Mists on Mt. Athos

Book excerpt: Alex, a first-generation Greek American struggles with conflicts between his Greek heritage and the secular world. He meets Pan, a Greek American comfortable with his heritage. Despite differences, they bond and travel to Mt. Athos. Alex vainly seeks material gain. Pan secretly seeks a miracle for his terminal illness. On the way, chance encounters, such as meeting fortune-teller Despina of astounding powers, open Alex to realities unknowable in his intellectuality. In a monastery, both men experience unfathomable mystery in the liturgy and ask a priest, a physicist, and a psychiatrist on their own spiritual quests to help reconcile their clash of ordinary experience against religious experience, the meaning of religious ritual, and the apparent clash of Holy Scripture with common sense. Both men return home wiser. Pan has a brief episode of new health only to lose it and eventually die. Alex contemplates the death of his friend in the light of their experience on Mt. Athos, and resolves his conflicts in healing faith. The story challenges secular emptiness and the barriers to faith among the unchurched. The action is experienced existentially, making the content, though philosophical at times, accessible.