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The Open Door: Entering the Sanctuary of Icons and Prayer
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Item Description...
Product Description
Discover how icons can become part of your own life of prayer. Encounter twelve of the world's most significant Orthodox icons with one of today's best-loved spiritual writers as your guide. "The Open Door provides an open window into a radically different approach to spiritual formation, one that is more ancient/Eastern than modern/Western, one that feels refreshingly new as well as seasoned, rich, and time-tested."
--Brian McLaren, author of Everything Must Change and A Generous Orthodoxy "The joy of [this] book is to allow us to meet the icons where the saints want us to meet them - face to face in a prayer corner, in candlelight as we approach the altar, above the beds of our sleeping children. . . . This book is a call to stand still, take a deep breath and face the cloud of witnesses."
--Terry Mattingly, columnist, Scripps Howard News Service
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Item Specifications...
Pages 163
Dimensions: Length: 6.82" Width: 4.54" Height: 0.48"
Weight: 0.33 lbs.
Binding Softcover
Release Date May 1, 2008
Publisher Paraclete Press (MA)
ISBN 1557255741
EAN 9781557255747
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Availability 9 units.
Availability accurate as of Feb 11, 2012 10:40.
Usually ships within one to two business days from La Vergne, TN.
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Reviews - What do our customers think?
 | Orthodox Theology and Practice Though Iconography Dec 27, 2007 |
In The Open Door the reader will find an introduction to the role and use of icons within the Orthodox tradition of Christianity through an explanation of the icons within the liturgical calendar of the church. Along with this, Mathewes-Green explains the basics of the Orthodox theology represented in the four major icons discussed in the first section of the book. This explanation is given in terminology that is generally accessible to a reader that is not familiar with the often archaic and difficult terminology found in the Eastern tradition of the Christian faith. Additionally, at the end of each chapter is found a short set of passages taken from Orthodox liturgy that relate to and provide additional insight into the topics discussed in the chapter.
What I found tremendously refreshing about this book was that unlike many writings from the Orthodox tradition that stress the necessity of following a monastic path to have a spiritual life, The Open Door shows that a person can find sacredness, holiness and spirituality within a life that is more a part of this world. The only drawback to this book is that the second half of the book seems a bit rushed. While the connection of each specific icon with the liturgical calendar is still made, the discussion of the theological connections is limited in many cases. This is certainly a minor quibble and in no way detracts from the main purpose of the book.
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about icons, Eastern Orthodoxy and a faith lived according to a liturgical calendar. | | | | Interesting info on iconography Dec 6, 2007 |
| Although I would have enjoyed more (color) pictures of actual icons, I loved the easy-to-understand explanations of some of the basic iconography used in the Orthodox church. The book was simple without being simplistic and respectful, even meditative in parts. It has and will help me to appreciate even more some of the artwork I see as I visit different churches. | | |  | So Great a Cloud of Witnesses Jul 1, 2006 |
Perhaps the most unnerving thing for Western Christians in approaching the Eastern Orthodox tradition is their use of icons. Even for Catholics and Anglicans who are familiar with religious images, the Orthodox practice (and even the icons themselves) can strike one as completely alien and even frightening. Frederica Mathewes-Green, a Western convert to Orthodoxy, understands these reservations and confronts the iconoclastic impulse head on in The Open Door by allowing the reader to gain an understanding of this ancient practice through the eyes of faith.
Dividing her exposition into two sections, Mathewes-Green writes first on the major icons of the iconostasis (the wood before the altar) and then on other icons of feasts and saints that appear elsewhere in the church. The first section is fittingly the larger and she gives a wonderful description of the history and theological perspective behind four of the most famous icons used in Orthodoxy. Rather that giving a dry technical survey, she approaches each icon from a perspective of prayerful reflection and belief steeped in her Church's ancient tradition.
In explaining the meaning behind each icon, Mathewes-Green introduces us to the language of iconography so the reader may appreciate how each icon illustrates the Gospel of Jesus Christ and speaks through the lens of faith things that only the devout could apprehend. From the very first chapter on the Christ of the Sinai to the last on the Old Testament Trinity, we are invited to share a wondrous devotional life with so great a cloud of witnesses.
