This is a wonderful book about the life of Saint Theophan who started his spiritual path early in life and became a recluse. This book I will read again and again. Highly recommended for those on a serious spiritual path.

A must have for anyone inquiring about the Orthodox Faith

I've only begun to read the book in the past few days and I must say that I'm impressed how the steps are presented and related to our every day life. This is the reason you would read this book, to try to understand how to apply what St. John said so many century's ago to our lives today. I don't know how many steps I will achieve (if any), but I'm comforted to know what to do to try to achieve them.

Excellent book. Very clear presentation and written with a younger generation in mind.

I finished reading the book in two evenings. It was light, fast-paced, and enjoyable. I'd give it 4 stars for the content because it lacks of depth of Orthodox faith. But on the one hand, Orthodox apologetics was not Fr Peter's intent. On the other hand, I am always impressed with people who, by trial and error, find their way to Orthodoxy. Therefore, I give 5 stars to the book.

The title says for itself. 'Becoming Orthodox' is the journey a group of evangelical Protestants to the Church of the Bible. At the beginning of their journey, Fr Peter and his friends never heard of the Orthodox Church. They just wanted to find out what the Church of the Bible was like. The young Protestants wanted to know her practices, beliefs, and sacraments. And when they found them, they also found out that the Church of the Bible was still alive, and her practices, beliefs, and sacraments were still the same like in the first years and centuries of Christianity. And it made about 2 000 Protestants to join the Church. What a wonderful journey!

If don't know anything about the Orthodox Church, or you want to share your Orthodox faith with others, you may start with this book.

God Bless.

PS On the last pages of his book, Fr Peter mentioned that with years, they started to discover the Orthodox spirituality. Wish there were a chapter about it. It would add the book another dimension. Anyway, if you don't know anything about the topic, I will just tell you that the center of the Orthodox spirituality is prayer, especially the Jesus Prayer. If you want to foretaste Orthodox spirituality, you may read these prayers:

1 PRAYER OF SAINT EPHRAIM THE SYRIAN

O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, meddling, lust for power and idle talk.
But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience and love.
Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brother.
For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

2 Morning Prayer of the Optina Elders, Russia

Grant unto me, O Lord, that with peace of mind I may face all that this new day is to bring.
Grant unto me to dedicate myself completely to Thy Holy Will.
For every hour of this day, instruct and support me in all things.
Whatsoever tidings I may receive during the day, do Thou teach me to accept tranquilly, in the firm conviction that all eventualities fulfill Thy Holy Will.
Govern Thou my thoughts and feelings in all I do and say.
When things unforeseen occur , let me not forget that all cometh down from Thee.
Teach me to behave sincerely and rationally toward every member of my family, that I may bring confusion and sorrow to none.
Bestow upon me, my Lord, strength to endure the fatigue of the day, and to bear my part in all its passing events.
Guide Thou my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to suffer, to forgive, and to love.
Amen

3 Prayer of Philaret, Metropolitan of Moscow (1867)

My Lord, I know not what I ought to ask of Thee.
Thou and Thou alone knowest my needs.
Thou lovest me more than I am able to love Thee.
O Father, grant unto me, Thy servant, all which I cannot ask.
For a cross I dare not ask, nor for consolation;
I dare only to stand in Thy presence.
My heart is open to Thee.
Thou seest my needs of which I myself am unaware.
Behold and lift me up!
In Thy presence I stand,
awed and silenced by Thy will and Thy judgments,
into which my mind cannot penetrate.
To Thee I offer myself as a sacrifice.
No other desire is mine but to fulfill Thy will.
Teach me how to pray.
Do Thyself pray within me.
Amen.

I recently finished reading this book, and I think it's great! I converted to Orthodoxy almost 4 years ago, and for the last 5 years I've voraciously read many, many books on Orthodoxy. Some of them have made me wish I could convince my non-Orthodox friends to read them. But after reading this one, if I could choose one book for my non-Orthodox friends (whether Protestant, Roman Catholic, or non-believer) to gain a better understanding of Orthodoxy, it would be this one. Father Andrew deals with so many of the major issues in such a concise and easily explained way, without being too academic or hard to follow ' Scripture and Tradition, ecclesiology, etc. I've read many books that focus on each of the topics in this book ' but Father Andrew touches on them all with just the right amount of detail.

