The Story
Why are modern Christians so indistinguishable from everyone else?How come Christians who lived in times of bloody persecution were so heroic, while we who live in safety are not?How could the first Christians fast valiantly, but we feel deprived without dessert?How did New Testament believers pray without ceasing?How could the early Christian martyrs actually forgive their torturers?What did the Christians of the first centuries know that we dont?Thats what this book is about.From the author:When I look back at the process of writing The Illumined Heart, Im amazed all over again at how God directed it. I wrote the whole thing in a week, the week before Christmas, in fact, which is so typically congested with lastminute errands, unpredicatable weather, aches and sniffles. For Orthodox Christians, its also a week that we fast from meat and dairy, adding another ball to the juggling act. Yet somehow I started writing the book on Monday morning and completed it Sunday night, just fourteen minutes after the Christmas Eve service began. (I kept wondering where in the week Id dawdled and lost that fourteen minutes.)Its no wonder that I look at The Illumined Heart as the one out of all of my books that felt the most Goddirected. Mostly, he told me when to shut up. For a cuprunnethover writer like me, starting a book is like moving into midpregnancy and putting on those stretchfront trousers for the first time; theyre like a license to eat. And knowing that I have room to write on and on, whatever comes to mind, makes for abundant, wandering prose. Yet The Illumined Heart is quiet, proportional, justenough; its like a jewel. Its no wonder that this is a personal favorite among my own books, and the one I must urge people to read. Im pleased by the amount of good work its done so far, and hope that it will continue to do much more.
Description
Why are modern Christians so indistinguishable from everyone else?How come Christians who lived in times of bloody persecution were so heroic, while we who live in safety are not?How could the first Christians fast valiantly, but we feel deprived without dessert?How did New Testament believers pray without ceasing?How could the early Christian martyrs actually forgive their torturers?What did the Christians of the first centuries know that we dont?Thats what this book is about.From the author:When I look back at the process of writing The Illumined Heart, Im amazed all over again at how God directed it. I wrote the whole thing in a week, the week before Christmas, in fact, which is so typically congested with lastminute errands, unpredicatable weather, aches and sniffles. For Orthodox Christians, its also a week that we fast from meat and dairy, adding another ball to the juggling act. Yet somehow I started writing the book on Monday morning and completed it Sunday night, just fourteen minutes after the Christmas Eve service began. (I kept wondering where in the week Id dawdled and lost that fourteen minutes.)Its no wonder that I look at The Illumined Heart as the one out of all of my books that felt the most Goddirected. Mostly, he told me when to shut up. For a cuprunnethover writer like me, starting a book is like moving into midpregnancy and putting on those stretchfront trousers for the first time; theyre like a license to eat. And knowing that I have room to write on and on, whatever comes to mind, makes for abundant, wandering prose. Yet The Illumined Heart is quiet, proportional, justenough; its like a jewel. Its no wonder that this is a personal favorite among my own books, and the one I must urge people to read. Im pleased by the amount of good work its done so far, and hope that it will continue to do much more.
