Philokalia

The Philokalia is a collection of texts written between the fourth and the fifteenth centuries by spiritual masters of the Orthodox Christian tradition. It was compiled in the eighteenth century by two Greek monks, St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain of Athos (1749-1809) and St Makarios of Corinth (1731-1805), and was first published at Venice in 1782.

This passage provides the authoritative bibliographic and historical definition of the Philokalia as the canonical anthology of Orthodox ascetical-mystical writing, establishing its editorial provenance and publication history.

Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), The Philokalia, Volume 4, 1995thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

there is a sense of development from the immediate influence of the Philokalia on Russian Orthodox life and thought in the nineteenth century, through the development from this of various approaches to theology in the diaspora

Louth situates the Philokalia as the generative watershed for the entire trajectory of modern Orthodox thought, from nineteenth-century Russia to the twentieth-century diaspora.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentthesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

closely associated with the Philokalia, both by spearheading the translation of the Philokalia from Greek into English and by presenting in his own theological reflections what might well be called a ‘philokalic’ vision of theology.

Louth coins the phrase ‘philokalic vision’ to describe Metropolitan Kallistos Ware’s theology, establishing the Philokalia not merely as a text but as an orienting spiritual-intellectual stance.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentthesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

the revival of the tradition of which the Philokalia is the signal example was the revival of a tradition that had been reduced to a trickle, observed by a small minority of monks on the Holy Mountain

Louth argues that the Philokalia’s publication marked the resurgence of a nearly extinct hesychast tradition, contextualising Paissy Velichkovsky’s parallel Slavonic translation project.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentthesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

The Philokalia signaled the beginning of a revival in monastic spirituality and patristic learning — a revival that is still going on today.

Coniaris positions the Philokalia as the initiating event of a still-ongoing renaissance of hesychast and patristic spirituality, emphasising its enduring formative power.

Coniaris, Anthony M., Philokalia: The Bible of Orthodox Spirituality, 1998thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

The Philokalia is a treasure of the Orthodox spiritual life. For several reasons, however, it is a buried treasure, inaccessible to the ordinary Orthodox Christian because its primary audience is the Orthodox monastic community.

Coniaris identifies the central hermeneutical problem of the Philokalia: its genius is monastic in address, creating a distance from lay and clerical readers that his own work seeks to bridge.

Coniaris, Anthony M., Philokalia: The Bible of Orthodox Spirituality, 1998thesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

I shall simplify by focusing on the Philokalia, and his role in the translation and interpretation of it, for it seems to me that this leads us to the heart of the bishop’s underst

Louth argues that Bishop Kallistos Ware’s engagement with the Philokalia — as translator and interpreter — is the hermeneutical key to understanding his entire theological vision.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentthesis

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

As the Philokalia is a rich anthology of the writings of the Fathers, so we have endeavored to bring to you, albeit on a far limited basis, a similar anthology of many of the writings of the Fathers of the Philokalia on the several subjects they discuss.

Coniaris frames his project as a democratising extension of the Philokalia, making its patristic counsel on prayer, theosis, and the passions accessible to non-monastic readers.

Coniaris, Anthony M., Philokalia: The Bible of Orthodox Spirituality, 1998supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

This is the soteriology inherited by the writers of the Philokalia. When this teaching was attacked in the fourteenth century, Gregory Palamas of Mount Athos was called upon to defend its truth.

The translators locate the Philokalia within a specific Palamite soteriological tradition centred on theosis, anchoring its spirituality in the patristic doctrinal inheritance it both transmits and presupposes.

Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), The Philokalia, Volume 1, 1979supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

While the texts of the Philokalia happen to be addressed largely to monks, Peter of Damaskos here makes clear that deification is not limited to monks — it is intended for all God’s creatures.

The commentary clarifies that despite the Philokalia’s monastic address, its core teaching of deification carries a universal anthropological scope encompassing all human beings.

Palmer, G. E. H. and Sherrard, Philip and Ware, Kallistos (trs.), The Philokalia, Volume 1, 1979supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

According to the Fathers of the Philokalia silence (hesychia) is important because it guards the inner flame which is the life of the Holy Spirit within us.

Coniaris distils a central Philokalic teaching, identifying hesychia as the psycho-spiritual discipline by which the divine indwelling is protected and intensified.

Coniaris, Anthony M., Philokalia: The Bible of Orthodox Spirituality, 1998supporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

The meaning of hesychia has exercised Bishop Kallistos throughout his life: there is a long section on the hesychast controversy in his first book, The Orthodox Church, which also contains a brief, though significant, discussion of the Jesus Prayer.

Louth traces Kallistos Ware’s career-long preoccupation with hesychia and the Jesus Prayer as the living theological core of the Philokalic tradition.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentsupporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

For an account of the different versions of the Philokalia, see my article, ‘The Influence of the Philokalia in the Orthodox World’

Louth flags the textual plurality of the Philokalia across its Greek, Slavonic, and other editions, pointing toward the complexities of its transmission and reception history.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentsupporting

Dig deeper with Sebastian →

a volume on Orthodox spirituality, based on lectures given in Bucharest, that go back to 1946 even before he was appointed to the Department of Asceticism and Mysticism there

Louth describes Stăniloae’s academic context, situating his work on Orthodox spirituality and asceticism within the institutional milieu that the Philokalia’s revival had helped generate.

Louth, Andrew, Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Presentaside

Dig deeper with Sebastian →