What does Philokalia mean?
The Greek title is commonly rendered as love of the beautiful or love of the good. Dobrotolubie is its Slavonic and Russian counterpart. In his introduction, Theophan explains the collection through the inner Christian life: repentance, struggles with thoughts, growth in virtue, the relation of freedom and grace, and trust in God. Its purpose is wider than a collection of methods for repeating a prayer. [1]
Theophan compares the Fathers’ writings to accounts of a journey, while warning that descriptions of spiritual experience become intelligible through participation in the life they describe. That comparison helps explain the variety of the books. A short chapter on attention, a discourse about love, and counsel on everyday work can all belong to the same collection. [1]
From the Greek collection to the Russian Dobrotolubie
The Greek ascetical anthology was first published in Venice in 1782, through the work of Macarius of Corinth and Nicodemus the Hagiorite. It brought earlier spiritual writings into a printed collection. Their editorial work belongs to the eighteenth century; the authors represented in the anthology lived across many earlier centuries. [2]
Paisius Velichkovsky was central to its Church Slavonic transmission, whose first printed volume appeared in Moscow in 1793. Theophan’s Russian collection followed in the nineteenth century. Greek, Church Slavonic, and Russian are therefore different stages in the history of the books. A modern English translation may follow one of these stages rather than another. [2]
Theophan the Recluse was a Russian Orthodox bishop whose years of seclusion were also years of literary work. The Orthodox Church in America lists the five-volume Philokalia among his translations. His name identifies the Russian translator and editor, not the sole author of its many patristic works. [5]
Why the Russian arrangement is different
Theophan expanded and selected as well as translated. Volume IV supplies a particularly clear example. His preface explains that the plan to select from Theodore the Studite’s Small Catechesis grew after material from the Great Catechesis became available through the Russian Saint Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos. He devoted an entire volume to Theodore’s teaching on communal monastic life, which the Greek collection had not included. [3]
Expansion does not mean that every Greek text is present. In the preface to Volume V, Theophan identifies omissions, including the two books of Peter of Damascus and chapters of Kallistos Kataphygiotes. He explains his selection in relation to the practical spiritual life. Some later online Russian editions append omitted material. Those additions should not be assumed to form part of this English five-volume series. [4]
For buying and study, the useful comparison is the actual contents. “Volume II” in one Philokalia series is not a dependable substitute for “Volume II” in another. The five books below are English translations following Theophan’s Russian arrangement. Each product is an individual volume. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
What is in each of the five volumes?
Volume I: early ascetical foundations
Volume I contains material under Anthony the Great, Macarius the Great, Abba Isaiah, Mark the Ascetic, and Evagrius Ponticus. The contents move through repentance, conscience, the passions, grace, and attention. Mark’s On the Spiritual Law and To Those Who Think They Are Justified by Works give a concrete way into the relation between effort and grace; the Isaiah section includes a discourse on freedom from resentment. [6]
Volume II: passions, prayer, and spiritual counsel
Volume II includes Cassian, Hesychios, material transmitted under Nilus of Sinai, Ephrem, John Climacus, Barsanuphius and John, Dorotheos, and Isaac the Syrian. Its Cassian section arranges teaching around the goal of ascetic life, passions, trials, prayer, grace, and guidance. These selections offer a thematic approach; they are not a replacement for the complete Conferences. [7]
Volume III: love, discernment, and contemplation
Volume III gathers eleven named contributors, including Diadochos of Photiki, John of Karpathos, Abba Zosimas, Maximus the Confessor, Thalassios, and Philotheos of Sinai. Maximus is represented by an ascetic dialogue, the four centuries on love, and contemplative and practical chapters. Here a century means a group of one hundred chapters. Readers interested in Maximus can compare this anthology with On Prayer and Divine Love, whose selection also includes his commentary on the Lord’s Prayer. [8]
Volume IV: Theodore the Studite and common life
Volume IV contains 335 instructions of Theodore the Studite. Its distinctive setting is a community: tasks, correction, illness, conflict, worship, and the deaths of brothers. Theophan treats the organization of daily monastic life as a subject deserving sustained attention. A reader interested in the relationship between work and prayer will find a concentrated treatment here, rather than another anthology of many authors. [9]
Volume V: stillness and prayer of the heart
Volume V includes Symeon the New Theologian, Niketas Stethatos, Theoleptos of Philadelphia, Gregory of Sinai, Nikephoros the Solitary, Gregory Palamas, and Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos, among others. Niketas’s three centuries and the Xanthopouloi’s hundred chapters provide extended sequences. The volume also contains Palamas’s address to the nun Xenia and shorter writings on prayer. Its particular selection should be kept distinct from the later appendices found in some online Russian texts. [10]
Prayer belongs to a larger spiritual life
The contents resist a narrow division between “prayer books” and “books about conduct.” Volume II sets prayer beside discernment and the struggle against passions. Volume III places love beside self-control and humility. Volume IV considers the common duties that expose a person’s impatience or generosity. Volume V returns repeatedly to attention and stillness. The sequence gives a reader several settings in which the same questions become concrete. [7] [8] [9] [10]
Theophan’s preface to the fourth volume explicitly values ordinary obedience when it is carried out in the right spirit. This helps explain why communal work receives a full volume in a collection associated with inward prayer. The relation between a task and its spiritual purpose is part of the subject, rather than an interruption of it. [3]
Choosing a first volume
For a sustained introduction to this particular series, begin with Volume I and Theophan’s opening explanation. A reader pursuing a named author can also make a focused choice: Volume II for Cassian’s thematic selections or Hesychios; Volume III for Maximus in a wider anthology; Volume IV for Theodore’s community addresses; Volume V for the specified later prayer texts. These are editorial reading suggestions based on the contents, not levels of spiritual attainment. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]
Before buying overlapping collections, compare their works. The separate Conferences gives Cassian’s developed conversations; the Russian Philokalia II offers selected teaching in a different arrangement. Similarly, the presence of Maximus in two books does not make their complete contents identical. The edition pages identify what is included so that readers can choose for a particular purpose.
The prayer guide offers another entrance for readers exploring the Jesus Prayer and watchfulness. The Desert Fathers and Mothers article explains earlier ascetical literature and its different forms. For the people behind the collection, follow Theophan and Nicodemus into their biographies and other books.