The Law of God
By Father Seraphim Slobodskoy

This is the English edition of the classic Russian textbook, Закон Божий (Zakon Bozhij), designed for parents to teach their children “all the fundamental points of the Orthodox Christian faith and way of life.”

Recognizing the need to confirm the believer’s faith in a sea of heterodoxy, skepticism, rationalism, and ecumenism, it was written by Protopresbyter Seraphim Alexivich Slobodskoy as a catechetical manual for the parochial school he and his wife established at Holy Protection Orthodox Church in Nyack, New York.

It has since been used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of children in Sunday schools, of adult catechumens, and has been a required text for those seeking a seminary education in Russia.

In The Law of God, Father Seraphim offers an overview of the whole of the Old and New Testaments as well as instruction on prayer, worship and what it means to live by the teaching of the Ten Commandments and the Beatitudes.

Representing traditional Orthodox Christianity, this edifying book has been described as the single best simple overview of the Orthodox Faith with lucid and profoundly simple explanations of the Church’s Feasts and Fasts and its Orthodox practice.

Our need for the clear teaching of true traditional Christianity is only deepened as we consider how far we have declined since the first edition of this work came out. As the introduction to this English edition says: “When...The Law of God appeared, Orthodox readers were still receptive to a traditional approach to catechesis.” We have become jaded and over-sophisticated in our approach to Divine truth and have not taken to ourselves the precept of our Lord to become as little children.

Father Seraphim teaches the faith in such a way “as to be edifying and to give children and adults an intellectual foundation of support for the faith. While living in an environment which undermines the authority of the Church, The Law of God will supply the reader with support and defense for his beliefs, uncompromised to liberal trends.”

The book is divided into five parts.

Part I, “Basic Concepts,” covers such topics as the world, the attributes of God, prayer, sin, the sign of the cross, standing and bows during prayer, where and how we can pray to God, the church building, the priest’s blessing, icons, and why we call ourselves Orthodox Christians.

Part II, “Prayers,” consists of the texts and discussions of different prayers of the Church.

Part III, “The Sacred History of the Old and New Testaments,” is the longest section of the book, and includes an Introduction, 43 chapters on the Old Testament, and 65 chapters on the New Testament.

In addition to covering the history of the Old and New Testaments, Father Seraphim adds edifying discussions of related subjects. For example, as part of the discussion of the creation of the world and of man, he has a chapter entitled “The Life of the First People in Paradise.” This chapter includes a discussion on the nature of man. The section on the New Testament, in addition to going through the history of the New Testament in detail, ends with chapters on the Apostles, the persecution of Christians, the fall of the Roman Church, and the enlightenment of the Slavs.

Part IV, “Christian Faith and Life,” includes the following chapters: The Purpose of Man, Supernatural Divine Revelation, Holy Tradition and Holy Scripture, Short Summaries of the Ecumenical Councils, The Christian Faith, Christian Life, The Ten Commandments of God’s Law, The Nine Beatitudes, and Contemporary Teachings and Faith in God.

Part V, “Divine Services of the Orthodox Church,” has chapters on the Divine Services, the church building, vestments, service books, rubrics, the Mysteries, Great Lent, Pascha, Monasticism, and Bells and Russian Orthodox peals.

From the introduction:

“ The spirit of this book reflects the mind of the Church. If we cannot supply the Christian flock with the pure, untainted water of salvation, then we have become like the salt of which the Savior speaks ...if the salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men. (Matthew 5:13).

“May our efforts in publishing this first English edition of The Law of God aid believers in cultivating this grace-filled ‘saltness,’ so that they might be able to answer for their faith to those who ask, and that they might inherit the Kingdom prepared by our Lord for His faithful servants.”