| In comparison with its Greek prototype, the Romanian Philokalia contains a greatly expanded selection of texts; in particular, Fr Staniloae has added many further works by St Maximos the Confessor and St Gregory Palamas. He has also rewritten the introductory sections before each author, and has added numerous footnotes; these take full account of critical scholarship in the contemporary West, but the results of this scholarship are always carefully assessed by Fr Staniloae from an Orthodox standpoint. This Romanian Philokalia has contributed, in a decisive and creative manner, to the spiritual renewal which is today plainly manifest in Orthodox Romania. Under Fr Staniloaés inspiration, there has emerged an impressive group of younger bishops and theologians who are deeply " Philokalic» in their orientation. In Romania today, as in contemporary Greece, the effect of the Philokalia is by no means restricted to monastic circles but extends to the life of the Church as a whole. If the recent influence of the Philokalia in Romania is indeed striking, yet more remarkable is the widespread success of the Philokalia in the Western world during the past fifty years. The first edition, published at Venice in 1782, was sent almost in its entirety to the Levant, and few indeed were the copies to be found in the libraries of Western Europe. The learned Dom Pitra and the other editors of the Patrologia Graeca published by J.-P. Migne had access to the Greek Philokalia only from volume 85 onwards, and they emphasize the extreme rarity of the work: »... ex libro inter rariores rarissimó(PG127: 1127). A pioneer role in the transmission of the Philokalia to the West has been played by Britain. In the early 1950s a selection of material, translated from the Russian Dobrotolubiye of St Theophan, appeared under the editorship of the Russian Orthodox Evgeniya Kadloubovsky and the English Orthodox Gerald Palmer. Two volumes were issued: Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart in 1951, and Early Fathers from the Philokalia in 1954. |
| The characteristics of a distinctly »Philokalic» spirituality are now beginning to emerge. There are three other features that call for special mention: 3.1. The Evagrian -Maximian Tradition Although the works included in the Philokalia reflect a variety of viewpoints, the predominant influence is that of Evagrios and St Maximos. There is nothing from the Apophthegmata, from the Greek version of St Ephrem, from St Gregory of Nyssa, St Dionysios the Areopagite, St Varsanuphios or St Dorotheos. There is, it is true, a relatively long section of Makarian material, in the version of Symeon Metaphrastis. But it is the Evagrian terminology and classification that prevails, and this is apparent particularly in the texts from St Maximos the Confessor, which occupy a central place in the Philokalia. 3.2. Palamism How far is it legitimate to regard the Philokalia as a work reflecting, not only the Evagrian-Maximian approach to the spiritual life, but more specifically the theology of St Gregory Palamas? Any answer requires to be carefully qualified. The Kollyvades were definitely upholders of Palamism, and St Nikodimos himself prepared an edition, never in fact published, of Palamas» collected works in three volumes (the Greek press in Vienna, to which St Nikodimos had sent the manuscript of this, was closed by the Austrian authorities in 1798, following the arrest of Rhigas Velestinlis; a small part of the manuscript was saved, but most of it was destroyed by the Austrian police, or otherwise dispersed and lost) 20 . On the other hand, fourteenth century Hesychast writings occupy no more than a quarter of the Philokalia; moreover, the Hesychast texts included by the editors are for the most part pastoral and non-polemical, and there is relatively little that alludes explicitly to the technical Palamite teaching concerning the divine light and the distinction between the essence and the uncreated energies of God. In a broader sense, however, the Philokalia is certainly a work conceived and executed in a Palamite spirit. |
| This synthesis is apparent in all aspects of the sisters’ daily life. Firmly planted upon Dutch soil, the monastery’s meals are according to Dutch customs, and the language used in daily life as well as in Church Services is Dutch, a large part of the liturgical texts having been translated by Fr. Adrian of The Hague. But English enters in here and there, and Greek is sometimes used. Mother Maria even gives instruction in the Greek language to the sisters, if they have the desire to learn it. The Dutch are generally very capable of mastering foreign languages, and Mother Maria is no exception. She has also been integrating more and more Byzantine music into the Church Services. And of course, on the monastery’s patronal feast day, the busloads of Greek immigrants are a cheerful reminder that the monastery is forming according to the Greek tradition. On a daily basis, however, the regular visitors are Dutch. Bible study classes are conducted weekly for their benefit. “Dutch people are generally attracted to Orthodoxy by its beauty—the icons, the music. They are also attracted by its stability. The Vatican II Council caused great disturbance amongst Catholics in Europe, while Orthodoxy offers an unchanging tradition. “Protestants come looking for the Church of the first centuries of Christianity, which is, of course, Orthodoxy’s claim. Many people come through personal contacts, and through reading books. Bishop Kallistos Ware’s book, The Orthodox Church, did much for Orthodoxy in Europe, as well as the writings of Vladyka Anthony Bloom, and Fr. Sophrony. Naturally, nowadays very many people are becoming Orthodox through mixed marriages. “Most people are converted to Orthodoxy through the Russian Church rather than the Greek, because the Greek immigrants come here with the intention of earning money and returning to Greece. The immigrants from Russia and Eastern Europe come to live permanently. However, there are many cases where a Dutch person goes to Greece for a sunny vacation, sees the piety in the villages, steps into a beautiful church, then looks for that Church in Holland. Orthodoxy is definitely growing in Europe.” |
