The book of the famous Church historian, pathologist and Byzantinist, rector of the St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Academy in New York, Fr. John Meyendorf included the most significant works, mostly unknown to the general reader and translated into Russian for the first time. They set out the history of the early Church and church disputes of the 4th-7th centuries, the history of the Hesychast tradition - East Christian ascetic practice in Byzantium and the fate of this tradition in Russia after the fall of Constantinople.