The Philokalia

A Classic Text of

Orthodox Spirituality

edited by

Brock Bingaman and Bradley Nassif

OXFORD

university press

OXFORD

university press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

The Philokalia: a classic text of orthodox spirituality / edited by Brock Bingaman and Bradley Nassif.

p. cm.

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-19-539026-1—ISBN 978-0-19-539027-8

1. Philokalia. 2. Spiritual life—Eastern Orthodox Church.

I. Bingaman, Brock. II. Nassif, Bradley.

BX382.P43P55 2012

248.4′819—dc23 2011024978

For

Amanda

ἰδοὺ εἶ καλή ἡ πλησίον μου ἰδοὺ εἶ καλή

Brock

and

Barbara

whose virtues and noble character are “more precious than rubies” (Pr. 31:10–31)

Brad

contents

Foreword

Preface

Abbreviations Used

Contributors

Introduction

brock bingaman and bradley nassif

part one History

1 St. Nikodimos and the Philokalia

kallistos ware

2 The Making of the Philokalia: A Tale of Monks and Manuscripts

john anthony mcguckin

3 The Influence of the Philokalia in the Orthodox World

andrew louth

4 Conversing with the World by Commenting on the Fathers: Fr. Dumitru Stăniloae and the Romanian Edition of the Philokalia

mihail neamtu

part two Theological Foundations

5 The Luminous Word: Scripture in the Philokalia

douglas burton-christie

6 Concerning Those Who Imagine That They Are Justified by Works: The Gospel According to St. Mark—the Monk

bradley nassif

7 The Theological World of the Philokalia

rowan williams

8 Tradition and Creativity in the Construction and Reading of the Philokalia

j. l. zecher

9 Becoming a Spiritual World of God: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor

brock bingaman

10 The ...

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About The Philokalia: A Classic Text of Orthodox Spirituality

This book is a collection of scholarly chapters that introduces the history, theology and spiritual practices of the Philokalia—a collection of monastic texts of the Eastern Orthodox Church written between the fourth and fifteenth centuries. Next to the Bible, the Philokalia is the most widely read book in the Orthodox world today by monks and laypeople alike. It is rapidly gaining popularity among Roman Catholics and Protestants. Bishop Kallistos Ware aptly summarizes its place in the modern world: “The work as a whole is to be seen as a spiritual ‘time bomb,’ whose chief influence has come, not at the moment of its first publication towards the end of the eighteenth century, but two hundred years later.”

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Table of Contents