For the Life of the World Audiobook By Alexander Schmemann cover art

For the Life of the World

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for $0.00
Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 3 months. Cancel anytime.

For the Life of the World

By: Alexander Schmemann
Narrated by: Zachariah Mandell
Try for $0.00

$0.00/mo. after 3 months. Offer ends July 31, 2025 at 11:59PM PT. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $19.95

Buy for $19.95

Confirm purchase
Pay using card ending in
Switch payment method
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use, License, and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.
Cancel

The audiobook version of this book on an approach to the world and life within it stems from the liturgical experience of the Orthodox Church. The author understands issues such as secularism and Christian culture from the perspective of the unbroken experience of the Church, as revealed and communicated in her worship, in her liturgy—the sacrament of the world, the sacrament of the Kingdom. Father Alexander Schmemann (†1983) was a prolific writer, brilliant lecturer, and dedicated pastor. Former dean and professor of liturgical theology at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, his insight into contemporary culture and liturgical celebration left an indelible mark on the Christian community worldwide.

The SVS Press audiobook program is sponsored by The Orthodox Vision Foundation. If you are interested in sponsoring the creation of an SVS Press audiobook, please contact us at media@svots.edu.

©2018 St Vladimir's Seminary Press (P)2022 St Vladimir's Seminary Press Christian Living Christianity Spiritual Growth
All stars
Most relevant  
the production of this reading has cut off a few words as he spoke them and there was a section at the end of one of the chapters that gets cut off.

it's impact

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Such a powerful book! Definitely recommend to Christians of any denomination. Though there is some criticism of western Christianity, generally it is all Christians who need correction in our view of God, ourselves, and the world.

One disappointment is that part of chapter 3 is missing in the recording, and that may not have been caught if I were just listening. I also had a hard copy of the book, so I caught it.

Great Christian classic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is truly a classic book, of Christian theology, sweeping in a way that lifts up the heart and mind in joyful hope and wonder. Schmemaan helpfully sets a context he returns to of a polarity between "religion" which attempts to discard the world, and secularism, which idolizes it. He compellingly presents the true (orthodox and Orthodox) Christian way as neither of these improper responses to God's fallen creation which is yet still an epiphany of divine presence and in which the restored world that is coming and here now shining through the Church's liturgy (a word which he helpfully frees from any pious bastions that keep it from engaging the world and its modern secular form). The first chapter alone is amazing, as are Schmemaan's insights on the nature of time, sacrament, and symbol (the latter two being dealt with in detail in the appendix in ways that anticipate current movements such as Jonathan Pageau's work) Incredibly helpful for how it shows the right way of relating to our world and the meaning of the cosmos, of humanity, of the kingdom, and how Christ brings all things together as the life of the world, for the life of the world.

Transformative presentation of the core of the Christian vision.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I’ve read this book and it’s fantastic. I recommend you read it as well. Unfortunately the narrator wasn’t very good. But the book is a gem and I highly recommend it.

Great book. Terrible narrator.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautiful hearing for this story from the Baptismal fountain to the grave!
I find it very useful as a go through it once a year.

Path to reverse in Orthodoxy

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Once again, Fr. Schmemann conveys some deep and universal truths that help liberate our thinking from “old ideas” that are actually modernist. This book helped me to see how we need to think as God intends.

Wow. A must read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Schmemann's work is Schmemann's thoughtful and full hearted work. The reading is sing-songy and over-annunciated, making concentration difficult.

distracting reading

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.