Wonder as the Beginning of Faith

Foreword by Christos Yannaras

The author of this book, Maxim Vasiljevic, the most beloved bishop of Los Angeles, manages in this book a special (dare I say ecclesial) type of writing: He does not write to teach or to make known opinions, views, acquired information, or wise conclusions from the study of wise texts bequeathed to us by the Fathers of the Church. In short, he does not write to incite or facilitate the understanding of ecclesial truth or teaching. He is not interested in informing the reader. The aim and purpose of the writing here is to build a relationship of communion with the reader, to invite him to touch the empirical truth of the Church, and to make him a participant in these empirical touches. 

I would dare to say the the "logic" of this book is to transmit experience and not just understanding-- that is, to work with the dynamics of poetry, not with the logic of the presentation of ideas. For example, the poet Odysseas Elytis writes: "What I know not glows within me. And yet it glows." I would say that this phrase is the clearest possible formulation of empirical and not just intellectual knowledge. 

This book of Bishop Maxim ravishes and captivates, not because it "informs" us about the genesis of the ecclesial faith, but because it "leads us by the hand" to this faith, in the way that the language of art transmits the immediacy of experience.

Bishop Maxim (Vasiljevic) was elected Bishop of Los Angeles and the Western American Diocese of the Serbian Orthodox Church in 2006. He graduated from the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, in 1993. He completed his Master of Theology at the University of Athens in 1996, and then three years later, in 1999, at the same university, he defended his doctorate in the field of Dogmatics and Patristics. He worked for one year on his post-doctorate in Paris and the Sorbonne in 2003-04, in the field of Byzantine History and Hagiography. During this time, he also delved in the theory and practical application of painting at the French Academy of Fine Arts in Paris. Bishop Maxim is a professor of Patristics and was teaching Christian Anthropology, Byzantine Philosophy, Canon Law, and Dogmatics at various universities and schools. He speaks Greek, French, Russian, and English. He was the editor of “Theology” – Journal of the Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade. He also leads the Diocesan school of iconography and teaches at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston. Bishop Maxim’s scholarly books, studies, and articles include essays on Holy Fathers and Saints; he has also written on the hagiographical and iconographical themes.