Description
The Philokalia is a collection of Orthodox spiritual writings consisting of both extracts and whole works of thirty-six Church Fathers and ecclesiastical writers from the fourth through the fifteenth century. Compiled on Mount Athos in the eighteenth century, it was soon translated into Slavonic, after which a number of Russian translations appeared. It has exerted profound influence on modern Orthodox spirituality?in Russia from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and in Western Europe and the United States especially from the 1950s?and is now generally recognized as a definitive expression of the ascetic and spiritual tradition of the Orthodox Church. Taking advantage of recent scholarly breakthroughs in the study of the Philokalia, this course begins by considering the collection's historical background, followed by a close reading (in English translation) of select works from the Philokalia, with special attention to the Prayer of the Heart.