The Story of Christian Spirituality: Two Thousand Years, from East to West

This art-driven, coffee-table survey is comprised of 10 discrete sections of uneven caliber; it offers, nonetheless, a rewarding introduction to the varieties of Christianity. Spanning the first centuries through the present day, the book also includes chapters on topics such as ""Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Spirituality"" and ""The Russian Spirit."" Not all of the entries succeed: David Farmer's ""Saints and Mystics of the Medieval West,"" for one, reads like a series of expanded entries from his own reference, The Oxford Dictionary of Saints. It is infused with an artlessness evident, for example, in his appraisal of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-74), who, he contends, ""quietly corrected much of the work of his predecessors,"" and about whose spirituality he writes nothing at all. On the other hand, John McGuckin offers a enjoyable foray into the spiritual legacy of the Eastern Christian tradition, by way of brief entries concerning the lives and writings of such formidable religious thinkers as Basil of Caesarea (c. 330-79) and Isaac of Nineveh (died c. 700). A timeline accompanies each chapter, highlighting key moments and prominent individuals, and making for easy cross-reference among personalities. Numerous exquisite color illustrations grace these pages, and it is unfortunate that this lavish display is not better utilized to augment the written documents of Christian spirituality. The book's tantalizing tastes of a vast array of Christian literature may, however, seduce readers into sampling fuller versions of the texts presented, surely reason enough to go digging here. (Feb.)