22. Section Introduction: A Research Report It all began with the question; who has ever met a saint? Praxis began as a search for the springs of Christian sanctity; a search for the sources of the esoteric or inner teachings of the early church; not for a different Gospel, but for a different way of understanding the Gospel. A large part of the text of this site reports on researches and studies into certain ideas and methods widely known in the early church but difficult to discover, in one way or another, in modern Christianity. This particular page links this to key texts we have found in this investigation. ABSTRACT TEXT 23. A Mystical history The origins of esotericism – the word, and the inner science itself - are quite exactly Christian, the word itself originating from the early fathers of the church. Because For centuries all esoteric writings were copied and passed down by monks, most accessible information about Christian esotericism is monastic in style, so that it is easy to assume that inner Christianity is entirely a monastic discipline. In fact, it once had much information of importance to the lay spiritual seeker. ABSTRACT TEXT 24. Cultural Evolution This Commentary suggests that the innate human capacity for intelligence and information sharing can be describe as a specialisation in adaptability. Man's specialisation is based on extending the capacity of memory and intelligence through information-sharing. This unique specialisation of our human nature can in fact allow us to develop our specialisation so as to increase our adaptability to change, instead of decreasing it as is normal. But this ability is both the cause and the product of the unique human organisation we call civilisation, and the more we develop in this direction, the more we become able to adapt ABSTRACT TEXT 25. What is esoteric Christianity? This publishes a research report by Robin Amis, which was presented as a paper entitled 'A search for Christian Esotericism,' at a Fourth Way Conference in England in 1996. The report extracts relevant texts from the early fathers first given in a book a few years ago, and comments on their probable significance. ABSTRACT TEXT 26. The Barbarian within ABSTRACT TEXT 27. Praxis exists because of the spiritual crisis of the Western world This page describes key conclusions drawn after nearly twenty years of research into the ancient inner teachings of Christian spirituality. In this Commentary we introduce some of the evidence that this declining spirituality was in fact one of the 'civilising factors' that shaped Western civilisation - and show how misunderstandings, compounded by political accidents, have re-shaped Western thought in ways that have led to the present 'Decline of the West' - a decline that few people are aware of. In other parts of this web-site, or in additions to be made to it in the coming year, we will expand this evidence and approaches the question of the nature of the problem, as well as possible new solutions. ABSTRACT TEXT | 
