Consists of nine talks addressed to the catechists (both clergy and laity) of the Archdiocese of Athens. Chapters include Origin and Revelation of the Church; Definition and Characteristics of the Church; Orthodoxy According to the Fathers; The Church and the Divine Eucharist according to St. Maximos the Confessor; the Mind of the Orthodox Church; the Catholic Way of Life; Orthodoxy and Legalism, Secularism in the Church, Theology, and Pastoral Care; The Synodikon of Orthodoxy.
From the Preface to the English Edition:
"The twentieth century, from a Christian point of view, could be called the age of Ecclesiology and Eucharistology because much has been said about what the Church is and what the Eucharist is. People, disappointed by an individualistic life, seek true social relations which they feel they will find in the Church. Indeed, man finds true communion with God, men, and all creation within the Church and through the Divine Eucharist which is the deepest core of Ecclesiastical life.
At the same time, many problems have arisen concerning Church and the ecclesiastical mindset. Various traditions relating to the Church have created intense speculation. Many groups of Christians have presented themselves as ecclesiastical ones and many theological opinions have tried to define the true ecclesiastical mindset. Some Christian groups claim authenticity whereas others maintain that all Christians are branches of a single tree or that Christianity is expressed by and breathes with two lungs. Thus, on the one hand, there prevails indiscriminate absolutism and on the other relativity of faith. Indeed this creates a great ecclesiological confusion, a particular ecclesiastical fundamentalism and an ecclesiastical syncretism.
My visits both to the East and to the West have made me realise that questions like what the Church is, which Church expresses authenticity, what exactly constitutes the ecclesiastical mindset, are really very interesting and modern. Many people, disappointed by various Christian denominations, are seeking out the Orthodox Church of Revelation, of the Fathers, of the Ecumenical Councils, of the martyrs, and of the saints.
However, due to the ecclesiological confusion which exists even within the local Orthodox churches, they do not find what they are looking for. This arises because of secularisation which troubles many Orthodox communities, because either a dogmatic minimalism or maximalism prevails, or even more so an ecclesiological Monophysitism or Nestorianism."
