Here for the first time is an anthology of texts gathered almost exclusively from the personal correspondence between St Basil the Great, his close friend Gregory "the Theologian" and his younger brother Gregory of Nyssa. These three men appear to us as real human beings, reveal the substance of their Christian vocation, uncover the program of their spiritual life, unveil the intellectual background of their use of Greek philosophy at the service of Christian theology, and explain the meaning of their ministry as monastic leaders and bishops of the Church. Barrois has put his superb scholarship to work, adding a spiritual concern that takes his sources seriously. --The Living Church, February 14, 1988 Professor Georges A. Barrois, born and educated in France, served on the faculty of the Ecole Biblique et Archeologique Francaise in Jerusalem in the interval between the two world wars. An expert in Old Testament archeology, he took part in or conducted the exploration and excavation of several sites in the Middle East and wrote the important two-volume Manuel d'Archeologie Biblique. Following the outbreak of World War II, he came to the United States, where he taught at Princeton Theological Seminary. A convert to Orthodoxy, he was Visiting Professor of Old Testament at St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary.