Very pleased with this purchase.

The Leathersoft Bible is great. The extra cost from the hardcover version is well worth the price. All of the additional information and study material is extremely useful. I had an issue with the first one I received but the customer service answered promptly and shipped a replacement quickly.

Very satisfied.

This is a Christmas gift for a family member

They're affordable and work just fine. Sometimes water will fall out of it when I unscrew the cap, which isn't ideal considering its Holy, but typically I'm able to save it. It would recommend them if you're in a pinch.

I found this book very helpful in understanding second temple Judaism as well as the early Christian church and the Christian Church that grew out of Judaism.

I found the book very enlightening as to the depth of Christianity not only from reading this book but also listening to the podcast of the unseen world.

The Wolf and The Cross tells the complex and fascinating history of Orthodoxy in Lithuania. The chapters are short, but densely packed, trying to share the details of culture, history, myths, saints of this culture, as well as some of the authors’ personal stories.

While the detailed histories are not my typical reading, the perseverance of Orthodoxy as a minor faith in Lithuania is inspiring! This book is increasing my appreciation for those who have come before in faith and the importance of cultural heritage and faith life being entwined.

This calendar is so beautiful. I have been ordering it for a few years. It lists all the fast days and holy days. It is large enough to see everything clearly. Just love it.

I greatly value Fr. PAT'S BOOKS. I looking forward to this one as well

This was a fascinating book. I love to learn about history and it was fun to take a deep dive into Lithuania’s culture, religious history, and folktales. I loved learning especially about the saints involved in Lithuanian history, the icons, and the folktales. I’ve enjoyed some of Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick’s other writings as well.

The Baal Book: A Biography of the Devil is a compact but richly informative book that deepened my understanding of Old Testament history and the context of Baal worship. It gave me a fuller picture of the spiritual world behind Scripture and renewed my desire to study biblical history more deeply. The discussion of Baal and related figures in the Old and New Testaments was especially enlightening. Though some background details were complex, they only added to the book’s depth. De Young manages to balance careful scholarship with accessible writing, making ancient themes come alive for modern readers. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a deeper grasp of Baal’s place in the biblical story and the enduring conflict between true and false worship.

Delightful illustrations and words; can't wait to read it to my grandchildren!

Within this text, Father Stephen de Young provides a brief yet rich companion to your study of Holy Scripture. The study and understanding of the Baal cycle and its evolution through the narrative of the Old and New testament and its relevance to Sacred History.

To give an example, Fr. Stephen delineates how the imagery of the Son of Man is a direct jab at the worshippers of Baal, who they title as the Cloud Rider. Likewise, after reading Fr. Stephen's explanation of how Baal worship works, one understands the actions, desperate ritual acts, and the severity of the ultimate defeat of the Baal priests in 1 Kings by Elijah on Mount Carmel. It is a deeply engaging read that I highly recommend for any individual seeking to understand their Bible and faith better.

Want a deeper historical context for understanding the writers of the Old and New Testaments? Read this book.
Want to better understand the greater implications of repentance and the importance of truth? Read this book.
Want to enjoy insights to passages of snarky sarcasm and ridicule sprinkled throughout Scripture? Read this book.

This book provides a look at all of those things and more. Often, readers of Scripture in the modern day are lacking (usually unknowingly) relevant context for the culture of its writers, contemporary readers, and opposing cultures. We might miss that there is a richer understanding and firmer grasping of Scripture to be had by understanding these relevant contexts. In this book Stephen De Young lays out the historical context of who Baal was to the peoples of ancient history, the Israelites, the Greek and Roman empires, and the Jews living under their rule. He points to familiar passages of Scripture that in sarcasm or mockery take the pagan titles of Baal and rightly attribute them to the true Most High God, and that this was done not by means of lazy plagiarism, but because those titles can only truthfully be attributed to Him and Him alone.

Most importantly, this book shows that despite all his effort and scheming, despite all the work of all the ancient pagans who were deceived into heinous ritual acts and idolatry, despite all the boasting and rebellion, Baal, the accuser, Satan, the Devil, still ends up tripping over himself and spilling the beans for all to see: Baal is the plagiarizer. Baal is under the authority of the true Most High, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Baal, for all his attempts to set himself up as the lord and ruler of earth and the underworld, only points out the truth of Jesus Christ who has wholly conquered death, hell, and the grave. Even Baal is subject to the will of God and, however inadvertently on his part, ultimately points to his own diminished stature and the greatness of Christ, who is and always will be King.

This book gives a great deal of information about the worship of Baal. While I wish that there were more citations, the author shows convincing similarities between Baal and the devil. The book is interesting and enjoyable.

This book is absolutely bursting with rich history covering Lithuania and the surrounding areas. Everything is told with such rich imagery and that I could thoroughly imagine myself in these remarkable stories. From intricate and detailed stories of Lithuanian nobility and families, to fascinating folk tales of swan queens and giants, to gripping and thought-provoking accounts of the churches, martyrs, and saints. I am simply amazed that so much has been packed into a single book. Every time I sat down to read, I had to stop and digest what I was reading. Some of the stories made me stop and think about my own life and inspired me to be brave like the holy martyrs Anthony, Eustathius, and John. Some of the stories made me want to get on a plane and make a pilgrimage myself- like the story of the hill of crosses. I would recommend this book to anyone who is ready to not only read about the wealth of the history of Orthodoxy in Lithuania, but to truly experience it through the incredibly well thought out writings in The Wolf and the Cross.

In the modern era a lot of us have lost what it has felt like to be part of a culture and it's religion. Some of us have tried to find that "thing" we are missing and filling it with an idealogy. As we can progressively see, that can be quite disastrous. Culture is not something a lot of people (at least in America) can relate with anymore.

We walk around the earth with little to no care. Focused on our screens, jobs, and how to "progress in life". Many of us rarely stop to think about the people who have been here before us. What their way of life was like, how they perceived things...what was important to them. A lot of us look into the past and see ancient people as less "advanced" and really nothing to learn from. We have science, long lifespans, robotic medicine, and food galore. Why would we need to learn from ancient cultures?

The beautiful thing about "The Wolf and The Cross" is that it takes you through a journey of a culture very foreign to most of us. It takes you through their stories. Their stories that have shaped and grown the culture even to this day.

This book shows you ancient cultures, and it's religion, is something that is absolutely essential for each and every one of us in today's era of plowing through life as fast as possible.

There are several things to like about this book. The structure is good, it is well organized, and many of the lessons have promoted great discussions with our son when teaching.

The main areas of concern are as follows:

1) the spiral binding may be frustrating for those who don't need to be able to remove pages. The back or front cover comes off regularly and it is hard to deal with. If you open the pages all the way, it is likely pages will just start coming off. I understand that this was done intentionally to facilitate ease of removal to make copies, etc., but it gets frustrating pretty fast it that isn't your goal. Perhaps a better binding with some sort of online access for printable pages would make it better if that is a need that people have for larger groups.

2) the quizzes/tests need a ton of work to make them actually valuable. My 9-year old son said after taking the review test at the halfway point: "that wasn't a test of knowledge it was a test common sense". I completely agree. Having a test with only one plausible answer doesn't test anything in terms of content knowledge. Students simply need to pick the only name they have ever heard from the Bible and they get it right whether or not they know what that person did or didn't do. For example, when the right answer is "Barnabus" and the three distractors are "Larry, Mo, and Curly" or another one where the three distractors were "Heuy, Dewey, and Louie", there is zero assessment going on of whether or not a student has learned anything related to the content of the book. Hopefully in an updated edition, a test bank with real questions can be developed.

It's a ton of work creating courses, and assessments are hard to do well also, so I get it.

Lots to like here, particularly of those things can be sorted out. All in all, the good outweighs the bad, so I would recommend it to others, with the noted caveats.

I like the prayers in this book very much and gave a copy to my godson. Ancient but relevant. I had bought this book for myself back when I was Protestant. Even as a Protestant many of the texts are usable, but of course now that I am Orthodox I can more fully appreciate them.