Through the lives and thought of a score of Orthodox theologians, Andrew Louth shows the distinctiveness of their theology, grounded not in academic concepts and constructs but rather in prayer, paths toward holiness and the experience of the living church. A thoroughly engaging introduction to the ways of modern Orthodox theology.
-Vigen Guroian
Fr. Andrew Louth, who is himself one of the foremost Orthodox theologians of our time, offers us in this volume much more than a survey of 'modern Orthodox thinkers,' despite the humble simplicity of the title. The wonderfully surprising grace of this work is that it succeeds in communicating not only the thought of the major figures in modern Orthodox theology but the spiritual wellsprings of that thought in Orthodox prayer and liturgy. An equally inspired feat is his presentation of the rich diversity of modern Orthodoxy, comprising clerical and lay theologians, both men and women, hailing from a great variety of backgrounds and perspectives. This is a work of scholarship that is imbued with a Eucharistic spirit. The reader will feel both nourished by its erudition and deeply grateful for its illumination of the manifold manifestations of the Spirit in modern Orthodoxy.
-Khaled Anatolios,
University of Notre Dame
This is a brilliant introduction to the living theology of the Orthodox Church since the publication of the Philokalia in 1782, revealing the amazing diversity and fecundity of the Orthodox theological tradition. This is sure to become the standard handbook on the ways of Orthodox theology in the nineteenth and twentieth century inspired by, and inspiring, the love of the good and beautiful.
-John Behr,
dean, St. Vladimir's Seminary, New York
Father Andrew Louth offers us an account of Eastern Christianity made up of men and women, flesh and blood, engaged on the extraordinary project of the kingdom of God on earth. The celebrated English Orthodox theologian gives us the chance to meet the living icons for whom Orthodoxy was an existential, rather than confessional, guide. It is an anthology with the secret project of pursuing a tradition of thought that refuses to separate the good, the just and the beautiful. A book to read and re-read.
-Antoine Arjakovsky,
founding director of the institute of ecumenical studies, Lviv, Ukraine, research director, College des Bernardins, Paris
We have needed this book for a long time. Praise to Andrew Louth for his extraordinary breadth and depth in painting a multicolored portrait of the many faces of Orthodox theology since the late eighteenth century.
-Sarah Hinlicky Wilson,
Institute for Ecumenical Research, Strasbourg, consultant, International Lutheran-Orthodox Joint Commission
By following the trajectory of Orthodox thought wherever it has blossomed across the world, this revelatory book charts a whole new constellation in the cosmos of Eastern Christianity. Andrew Louth's warm and lucid exposition, combined with his deep learning, makes him the ideal ambassador of the religious ideals he explores.
-Rosamund Bartlett
Rewarding and timely, Modern Orthodox Thinkers is both an informative introduction to a gallery of individual thinkers and a coherent meditation on the significance of Orthodox thought in the modern world.
-Avril Pyman, FBA,
reader emerita in Russian literature, University of Durham
