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The Melody of Faith: Theology in an Orthodox Key

Author:	Vigen Guroian
Published By:	Eerdmans (Grand Rapids)
Pages:	158
Price:	£8.99
ISBN:	978 0 8028 6496 3

Reviewed by Luke Penkett.

This is a beautiful book. Its author, Vigen Guroian, is Professor of Religious Studies in Orthodox Christianity at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville and has written prolifically. Among his books are The Fragrance of God, Inheriting Paradise and Tending the Heart of Virtue.

In his latest book, Guroian takes creation and apocalypse, healing, Mary, the Cross and Resurrection, six ‘movements’ of the Christian life, and, drawing on his personal religious experience, presents some of the most important beliefs of Orthodoxy.

In these presentations, Guroian uses Orthodox liturgy, hymnody and iconography to elucidate and adorn his writing. These are the instruments or voices of the melody that he is composing and that flows so well throughout his book.

But what marks this off as such a fine composition is Guroian’s discussion of Eastern Orthodoxy, that is to say, Armenian and Syrian, in addition to the more familiar Greek and Russian Orthodoxy. For example, miniatures that are normally only found in scholarly discussions of Armenian art history are used, in addition to illustrations of Greek and Russian iconography and Western painting, to illuminate the text. Indeed he convincingly argues that Orthodox Christianity expresses its theology through art as through words.

This is a refreshing and beautifully written introduction to Orthodoxy, which is by no means a superficial one but one that takes us by the hand to the very heart of Orthodoxy.