All too often, lecture courses which could have a wide appeal remain unpublished, inaccessible except through the notes of those who attended them. We are fortunate that this has not been the fate of this introduction to Orthodox spirituality by Elisabeth Behr-Sigel,.originally put together for a correspondence course at the St. Serge Theological Institute in Paris.

With its blend of Church history and theology, treated in such a way that can never forget their relevance to our own spiritual lives, this course fills a real gap in Orthodox literature in English. More could perhaps have been done to adapt the material to book form: the broad scope of the book makes it inevitable that some very interesting insights receive only a passing mention, and a little more background in the footnotes- rather than just references to other works- might have been of value. But that aside, it is rare to find the fruit of so much scholarship presented in such a vital and accessible form.

The Place in the Heart offers an unusually broad panorama of 'the great, living and diverse river of Orthodox Christian spirituality' from New Testament times to the present, through the centres of classical learning, the Egyptian desert and the monasteries of Byzantium and Athos to modern Russia and Western Europe. The rich complexity of Christian experience is never oversimplified. This presentation is all the more timely because there are so many people wanting to know more about 'Orthodox spirituality', and the responses to this interest are not always adequate. There is a danger of placing undue emphasis on the elements not shared with Western Christianity (which has the effect of depicting Orthodoxy as a kind of appendix). Those who are at all familiar with Mme Behr-Sigel's work, and her devotion to Fr Lev Gillet, who is often quoted here, will not be surprised that her survey of Orthodox tradition steers well clear of this pitfall. One may be particularly grateful that she begins by coming to grips with the overused, slippery and untraditional term 'spirituality' itself, defining it as the living out of faith, an extension of theology which finds its highest expression in holiness.

While the main subject of the book is the 'contemplative and mystic current' in Orthodoxy and its historical development, this is scrupulously balanced by an account of other currents in the tradition which takes up nearly half the book. Here the Author surveys the place of Scripture as a constant source of renewal in the Church, the heritage of the primitive Church, characterised by martyrdom, spiritual gifts and eschatological hope; various responses in the Church to secular culture and learning; and the origins of monasticism. The liturgical element of spiritual life is not treated here, but its importance is noted.

None of these themes is presented purely as history, Mme Behr-Sigel always shows how they are continuing streams in the spiritual life of the Church, surfacing periodically in the most diverse times and places. Thus 'Orthodox evangelicalism' is to be found in the social teaching of St John Chrysostom and in the passion-bearers of Medieval Russia. The call to martyrdom, zealously embraced by the early Christians, has been answered no less faithfully by Balkan Christians under Turkish rule or by Russians in our own times.

Similarly, the early Church's encounter with the intellectual culture of the Hellenic world represents only the beginning of 'the immense and crucifying work of the intelligence united with the heart' which is still the task of the theologian today. The chapter on primitive monasticism effectively introduces the main them of the book, hesychasm and the Jesus prayer. The points listed under 'the image of the monk' are intended to refer specifically to the early period, but they form an invaluable introduction to such concepts as watchfulness, apatheia and spiritual fatherhood which are crucial to the understanding of monasticism in any age.

It is to the monastic tradition of the fourth century that the origins of hesychasm are traced. This is a tradition enriched with intellectual elements, as expressed clearly in the writings of Evagrius of Pontus, a monasticism focussing less on spectacular ascetic feats than on rooting out evil from the abyss of the heart, as the depths of the person are described in the influential writings attributed to St Macarius. Mme Behr-Sigel makes it quite clear that hesychasm is not the only form of monasticism, just as the Jesus prayer should not be seen as the only form of true prayer, or as the only form suitable for Christians today. The roots of the Jesus prayer can be traced back to the use of the name of Jesus in the New Testament. The prayer itself, however, seems to have originated in the early monasticism of Mount Sinai, whence its development can be followed through St Symeon the New Theologian to St Gregory Palamas and his hesychast contemporaries on Mount Athos. Not that the development of hesychasm was always smooth; we get a clear picture of the controversies surrounding several of its key figures, and the theologically important issues underlying these disputes.

Hesychasm is a movement which begins with awareness of the need to keep watch over the heart, a resultant sense of human powerlessness and a tenderness concentrated on the person of Christ. In passing, Mme Behr-Sigel points to an affinity between Sinaite hesychasm and the concept of 'interiorised monasticism' of Fr Theodore Bukharev and Paul Evdokimov. The modern revival of interest in hesychasm goes back to the 'philokalic renaissante' of the eighteenth century in the Greek-speaking world and in Russia. We see the Philokalia against the background of the Enlightenment world in which it was compiled, but whose understanding of man it challenged so radically. Some key figures are highlighted: Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and Macarius of Corinth, Paisius Velichkovsky, Ignatius Brianchaninov and Theophan the Recluse, and the anonymous 'pilgrim' whose account of his spiritual way has achieved such astonishing popularity. Unfortunately, the conclusion of this chapter has apparently been omitted in the typesetting.

The brief final chapter on 'The Jesus Prayer in the West today' surveys the growth in use of the prayer in the Russian emigration and within Western Christian traditions. The survey of relevant literature in the West would be more useful to the English reader if it had been extensively revised. As it stands, it contains extensive references to French versions of material which are also available in English.

Since the presentation of this book to the English-speaking public was such a worthy undertaking, it is a pity that it was not done with more care, The translation is stilted and occasionally unidiomatic enough to cause confusion, and the proof-reading leaves something to be desired, especially in the matter of punctuation. Names frequently remain in their French form or are simply garbled (eg. Eyagrius of Ponticus). The transliterated Greek is a thorough mess, adorned with every kind of French accent (no particular relation to Greek accents is discernible) and featuring occasional oblique cases that appear for no apparent reason and mutant grammatical forms. A few of the peculiarities in the Greek look as if they have been inherited from the French edition. Perhaps more seriously, the notes are full of references to French texts where English ones are available, and some citations in the otherwise valuable bibliography have the same failing.

The inclusion with The Place of the Heart of Power of the Name, Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia's meditation on the Jesus prayer, makes an exceptionally happy combination, even though the latter work has long been available on its own. Mme Behr-Sigel's concluding section on use and misuse of the Prayer, touching on some of the very important questions raised by its increasing popularity among people of all Christian traditions and none, leads straight into Bishop Kallistos' much more detailed guide to using the prayer, After discovering a little more about this rich current in the spiritual life of the Church, there can be no more natural response than a desire to know it from within, to make the prayer part of our own spiritual lives.