St. Gregory of Nyssa (AD 335 - 395), the great theologian and bishop of Nyssa, turned his considerable skill to finishing the work that his brother St. Basil the Great had started on the creation of the world (the Hexaemeron). The result is this book, which examines how humans are formed as a "mean between the divine and brute beasts".

This classic by St. Basil the Great (329-379) gives eloquent exposition of the doctrine of the Trinity, showing how there is distinction and yet communion among the divine Persons. Although not the Spirit "God", St. Basil demonstrates that he, like the Son, shares the same nature as the Father.

The Life of Saint Macrina is a significant work of early Christian literature written by Bishop Gregory of Nyssa. In the form of a letter to the monk Olympus, Gregory describes the life and influence of his sister Macrina. Macrina – also known as "Macrina the Younger" – had helped to establish a monastery and convent in Pontus (in modern-day Turkey) in the fourth century AD. The story centres on Gregory’s final visit to Macrina and is written as testimony to her piety, sanctity, and holy influence.

In this classic book, John of Damascus laboured to form one complete, clear, and brief theological work that would summarize all Christian doctrine that had been passed down and agreed upon. The following was said of the book: The result was an inexhaustible storehouse of tradition in which nothing is to be found that has not been either approved by the ecumenical synods or by the established leaders of the Church.

St. Cyril's (313 - 386 AD) famous 23 lectures were delivered to the catechumens in Jerusalem who were being prepared for baptism. They are best considered in two parts. The first 18 are known as the catechetical lectures or Homilies, while the rest are often called the mystagogic catecheses, since they deal with the mysteries: the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, and the Eucharist.

The Apostolic Fathers are the Christian writers from the first and second centuries who are thought to have been disciples of the Apostles or to have been so directly influenced by the Apostles that their writings are considered echoes of genuine Apostolic teaching. Their writings form a link of tradition that binds these writings to those of the New Testament. Chief among the apostolic fathers are the three first-century Bishops: St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Polycarp of Smyrna, who were disciples of St. Peter and St. John.

Saint Anthony of Egypt was a pioneer of the monastic tradition, who inspired the establishment of Christian monastic orders in Europe and beyond. An important event in St. Anthony's life was his encounter with demonic forces in the desert. This occurrence has been covered extensively in art and literature.

These are the words or sayings (Apophthegmata), of various monks (the abbas, i.e. fathers) who lived in the deserts of Egypt between 250 A.D. and 400 A.D. They cover topics such as love, poverty, fasting, humility, and prayer, and there is usually a short story that gives the context of the sayings. These sayings are one of the few surviving records of the first monks such as St. Anthony the Great and St. Pachomius, who followed a strict way of life. Their sole aim was to draw closer to God through their labours.

The author of this work identifies himself as Dionysios the Areopagite, the Athenian convert of St. Paul the Apostle mentioned in Acts 17:34. There are various legends surrounding the figure of Dionysius, who became a symbol of the spread of the gospel to the Greek world. A tradition quickly arose that he was the first bishop of Cyprus or of Milan, and that he authored the Epistle to the Hebrews. According to Eusebius, he was the first bishop of Athens.

Christian tradition often seems to give only grudging approval to married life, particularly its sexual aspect. In these sermons of St John Chrysostom, we find an important corrective to this view.

In the 2,000 years that have elapsed since the time of Christ, Christians have been as much divided by their faith as united, as much at odds as in communion. And the contents of Christian confession have developed with astonishing energy. How can believers claim a faith that has been passed down through the ages while recognizing the real historical contingencies that have shaped both their doctrines and their divisions? In this carefully argued essay, David Bentley Hart critiques the concept of "tradition" that has become dominant in Christian thought as fundamentally incoherent.

This book was written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430) to discuss the Trinity in relation to God the Word (logos). Even though it is not as well known as some of his other writings, it is considered by many to be his masterpiece and of more doctrinal importance than either the Confessions or the City of God. St. Augustine is considered a saint in the Catholic Churches, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the Anglican Communion. He is ranked among the doctors of the Church in the Roman Catholic Church.

This commentary on Galatians was compiled from six homilies given by St. John Chrysostom (347 - 407), the great preacher of Constantinople, providing a detailed verse by verse study of this important letter by the apostle St. Paul. The epistle is the ninth book in the New Testament and is addressed to the Christians in Galatia, a region of Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). In the letter, St. Paul addresses the controversy of the Mosaic law and how it applies to non-Jewish Christians. It is also notable for recording the controversy between Paul and Peter over "Judaizers".

