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Summary: Eye-opening reading
Review: Christians in the West, immune to Kierkegaard's critcisms and unable to see past so much of what passes as popular-consmmer Christianity (WWJD?), all too often search in vain for more meaningful spiritual reading. Bonhoeffer is an obvious example of someone who has been able to fill that need, but for my taste the Eastern Church, which most Westen Christians (Protestant, Evangelical, and Catholic) know almost nothing about, usually is able to rise to the occasion. This book is a perfect example of what I am talking about. Put down all your Lucado and Yancy, and try on for size a modern man who has "put away all things for the sake of Christ." The Recluse's prayerful insights and psychological depth will amaze you, and his devotion will take your breath away. This is the culture that gave us Tolstoy's The Kingdom of God is Within You (a Russian Fear and Trembling or Concluding Unscientific Postscript), and St. Theophan carries on and grows within that tradition of radical obedience to the lure of God in service, prayer, and silence. I cannot give this small book more praise.
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Summary: Noel
Review: Here is the truth! St. Theophan clearly spells it all out step by step so that everyone can understand it. He doesn't leave you stranded at "join a church" level. He takes you all the way to Union With God. If you really want to know about the real Christianity, this is it. You will not find better.
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Summary: Fortunate
Review: St. Theophan translated Philokalia and other works to Russian and had a vast correspondence during his 23 years as a recluse. Tha Path to Salvation is his main work in which he goes through the Christian life from cradle to grave; from birth to salvation.
The practical instructions in the book are many: starting from the beginning of the Christian life, on turning towards God and the union with Him. 'Staying within', prayer, the meaning of the 'mysteries and sacraments' are all gone through thoroughly and spelled out as the unceasing work in remembering God. The death of the tyrant, the enemy, satan, what we normally call self, is one step on the way.
Besides the instructions to the Christian life The Path to Salvation will give many clues to better understanding of the Patristic writings of Philokalia as well as to what is meant with concepts like the struggle, labour and work of the Christian life.
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Summary: unfortunate.
Review: This book is unapproachable -
The language is awkward and unclear & grasping the text only comes from severe concentration; I don't presuppose that a book on spirtual transformation be easy - it shouldn't - but there is a difference between the meaning being difficult to understand and the text being an eye sore to comprehend; the book is the later. I blame neither Fr. Rose nor St. Theophan but rather the marriage of the two; the Russian Orthodox tend to be wordy and repetitive while Fr. Rose has never been a natural writer of fluidity or sound execution.
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Summary: unfortunate.
Review: This book is unapproachable -
The language is awkward and unclear & grasping the text only comes from severe concentration; I don't presuppose that a book on spirtual transformation be easy - it shouldn't - but there is a difference between the meaning being difficult to understand and the text being an eye sore to comprehend; the book is the later. I blame neither Fr. Rose nor St. Theophan but rather the marriage of the two; the Russian Orthodox tend to be wordy and repetitive while Fr. Rose has never been a natural writer of fluidity or sound execution.
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Summary: these are the true teachings of christ for true christians.
Review: trust your heart , you will not be disappointed
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Summary: Church Father for modern times? Without a doubt!
Review: What does it mean to call a spiritual writer a "Church Father for modern times"? For some, it might be easy hyperbole, or hype without depth. But for someone like Staretz Theophan's translator, Fr. Seraphim Rose, who dedicated his entire all-too-short life until his death in 1982 to the acquisition of the "mind of the Fathers" through a life of prayer and spiritual effort, and who was not apt to overpraise anyone born after the fall of Constantinople, this is praise you can trust. It brings together the two areas that were at loggerheads in his soul, which are also the two forces all spiritual seekers must struggle today to reconcile: modern life and authentic spirituality. The key question, which must become a life-and-death issue for anyone wishing to make genuine spiritual progress is: how is it possible to live an authentic spiritual life in this world of sham and selfishness, desire and deceit, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, emptiness and hope? The Path to Salvation answers that question, and in a manner so thorough, complete, effective and simple as to be almost beyond expectation. Theophan the Recluse was indeed a Church Father for modern times. He lived in the latter half of the 19th century when all the elements of modern life--rationalism, pluralism, secularism, humanism, etc.--were gathering their all-consuming force; he lived a life totally steeped in prayer and spiritual practice based on the centuries-old spiritual tradition of the Philokalia and the hesychasts of Orthodoxy; and--and this is especially important--he had a ministry of spiritual direction to thousands of people throughout Russia and the world, most of whom were not monks and recluses but men and women living in the world. The result was a way of teaching that took the reality of the Gospel of Christ, and the truths of the Epistles of Paul, as illumined by the insights of a Maximus the Confessor or Isaac the Syrian and, without losing any of that power or brilliance, communicating their essence in a form accessible to the sensibilities of people born in modern times. This book is truly a treasure among books, hidden in plain sight in a field of works of so-called spirituality that are as weeds or stubble in comparison. Find this book. Dig into it. Savor it. Take it into your heart. You will not be disappointed
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