Beautiful teaching.

a keeper

Will answer many of the issues most Protestants are 'allergic' to when it comes to ancient faith. :)

This explains why so many Christians are searching for the Ancient Church of Christ, the historic Church that began at Pentecost, complete and including the traditions in worship and living every day. Peter Gillquest was among the first of those in the 70's that set out to evangelize people to bring them to Christ, then realized they still had a long journey of their own to "go home".

Further along spiritulalality.

The original of this icon is in our parish of St. George in Kearney, NE, in a shrine for fragments of the Belt/Sash/Zoni of the Theotokos. It is beautiful and I'm excited to see it available for purchase.

Love this book, and read it over and over.....

Enlightening story of a fascinating spiritual journey.

I finished this book in two sittings. I didn't want to put it down. It made me reflect on my faith and my early years being raised with no religious instruction or church attendance. I began my journey in the Catholic church and I remember experiencing a lot of that which Angela writes about. Nearly Orthodox puts a very fresh face of love on Christianity. The love just pours out. Much needed in the "religious" culture of today. There was a moment on my plane ride home where the reading light above felt very much like a personal love interaction with Jesus' warmth and unconditional acceptance. Poetry, honesty and forgiveness . . . all in one read.Thank you, Angela.

Traveling through Angela's journey via the medium of this book has been a journey of emotions, not many people can express the true nature of the residue life has left with them and on their doorstep with such understanding and grace. This is something you will pick up to read and not want to put down until it's finished.

