Yes, but you need to be careful. The short answer is that it’s not forbidden, but it’s also not usually what you need, especially if you’re new to Orthodoxy.
Here’s the thing. Most of us in Southeast Texas grew up with Max Lucado on the nightstand or maybe Thomas Merton if we came from a Catholic background. Those books shaped how we think about prayer, about God, about the spiritual life. And some of what they say is true and beautiful. But some of it isn’t Orthodox, and when you’re just learning the faith, you can’t always tell which is which.
The Orthodox Church doesn’t have an Index of Forbidden Books. We’re not going to snatch The Purpose Driven Life out of your hands. But we do say that spiritual reading needs to happen within Holy Tradition. That means reading with the mind of the Church, guided by the Fathers, the liturgy, the councils, and your priest. Protestant and Catholic writers don’t share that mind fully, even when they’re saying things that sound right.
What’s the actual problem?
The danger isn’t that you’ll read one C.S. Lewis book and lose your faith. Lewis is wonderful in many ways. The danger is that these books can reinforce ways of thinking that you’re trying to unlearn.
If you came from an evangelical background, you probably learned to read the Bible as an individual with the Holy Spirit as your personal guide. That’s not how we do it. We read Scripture within the liturgical life of the Church, with the Fathers as our teachers. A Protestant devotional book might pull you back toward that individualistic approach without you realizing it.
Catholic books have different issues. They might talk about purgatory as a place where you work off temporal punishment, or they might assume papal authority, or they’ll use the filioque in the Creed. For a catechumen, that’s confusing. You’re trying to learn what the Orthodox Church teaches, and now you’ve got competing voices in your head.
So what should you read instead?
Start with Orthodox writers. There’s no shortage of them, and they’re writing specifically to help you grow in the Orthodox faith.
Fr. Thomas Hopko’s The Orthodox Faith series is free online and covers everything. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s The Orthodox Church and The Orthodox Way are classics for good reason. Frederica Mathewes-Green writes with warmth and clarity for American converts. If you want something on prayer specifically, The Mountain of Silence by Kyriacos Markides is accessible, or go deeper with Wounded by Love by St. Porphyrios.
Get The Orthodox Study Bible if you don’t have it already. It’s got the full canon (including the books Protestants left out) and notes that explain how the Church has always read these passages. That matters more than you think.
When might non-Orthodox books be okay?
Once you’ve got a solid Orthodox foundation, you can read more widely with discernment. If you’ve been Orthodox for several years, if you know the Fathers, if you’re regular in confession and communion, then you’ve developed what we call phronema, the mind of the Church. At that point you can read Thomas Merton or Richard Rohr or whoever and recognize where they’re speaking truth and where they’ve wandered off the path.
Some converts find it helpful to read comparative works that explicitly address the differences. Fr. Lawrence Farley wrote Living Faith: An Orthodox Christian Conversation with Evangelicals that does this well. But that’s different from devotional reading. You’re studying the differences, not absorbing a non-Orthodox spirituality.
And look, if your Baptist mama gives you a copy of Jesus Calling for Christmas, you don’t have to throw it in the trash. Just don’t make it your primary spiritual diet. Thank her, put it on the shelf, and pick up St. Porphyrios instead.
The real issue is formation
You’re not just learning new information about God. You’re being formed into a new way of life, a new way of seeing, a new way of praying. That formation happens through the liturgy, through fasting, through the prayers of the Church, through reading the Fathers. Protestant and Catholic books can interfere with that formation because they’re forming you toward something else, even if it’s something good in its own context.
Talk to your priest. If there’s a specific book you want to read, ask him. He knows you, he knows where you are in your journey, and he can tell you whether it’ll help or confuse. That’s not about control. It’s about having a guide who can see the path more clearly than you can right now.
For now, stick with Orthodox writers. There’s a whole treasury of spiritual wisdom waiting for you, written by saints who lived what they’re teaching. Start there. You won’t run out anytime soon.