In 1962, the young Eugene Rose - the future Hieromonk Seraphim - undertook to write a monumental chronicle of the abandonment of truth in the modern age. Of the hundreds of pages of materials he compiled for this work, only the present essay, on nihilism, has come down to us in completed form. Here Eugene reveals the core of all modern thought and life - the belief that all truth is relative - and shows how this belief has been translated into action in our era. Today, more than half a century after he wrote it, this essay is more timely than ever.

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.

Socrates is in prison, sentenced to die when the sun sets. In this final conversation, he asks what will become of him once he drinks the poison prescribed for his execution. Socrates and his friends examine several arguments designed to prove that the soul is immortal. This quest leads him to the broader topic of the nature of mind and its connection not only to human existence but also to the cosmos itself. What could be a better way to pass the time between now and the sunset?

John Locke and his works - particularly An Essay Concerning Human Understanding - are regularly and rightly presented as foundations for the Age of Enlightenment. His primary epistemological message - that the mind at birth is a blank sheet waiting to be filled by the experiences of the senses - complemented his primary political message: that human beings are free and equal and have the right to envision, create and direct the governments that rule them and the societies within which they live.

The Summa Theologica, by Thomas Aquinas, is a fundamental text in Catholic doctrine, a compendium of theology that has been studied and debated since its first publication in the 13th century. Furthermore, it has been widely regarded as one of the classics of Western philosophy, not least because, perhaps for the first time in such a systematic manner, it set out to consider the views of non-Christian figures such as Aristotle, Boethius, Muslim writers including Averroes (Ibn Rushd) and Avicenna (Ibn Sina) and the Sephardic Jewish scholar Maimonides.

The Varieties of Religious Experience is considered to be the classic work in the field. To quote Wikipedia, "James was most interested in understanding personal religious experience. The importance of James to the psychology of religion - and to psychology more generally - is difficult to overstate. He discussed many essential issues that remain of vital concern today. What makes James writing so special is that he could take a very complex subject and, without watering it down, make it understandable to 'the rest of us.'"

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic American novel of the Roaring Twenties is beloved by generations of readers and stands as his crowning work. This new audio edition, authorized by the Fitzgerald estate, is narrated by Oscar-nominated actor Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain). Gyllenhaal's performance is a faithful delivery in the voice of Nick Carraway, the Midwesterner turned New York bond salesman, who rents a small house next door to the mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby....

Considered by many to be Hannah Arendt's greatest work, published as she neared the end of her life, The Life of the Mind investigates thought itself, as it exists in contemplative life. In a shift from her previous writings, most of which focus on the world outside the mind, this work was planned as three volumes that would explore the activities of the mind considered by Arendt to be fundamental. What emerged is a rich, challenging analysis of human mental activity, considered in terms of thinking, willing, and judging.

Written in 1917, The Law and the Word is a hard-to-find work by Judge Thomas Troward, a pioneer in mental science. Troward's writings and lectures greatly influenced Ernest Holmes, the founder of Religious Science and writer of The Science of Mind.

This book was one of the first to combine thought energy, scientific reasoning and testing, and creative power, and to see the interconnection of the three.

The Republic poses questions that endure: What is justice? What form of community fosters the best possible life for human beings? What is the nature and destiny of the soul? What form of education provides the best leaders for a good republic? What are the various forms of poetry and the other arts, and which ones should be fostered and which ones should be discouraged? How does knowing differ from believing?

The Confessions by Saint Augustine is considered an all-time number one Christian classic. Augustine undertook his greatest piece of writing with the conviction that God wanted him to make this confession. The Confessions is, in fact, an extended poetic, passionate, intimate prayer.

"The central miracle asserted by Christians is the Incarnation. They say that God became Man. Every other miracle prepares the way for this, or results from this." This is the key statement of Miracles, in which C. S. Lewis shows that a Christian must not only accept but rejoice in miracles as a testimony of the unique personal involvement of God in his creation.

This set of essays discusses the esoteric side of Freemasonry. The Spirit of Masonry has been the essential source for anyone exploring the inner mysteries of the Masonic fraternity for more than 200 years.

The Gay Science (The Joyful Wisdom) is one of Nietzsche's greatest books. His wonderfully fertile mind roams over mankind, his thoughts, his emotions, his behaviour and his weaknesses with remarkable clarity, with insight - but also with humour!In this work are 383 separate paragraphs, some short, some long, but all singular observations - the epitome of his famous aphoristic style. 'Morality is the herd instinct in the individual.'

