Spiritual Guidance on Mount Athos

Description

Spiritual guidance is the serious business of Mount Athos, the principal service that the Fathers offer to each other and to the world. Athonites have been purveyors of spiritual guidance for more than a thousand years in a tradition that goes back to the fourth-century desert fathers. The recent monastic renewal on the Mountain is testimony to the Fathers’ continuing power to attract disciples and pilgrims to listen to what they have to say. The papers included in this volume examine some of the many aspects of this venerable tradition, as it has developed on Mount Athos, and as it has devolved upon monks and nuns, spiritual fathers and confessors, lay men and women, in other parts of Greece and in the world. Most of the papers were originally delivered at a conference convened by the Friends of Mount Athos at Madingley Hall, Cambridge, in 2013. Contents Acknowledgements Introduction • GRAHAM SPEAKE AND METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS WARE What Do We Mean by Spiritual Guidance? • METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS WARE Spiritual Fatherhood on the Holy Mountain • ARCHIMANDRITE EPHRAIM OF ST ANDREW’S SKETE, MOUNT ATHOS Spiritual Guidance according to the Philokalia • METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS WARE Spiritual Guidance in Mount Athos and Russia and the Theological Notion of Person • FATHERS METHODY AND KIRILL ZINKOVSKIY Charisma and Institution at an Athonite Cloister: Historical Developments and Future Prospects • FATHER MAXIMOS OF SIMONOPETRA MONASTERY, MOUNT ATHOS Spiritual Fatherhood in the World: A Practical Approach • FATHER LIVIU BARBU The Challenges of Spiritual Guidance in Modern Greece • FATHER ANDREAS ANDREOPOULOS The Renewal of Women’s Monasticism in the Twentieth Century through the Guidance of Athonite Monks • SISTER THEOKTISTI OF THE MONASTERY OF ST JOHN THE FORERUNNER, ANATOLI Notes on Contributors Index