covenant of the coming of Christ -- the Tao, the Logos -- in the flesh. Along the way, he shares with us an immeasurable wealth of spiritual treasures from the Church Fathers, the holy Orthodox elders of modern times, and the great and mysterious Taoist sage Lao Tzu. He provides here, I believe, one of the best, most focused, most moving, and yet most concise explanations of Orthodox Faith and spirituality I have ever seen. In the future, this will be the first book that I recommend that young spiritual seekers who express an interest in Orthodoxy. ( )