This is a book about healthy self-conception as sinner from an Eastern Orthodox perspective. Near the beginning the author outlines three types of people who might benefit:

• at one extreme, Orthobros who indulge their pride by competitive, public phoney self-abasement;

• in the middle, the lukewarm people who think they're basically decent sticks and object to such harsh characterisations as sinner ;

• at the other extreme, the psychologically damaged who can't identify with the word sinner because it adds to their already unbearable self-hatred.

Reasonable enough, and there's nothing wrong with the content as such, but this book simply won't argue people out of pride/accidie/neurosis. The material is arranged so haphazardly that there's no clear thread to follow. It feels like an overinflated anthology. If you just read the scriptural and patristic citations as they appear and skip the rest you won't lose much of anything. And it won't vibe people better either; rhetorically the book has no colour at all.