Five non-Orthodox books that drew me nearer to Orthodoxy

I used to read a lot more. Actually, you kind of have to if you want to become a writer. Most of learning to walk is imitating others who walk. Writing is sort of like that.

So yeah, I used to read. Everything. Anything. And some of it was actually pretty good. Some of it even prepared me for Orthodoxy years ahead of time.

Reading is important. (I suppose I may be preaching to the choir. You are reading this, after all.) It stimulates thinking. It informs. It makes us feel things. It teaches us. Sometimes it makes us mad because we disagree.

The technology of reading is in flux. I'm only in my thirties, but I'm having a hard time with the transition. There's a lot to be said for digital media, the Amazon Kindle, books on mp3, and projects like Gutenberg and the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Still, I really like reading with a pen in one hand so I can underline and scribble, write in the margins, and interact with the author, at least passively, from a distance. If I did that with digital media, I'd have gone through a lot of flat-panel monitors by now.

I read a lot of books long before I ever came into contact with Eastern Orthodoxy. These books weren't by Orthodox authors, but there was some germ, some kernel of leftover Orthodoxy somewhere in them. They sparked thoughts. They ignited a machine. They kindled a spark that years later exploded into a firestorm.

There are five books I can think of in particular that let me know that my God was bigger than the box I had Him in. They're all really very different. One is fiction. One has to do with all of history. One has to do with a small piece of human history. I know remarkably little about the authors/editors of two of them. One has to do with how we think about God. Two I read (or at least tried to read) as a child, and re-read later as an adult. Three were assigned by (western-minded) seminary professors. One was written by someone who adamantly denied that faith was relevant to his worldview whatsoever. And yet they all awakened me. They all informed me.

Maybe they'll inform you, too.

I wish I had more time to read, now. But at least I can give you some good ideas.

My next five posts will introduce the books.

    

Next post: Madeleine L'Engle: A Wrinkle In Time.