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Rating: 
Summary: Good but intended for a specific audience
Review: Olivier Clement has written a rather interesting book, it's part cultural observation and critique of the west and part Orthodox introduction or devotional depending how you look at it. Written in a similar vein to Philip Sherrard's "Rape of Man and Nature" and E.F. Schumacher's "Guide for the Perplexed" he does a somewhat scathing but justified attack on western secular culture. But he does it specifically from a Orthodox perspective.
He also He covers a multitude of topics from Monasticism, martyrdom, chastity, women, divorce, marriage, children. Though with latter two he conveys that it is better to be celibate and single than to marry and have children. He decries what modern man has done to himself and the world - dehumanization. And goes into detail how this occurred. Overall well and good. But he ignored some vital things such as the popularity of oriental spirituality like Sufism, Buddhism, Tantra, etc. That has a strong attraction on the intellectual class of the west. Instead he dimisses them as merely "occult", he seems frightened of things like acupuncture because it's not Christian. I find this evasion odd as Christianity has to compete on a rather even playing field for converts. Especially in light when the Dalai Lama works often times end up on the NYT best seller list. But ironically the Dalai Lama often writes about the subjects like compassion, ethics and love. Things which Christians ought to be writing about but don't. Guess the Sermon on Mount doesn't count for much in Church teachings nowadays. Though he critiques secularism he fails to acknowledge that it put an end to religous persecutions that were so frequent in the west until the enlightenment and democracy. Or provided the basis of individual freedom and rights. No church ever fought for the rights of the common man. Overall the critique is good but shallow at times when the opposite is required. His style of writing is different and takes a while to get used to. He also quotes various european and Russian intellectuals which most Americans would not know about or provide a list of references of their books. So who would enjoy it? If you are a Orthodox Christian you'll like it. If you are just curious about what a Christian point of view on various topics get your hands on the works of Philip Sherrard like "The Rape of Man and Nature" and "Human Image - World Image". They are hard to get but worth it. Sherrard was both a theologian and poet and writes beautifully and intelligently about many things the Clement just glosses over. Otherwise stick with Schumacher's "Guide for the Perplexed" or Hossein Nasr's "Knowledge of the Sacred".
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