Favorite Authors–Part II

In the introduction page to this section of my website I  discussed some of my favorite authors.   However, space was limited there so I would like to add a few more favorites to that list:

Father Raymond Brown

Father Raymond Brown was a vastly influential scholar and author during the Twentieth Century. Brown was a prolific author, writing twenty-five books.  He was twice a member of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and reviewed the New Jerome Biblical Commentary. My personal favorites are Introduction to the New Testament, published shortly before his death in 1997, and An Introduction to New Testament Christology. Brown was a vastly influential author during the twentieth century but he had his critics to be sure. Many Traditionalist elements in the Catholic Church opposed his writings, some of which were rejected by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.  I consider Brown as someone who “hits the golf ball down the middle of the fairway”.  He is neither too far left nor too far right. Many others have that same assessment as well. 

Father John Meyendorff

Father John Meyendorff is certainly one of the major voices of Russian Orthodoxy in the Twentieth Century.  He was a professor and dean of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary until his death in 1992. Meyendorff wrote many books on Eastern Orthodox theology and history.  My favorites are Byzantine Theology (1973) and Imperial unity and Christian divisions: The Church 450-680 A.D. (1989). Meyendorff is most closely identified with the study of Gregory Palamas and the Hesychast movement.  It was his work that showed Palamas was squarely within Orthodox patristic thinking. 

Father Jack Custer

Father Jack Custer was a professor at St. Cyril and Methodius Byzantine Catholic Seminary and is now a pastor and administrator in the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic.  Father Custer has written several books, including my favorites The Apostolic Writings,  The Old Testament: a Byzantine Perspective, and The Holy Gospels: a Byzantine Perspective. 

Bishop Andrew Pataki

Okay, so this is really a personal choice.  Bishop Andrew was the Eparch of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma and later served as the Ordinary of the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Passaic. His lone publication was the Voice of the Shepherd, a collection of his writings for the diocesan newspapers.  Bishop Andrew tonsured me into the clerical state and then later ordained me as a deacon. A video tribute can be found here.