Icons and Saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church (Guide to Imagery Series)

This is a very comprehensive and beautiful work on the icons of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and includes Byzantine, Russian, and icons of other traditions. Each icon's significance in the life of Our Lord or church history is detailed. The description and symbolism of each icon is informative without being scholarly or overly long, and each has the Biblical quotation and reference as well as the particular feast day observed. The size is perfect for use in browsing a gallery, the quality of the paper and the color reproductions are excellent. The various types of icons are well represented, and arranged in a convenient fashion. Many of the icons shown have not found their way into any of the books I have previously read, making this a real treasure.

This book on icons is probably the most useful book to have in a collection of books on icons. It has a good index, something that is frequently missing from books on icons. The information is concise, helpful and useful for expanding a person's knowledge of iconography. The color illustrations of historical icons helps with recognition of icons and is also useful for those who write (the preferred term) icons. Many books on icons are physically very large; this book is relatively small and easy to handle. I recommend this book highly.

Although I agree with most of the comments made by the others who have offered critiques, I don't believe this book deserves a 5 star rating. This book has a lot of beautiful icons, and I enjoyed learning about the meaning of the imagery. There is high value in the diverse collection of beautiful icons. The book had three flaws that disturbed my enjoyment of the book:

1) Icons are tied together by some general imagery. I am fairly ignorant with regards to icon imagery, but I know a little. For example, the use of the mandorla. A mandorla (round or almond shaped device behind an image) is used to mark something that can only be seen through the eyes of faith. The general meaning of colors like blue and red on the icons of Mary and Jesus, as well. A short guide explaining some of these general rules of imagery would have been a spectacular aid to those, like myself, who are woefully ignorant on the topic.

2) The author expresses some theology in language that is inaccurate and likely confusing for the non-Orthodox Christian reader. For example, he uses the word "worship" to describe the Orthodox veneration of icons. Icons are never worshipped. Worship is for God alone. For the reader seeking to understand the Mystery of Orthodox icons, this would be a devastating and confusing statement. Icons are venerated (greatly honored), never worshiped. The teaching is that this veneration passes to the person represented in the image.

3) The book was so small it was difficult to see some of the details in the imagery that the author was trying to illustrate.

Overall, a very interesting and educational book with a wealth of knowledge about iconography, however, it could have been much better.

I have a lot of books about icons, orthodoxy, saints, and to be honest I never believe at I can find a new book that can teach me more. But miracles
happens and this little book was a revelation. So full of information and images, this book is a gem.I sincerely recommended.

When it comes to the Eastern Church's wealth of Icons, so many are near impossible for westerners to discover. Many were either hidden (and often lost) during the Communist rule of eastern europe, or many were destroyed by the powers that be during that era. Other Icons in the book come from Lebanon, Egypt (St. Catherine's monestary), and Greece, some dating back to the 6th century. So, for a complete overview of the Orthodox love of Icons, this book has a plethoria of icons not seen until now, and never in such a complete overview in one book. The only orthodox Icons not covered, are those from India, and Ethiopia, which are apparently outside the scope of the book. Some of these icons are beautiful beyond imagination. With each icon, all in FULL COLOR, and covering a single page, comes simple little remarks as to what the imagery represents in each Icon. Also, the book is divided into sections, with Icons of Christ, Mary, Saints that lived in towers, Saints who were martyrs, and so forth. This makes it easy to study the iconology of TYPES, and not a simple alphabetical approach, as in the western art book in this series does. (St. Ambrose, St. Boniface, etc.) I sadly have this warning to give however. I had a FIRST EDITION of this book. However, it was "Borrowed" from me against my will, and they refused to return it to me, and I had to replace it. I ended up with a SECOND EDITION of the book,and the color isnt right on the prints. THe red plates are supersaturated, and the black plates seem too saturated as well, on many of the pages. I so much enjoyed this book, that I bought the COMPANION BOOK in this GUIDE TO IMAGERY series. If you are interested in the artistic representation of religious figures, the book SAINTS IN ART does for the western religious art world, what this book does for the eastern religious art world. Both books are from Italy initially, and are printed by the PAUL GETTY MUSEUM in the USA. The big difference, is that the western art, is obviously well known to anyone with college level art history study, and access to big city museums. These icons are art not seen in other books until now, for the most part. My other beefs with this book, are as follows. Besides the problems with the color in the second edition, most of these pictures are just TOO SMALL to really examine properly. This book is about 6 inches by 8 inches, so the pictures are reduced too far, to see the smaller details, where many of the symbolic features of the Icon can be found. Also, when they show what the icon is about, they draw black lines thru the pictures. But the pluses outweigh the minuses, and its well worth the cost. I only hope, that if they go into a third printing, they will fix the color balance to the book. I can highly recommend this book without reservation.