Widely regarded as one of the greatest modern Orthodox theologians, Dumitru St?niloae (1903–1993) was a Romanian Orthodox priest, theologian, and one of the most important Eastern Christian thinkers of the twentieth century. In these essays he reflects on two themes that lay at the heart of his vision of the Christian life: holiness and eternity. The saint, he argues, reveals humanity restored to its true vocation, marked by compassion, humility, purity, tenderness, and self-giving love.
St?niloae also considers the relationship between time and eternity in an intense essay that would later be expanded in his monumental Orthodox Dogmatic Theology (1978). Translated here by Donald Allchin, St?niloae presents human life as a journey towards communion with God. Eternity is not an endless extension of time but the fullness of personal existence in Divine love, already made present through Christ. Deeply rooted in the Orthodox tradition yet written with depth and clarity, these reflections offer a compelling introduction to one of the most profound Christian theologians of the modern era.