Behold the Beauty of the Lord: Praying with Icons
by Henri J.M. Nouwen
$14.95 Paperback

This twentieth anniversary edition brings Henri J. M. Nouwen's writings on Eastern Orthodox icons to a new generation. With a new foreword by Br. Robert Lentz, a well-known painter of contemporary icons, this classic Nouwen book invites readers to pray with four Russian icons with their eyes open by emphasizing seeing or gazing, which are at the heart of Eastern spirituality. Nouwen's meditations reveal his viewing of the icons not as decorations, but holy places. The book includes four full-color icons, which can be removed for private contemplation or meditation.

A Brush with God: An Icon Workbook
by Peter Pearson
$25.00 Paperback

Painting icons and using them in prayer is an ancient art which is enjoying renewed interest in the West. A Brush with God, a guide to painting icons and using them in prayer, describes the history of icons and examines why they’ve been a spiritual tool for so many centuries. Written from a uniquely Western perspective, the book guides artists – from novices to professionals – through the process of icon painting, using traditional techniques but employing contemporary materials.

Christ All Merciful
by Megan McKenna and Icons by William Hart McNichols, S.J.
$20.00 Paperback

As they have throughout the centuries, icons lead, teach, inspire and draw us into the presence of the divine. The twenty-one images (by contemporary icon writer William Hart McNichols) found in Christ All Merciful lead us to see Jesus face to face and to become this image of God, to put on the new life of Christ.

“The icon is a way for the friends of Christ to share in his mysteries, in the sacraments, and to come to know the Father as Jesus knew him in the flesh…Each icon reveals a different facet of who Jesus is and what he has done in creation.” — Megan McKenna

The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ
by Rowan Williams
$16.00 Hardcover

To look at an icon of Christ is, in the Orthodox tradition, to be brought into the presence of the one who radiates the light and love of God. Drawing on this rich source of spiritual devotion, Archbishop Rowan Williams shows readers of all Christian traditions how to understand and interact with four classical icons of Jesus: the transfiguration , the resurrection, Christ as a member of the eternal Trinity, and Christ as judge of the world and ruler of all. The Dwelling of the Light includes a concise introduction in which Williams illuminates the history and role of icons in Christian worship. Illustrated in color throughout, this book will be a treasured source of spiritual inspiration, ideal for personal use and for giving to others.

Festival Icons for the Christian Year
by John Baggley
$20.00 Paperback

The Christian year is full of great feasts, such as Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Beautifully illustrated with color plates, Festival Icons for the Christian Year introduces the general reader to the most important icons of the Orthodox Church associated with these major festivals, accompanied by words of prayer and liturgy. Discussion of each festival includes background information, extracts from the associated liturgical texts, detailed analysis on the icon illustrated with information about its development, and comment on the theological and spiritual significance of the festival and its icon.

The Icon: A Window on the Kingdom
by Michel Quenot
$18.00 Paperback

The Icon is an exceptional book in many ways. Translated from the French and already published in eight languages, Michel Quenot’s book includes 33 color photos and 34 black and white illustrations. Among its many illustrations are examples of works by modern iconographers, which show the icon to be a living and vital art form, not outmoded or stagnant. To fully understand the icon, one must comprehend its organic unity: artistic, spiritual, theological. Quenot's analysis of various icons and their theological elements enables the readers to appreciate the various aspects of the icon more fully. The book also covers historical sources, theological and biblical foundations, iconographic themes, and the icon's role in the life of believers. It includes discussion of current discoveries and recent scholarship from catacomb art through Egyptian, Byzantine, Balkan, Russian and contemporary iconography.

Icons
by Robin Cormack
$22.95 Hardcover

This book, featuring the painted panels made for churches and for prayer at home, provides an accessible guide to Byzantine and Russian Orthodox icons. Illustrated mostly with Cretan, Greek, and Russian examples, Icons examines icons in the context of the history of Christianity, as well as within the perspective of art history. The author explains how icons were made, framed, and displayed. He investigates their subject matter, showing how scenes can be identified, how the iconography developed over centuries, and what role portraiture plays in their imagery. A uniquely accessible and authoritative introduction to this distinctive art form, Icons defines its subject's unusual place at the intersection of religion, Russian culture, and art history.

Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church
by Alfredo Tradigo
$24.95 Paperback

An icon (from the Greek word eikon, "image") is a wooden panel painting of a holy person or scene from Orthodox Christianity, the religion of the Byzantine Empire that is practiced today mainly in Greece and Russia. The goal of this book, a publication from the J. Paul Getty Museum, is to catalogue the vast heritage of images according to iconographic type and subject, from the most ancient at the Monastery of Saint Catherine in the Sinai to those from Greece, Constantinople, and Russia. Chapters focus on the role of icons in the Orthodox liturgy and on common iconic subjects, including the fathers and saints of the Eastern Church and the life of Jesus and his followers.

Life of Jesus in Icons: From the "Bible of Tbilisi"
by Francis J. Moloney
$34.95 Hardcover

In the Cathedral Church of Mary of the Assumption in Tbilisi, Georgia in Eastern Europe, the “Word of Life” is proclaimed in the Liturgy, and also told through one hundred and thirty icons of scenes from the Bible, elegantly arranged along the Cathedral’s side walls. Thirty full-page color reproductions of these icons, which tell the story of the life of Jesus from the announcement of his birth to the moment of his Ascension into heaven, are reproduced in this book together with the relevant biblical texts and a commentary. Carefully chosen extracts from early Church Fathers shed further light on each of the events portrayed in the icons. This hardbound book is ideal for meditation and reflection, and will make an excellent gift.

The Meaning of Icons
by Leonid Ouspensky and Vladimir Lossky
$50.00 Paperback

The introduction into the meaning and the language of icons imparts to us the spiritual concepts of the Eastern Orthodox Church as a way of understanding the world of the icon. The Byzantine theologian often sets the calling of an icon painter on an equal level with that of a priest. Devoted to the service of a more sublime reality, he exercises his objective duty the same way as the liturgical priest.

"It is not the purpose of the icon to touch its contemplator. Neither is it its purpose to recall one or the other human experience of natural life; it is meant to lead every human sentiment as well as reason and all other qualities of human nature on the way to illumination."

A section on the technique of icon painting is followed by the main part of the book, in which the authors describe fifty-eight types of icons accompanied by an equal number of illustrations. Fifty-one icons are reproduced in beautiful full-color plates, many of which had never been published before or known to the wider public.

Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin
by Rowan Williams
$16.95 Hardcover

Ponder These Things invites readers to explore and reflect on the depths of meaning in three classic icons of the Virgin and her Child from the Eastern Christian tradition: She Who Points the Way or Hodegetria, The Virgin of Loving Kindness or Eleousa, and The Virgin of the Sign or Oranta. Icons have been described as “theology in line and color” and, in tracing the movement within these icons, The Archbishop of Canterbury discovers the pattern of love that they reveal, a love that invites and embraces us so that we no longer remain as spectators, but find ourselves caught up in the drama that unfolds itself before us.

The Resurrection and the Icon
by Michel Quenot
$30.00 Paperback

In a fascinating evaluation of the interdependence of Orthodox iconography and liturgical worship, author Michel Quenot leads the reader on a pilgrimage through the major feasts of the Church's annual cycle by way of their iconographic representations. In every instance the image in question is treated not as a distinct work of art but rather as an integral element in an edifice that has as its unshakable foundation the Resurrection of Christ. The Resurrection and the Icon includes 68 full-color iconographic reproductions and 26 black-and-white prints.

The Rublev Trinity
by Gabriel Bunge
$27.00 Hardcover

In a detailed and comprehensive theological explanation, Benedectine monk Gabriel Bunge aims to make the timeless message of the icon of the Holy Trinity by St Andrei Rublev accessible to the contemporary praying believer. The author understands that Russian iconographic art represents a theological confession of faith – icon painters were conscious of this responsibility, and the monk-painters who learned their Orthodox faith through the prayer of the Hours and the Divine Liturgy, through the familiar texts of the hymns and the Gospel readings, reflected the revelation of God in their art.

Sacred Doorways: A Beginner's Guide to Icons
by Linette Martin
$19.95 Paperback

For centuries, icons, known as "sacred doorways" into the spiritual world, have been a central part of worship in the Eastern Orthodox Church. But more recently, people of all faith traditions have become intrigued by the beauty and mystery of icons. For all those who wish they understood more about the meaning behind religious icons, Sacred Doorways will serve as an essential guidebook. Linette Martin explains the history of religious icons, the materials and techniques used in creating them, and the visual language of icons. But beyond providing a historical and artistic background, Martin also writes as a fellow spiritual pilgrim, enriching our understanding of the Orthodox spirituality that is celebrated and expressed through this ancient art form.