In the renewal of Christianity through the recovery of the faith and practice of the ancient Church, the use of religious images is often overlooked. Frederica Mathewes-Green demonstrates the shortsightedness of such an approach. For those curious either of ancient Christian practice or Eastern Christianity in general or just those looking for a rewarding devotion, The Open Door is essential reading.
| | | | excellent contemplative reading for Orthodox Christians Dec 5, 2005 |
Frederica Mathewes-Green, in this gem of a book, avoids the typical problem of much Orthodox literature written by converts: it's too often for potential converts and therefore in its tone and approach is unsuitable for those who have long been Orthodox. I would recommend this book as a useful and even inspirational text, on the nightstand, for reflection during Advent or another of the periods set aside by the Church for contemplation. FMG has a way of taking timeless truths and crystallizing them, often in a unique way. I especially liked her description of the Sinai icon of our Lord--I had never thought about it before in the way she describes.
The only jarring note occurs in her description of the Lamentations service on Holy Friday. She says the faithful are "acting out" the events of Christ's death and burial, processing around the Church "as if it were a funeral procession." As Frederica must surely know, we are not "acting out" anything, but really participating, through faith, in the events of our Lord's Passion, so it really IS a funeral procession. A minor mistake (because we know what she meant to say) that does not overshadow the book's great strengths. | | | | Prayer in visual form Sep 2, 2005 |
Praying with icons has a long (and not always untroubled) history in Christian practice; even the Western Protestant tradition that has come to eschew iconographic elements in worship to varying degrees still recognises the history and artistic value of images in some contexts. Author Frederica Mathewes-Green is writing primarily to this group in her text, with careful explanations and good descriptions that show the spiritual value of icons in a worshipful and prayerful setting.
Mathewes-Green writes, 'Unelss you're a member of an Orthodox church, you probably haven't encountered icons in their natural setting.' In this text, she constructs an imaginary church for the reader to visit, with various icons in their typical Orthodox positions. The first part, Iconostasis, looks at the icons that would been on the screen at the altar area. Pictures of the icons are included as colour plates at the centre of the book - these include The Christ of Sinai, The Virgin of Vladimir, The Resurrection, and St. John the Baptist. The second part of the book looks at other icons that might be present in a church, including images of saints, images from scriptural stories of both Old and New Testaments, and other gospel/traditional images of Christ. These are included as black-and-white images in the centre of the book.
Mathewes-Green describes the images both in terms of artistry as well as spiritual connection. Some icons are stylised to a high degree, and others are more realistic. By realistic, however, icons are not meant to be portrayals of people in natural settings - icons are meant to connect the one pondering and meditating upon them with the object of worship, that is, with God, in ways that reach the soul beyond what mere words could achieve. Icons often have a 'penetrating effect', with a play at elements of perspective, colour, materials, size and other aspects that draw the eye in particular directions, and place the viewer in otherworldly positions.
Icons are meant to be more than interesting pictures. As Mathewes-Green concedes, some icons aren't even 'good art' in many technical senses. 'Icons have their fullest impact on those who are saturated in prayer and Scripture, and who participate in the full life of the Church, with all her mysteries, hymns and worship.'
Mathewes-Green describes liturgies and services as well as times of private prayer and devotion during her trips to the imaginary Orthodox church. Her book ends with one of my favourite images, the Old Testament Trinity done by Rublev in 1411. (Archbishop Rowan Williams writes about this in one of his books on icons, too.) The icon is known to me more frequently by the name The Hospitality of Abraham, and this feature is made more prominent by the fact that in some versions of this icon, the figures of Abraham and Sarah are not present, even in the background.
Mathewes-Green invites the reader on a dozen imaginative trips to gaze upon the 'windows into heaven', to meditate upon their stories and be enriched. There is a glossary of terms that might be unfamiliar, particularly to those whose background is not from a liturgical tradition, but such terminology is kept to a minimum throughout the text. Mathewes-Green concludes with some suggestions for further readings, and some website resources for finding out more about icons, including where to purchase them.
This is a wonderful, spirit-filled book.
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