[.ca] Why Angels Fall: A Journey Through Orthadox Europe From ... (ISBN 0330487884)

From Amazon.com:
Victoria Clark traveled across most of Eastern Europe to write Why Angels Fall. Having worked for six years as a journalist in Romania, the former Yugoslavia, and Russia, Clark was fascinated by the Eastern Orthodox churches and keen to unravel their histories and beliefs. To do so, she journeyed from Mount Athos, to Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Russia, Cyprus, and finally Istanbul, interviewing clergy and other believers. We're treated to a series of vivid cameos, a few of whose subjects glow almost visibly with holiness, a few terrify, and many show qualities rare and needed in the West. As Clark puts it, after the ancient split between eastern and western Christianity, "each side lost something it could not happily do without ... at the risk of oversimplifying for the sake of clarity, western Christendom can be said to have lost its heart, eastern Christendom its mind." Her keenness to explain Orthodoxy to Westerners stems from a fear that the continent is in the process of fracturing along a 1,000-year-old fault line, between the Catholic and Protestant west and the Orthodox east. The book combines high-quality, highly readable travel writing with a powerful mix of politics and religion. Most of all, perhaps, it demonstrates the power of history, and of different peoples' conflicting versions of history. Again and again, Clark finds the present in the grip of the past. In Serbia, for example, she cannot escape the legends surrounding the destruction of the Serbs' medieval empire in 1389, and the death of the venerated Prince Lazar: "the battle of Kosovo's interruption of Serbia's golden greatness has become a cataclysm to rival man's expulsion from the Garden of Eden in the minds of Serbs.... Prince Lazar is the key to understanding the Serbs' deep conviction that, however many wars they initiate, they remain a nation of victims and martyrs." --David Pickering, Amazon.co.uk

writing is very average and dull:
The author means well but this is a very simple and boring book. I agree with the reviewer who said you must read William Dalrymple's FROM THE HOLY MOUNTAIN. He is not an eastern orthodox christian but his writing is humorous and he is an amazing travel and historic writer who respects every culture he writes about.. be it the Indian Djinns or Muslims..you will learn alot unlike this book which I agree with others is mediocre and lacks a good read. As far as the authors argument of why orthodox christians lack missionary work .The Catholic and Orthodox churches have had huge conversions from the Protestant church.That number answers her question.

Real Life, Not Ideal:
Ms Clarks work is first and foremost an enjoyable and fun book to read, youll find yourself flipping page after page. As for the criticism youll see in the other reviews, Ill help you out. Theyre complaining that a book about roses doesnt talk about sunflowers. They say she doesnt write a scholarly academic book, She Doesnt Claim To! They say her book isnt a good introduction to the Orthodox Christian Faith, She never said it WAS!! She is a journalist and a rather average mind reflecting a rather average secular west euro point of view, all of which she tells you up front and honestly. Thats good , all Orthodox who read this book should take to heart how you are seen by such a person. Her book is about Nationalism and Mysticism in the Eastern Euro mindset, written in a popular not academic style(thank god!) illustrated by encounters with average Orthodox. If you want an intro to the Orthodox Faith try Timothy Ware The Orthodox Church, this book is about average people in real life not about an Orthodox ideal. P.S. the reviewer who said Ms Clark is part of an organized effort to smear the Orthodox proves the books point exactly

