With his engaging blend of travelogue conversations with a wise and charismatic spiritual father and musings on the big questions of life and death Professor Markides takes us as companions on his journey of discovery. The insights that he communicates with such enthusiasm are timely ones here at last is a writer who challenges the seeker after mystical understanding and Eastern spirituality to discover Christianity. Dr. Elizabeth Theokritoff independent scholar and coeditor of The Cambridge Companion to Orthodox Christian Theology In Inner River Kyriacos Markidesscholar researcher author and pilgrimtakes us on a thrilling quest into the heart of Christian spirituality and mankinds desire for a transcendent experience of God. From Maines rugged shores to a Cypriot monastery to Greeces remote Mt. Athos and ultimately to an Egyptian desert Markides encounters a diverse cast of characters that allows him to explore the worlds of the natural and the supernatural of religion and spirit and of the seen and the unseen. Inner River will appeal to a wide range of readers from Christians seeking insights into their religion and its various expressions to scholars interested in learning more about the mystical way of life and wisdom that have been preserved in the heart of Orthodox spirituality. Perhaps most important however is the bridge it offers contemporary readers to a Christian life that is balanced between the worldly and the spiritual. show more