As an effective way of introducing the traditional Inner Christianity of the early Church, we offer a series of readings from an English commentary on a book by the Abbot of a monastery on Mount Athos. The subject of his book is Theosis, the early Christian doctrine of Deification, which is still taught in many of the monasteries of the Orthodox Church. Archimandrite George, the Abbot or Hegoumen of the monastery, frequently gives talks to various Christian communities throughout Greece, and these talks form the basis of the text of his book, originally drawn from taped extracts from the many talks he has given about that subject, which he regards as so important that it is usually his preferred subject when speaking somewhere for the first time. However, the content of these talks and their classic Greek rhetorical style has made them difficult to translate into English, and they were originally given against a Greek background which makes different assumptions from those common to the English mind. |
This is why it was necessary to add a commentary to make the connection between the original text and modern Western thought, so that, against each section of the translation I have written a commentary that attempts to make its meaning and significance clear to English readers; this is a bridge over a wide river, explaining a highly technical text written for members of a religious culture to people whose conceptual base is rooted in the increasingly irreligious culture of the west. | Readings by the author, Robin Amis TO BE LISTED HERE SOON |
