It is with great pleasure that we present to you this interview with James Perloff, the author of Missing Saints, Missing Miracles.
This is his latest book and we can’t thank him enough for agreeing to meet with us. This was a great undertaking on his behalf: Mr Perloff devoted a great deal of research for this project. This is nothing less than going through all 4,000 pages of the Synaxarion, a work that comprises seven volumes in all. That’s a tall order and Orthodox Christians can’t thank him enough for doing so.
It’s just shy of 100 pages in length but is eminently readable. I can’t endorse it enough; as far as I’m concerned, it’s not only an exegesis on saints and miracles but a mini-catechism as well.
James is a prolific writer and he’s very knowledgeable about a wide breadth of subjects. For a complete list of his works (including interviews, podcasts and essays), you can go to https://jamesperloff.net/
You may remember that I interviewed Mr Perloff last year about his book Red-Pilled: COVID-19 and the Agendas to Come, in which he exposed the hysteria about this so-called pandemic. If you’d like, you can revisit that interview here: https://www.monomakhos.com/covid-19-red-pilled-james-perloff-interviewinterview-with-james-perloff-on-covid/
Please take the time to watch this interview (Parts II and III will appear shortly). And then go buy this book! It would be a great Christmas gift, not only for a catechumen or a sincere seeker but for an Orthodox Christian as well.
Thank you for opening me eyes! Many blessings.
Thank you for this, I have been aware of him for several years and he is on target in multiple areas.
Did Mr Perloff say that if America had not joined the WWI war in April 1917 (instead came earlier) , the Tzar would not have been forced to abdicate? If this is the case, why? If not please correct me. Thank you!
From the book description:
“How many know what country became the world’s first Christian nation (it wasn’t the Roman empire)?”
The royal “Abgar” Dynasty of Osroene, whose capitol was Edessa/Urfa/Sanliurfa, was Christian since at least about the late 2nd century AD. Edessa/Sanliurfa is near the city of Harran where Abraham was from, and in the region of Aramea. It is also near Gobekli Tepe, the famous archaeological site from c. 8000 BC. It’s also near or in the ancient kingdom that was called Adin (probably related to Eden) around the 2nd millenium BC. “Mount Karac” / Karacdag is around Adin and at the headwaters of the Euphrates and Tigris and seems to be the theoretical area for the Garden of Eden.
There is a hypothesis (theory?) that Armenia is related to Aramea, as one of the founding legendary figures of Armenia was “Aram”, and because ancient Armenia included the region not very far north of Aramea. However, the Armenian and Aramaean/Aramaic languages are very different. Aramaic is the language of Aram, and related to Hebrew, Arabic, and Akkadian. Armenian is more related to Greek, Persian, and Russian. Armenia is often considered the first Christian kingdom. Maybe Edessa had a royal dynasty that was Christian in the 2nd century, and then years later Armenia made Christianity its official state religion.
When I read the article’s title on this blog, I thought it might refer to the fact that the GOARCH has no canonized North American saints. It still is curious for me. It may have to do with GOARCH not having monasteries until the Ephraimite ones showed up a couple decades ago. In modern times, a major portion of saints seem to be monastics. Or it could have to do with the status of America within Orthodoxy in the eyes of Constantinople. Or it could have to do with the Greek American community’s relationship to assimilation. Protestantism doesn’t really think about canonizing saints in the modern era. Even the status of St Augustine as a saint is probably informal within Lutheranism, even though there are Lutheran churches named after Augustine.
However, I imagine that within the Greek American world, there really have been people who could qualify de facto as “saintly” over the last 150 years.
Great interview brothers. I listened to Mr. Perloff’s interview with Tim Kelly the other day too. Great book and wonderful guest George!