| In 1869 and 1870 the Orthodox Archbishop Alexander (Lycurgos) of Syros and Tenos visited England, discouraged proselytism among Anglicans, and said that the Church of England was " a sound Catholic Church, very like our own. " On February 27, 1873, the Patriarchate of Constantinople forbade proselytizing among Anglicans. The Eastern Churches Committee of the third Lambeth Conference in 1888 stressed that proselytizing of Eastern Orthodox Christians must stop, and that Anglicans should do all in their power to support the Orthodox in their ecclesiastical and spiritual life. The 17th resolution of that Lambeth Conference declared, " This Conference... desires to express its hope that the barriers to fuller communion may be, in the course of time, removed by further intercourse and extended enlightenment. " Greek Orthodox Archbishop Kallistos (Ware) wrote, " This [Anglican] appeal to antiquity has led many Anglicans to look with sympathy and interest at the Orthodox Church, and equally it has led many Orthodox to look with interest and sympathy to Anglicanism. As a result of pioneer work by Anglicans such as William Palmer (1811-1879), J. M. Neale (1818-1868), and W. J. Birkbeck (1859-1916), firm bonds of Anglo-Orthodox solidarity were established by the end of the nineteenth century " (The Orthodox Church, by Timothy Ware, Penguin, c. 1993, p. 318). In 1925 the Church of England organized jubilee solemnities to commemorate the 1600th anniversary of the Council of Nicea (AD 325). Representatives of the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem attended, as did Metropolitan Antony (Khrapovitsky), primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). During a Solemn Eucharist in Westminster Abbey, at which the Eastern Orthodox hierarchs were present, the Nicene Creed was read aloud in Greek by Patriarch Photius II of Constantinople. So impressed was he by what he had experienced and seen, that at a special banquet attended by the Anglican and Orthodox hierarchs, Metropolitan Antony of ROCOR said that " if any Anglican Bishop or cleric were to desire to enter the Orthodox Church, then he could be received in the third rank - that is without a second consecration - in other words, in his existing rank. " |
| She called for the restoration of women deacons and further challenged the theological arguments for denying priestly ordination to women. In time Bishop Kallistos (Ware) came to agree with her that much of the contemporary Orthodox argument against the ordination of women is cultural rather than theological and, as she argued, even theological arguments such as female impurity or the physical male resemblance to Christ are not recognised by John Chrysostom or Gregory of Nazianzus, among others. If, as Chrysostom says, the priest supplies a voice and hands to Christ " s words and actions, could not a woman do this? 386 Her work on women in the Church is without parallel in Orthodox theology and the source of inspiration for a generation of women theologians. Called the «mother» or even »grandmother» of the Orthodox Church in France, she centred all of her various concerns in the question she surely received from Bulgakov, Lev Gillet, Evdokimov, Maria Skobtsova and the rest – namely how to be open to the world as well as faithful to the Church, and, as she put it constantly, «to become permeable to Christ». Known best as »the Monk of the Eastern Church», his literary name, Lev Gillet was originally a Benedictine monk. He later joined Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky " s Greek-Catholic monastic community near Lviv and was received into the Orthodox Church by Metropolitan Evlogy by con-celebration of the liturgy. He was rector of the first francophone Orthodox parish in Paris, then served as chaplain in Maria Skobtsova " s hostel at 77 rue de Lourmel and, after the Second World War, to the Fellowship of St Alban and St Sergius in London. Fr Lev was trained in psychology (he was the first French translator of Freud), and his great insight, apparent throughout his essays, retreat talks and preaching, is the recognition of God as «Limitless Love», as he called him – his reaching out to human hearts. Always somewhat marginal to the institutional Church, Fr Lev spent his monastic life outside monastic communities, a kind of nomadic monk in the world, not unlike Maria Skobtsova, with Parisian cafés, London coffee-houses, and park benches serving as the locations of his immense pastoral ministry. |
