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I'm about a third way through - covering the six elements of development - Orthodox Spirituality by a monk of the Eastern Church. It's more modern, 1945, than I expected. So it's more encompassing.

It is quite a remarkable framework for pulling things together - the smatterings of this and that that I've been reading. It also makes me feel quite ignorant.

I was happy to see that my observations thus far agreed with: "There is no chasm between Eastern and Western Christianity. The fundamental principles of Christian spirituality are the same in the East and in the West; the methods very often alike; the differences do not bear on the chief points. On the whole, there is one Christian spirituality with, here and there, some variations of stress and emphasis."

Happy to see this partly because it means that while I am a rank amateur, I don't start from scratch in learning from the East.

This short tome and the link from Kosta to The Mystery of Faith are extremely valuable in combining clarity and breadth. Thanks to you both.

I'm also reading and recommending "The Art of Prayer - an Orthodox Anthology" compiled by Igumen Chariton of Valamo; and, for pure fun, a book of Tolstoy's tales.

One day soon, maybe I'll wake up and understand Greek. Thus far all I've managed is Texan with a Slavic accent.

I was happy to see that my observations thus far agreed with: "There is no chasm between Eastern and Western Christianity. The fundamental principles of Christian spirituality are the same in the East and in the West; the methods very often alike; the differences do not bear on the chief points

That much is obvious just by reading Thomas Merton.

Glad you found my links informative. Don't thank me. Thank God. :)

Thought this history might be interesting - from an earlier Orthodox vs. Reformed Debate:

Justification by Faith Alone?
Excerpts of the Reply of Patriarch Jeremiah II to the Lutheran Tubingen Theologians, Concerning the Augsburg Confession (16th cent.)

And from another reply to the Lutheran Theologians by Jermiah II:

For having researched diligently some of the passages of Holy Scripture, which you referred to in your first and second letters which you sent to us, we saw clearly that you had misinterpreted them, perhaps in following your new teachers. For this reason we again entreat you to understand the passages as the Ecumenical Teachers of the Church have interpreted them and which interpretations the seven ecumenical synods and the other regional ones have ratified.
But since you are content with some of the sacraments, even though you have dangerously distorted and changed the written teachings of the Old and New [Testament] to your own purpose, you further say that some of them are not sacraments, but only traditions, not having been established in Holy [scriptural] Texts. But you oppose them in every way, just as chrismation, which was accepted even by Saint John Chrysostom. Some others you drag along as does a torrent. And then you call yourself theologians!...
You reckon the invocation of the saints, their icons, and their sacred relics as futile. You reject their veneration, taking as a pretext the Hebrew source. Moreover, you also reject confession to one another. In addition, you reject the angelic, monastic life. And about these matters we say that the Holy [Scripture] passages concerning them have not been interpreted by such theologians as you are, for neither Saint Chrysostom nor any other of the blessed and true theologians interpreted as if they were dragged along by a torrent. But, indeed, he [Chrysostom] and the holy man after him, being full of the Holy Spirit who performed supernatural miracles while they were living and after they died, interpreted [the Holy Scriptures] as they did; and they received such traditions, and they handed them down successively and gave them to us as indispensable and pious [sacraments].
Jeremiah, Patriarch of Constantinople
Issued in the year 1581, June 6

Sounds familiar - over 425 years ago.