[...] What follows is a personal testimony about Elder Sophrony, or rather a careful and spiritual approach to the great patristic figure of Elder Sophrony.

In the first part of the book, an attempt is made to present the great figure of the Elder, mainly through his own texts that he left us as a rich inheritance. Reading these texts over time, I realized that Elder Sophrony moves between the holy Symeon the New Theologian and St. Gregory Palamas, having similar experiences and gifts as them. Similar experiences to those of St. Symeon the New Theologian were recorded in the book "We Behold the Light of God as It Is," as he did in his works. At the same time, he engaged in dialogue with scholastic academic theology in the published correspondence with Balfour in the book titled "The Struggle for Theognosia," as St. Gregory Palamas did with the scholasticism of his time. Thus, in outlining the spiritual figure of Elder Sophrony in this first part of the book, I mainly used the words of these two great Fathers of the Church, namely Symeon the New Theologian and Gregory Palamas.

In the second part of the book, I tried to describe what I learned and experienced with him during my visits to the Essex Monastery. Of course, the entire atmosphere I was living in at that time is described beforehand, as well as my great quests. Only in this way can the blessing of God, which opened this wonderful and great treasure to me, be appreciated. [...]

(from the author's introduction)