| Even those who speak of «Christianity» as largely to blame for the crisis often note in passing that they are talking largely about the later Western tradition. The Orthodox response, typically expressed in terms of ethos and way of life rather than ethical principles, has been given high visibility by the present Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew, and his predecessor Patriarch Demetrius. It has been worked out in some theological depth by Metropolitan John Zizioulas, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, Bishop Basil Osborne and John Chryssavgis, among others. The Orthodox approach to creation is often described as a eucharistic and ascetic ethos. If the rationality and »usefulness» of the world are seen as a manifestation of God " s will, then the proper understanding of it requires more than information and technical skill; it requires drawing closer to God, through sacramental life and ascetic struggle. We have spoken already about the eucharistic approach. Asceticism looms large because it is in essence a struggle to free ourselves from a relationship with the world that is predatory and addictive ; this liberation enables us to approach God through creation. And thus we turn back to the created world with new insight, perceiving its essential «words». These are the »words» which we are called on to fulfil. When, therefore, Orthodox use language such as «harmonising our life with the life of the universe», this is no pantheistic cosmicism: it is a recognition that »the life of the universe» is nothing other than the Holy Spirit at work, bringing creation to fulfilment in Christ. At the heart of the Orthodox ethos lies the doctrine of creation, of our own createdness. This doctrine means that «we have no real choice, if we wish to pursue our own true end, but to live in harmony with the Logos – and the logoi – of creation as well». 123 Further reading Chryssavgis, J., Beyond the Shattered Image, Minneapolis, MN: Light and Life, 1999. Clément, O., On Human Being: A Spiritual Anthropology, London: New City, 2000. |
| The Orthodox exegete is skeptical towards the value of an analytical approach of the Bible. As a general tendency he refuses both the literal interpretation of the fundamentalists, which he accuses of illegitimate concentration of the «letter», at the expense of the «spirit» of Scripture, and the allegorical method, which is accused of evading history and forcing the Bible into a Platonic mold which is foreign to the «mind of the Church». What is common to both methods is their concentration on the words of the text, on the philological aspect of Scripture. 58 To these approaches the Orthodox theologians present a typological method of interpretation, which is consistently reflected in the writings of the Church Fathers. It is not an interpretation of words (in fact one author goes as far as saying that words are not examined at all " 59 ), but of the events in the light of the Person of Christ. In other words, this is a historical and eschatological approach. Typology celebrates God as the Designer and Master of history, and as the one who when the Day of the Lord will come, will all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ» ( Eph 1:10 ). At least theoretically, typology does not involve putting arbitrarily new meanings into the old text. For typology to be legitimate the meaning should have been there implicitly, even if it could not be seen before. 60 The typological interpretations of the Orthodox writers have not always represented correctly the truths of Scripture and they have been tempted by allegory. This happened frequently, especially in homiletical and devotional writings. In the catechetical teachings, however, a clear typological approach was maintained, 61 and this is the method of interpretation recommended to the lay readers of the Bible. 4. Personal reading Finally, the Bible should be applied in the personal life of the readers. From a methodological point of view, Bishop Kallistos suggests to the Orthodox readers of the Bible three steps they need to make in approaching the Word of God personally: |
| As I deepened my knowledge of Orthodoxy, three things in particular attracted me and held me fast. First, I perceived in the contemporary Orthodox Church – despite its internal tensions and its human failings – a living and unbroken continuity with the Church of the Apostles and Martyrs, of the Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils. This living continuity was summed up for me in the words fullness and wholeness, but most of all it was expressed by the term Tradition. Orthodoxy possesses, not through human merit but by God " " s grace, a fullness of faith and spiritual life, a fullness within which the elements of dogma and prayer, of theology and spirituality, constitute an integral and organic whole. It is in this sense the Church of Holy Tradition. In this context I would like to put especial emphasis on the word «fullness.» Orthodoxy has the plenitude of life in Christ, but it does not have an exclusive monopoly of the truth. I did not believe then, nor do I believe now, that there is a stark and unmitigated contrast between Orthodox «light» and non-Orthodox «darkness.» We are not to imagine that, because Orthodoxy possesses the fullness of Holy Tradition, the other Christian bodies possess nothing at all. Far from it; I have never been convinced by the rigorist claim that sacramental life and the grace of the Holy Spirit can exist only within the visible limits of the Orthodox Church. Vladimir Lossky is surely right to