The Threshold

Description

Death is a great sacrament. It is the birth of a person from this
earthly, temporary life, into eternity.

Throughout human history the existence and nature of a world beyond
that which is visible to our material eyes has been a subject of intense debate.
In this third volume of St Ignatius’s collected works the saint addresses the
widespread lack of comprehension of this unseen realm and expounds the necessity
of understanding it correctly in accordance with the Truth that is the Orthodox
Faith. He examines the mystical boundaries that govern the life of a Christian:
the one, between life and death; and the other, between the visible, physical
realm and the invisible to most—but no less real—spiritual realm. He draws
deeply on the patristic teachings of Christian saints of the first millennium,
in particular St Basil the Great, St Isaac the Syrian, St John of Damascus, and
St John of the Ladder.  He weaves in quotations from the Psalms and other
Scriptural texts as well as liturgical hymns. He exhorts his readers to prepare
themselves to cross the threshold into their final heavenly home: to cross from
earthly into eternal life.

Included here is St Ignatius’s “Homily on Death,” one of his most
popular writings in its original language. The reader will also encounter St
Ignatius’s teachings on the nature of the soul and the essence of incorporeal
beings, the latter theologoumena being a point of contention between the author
and his contemporary, St Theophan the Recluse. The text is complemented by a
comprehensive Scripture index, a subject index,  and a short biography of the
author.