The Philokalia Vol 1 by G.E.H. Palmer;Kallistos Timothy Ware;Philip Sherrard; & 9780571266166

Author:G.E.H. Palmer;Kallistos Timothy Ware;Philip Sherrard; & 9780571266166 [G. E. H. Palmer]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780571266166
Publisher: Bookwire GmbH
Published: 2023-01-22T00:00:00+00:00

2 The Hebrew word here translated ‘chief cook’ also means ‘captain of the guard’.

ST DIADOCHOS OF PHOTIKI

Introductory Note

St Diadochos, who was born around 400 and died before 486, was bishop of Photiki in Epirus (North Greece); he wrote against the Monophysites and supported the Council of Chalcedon (451). In the work On Spiritual Knowledge and Discrimination he reveals, as St Nikodimos puts it, ‘the deepest secrets of the virtue of prayer’. Written in a sensitive style of great beauty, the work is of basic importance for an understanding of Orthodox mystical theology. Diadochos’ thought is of exceptional subtlety and precision, and his exact meaning is not easy to grasp.

St Diadochos borrows many of the Evagrian technical terms, but his work contains certain features not found in Evagrios: an emphasis, for instance, upon the primacy of love (see especially §§ 90–92), upon the sacraments, and upon the heart as well as the intellect (nous). His teaching on baptism (§§ 76–78) is closely parallel to that of St Mark the Ascetic; here, and in many other passages of the work, St Diadochos has particularly in view the errors of the Messalians. St Diadochos emphasizes the fundamental unity of man’s body and soul: our present state of dividedness is the consequence of the fall (§§ 24–25). He attaches great importance to the continual remembrance and invocation of the Lord Jesus (§§ 31, 32, 33, 59, 61, 85, 88, 97).

In our translation we have used the critical Greek text of E. des Places, Diadoque de Photicé: Oeuvres spirituelles (Sources chrétiennes 5: 2nd edition, reprinted with additions, Paris, 1966).

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