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WEB 4 - ARCHIVE
Commentary 6 - Page 2 |
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But now the mistake can perhaps be corrected with the help of the many teachings of the fathers which are now becoming available for the first time in English. For example, an English translation of the Greek classic Philokalia, a book that originated on Athos, is now in print, and other even more inaccessible sources are also available, and with these books we find that ancient Christian world-view beginning to re-emerge. Until recently, only a small proportion of these works was available in the West. Many are still inaccessible outside monasticism, and many others survive only in one or two ancient copies because of their irrelevance to monasticism while it is particularly difficult to rediscover the parts of these teachings specifically intended for non-monastics. Another reason that these teachings have been unavailable to the West is that, at the time of the Reformation, the Protestant churches adopted the principle of "The sufficiency of Scripture". Because this very good concept was taken too narrowly by many people, the small part of the inner knowledge that was available to the West fell into disuse for so long that the very meaning of the words was eventually forgotten. The problem is that now, when modern travel and scholarship have at last restored to us some of the most important of the forgotten texts of this Christian tradition, it is almost too late. Monasteries have tended to preserve only writings relating to monastic methods. Theological and psychological terms have been translated into the empty phrases that have brought Christianity into disrepute with so many people. In addition, parts of that teaching that had gone underground as long ago as the time of Clement in the second century have survived only as an unwritten teaching. In the past few centuries, small parts of this unwritten teaching have reached the West a few times, touched a few souls, and awakened a brief flowering, (examples?) and then been lost again. So even today this inner teaching remains to all intents unknown by the ordinary Christian. |
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