On Angels' Wings.:
_Why Angels Fall: A Journey through Orthodox Europe from Byzantium to Kosovo_ by English journalist Victoria Clark is an openly unobjective description of various elements in Orthodoxy from a "non-practicing" Catholic. That said, this is otherwise an interesting book on Orthodoxy in Europe. The cover reflects the author's rather negative tone: it features an illustration Blessed Pasius Velikovsky laying helplessly on a bed. Her title, "Why Angels Fall," refers to what she claims is Orthodoxy's greatest evil--affiliating itself with ethnic nationalism, anti-Westernism and in some cases anti-Semitism. It was considered the heresy of "Philytism." Clark considers this "base" because it tends to resist the global hegemony of liberalism and feminism. Her smug, condescending worldview makes itself readily apparent when she starts her narrative by slamming Mt. Athos for its thousand year rule of totally banning women from entering. Clark describes a handful of bishops, monks, nuns and various other prelates but mostly highlights the negative impressions they made upon her, usually their zenophobic, misogynist, anti-Western, anti-Semitic statements. The Orthodox clergy are portrayed largely as ignorant, racist, sexist barbarians. She is also rather wary of Eastern Europe's monastic revival as giving ethnic tensions a renewed vigor, although she praises the spirituality of the Hesychasts who practice Orthodoxy's tradition of interior prayer. This book is one of the few sources of information I've run across about the political involvement of Orthodox prelates in the post-communist era. The Orthodox world has been shrinking between Western and Islamic expansion on both sides but it holds onto a considerable amount of turf today and Clark divides her book according to her travels in Orthodoxy's bastions: Mt. Athos, Serbia, Macedonia, Greece, Romania, Russia, Cyprus and Istanbul. Orthodoxy has nothing to fear from critical books like this. Its ultimate victory will be moral and eschatological (On Angels' Wings!), even if it is doomed to fall as a political authority like the Christian emperors of Rome, Constantinople and Moscow. Also recommended: _The Black Hundred_ by Walter Laqueur about the post-communist political right in Russia, and _The Orthodox Church_ by Timothy Ware for a decent outline of Church history from a genuine Orthodox (Ware's a British convert) perspective.

Don't start here with the Orthodox Church:
I would agree with those who find the author woefully uneducated about her topic and would thus not recommend the book for those who are just starting to learn about the world of Orthodoxy. Still, her experiences do make an interesting read and you learn things dispite her biased interpretations. He doesn't cover exactly the same turf, but those looking for a meatier and more knowledgable account might try "From the holy Mountain: A Journey Among Christians of the Middle East" by William Dalrymple

Don't Dismiss This Book Too Quickly:
As a Christian who is not Orthodox, but studies and is sympathetic to Orthodox beliefs and practices, I struggled with this book. It's frustrating when non-believers critique Christian topics because their very non-belief renders them unable to understand Christian life and culture. But since believers often can't or won't provide useful critiques of faults in Christian organizations and practices, who else but non-believers like Victoria Clark will do the job? Yes, Clark drags up embarrassing or even repulsive incidents in Orthodox history and paints an unflattering portrait of many of the priests, monks and nuns she encounters on her 18-month "pilgrimage" through several Orthodox countries. But by the end of the book Clark seems more sympathetic to the plight of a 2,000 year old body of believers who have suffered centuries of Islamic and, to a lesser extent, Western European dominance and persecution. Clark positively describes the growing vitality and energy associated with monastic communities in countries she visits. And she describes, although a little grudgingly, warm encounters with Orthodox clergy and lay people. A theme Clark explores which also troubles me is the tendency of contemporary Orthodox churches to emphasize nationalistic and even militaristic, as opposed to Christian, agendas. The seeming lack of Orthodox interest in missionary endeavors and converts is also disappointing, but seems consistent with the xenophobia Clark exposes among some Orthodox. It seems many Orthodox are more interested in maintaining their separateness, keeping their wounds unhealed and playing the martyr than building on and attracting converts to their community. If Orthodoxy offers the prospect of a superior lifestyle and superior way to worship and know God, which I believe it may, then why don't Orthodox more enthusiastically display this side of their faith to "outsiders" - or in some cases even their own nominal adherents? Then perhaps Orthodox, particularly in Russia, could stop whining about Catholics and Protestants "stealing" from their flock. The Apostles certainly were not afraid to competitively demonstrate the superiority of their faith in the religious hodgepodge of the Roman Empire. Clark's non-belief is humorous is some ways. Several times she marvels how some "coincidence" allows her to meet just the right person or make just the right connection to propel her research to a new insight. A Christian wouldn't be so surprised by such "coincidences". Near the end, reflecting on some of the admirable Orthodox she encountered, Clark writes, "They made me wish I could believe as they did." Poor Victoria Clark... another soul unable to move beyond her dead end belief in postmodern, secular humanism. I do not recommend this book as your only source for information about Orthodox history and current affairs, much less theology and beliefs. But Orthodox and would-be-Orthodox should read it and ponder Clark's points as should anyone wanting to better understand the political situation in Orthodox nations.