maintain that, despite an outward separation, non-Orthodox communities still retain invisible links with the Orthodox Church: Faithful to its vocation to assist the salvation of all, the Church of Christ values every «spark of life,» however small, in the dissident communities. In this way it bears witness to the fact that, despite the separation, they still retain a certain link with the unique and life-giving center, a link that is – so far as we are concerned – «invisible and beyond our understanding.» There is only one true Church, the sole bestower of sacramental grace; but there are several ways of being separated from that one true Church, and varying degrees of diminishing ecclesial reality outside its visible limits. [Vladimir Lossky, introductory note to the article of Patriarch Sergius of Moscow, «L " Église du Christ et les communautés dissidentes,» Messager de ÍExarchat du Patriarche Russe en Europe Occidentale 21 (Paris, 1955), 9–10]. |
| Сб. статей. М., 1998 27.Флоровский Георгий, прот. Восточные отцы Церкви. М., 2003 28.Шарден П. Тейяр де. Божественная среда//Шарден П. Тейяр де. Божественная среда. Сборник. Пер. с фр. О. Вайнера и З. Масленниковой. М., 2003 29.Balthasar H.U. von. Kosmische Liturgie. Das Weltbild Maximus’ des Bekenners. Einsiedeln, 1961 30.Daniélou J. Essai sur le mystère de l’histoire. Paris, 1982 31.Delumeau J. Le péché et la peur. La culpabilisation en Occident: XIIIe-XVIIIe siècles. Paris, 1983 32.Elluin J. Quel enfer? Paris, 1994 33.Kallistos (Ware), bishop. “One body in Christ”: Death and the Communion of Saints//Sobornost, 3:2 (1981) скрыть способы оплаты Смотри также Комментарии Михаил 22 ноября 2012, 10:06 Однако надежда на апокатастасис, как у владыки Каллиста, и уверенность во «всеобщем чистилище», как у о. Сергия Булгакова, на наш взгляд, мало чем отличаются. И то, и другое основывается на той мысли, что после смерти существует некая динамика личности, причем односторонняя – только к Богу, т.е. существует покаяние за гробом, которое может изменить участь умершего. Представление о пассивности загробного существования отвергал о. Сергий Булгаков, говоря о том, что после смерти «каждый человек должен по-своему духовно дозреть и окончательно определиться как в добре, так и во зле» - если каждый человек может окончательно определиться как в добре, так и во зле - то это никак не одностороняя динамика личности - только к Богу, но так же уход от Бога. По поводу современных католиков - вполне может быть нам стоит считать их не-католиками - людьми к сожалению гораздо более далекими от православия чем их предшественники. Ольга 19 ноября 2012, 15:46 Алексей, вы наверное уверены, что туда не попадёте. Алексей 17 ноября 2012, 21:35 я за вечный ад! Евгений 17 ноября 2012, 05:01 Учение Католической Церкви сильно склонилось в сторону гуманизма после последнего Ватиканского Собора в 60-х годах ХХ века. Многие католические традиционалисты (консерваторы) считают, что решения этого собора подошли вплотную к ереси, не говоря уже о более поздних измышлениях разного рода теологов и философов, которые напрямую противоречат тому, что утверждалось ещё только в XIX веке, поэтому во многих приходах тему ада и чистилища просто избегают, но не везде. |
| Разделы портала «Азбука веры» с 2005 года Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia . Lent and the Consumer Society. Печатается с разрешения издателей по: Living Orthodoxy in the Modern World. Edited by Andrew Walker and Costa Carras, London, 1996, с. 64–84. Епископ Каллист (Тимоти Уэр) — член совета Пемброкского колледжа в Оксфорде, читает курс по Восточному православию в университете. Викарный епископ православной архиепископии Фиатирской и Великобританской (Вселенский патриархат) и в монастыре св. Иоанна Богослова на Патмосе. Автор книг “The Orthodox Church” (Penguin, 1963) и “Тне Orthodox Way” (Mowbray, 1979). В христианском сообществе, как западном, так и восточном, время Великого поста — семь недель перед Пасхой — традиционно рассматривается как высшая точка церковного года. Это kairos — время решений и возможностей, специально выделенное время. Но выделенное для чего? Как мы в современном нам потребительском обществе должны понимать назначение Великого поста, или, как говорят православные, Великой четыредесятницы? Какое отношение имеет, и имеет ли Великий пост к экологическому кризису, с которым все мы сегодня сталкиваемся? Воздушные змеи В Греции, по крайней мере в прошлом, первый день Великого поста — так называемый Чистый понедельник (поскольку в Православной Церкви пост начинается не в среду, как в западной, а на два дня раньше), был первым в году праздником, который отмечался на открытом воздухе. Люди целыми семьями выезжали в сельскую местность, поднимались на холмы и с крутых холмов запускали воздушных змеев. Вот хороший образ начала Великого поста, чтобы сопоставить его с обрядами западной Пепельной среды. Очевидно они очень различаются по своим акцентам. Пепел, посыпаемый на головы и оставляющий след на наших лицах, со всем его символизмом покаяния и неотвратимости смерти, безусловно, отражает важную и неотделимую составляющую значения поста в целом. Но греческое православие, отмечая вхождение в пост, делает акцент не на этом. Напротив, мы стараемся связать пост со свежим воздухом, с ветром, веющим поверх холмов, с приходом весны. Великий пост — это время воздушных змеев, время приключений, открытий, новых инициатив, новых надежд. |
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