A Place of Healing for the Soul: Patmos Hardcover - 2002 - 1st Edition

From the publisher

The history of the Greek holy island of Patmos spans back almost two thousand years to the days when Apollo was worshiped, when Saint John was exiled there. In a cave in which Saint John lived as a hermit, a divine vision led the apostle to write the Book of Revelation. Thousands of years later, Peter France arrived on the island a hardened skeptic, an ambitious BBC documentarian whose faith in reason had survived every conceivable trial. Before long, however, he found himself irreversibly drawn to the land's pervasive and paradoxical spirituality, its eccentric citizens, and its violent yet magical history. Trading his mansion for a shepherd's cottage and his Mercedes for sunset mountain walks, France became an unlikely convert to Orthodoxy, a timeless religion that is the key to understanding many of history's most critical events. More than merely the memoir of a man's religious conversion, A Place of Healing for the Soul is a history of a dime-sized island of tremendous political and religious importance. France's crackling wit and evocative descriptions draw the reader into a world of exiled apostles, monastic hermits, cave-dwelling demons, and ancient myths that survive to this day in the bewitching landscape. A Place of Healing for the Soul is the Westerner's ideal introduction to Orthodoxy, an endlessly fascinating religion whose deep-rooted practices have, for thousands of years, eluded our comprehension.