We are pleased to announce the publication of our latest title, Dominique Wohlschlag’s “The Queen and the Avatar”, where the author shares his questions with the readers and takes them deep into the Indian epic world in order to understand the nature of Krishna and of divine incarnation in general.

What really is an avatar? What is the meaning of his often strange or disturbing behaviour? What does his being incognito mean, if even partially so? How can he be a joker, transgressor, cunning plotter or seducer? How does he become the founder of a new religion, or the reviver of an old one?

• In his essay “What We Are and Where We Are”, Gai Eaton clarifies and probes the traditional teachings about human responsibility and divine retribution, in the context of our modern lives and in the light of the initiatic way.

The traveler, far from being alone, is surrounded by helpers… So it is often said that he does not, in truth, leave the world behind him, but draws it after him into the pattern of unity for which it craves. The self-enclosed man is friendless in a necessarily hostile environment, whereas the traveler, like those ancient heroes who were aided in their moments of greatest peril by birds and beasts and plants, is nowhere rejected.

• Our last selection this month is a podcast, “Jesus: Name Above Every Name”, by the late orthodox Fr. Thomas Hopko. Follow the link to read or listen.

For ancient Christianity and for Eastern Orthodoxy through the ages, the very name “Jesus, Yeshua, Joshua” is the presence and the power of the Person of Christ himself. When you say that name, he is there. When you invoke that name, Jesus is present. His power is present. His might is present. His saving power is present. He is present! It’s a parousia. It’s a parousia before the presence of the Lord at the end of the ages.