Andrew Louth - Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Present

Various presuppositions or intuitions lie behind this book. The first, which affects the scope of the work, is that the publication of the Philokalia in Venice in 1782 can be seen, at least in retrospect, to mark a kind of watershed in the history of modern Orthodox theology. Not all Orthodox theology after that date is marked by the Philokalia; indeed most academic theology in Greece and Russia seems to have been quite unaffected by it (at least until very recently). In what way was the Philokalia a watershed? Very briefly, because it suggested a way of approaching theology that had at its heart an experience of God, an experience mediated by prayer, that demanded the transformation of the seeker after God; it is an approach that shuns any idea of turning God into a concept, a philosophical hypothesis, or some sort of ultimate moral guarantor. Furthermore, it sought to return the living of the Christian life (primarily, but not exclusively, the monastic life) to its roots in the Fathers; it was, it claimed, an anthology gathered together from our Holy and God-bearing Fathers, in which through ethical philosophy, in accordance with action and contemplation, the intellect is purified, illumined, and perfected (as asserted on the title page of the original Greek edition): so a theology rooted in the Christian experience of prayer, and all that that entails by way of ascetic struggle and deepening insight nourished by the Fathers (and Mothers) of the Church.

My second intuition is rather different (though maybe not unrelated). This is a book about people: it is a history of Orthodox thinkers, rather than a history of Orthodox thought, or theology. For thoughts or theology do not float through some intellectual ether, but are thought by thinkers. I am wary of ways of presenting the history of thought as if it were in some way detached from the thinkers who had these thoughts, thinkers who were men and women human beings of flesh and blood, who belonged to specific places and faced particular problems in the world in which they lived, in the relationships in which they were caught up, and (most important, though often quite hidden) in the depths of their souls.