Start with two or three good ones, but don’t skip church to finish them.
Reading matters during your catechumenate, but it’s secondary to showing up for services. You’ll learn more standing through a Divine Liturgy than reading about it. That said, books help. They answer questions that pop up at 11 p.m. when you can’t call your priest. They give you vocabulary for what you’re experiencing. And they connect you to the two-thousand-year conversation you’re entering.
Here’s what actually gets recommended by priests in the Antiochian Archdiocese and across canonical Orthodoxy.
The Essential Three
If you read nothing else, read these. The Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Kallistos Ware gives you history and doctrine in clear English. It’s the book most priests hand inquirers first. Ware was a convert himself, he gets where you’re coming from. The Orthodox Way, also by Ware, goes deeper into theology and spirituality. It’s not as comprehensive but it’s warmer, more personal.
Then pick up For the Life of the World by Fr. Alexander Schmemann. It’s short. Maybe 150 pages. But it’ll change how you see everything, meals, work, creation itself. Schmemann writes about the sacramental worldview, how Orthodoxy doesn’t divide life into sacred and secular. If you’ve come from an evangelical background where “ministry” meant church activities and everything else was just life, this book will reorient you.
The Catechism and Prayer Book
Get the Antiochian Archdiocese’s Catechism of the Orthodox Christian. It’s basic, straightforward, and it’s ours. You can order it from Antiochian Village. Don’t expect poetry, it’s a catechism. But it covers what you need to know.
Buy a prayer book. The Jordanville Prayer Book is standard. You’ll use it daily if you develop a prayer rule (and you should). One catechumen said she learned more theology from the canons and akathists in her prayer book than from any other source before her baptism. The Church prays her theology. When you pray the prayers, you’re not just talking to God, you’re learning who He is.
If You Want More
Fr. Thomas Hopko’s The Orthodox Faith series covers doctrine systematically. It’s available free on the OCA website as articles, or you can buy the books. Hopko taught at St. Vladimir’s Seminary for decades. He’s clear, pastoral, never condescending.
Becoming Orthodox by Fr. Peter Gillquist tells the story of how two thousand evangelicals (including Gillquist) came into the Antiochian Archdiocese in 1987. If you’re from a Protestant background, especially here in Southeast Texas where your whole family probably goes to First Baptist, this book will feel familiar. These were Campus Crusade staff, church planters, worship leaders. They didn’t leave Christianity, they came home to it.
The Way of a Pilgrim teaches the Jesus Prayer through a nineteenth-century Russian wanderer’s story. It’s part memoir, part instruction manual. You’ll either love it or find it strange. Either way, it’s worth reading once you’ve started praying the Jesus Prayer yourself.
And read On the Incarnation by St. Athanasius. It’s from the fourth century but C.S. Lewis wrote the introduction to one edition, and Lewis insisted it’s more readable than modern theology. Athanasius wrote it for regular Christians, not scholars. It’s about why God became man. That’s the center of everything.
What About the Ancient Faith Store?
Ancient Faith Ministries (the Antiochian-affiliated publisher and podcast network) puts out Know the Faith by Fr. Michael Shanbour. It’s designed specifically for inquirers and catechumens, especially those coming from Catholic or Protestant backgrounds. Shanbour addresses objections, quotes the Fathers extensively, and grounds everything in Scripture. Priests recommend it constantly.
Browse their “Intro to Orthodoxy” section if you want more options. But don’t go overboard. Three books and a prayer book will carry you through your catechumenate. You can read the rest after you’re chrismated.
A Word of Caution
Don’t become the catechumen who reads everything but never prays. Don’t skip Vespers to finish a chapter. Your priest didn’t assign you a syllabus because this isn’t seminary, it’s the Church. You’re not cramming for an exam. You’re being healed.
If you work offshore two weeks on, two weeks off, or if you’re pulling twelve-hour shifts at the refinery, you might not have time to read much at all. That’s fine. Pray your morning and evening prayers. Get to church when you can. Ask your priest questions. The books are tools, not requirements.
When Fr. Schmemann talks about the sacramental life, or when Metropolitan Kallistos explains theosis, they’re describing something you’ll experience in the Liturgy. Read them to understand what you’re already encountering. The goal isn’t information. It’s transformation. The books just help you cooperate with what God’s already doing.