Deep down, most people think that happiness comes from having or doing something. Here, in Alan Watts’s groundbreaking third book (originally published in 1940), he offers a more challenging thesis: authentic happiness comes from embracing life as a whole in all its contradictions and paradoxes, an attitude that Watts calls the “way of acceptance.” Drawing on Eastern philosophy, Western mysticism, and analytic psychology, Watts demonstrates that happiness comes from accepting both the outer world around us and the inner world inside us,

In On the Genealogy of Morals, subtitled "A Polemic", Nietzsche furthers his pursuit of a clarity that is less tainted by imposed prejudices. He looks at the way attitudes towards 'morality' evolved and the way congenital ideas of morality were heavily colored by the Judaic and Christian traditions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nature" is perhaps the greatest original work of philosophy written by an American. This specially-prepared edition includes a foreword on the origin and significance the book.

The seven works in this volume (some translated for the first time) explore the great human mystery of death and the promise of eternal life. They present—along with On the Soul and the Resurrection (PPS 12)—a vision that is consistent, philosophically profound, and characteristic of Gregory’s wider theology.

St Gregory of Nyssa wrote the Catechetical Discourse as a handbook for his catechists, to help them defend and articulate the foundations of the faith, the Trinity, creation and the image of God, the fall and the nature of evil, the saving work of Christ, and the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. The Discourse draws upon the previous tradition—especially Origen, St Methodius of Olympus, and, above all, St Athanasius' On the Incarnation (PPS 44)—and influences later fathers like St John of Damascus in his On the Orthodox Faith (translation coming soon to SVS Press).

St. Gregory of Nyssa (AD 335 - 395), the great theologian and bishop of Nyssa, turned his considerable skill to finishing the work that his brother St. Basil the Great had started on the creation of the world (the Hexaemeron). The result is this book, which examines how humans are formed as a "mean between the divine and brute beasts".

The last half of the 20th century saw the establishment of the reputation of St Maximus the Confessor as the greatest of all Byzantine theologians, with a wholeness of vision that speaks directly to many of our concerns today. Until very recently, however, little of his work has been available in English translation, save for some collections of brief reflections arranged in centuries and a few brief treatises, too easily classified as "spirituality."

The Chapters on Theology is one of Maximus’ most eclectic writings. In this short piece, Maximus discusses many diverse themes, including God's relation to the cosmos, monastic discipline and life, scriptural difficulties, and his vision of the consummated universe in relation to the incarnate Word of God. The work is arranged into 200 “chapters,” which are often pithy pearls of wisdom that monks could learn from the respected figure of an elder or abbot. Chapters tend to address a range of issues monks would face in the course of their spiritual progress.

The modern world doesn't acknowledge but is nevertheless haunted by spirits—angels, demons, and saints. In our time, many yearn to break free of the prison of a flat, secular materialism, to see and to know reality as it truly is. What is this spiritual reality like? How do we engage with it well? How do we permeate everyday life with spiritual presence?

This classic by St. Basil the Great (329-379) gives eloquent exposition of the doctrine of the Trinity, showing how there is distinction and yet communion among the divine Persons. Although not the Spirit "God", St. Basil demonstrates that he, like the Son, shares the same nature as the Father.

The preaching of the truth, brother, and the confession of Orthodoxy is more needful for us than everything else, and we must make this confession before all mankind. For this is the foundation of all who believe. On account of this confession Peter was called blessed and was appointed to bear the keys of the kingdom of God. Paul, too, bore the hope of receiving the crown of life, since he kept and preached the faith. Indeed, the whole choir of the saints who did likewise and finished the race well has been glorified. We must also build up our neighbor, as much as we are able.

Considered by many to be the final and crowning work of the patristic age, St John of Damascus’ On the Orthodox Faith addresses all the major areas of Christian belief: Trinitarian theology, Christology, soteriology, the sacraments, the veneration of icons, saints, relics, and much more.

First published in 1867, Unspoken Sermons Series I, II, and III is a series of sermons by George MacDonald, a Scottish author, poet, and Christian minister. He was a pioneering figure in the field of modern fantasy literature and the mentor of fellow writer Lewis Carroll.

These are the words or sayings (Apophthegmata), of various monks (the abbas, i.e. fathers) who lived in the deserts of Egypt between 250 A.D. and 400 A.D. They cover topics such as love, poverty, fasting, humility, and prayer, and there is usually a short story that gives the context of the sayings. These sayings are one of the few surviving records of the first monks such as St. Anthony the Great and St. Pachomius, who followed a strict way of life. Their sole aim was to draw closer to God through their labours.

Many Christians today divide ancient Jewish and Christian literature into two categories: what is in the Bible and what is not. The Christian East, however, has traditionally described a third category considered beneficial for Christians to listen to in the home: “apocrypha.” These texts, from the centuries before and after the Incarnation of Jesus Christ—beyond even the larger canons of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Old Testaments—reveal to us the religious world and theological framework of the apostles and early Church Fathers.