THIS PAPERBACK, which runs to 210 pages, appears to have been privately published in Australia, and it purports to have been “written for people who are between twelve and twenty-five years of age as well as those adults who have the responsibility of teaching young people Orthodoxy and spiritual knowledge.” Such a book would indeed be invaluable if one could have full confidence in the spiritual sobriety and understanding of its author. Unfortunately this is not that book. The author, about whom we are told nothing except his name, appears to be a person of tremendous good will and enthusiasm, but not altogether spiritually sound. Perhaps the book should have been subjected to a thorough revision before it was published.

This is not to say that it is altogether bad. There is much in the book that is helpful and edifying, but, like the proverbial curate’s egg, it is good in parts, and when one undertakes to write a guide for people, to be good only in parts is perilous.

Some of its “bad” parts are immediately obvious on a cursory reading. The author is repetitive. He often appears simply to rant - the changes in typeface and from upper to lower case endorse this impression. His mind-set would seem to be one which would encourage a holyhuddle, sectarian view of the Church and life within it. His admonitions to the young are often so severe, that most young people will simply shrug them off. It appears that no worldly enjoyments are to be permitted. One is reminded of the teaching of St John Climacus, when in Step 14, paragraph 12 of his “Ladder of Divine Ascent,” he counters the teaching of one Evagrius, who had said, “When our soul desires different foods, then confine it to bread and water.” St John did not accept this strictness and rejected his rule, saying of Evagrius that he was “afflicted by an evil spirit.”

Our author often makes precise rules to be followed which seem to be of his own invention, and which do not allow for the many different strengths and weaknesses that people have. An experienced Elder might do this for his individual children, but it is a bold, not to say foolhardy, man who would do so for all in general.

To this reviewer his science often seems suspect. He dabbles in biology, psychology, chemistry, geology, history, sociology and the like, and although I am not an expert in any of these fields and my knowledge of them such as it is, is decades out of date, I strongly suspect that his use of these disciplines bears witness only to the truth of the statement that a little learning is a dangerous thing.

I am on firmer ground when I question his theology. He says, for instance, “Without the written or spoken word and human contact early in life, humans cannot achieve a likeness to God. Some scientists [which?] go so far as to say: ‘The power of speech is all that separates humans from animals.’ It stands to reason then that Christians ought to work on developing their language skills at least to improve their comprehension of spiritual reading matter.” The last line quoted here might be good advice, but it hardly follows from the preceding thoughts, and do the former imply that those with learning difficulties or speech impediments are somehow less than human?

Mihailoff places great stress of the outward observance of Orthodox practices, particularly church attendance. No one who has more than a casual interest in Orthodoxy doubts the fundamental importance of these things, but he forgets the teaching of our holy father, Seraphim of Sarov, that these things are simply means to an end, the end being the acquisition of the Holy Spirit. He can write in all seriousness, “If someone stops attending church in their late teens and the world ends before they find a marriage partner and become a parent that wants to bring their baby to church, how will they get to heaven instead of the ‘other place’? They won’t!” So the Lord’s judgement is pre-empted. We know better than He. How can we say such a thing? The Fathers taught us, that even if we should see someone in the act of sin, we should not judge them, and yet here we have a blanket condemnation of all those who have lapsed from church attendance: they will go to hell. (How then, did the Good Thief get into Paradise? - there is no record of his ever having attended church.) If Mihailoff’s statement were a one-off lapse of sobriety and spiritual discretion, it might be over-looked, but sadly it is one of many in this unfortunate book.

Further, although he continually harps on church attendance, our author does not address the other side of the coin. Many people lapse from church attendance because of their passions and their sins and their weaknesses. But, it has to be admitted, that many also lapse from church attendance because the church does not attend to their spiritual needs, does nothing to embrace them, encourage them or even correct them, has ceased to instruct them, speaks to them in foreign tongues, seems more concerned about socio-political arguments of another place, another country and another time, than their hurts and pains. Not a word is said about this. I believe Mihailoff’s book will only add to their pain. One last comment must be made about judging, because it is such a pervading note throughout the book. At one point, in giving some reasonably sound advice about the company we keep, Mihailoff even exhorts us: “We should seek friends among members of Christ’s Holy body - His Church. Even then, we should seek out the members who take their faith seriously and do not attend church services only because they have to obey someone else’s will or only for the sake of company. We must not forget that one of Christ’s frequent companions was His betrayer, Judas Iscariot.” So, it seems the first thing that we have to do when we enter church is to judge everyone else and their motives for being there. Look out for the Judases! Most children will be there in obedience to someone else’s will, their parents’ or guardians,’ and so our children will have to avoid them! I apologise for poking fun, and would not have done so had these lapses in discretion and sobriety been incidental, but they are persistent and the leitmotif of the whole work, which rather than being an Orthodox Survival Guide, is more a akin to a Pharisee’s Instruction Book.

S.F.A.