It seems to me that the philosophical basis of Western Christianity is falling to bits, in which case we all need either to recognise some form of post-Christianity or go right back to the sources and reconfigure the theological framework. In effect this book allows us to do that - exploring the way in which a very differently nuanced version of Patristic Christianity developed in the Greek East from the abstract and speculative tendencies of the Latin West. We have all become more familiar in the last generation or so with the notion of the 'relational' theology of Orthodoxy - what I would call its integrative and participative character - and this book explores the historical and intellectual processes by which this difference of focus evolved. There will, of course, be some who want to use this kind of study as a refuge from the actualities of our current Western situation, and others who have a merely 'archaeological' interest in this kind of thing; but I think there is a real value in trying to trace an alternatively-nuanced Christianity which is not only open, radically, to our experience and understanding today, but is also deeply responsive to the 'Tradition' from which it has emerged. It is not an easy task - but I found this book extremely helpful in teasing out some of those kinds of question. ( )