The Holy Transfiguration: A Symphonic Presentation by Robert F. Slesinksi (review)

236 Antiphon 14.2 (2010) Book Reviews Evagrius of Pontus Talking Back: A Monastic Handbook for Combating Demons. Trans. David Brakke Cistercian Studies Series, 229 Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009 x + 190 pages. $24.95 Many studies in early monasticism have directed their attention to its social and cultural features. The major concern among the monks themselves in late antiquity, however, was battling the demons and the logismoi (thoughts that could be the occasion of stirring up one of the passions). The popularity of this little book by Evagrius Ponticus (c. 345-99) in Greek, Latin, Syriac, Armenian, and Georgian is evidence of that. This is the first translation of the full text of Antirrhetikos into English. Evagrius has gathered short Scripture passages from both the Old and the New Testaments that a monk can use to “talk back” to the eight evil thoughts: gluttony, fornication, avarice, sadness, anger, listlessness, vainglory, and pride. For the monk, it is a reference book for easy memory in order to make effective battle with the passions and attain dispassion (apatheia). For the contemporary reader, it provides insight into how the passions work in the human psyche, and the experience of discovering common ground with the monks is fascinating. If one asked Evagrius why the “thoughts” need to be immediately destroyed, he would answer, as he does in his cover letter to this collection, it is “so that at the time of prayer the intellect might have the frankness of speech that belongs to those who transcend these [thoughts]…” (47). The ascetical battle is for the sake of pure prayer. David W. Fagerberg Notre Dame University South Bend, IN Robert F. Slesinksi The Holy Transfiguration: A Symphonic Presentation Fairfax, VA: Eastern Christian Publications, 2009 xii + 120 pages. Paperback. $15.00. Of all the feasts of the Church year that should have a higher profile than it does, I would submit that the Feast of the Holy Transfigura- 237 Book Reviews tion (6 August) should be the first to be renewed and reclaimed. The Gospel mystery is all here: the Trinity (the Father’s disposition, the Son’s glorification, and the Spirit’s overshadowing); the suffering and glory of Jesus; law and prophet witnessing to the Messiah; Israel’s tent of meeting and its spiritual cloud; and the beginning of our conversion into an image of the Suffering Servant. By the light of Mount Tabor we see the world differently, theologically, sacramentally. This little book by Father Robert Slesinski can help in our reclamation of this feast. Only 120 pages, this slim volume is described as a work in “mystagogical catechesis” in the sense that such catechesis makes “an unfolding of the very mysteries of Jesus’ life itself” (vii). The recounting of Scripture’s content is to be done in such a way as to invite the hearer into that event. Slesinski therefore references exegetical studies, and Tradition’s insights, but these do not preoccupy him. Rather, he hopes his book would invite the reader “to follow the Lord up the Holy Mountain” (vii). Slesinski is a Byzantine Catholic priest and an expert on the Russian theologians Pavel Florensky (d. 1937) and Sergei Bulgakov (d. 1944). He thus brings a perspective on the Transfiguration that is rich with Eastern theology, and approaches the feast from three simultaneous perspectives: liturgy, icon and Scripture. In other words, this theology of the Transfiguration arises from its liturgical hymnody, liturgical icon, and liturgical Gospel readings. He examines the icon’s content in chapter one and biblical preliminaries in chapter two; in the next four chapters, he treats the account recorded by Luke, Matthew , and Mark in detail, and looks at themes of light and glory in John’s Gospel; in chapters seven and eight, he considers deification in the Second Epistle of St Peter and the transfiguring presence for St Paul; in chapter nine, he relates the Transfiguration to the theme of time; and he ends with a Postscript on the moral dimension of the Transfiguration. If the purpose of Christianity were to have the Church lay out propositions for our acceptance, then the icon of the feast of the Transfiguration would be little more than a colorful visual...