Ages of the Spiritual Life.

By Paul Evdokimov Saint Vladimir's Seminary Press, $14.95, 263 pp.

Evdokimov (1901-70) belonged to that extraordinary circle of Russian Orthodox writers who found themselves in Paris after the Russian Revolution. Evdokimov himself studied at their Saint Sergius Institute (under Nicholas Berdiaev and Sergius Bulkovsky) and later was connected to that institute as well as a lecturer at the Institut Catholique in Paris and the ecumenical study center in Switzerland. I know him mainly through the immense admiration Thomas Merton had for his writings and my own reading of his wonderful book on icons. This new full version of his book Ages of the Spiritual Life is most welcome - it provides another resource for English speakers to read the work of a person deeply imbued with the Russian theological tradition.

This book is not a systematic treatise, so it can be read in an unsystematic fashion. Evdokimov was acutely aware of the fashionable "existential" intellectual world in which he lived in Paris. He was willing to engage that world and he also had a good sense of Roman Catholicism and of continental Protestantism. His theological world view was sensitive to the larger secular world while remaining rooted in the Orthodox world of spirituality, liturgy, and patristics. Those not well acquainted with the Orthodox world will find this a user-friendly volume. Evdokimov combines a complete command of the traditional sources with an irenic way of writing. These pages are studded with lines from the great patristic writers as well as from the liturgy, thereby giving the text an added thickness and depth.

One of this book's most interesting arguments is Evdokimov's conception of "interiorized monasticism." Apart from those who actually enter the monastic life, Evdokimov argues, there is a path in which the traditional monastic values can be (ought to be!) interiorized by all believing Christians as they mature in the practice of their faith. In the final analysis, the assimilation of these virtues, whether it be asceticism correctly understood or the experience of contemplative prayer, all lead to one end: "we are invited to live our faith, to see what is not seen, to contemplate the wisdom of God in the apparent absurdity of history, and to become light, revelation, and prophecy." Evdokimov himself concentrates on the traditional monastic vows, but his concept of "interiorized monasticism" is similar to the recent writings of, say, Kathleen Norris. This book is, in the fullest sense of the term, "spiritual reading." It would make an excellent retreat companion.

Lawrence S. Cunningham teaches theology at the University of Notre Dame.