Kyriacos C. Markides is an internationally respected authority on mystical Christianity — especially of Eastern Orthodox believers. He is professor of sociology at the University of Maine.

In Riding with the Lion: In Search of Mystical Christianity, he visits several Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Greece to see whether anything practiced there can be exported to the West. At Mount Athos he meets ascetic monks who have experienced paranormal events such as out of the body travel, healing powers, and even levitation.

The Mountain of Silence: A Search for Orthodox Spirituality presents the teachings of Father Maximos, a charismatic monk from Mount Athos whose explanations of humility, justice, and silence touch the heart. At one point Father Maximos says: "Remember whatever good or bad things happen to us, they have only one single purpose, to awaken us to the reality of God and help us on the path to union with Him. There is no other reason for being born on the planet."

Both of these fascinating spiritual books are structured in such a way as to shed light on the process of holiness and "deification" whereby the believer is made over into the image and likeness of God.

Inner River: A Pilgrimage to the Heart of Christian Spiritualty continues Markides' exploration of the mystical path of faith as taught by Father Maximos, the Orthodox elder and bishop. The author writes about his mentor's trip to America where he gives lectures on the Church, human beings as icons of God, and the threefold path of purification, illumination, and union with the Creator.

Father Maximos is very taken with the nine gifts of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Markides is quite stunned when this teacher characterizes faith as only a step on our way to God; more important is the practice of love and the art of communing with the Spirit.

"The person who has the Holy Spirit experiences security in his or her heart. Such a person fears nothing, because in reality there is nothing to fear," says Father Maximos. Such fearlessness is part of the inner work training program of Christians.

The Spirit of God unites people whereas the opposite of the Divine divides and separates them. Judgment, blame, and slander are forces that keep people apart and make for a world of distrust and enmity.

Markides visits Cyprus to continue his exploration of Christian mysticism. Here he talks with monastics about the study of the lives of the saints, the traps of modernity, and the survival of Byzantine monasticism on Mount Athos.

Markides ends by pondering the paradoxes of Christian mysticism and the ways in which inner work can lead to fearlessness, lack of stress, and peace of mind.