Nil Sorsky: The Authentic Writings

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Author’s Preface xi Table of Bibliographic Abbreviations xvii Transliteration from Cyrillic Letters xx Technical Abbreviations in the Footnotes xxi Part I: Toward a Study of Nil Sorsky I.The Little We Know 3 Omega as Alpha 3 The Shadows of the Kremlin 4 The Northern Beacon 8 The Holy Mount 13 The Quiet Kelliot 18 A Busy ‘Abode of Stillness’ 20 Publish Lest They Perish 23 Four and Twenty Saints Lives 24 The Church at Large 30 II. A Tentative Top Ten 33 The Maybe Mentor 33 The Congenital Connection 36 The Compatible Companion 37 The Best of the Bookmen 39 The Loose Cannon 42 The Man in the Middle 44 The Ardent Ascetic 46 The Unexpected Bedfellow 48 The Colonizing Coenobite 55 Once a Boyar ... 58 III.The Written Legacy 62 Texts and Structures 62 Centrality of Sources 68 The Acolyte as Adapter 80 Literary Devices 83 Technical Terms 86 A Bit on Nil’s Hesychasm 95 Further on Nil’s Non-Possession 97 Nil’s Nil in a Nutshell 100 Epilogue:WIN SOME, LOSE SOME 101 Love’s Labors Lost? 101 Making It 102 Preface to the Translations 105 Part II: Nil Sorsky’s Original Texts The Predanie 113 The Ustav 124 Exposition of the Chapters 125 Foreword 126 1. On the Differences of the Mental Campaigns 131 2. On Our Combat . . . Prayer and Stillness 137 3. On Flow to Fortify Oneself 154 4. On Control of Every Activity 158 5. On the . . . Eight Principle . . .Urges 162 1. On Gluttony 163 2. On Fornication 167 3. On Avarice 172 4. On Wrath 173 5. On Sadness 175 6. On Despondency 177 7. On Vainglory 182 8. On Pride 184 6. In General, Against All Urges 189 7. On Remembrance of Death 191 8. On Tears 202 9. On the Guarding ofThese Things 210 10. On Detachment and True Carefreeness 213 11. On Appropriate Measures 219 The Three Epistles 229 ToVassian Patrikeev 231 To Gurii Tushin 238 To German Podol’iiyi 245 A Little Epistle 250 The Sobornik Apologiai 251 Foreword 251 Postscript 253 The Testament 255 Appendices Appendix I. The Nil Polev / Nil Sorsky Codex 259 Appendix II. The Predame Addenda 270 Appendix III. The Zavet of Innokentii Okhliahinin 273 Appendix IVIndex of Biblical Citations 277 Bibliography 281 Index 324