Where is God? And why bother going to Church? These question gnawed at my mind when I was a teenager'and yet I never asked them. Left unanswered, they turned into a destructive force that, after festering in my mind, began to seek answers elsewhere. Whispery exclamations led me to believe that going to church was a useless formality and that God was totally absent'and so I gradually began to live like it. Such is the situation of society today; the most important questions we have are often fearfully kept silent. This tendency, however, is fraught with danger and can leave us wide open to demonic suggestions. For this reason, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick asks and explores these questions for us. An Introduction To God is a reliable source of information for 21st century closet-question-asker who may furtively turn to google for answers from shadowy sources that have the best SEO.Fr. Andrew is articulate and straightforward, well-educated and organized in his presentation. The book is composed of five chapters that ask five questions: Where is God? Who is God? Why Go to Church? Whom Can We Trust? and Why Be Moral? He explores the answers within the framework of the Orthodox Tradition, citing Holy Fathers such as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and more. But the book is far from a stodgy, academic piece. Based roughly off his podcast series entitled, Foundations of the Orthodox Faith, the work retains an overall conversational tone'making it a read anyone can handle. He combines humor and subtle plays on language with a reflective look at Christianity as a whole, including how the Orthodox Tradition differs from other Christian traditions and why it matters.Fr. Andrew begins by setting some boundaries by explaining what the book is not'he calls this 'setting aside a sacred space' in which he encourages the reader to meet God. The book is not necessarily about dogma'and neither is Christianity!'it is about an encounter with Christ. With this in mind, he gives a brief explanation of different approaches to theology, outlining both the cataphatic and apophatic approaches. Concerning the Orthodox, apophatic, approach he writes,"Even our dogma, which uses very precise language, can only draw boundaries around the faith in order to protect it from heretical attacks. It says very little about what's inside those boundaries."[1]He proceeds to outline the basic tenets of the faith followed by a quick overview of the Old and New Testaments. All of this sets the stage for a reader of any background'Atheist, Skeptic, Evangelical, Roman Catholic, Orthodox'to benefit greatly from the book. With the initial boundaries set, he delves a little deeper, speaking about the chasm between the created (us) and the uncreated (God) which is bridged by the incarnation of Christ, making full communion, true relation, possible between the created and uncreated. It is through this communion that we come to know God.Fr. Andrew relates that we often fail to recognize that the vacuous space in our soul which produces desire is an inherent drive for this communion with God (C.S. Lewis called this Sehnsucht). We give ourselves instead to food, sex, and entertainment in order satisfy this desire and, as a result, become slaves to these things. True fulfillment of this desire can only be found in a self-giving worship of the Holy Trinity; when we give ourselves in worship of the Holy Trinity we gain our selfs. With the question of worship on the table, Fr. Andrew asks if just any style of worship can accomplish this. The answer, in a particularly staggering portion of the book, is an uncompromising no. He then begins to unfold why the Liturgy, and the Eucharist, are important and how they accomplish communion with the Holy Trinity.So what about interpretation of scripture? Fr. Andrew is hard-hitting on this front and the chapter entitled 'Whom Can We Trust' is one of the best explanations I have read as to why Sola Scriptura ultimately fails the Christian. But his explanation is not argumentative. He lays out, as clearly as a fact on jeopardy, why the individual does not, and cannot, have authority to interpret scripture. He even explains why the universal jurisdiction of the Pope fails as this authority'daily double! He writes,"In a practical sense, if Christ were not guiding the church, then there would be no way to know whether the doctrine behold to his in fact true. One may see that He guides all Christian believers, and that constitutes His guidance for the Church. But that is not how early Christians understood the Church, and they are authoritative because of their closeness to the source. Also, since so many modern Christians'even very smart, well-read, and sincere ones'disagree with each other over doctrine, how are we need to identify whom Christ is guiding and who is being guided by his own opinion?"[2]This book may very well answer questions you did not know you even had. Each chapter builds up the work as a whole, leaving the reader with an intricately woven testament to the truth of Orthodox Christianity. Fr. Andrew outlines a number of hot topics including the difference between worship and veneration, ecclesiology, and the freedom of morality. Rubbing shoulders with heavy-weights like Christos Yanneras and John Zizioulas, Fr. Andrew presents profound theological insights in simple language.The only thing that somewhat negatively caught my attention was a choice of words concerning the Eucharist. Speaking of the animal sacrifices in the Old Testament and comparing it to the Eucharist, he writes,"While there had formerly been animal sacrifices that had to be repeated, there was now one Sacrifice, which needs no repetition but is re-presented again and again in the Eucharist."[3]Nothing he says here is technically wrong'and maybe a re-presentation is how it is often explained. The one possible point of confusion that I would like to confront is the equation of this word, re-presented, with re-crucifixion or re-sacrifice. Fr. Andrew is certainly not saying that we re-sacrifice Christ; however, this word re-presented struck a wrong chord with me (maybe it's a personal problem). I would say that when we enter into the Divine Liturgy we step out of time and it is with respect to this reality that we participate in the Eucharist. Now, Fr. Andrew does continue to say that,"In Orthodox worship, we do not merely think about these events as past, but we experience them as present. That is anamnesis, and that is why the Eucharist is not a symbolic eating and drinking, a sign of an absent presence, but is rather the re-presenting of that same reality."[4]Like I said, I do not think there is anything technically wrong with the word'Fr. Andrew would certainly know better than I would'it just kind of sounded odd to me upon first reading. Either way, the Eucharist is a Holy Mystery.That being said, you (whoever you are and whatever kind of life situation you find yourself in) must read this book. There is nothing left for me to say, as I cannot replicate its brilliance in this review. I will, in all likelihood, wind up purchasing several copies in order to give them away to friends and family. This book contains the answers society needs'the answers you need. Don't ask google, buy the book.

An excellent introduction to the understanding of God from the Orthodox Christian perspective!!! This book is well written and is suitable for anyone who wishes to explore the possibilities of finding a relationship (understanding, theological, practical, mystical) with God. It is a good read for those seeking, those who are already following and even those who are completely skeptical. The book is not a difficult read at all, but is written for the common layperson to understand and follow. I encourage one and all to read this book - and perhaps be "introduced" or "re-introduced" to God.

Wonderful reading.

I love Angela Doll Carlson, love her work, love her journey'which I have witnessed over the course of about a decade. May we all be blessed by _Nearly Orthodox_, blessed by the genuine seeker who wrote it and continues to live it, and may we all extend that blessing as forgiveness and heartfelt prayer for those who have hardened their hearts to the beauty apparent in Angela's journey and offered to us in Angela's book. May it be blessed.