The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ

Rowen Williams takes you on a uniquely spiritual journey with this prayerful book. Highly reccomended as a gift or as an addition to enhance your prayer life and learn something about traditional worship of Iconography without sin.

This little book gives insight into the use and purpose of praying with (NOT TO) Icons of Christ and the LIfe of Christ.

This small, very pretty, and interesting book in the sense that it has a lot to say in a short period of text (as if text had time in it), is certainly something to meditate on and think about. Just about a few days reading, Rowan Williams has managed to meditate and so interpret in a theological way, these icons: The Transfiguration, The Resurrection, Christ as one of the eternal Trinity, Christ as judge of the world and ruler of all. When I say that this book by its text seems to be about time, I mean in a way that is stretched, that this book takes imagination and thought to follow, expresses some deep beliefs and some insightful ways of becoming more with the spirit of Jesus Christ, and of gaining inspiration to go on with a life in the spirit. That is a mouthful. But afterall, if you are looking for a how-to book, this is not really it--though appreciation and the way of entering into the spirit and substance of the icons is there. The book did begin as a series of meditations, so there it is also valuable to some who are of a more religious bent since it is by a religious man, the Archbishop of Canterbury. Here is one way we are led to a more inspired way of worship and living in the spirit: "Looking at Jesus seriously changes things; if we do not want to be changed, it is better not to look hard or too long. The apostles in the icon are shielding their eyes, because what they see is not easily manageable in their existing world." From the icon "Transfiguration" about the transfiguration, a depiction. For repeating myself, this pretty book makes a nice gift. I have given in to a friend who is a minister, and he said he and his wife enjoyed the small book, that it is a keeper. There is a good recommendation for it. How nice to have someone receive a gift and like it very much, to want to keep it. So this is a satisfying book one can go back to and read, and also look at the icons. Rowan Williams is a thinking mind, a very good theologian (so his reputation admits), and something of an intellectual (kind of a mild kudo for one of so fine a mind). This is an easy way to enter into his writings, and to enjoy his thoughts. If one wants to have a thoughtful book that reflects on the Trinity and also that wonderful icon of three angels called "The Hospitality of Abraham" by Rubrev, and so on some other key biblical themes in the Christian faith, this is a good place to enjoy such things. "While we can accept all the proper cautions about not treating the figures as simle depictions of the trinitarian persons, there is certainly a convention which understands that the icon is to be 'read' from left to right pointing to the father, the son and the spirit..." My reason for using this quote is to give the reader of this review a taste of the tone of the book. There is something consistently civil and formed about the tone of the book that is part of the hallmark of style about which the book is extant. I say "extant" because there is a spirit

`The Dwelling of the Light: Praying with Icons of Christ' is a companion volume to 'Ponder These Things: Praying with Icons of the Virgin', a recent book by Rowan Williams, now Archbishop of Canterbury after a distinguished career as an academic and cleric in the Churches of England and Wales (Anglican Church). Williams has a great affinity for the wider breadth of Christian experience, drawing influences and inspiration from Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox practices across the centuries. In this book, Williams continues to explore ways in which meditation and prayer can be strengthened and enhanced with incorporation of iconographic images, this time with icons of Christ.Protestants particularly have lost the tradition of the use of art work as representative objects for worship. However, the debate over the appropriateness of icons and other imagery is almost as old as Christianity itself. There was a time when icons of Christ were banned because Jesus, being of divine nature, wasn't suitable for depiction. That Jesus could be depicted without violation of the 'no graven images' commandment took a long time to be decided, and finally was deemed permissible because of Jesus' human nature. Rare the depiction of God or God the Father as anything more than a cloud, a hand, or some other vague symbol meant to characterise, more than anything else, the mystery involved rather than an actual physical likeness. Michaelangelo's depictions on the Sistine Chapel ceiling are remarkable not simply from their aesthetic quality, but also in that the image of God is very direct and distinctly human in form. Williams devotes many pages of the introduction to looking at precisely the issue of the theology behind the depiction of Jesus. However, icons are a special form of art. They are not simple paintings, however elegant, but take the form, from their origination to their veneration, as a form of prayer in and of themselves in very real ways. Christian art was a long time in developing (indeed, the earliest Christians were sometimes thought to be atheists since they had no visible evidence of gods around). This is a small book. It has a mere 85 pages or so of text, and thus could be read fairly quickly. However, to do so would be to deny oneself the richness of the experience. One can glance at an icon, generally a fairly small object, and think one has seen it. However, the true experience of an icon, and the true experience of this book, comes from re-reading, stopping, meditating, and slowly working through each detail. The book is generously illustrated in word and graphic art. Each of the icons is presented in full colour, with details highlighted in larger size at appropriate points in the text. Through all the meditations, we are looking for God, and hopefully come to realise that God also looks for us. As Williams said in the previous volume, we find the God who has taken up residence in the heart of our humanity, who prays when we are not looki