www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Books George Appleyard: Light of the East

Glory to Jesus Christ, Honor to Mary Immaculate!

I am wondering if any of the good members of the Byzantine Forum are familiar with the book "Light of the East" written by Father George Appleyard. The book serves as A Guide to Eastern Catholicism For Western Catholics. I have heard that it is good.

John Doucette

I have it. It's a thin little volume that covers the basics pretty well, focusing mainly on the similarities and differences between the Byzantine (not generically Eastern) Catholic Churches and the Latin Church. But a more in-depth study would be welcome.

There are three such studies in print aimed mainly at Protestants (specifically Evangelicals), which are very good indeed, and would be of value to Latin Catholics, too, since they are written by Western Christians (albeit Protestants) looking in.

These are:

Daniel B. Clendenin, Eastern Orthodox Christianity
_________________ , Eastern Orthodox Theology
James R. Payton, Jr., Light From the Christian East: An Introduction to the Orthodox Tradition.

I recommend all three of these as follow-on to Appleyard, whose main purpose is introductory and focused on dispelling misconceptions.

Another more in-depth overview of Eastern Christianity aimed at Western Christians is Father Lawrence Cross' book *Eastern Christianity: The Byzantine Tradition* which we offer from Eastern Christian Publications. It's one of our most popular books, an easy read, and yet more thorough and informative than Appleyard's book. Cross' book numbers about 140 or pages, including relevant photos, and so includes more material than Appleyard.

And Father Cross is coming to the US from Australia in July for us to record the contents of his book, and his recently published book on the Sacraments, into a CD and DVD for OLTV.

Jack

I forgot Father Lawrence's book, which I have also read. I recommend it highly as the perspective of a Byzantine Catholic defining the beliefs and place of the Byzantine Catholic Churches within the Catholic communion.

You might also want to check out:

101 Questions and Answers on the Eastern Catholic Churches, Paulist Press, 2007, by our own Deacon Ed Faulk; and, American Eastern Catholics, Paulist Press, 2006, by Father Fred Saato, both of the Melkite Eparchy of Newton.

Many years,

Neil

Fr. George's book was originally intended as a resource for Latin RCIA programs to at least incorporate a primer on the Eastern Catholics, and as such, is just that, a primer intended for the Latin Catholic who has little or no previous knowledge or experience with the Eastern Catholic Churches. With that audience in mind it is fine for that purpose.

Fr. Lawrence's book is very good and much more in depth than Fr. George's book. I use it along with some other books (Raya's Face of God, etc.) for my class on Eastern Catholic Churches at a local RC college. Thanks to Jack for keeping it available. I look forward to reading Fr. Lawrence's book on the Sacraments.

Also, Father Lawrence is finalizing a book on iconography that we will be publishing in the near future.

AND, he is coming to my OLTV studio in mid July to make video/audio recordings of all three books so they can be used for lectures and parish adult education programs. I hope we'll have the media produced by the end of the summer.

Jack