Ref. No. 137

To:  Saint Nectarios Press
10300 Ashworth Avenue North
Seattle, Washington 98133-9410

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

    We would like to thank you for the copy of the recent published book with the title "One Delivered to the Saints", which is going to enrich the library of our Patriarchate.

    This book is not only useful for the Orthodox faithful Christians but for other people was well who would like to learn more about the faith of the Orthodox Church. Because of its interesting content We believe that is going to be a bery fruitful book.

    We would like also sto ask you to extend Our Patriarchal blessing and congratulations to its editor Fr. Michael Azkoul.

                                                With Patriarchal blessing,

                                      (Signed) + PETROS VII
                                            Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa

In the Great City
of Alexandria
February 20th, 2001

__________________________________________________________________________

$23.00 (Seattle: Saint Nectarios Press, 2000)

dimensions: 7" x 9 7/8" x 1" (18 cm by 25 cm x 2 1/2 cm), 356 pages

    If you don't like theology and you hate philosophy and you don't like your feathers ruffled, don't read this book!  But if the contrary should be true in your case and you are ready for a challenge, this is the book for you. Fr. Azkoul has given us a small "summa" with his Once Delivered to the Saints. This book requires a certain level of application and perseverance; it might be a rather tedious read for some, but it will be worth the effort.

    What is this book about anyway? Fr. Azkoul seeks to demonstrate where, when and how Christianity went astray in the West and why it continues adrift. Investigating the historical, philosophical and religious roots of Christianity, the result is an historical but blunt apologetic for Orthodoxy for the new millenium.

    Fr. Azkoul boldly sums up his thesis in the book's conclusion: "The idea of a "doctrinal minimum," an evolving standard of Faith, an amalgamation of the divine Mystery with human theories has no support in the Fathers or the divine Scriptures. Salvific Faith is the Faith of the one Church. There is no Church without the Faith, no Faith without "the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of Truth" (I Tim. 3:15). Only the Orthodox may claim to have kept the Apostolic Faith without addition or subtraction."

    Quoting with approval the late Metropolitan Philaret of the Russian Church Abroad, Fr. Azkoul appraises the present ecumenical movement: "It is the belief in the renewal of the whole of mankind within the new and universal Church that lends to ecumenism the nature of a chiliastic heresy, which becomes more and more evident in the ecumenistic attempts to unite everyone, disregarding truth and error, and in their tendency to create not only a new Church, but a new world". The entire book is designed to lead the reader slowly, inexorably and irresistibly to an appreciation of the conclusions cited above.

    Augustine's ideas on grace, being, the Trinity; Anselm's teaching about salvation (soteriology), the West's acceptance of the idea of the "development of doctrine," the Filioque, eschatology (end times), etc., make this book a very useful book of theology and Christian philosophy. This reviewer does not know of another Orthodox book of theology as complete as this one. Someone may ask how Azkoul's book compares with Orthodox Dogmatic Theology by Fr. Pomazansky? In our opinion, the latter book can be understood easily enough by high school students, whereas Once Delivered to the Saints is written for a more mature audience: teachers, priests, ecumenists. It is appropriate for the seminary classroom. Pomazansky's book defends Augustine, calling him "blessed," but Azkoul's work traces most of the West's woes to "the bishop of Hippo."

    We do not agree with Fr. Azkoul's appraisal of the toll-houses and we are not sure of the need to have spent so much time on Jacob Boehme (pp. 106-110), but surely his treatment of philosophy will be helpful to all. There are a number of Latin quotations and many Greek words and phrases used throughout the book, so some acquaintance with these languages would be useful to the reader. This reviewer noticed a fair number of errors missed by the proofreaders, but there are not that many for a book of this size and depth. Hopefully, they will be corrected in a second printing. We owe a debt of gratitude to the publishers for taking on such a serious tome. Our hat is off to Fr. Azkoul for laying down the gauntlet to the Church today. Young scholars will have to deal with this book as they firm up their own theological positions and we can hope that this book will receive their diligent study.

email : orders@orthodoxpress.org

(Reviewed by M.G., February 6, 2001)