{"product_id":"the-illumined-heart-capture-the-vibrant-faith-of-the-ancient-christians-9781557255532","title":"The Illumined Heart: Capture the Vibrant Faith of the Ancient Christians","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhy are modern Christians so indistinguishable from everyone else?\u003cbr\u003e How come Christians who lived in times of bloody persecution were so heroic, while we who live in safety are not?\u003cbr\u003e How could the first Christians fast valiantly, but we feel deprived without dessert?\u003cbr\u003e How did New Testament believers pray without ceasing?\u003cbr\u003e How could the early Christian martyrs actually forgive their torturers?\u003cbr\u003e What did the Christians of the first centuries know that we don't?\u003cbr\u003e That's what this book is about.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eFrom the author: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e When I look back at the process of writing \u003cem\u003eThe Illumined Heart\u003c\/em\u003e, I'm amazed all over again at how God directed it. I wrote the whole thing in a week, the week before Christmas, in fact, which is so typically congested with last-minute errands, unpredicatable weather, aches and sniffles. For Orthodox Christians, it's also a week that we fast from meat and dairy, adding another ball to the juggling act. Yet somehow I started writing the book on Monday morning and completed it Sunday night, just fourteen minutes after the Christmas Eve service began. (I kept wondering where in the week I'd dawdled and lost that fourteen minutes.)\u003cbr\u003e It's no wonder that I look at \u003cem\u003eThe Illumined Heart\u003c\/em\u003e as the one out of all of my books that felt the most God-directed. Mostly, he told me when to shut up. For a cup-runneth-over writer like me, starting a book is like moving into mid-pregnancy and putting on those stretch-front trousers for the first time; they're like a license to eat. And knowing that I have room to write on and on, whatever comes to mind, makes for abundant, wandering prose. Yet \u003cem\u003eThe Illumined Heart\u003c\/em\u003e is quiet, proportional, just-enough; it's like a jewel. It's no wonder that this is a personal favorite among my own books, and the one I must urge people to read. I'm pleased by the amount of good work it's done so far, and hope that it will continue to do much more.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Paraclete Press (MA)\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/01\/2007\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781557255532\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 111\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 6.70h x 4.50w x 0.40d","brand":"Frederica Mathewes-Green","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":36659709968540,"sku":"9781557255532","price":15.29,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/products\/img_e89ce4e5-2681-45d7-8cc1-7a6844cdcbab.jpg?v=1603895332","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/the-illumined-heart-capture-the-vibrant-faith-of-the-ancient-christians-9781557255532","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}