The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation [Paperback]

St. Theophan the Recluse (Author), Seraphim Rose (Translator), St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood (Translator)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 1997

Patristic literature provides an age-old, tried and tested model of spiritual life, foreign to fleeting fashions. Throughout the last two thousand years, Christ has raised up patristic writers who have defended that original model. In modern times, however, this model is being pushed aside, the taste for genuine mystical expression is disappearing, and the initial Christian impetus is being disfigured.

That is why the works of St. Theophan the Recluse are so vital for today. He keeps the ancient patristic model sharp and clear, presenting it in modern language. He speaks to contemporary people who have been exposed to new realities, and thus renders inestimable help in linking them to the original Christian impetus and revealing to them the way into the Heavenly Kingdom.

The works of St. Theophan changed the spiritual face of Russia in the 19th century. With the publication of his greatest work, THE PATH TO SALVATION, the English-speaking world now has the opportunity to benefit likewise from this powerful inheritance to the people of the modern age.

Saint Theophan the Recluse is first and foremost a Church Father for modern times. Deeply aware of the roots of the modern age, he reinterprets ancient patristic wisdom in order to adapt it to the needs of the modern unchurched mind, which has been divorced from the Orthodox philosophy of life and even from the rudimentary principles of practical Christianity.

This classic textbook of spiritual life, now being offered in its entirety for the first time in English, seems to have been sent directly to today's readers by the great Russian recluse himself. Every line breathes his profound psychological understanding, his intricate experience in spiritual struggle, and above all his love, compassion and all-consuming desire that every person might be saved. Inspiring the reader with a sober longing for acquiring the Kingdom of Heaven, St. Theophan provides an infallible system for taking the Kingdom by force, in a Christian life of grace and repentance.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Russian --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

If the main goal of the repentant sinner should be total, light-bearing and blessed communion with God, then the main hindrance to this is the existence of the passions still active and working in him--the virtues being as yet unsealed in him--and the unrighteousness of his powers. Therefore his main work upon conversion and repentance should be the uprooting of passions and sealing the virtues--in a word, correcting himself.

In the kingdom of God there should not be anyone acting from himself; God should be acting in everything. This cannot happen as long as freedom stands for itself--it denies and turns away God's power. This stubborn resistance to God's power will only cease when our free, or self-acting, individual will and activity fall down before Him; when we pronounce the resolute prayer: "Do Thou, O Lord, do in me as Thou wilt, for I am blind and weak."

We must fulfill the commandments--all of them. But we do not naturally have the desire, fervor and zeal for this. This fire is kindled in our spirit by God's grace through repentance, for the sake of a contrite spirit and the promise to do God's will. This itself is the strength for keeping the commandments, and it alone is capable of keeping them all the time. If the fulfillment of the commandments is the foundation for salvation, then the spirit of zeal is our only saving power. Wherever it is present there is diligence, care, fervor, readiness, alacrity to do works pleasing to God. Where it is absent, everything ceases and falls away--there is no life of the spirit, and everything runs cold and dies. Though there may be good works, they will be only good in form, but not in power and spirit. This is that same fire that our Lord Jesus Christ came to kindle upon the earth, which lights the hearts of the faithful, through the Holy Spirit...

The principal thing is to walk before God, or under God's eye, aware that God is looking at you, searching your soul and your heart, seeing all that is there. This awareness is the most powerful lever in the mechanism of the inner spiritual life.

Product Details

• Paperback: 366 pages
• Publisher: Saint Herman Pr (July 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1887904506
• ISBN-13: 978-1887904506
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #149,925 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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65 of 66 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Church Father for modern times? Without a doubt!, September 12, 2000

By 

Vincent Rossi - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation (Paperback)

What does it mean to call a spiritual writer a "Church Father for modern times"? For some, it might be easy hyperbole, or hype without depth. But for someone like Staretz Theophan's translator, Fr. Seraphim Rose, who dedicated his entire all-too-short life until his death in 1982 to the acquisition of the "mind of the Fathers" through a life of prayer and spiritual effort, and who was not apt to overpraise anyone born after the fall of Constantinople, this is praise you can trust. It brings together the two areas that were at loggerheads in his soul, which are also the two forces all spiritual seekers must struggle today to reconcile: modern life and authentic spirituality. The key question, which must become a life-and-death issue for anyone wishing to make genuine spiritual progress is: how is it possible to live an authentic spiritual life in this world of sham and selfishness, desire and deceit, pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, emptiness and hope?

The Path to Salvation answers that question, and in a manner so thorough, complete, effective and simple as to be almost beyond expectation. Theophan the Recluse was indeed a Church Father for modern times. He lived in the latter half of the 19th century when all the elements of modern life--rationalism, pluralism, secularism, humanism, etc.--were gathering their all-consuming force; he lived a life totally steeped in prayer and spiritual practice based on the centuries-old spiritual tradition of the Philokalia and the hesychasts of Orthodoxy; and--and this is especially important--he had a ministry of spiritual direction to thousands of people throughout Russia and the world, most of whom were not monks and recluses but men and women living in the world. The result was a way of teaching that took the reality of the Gospel of Christ, and the truths of the Epistles of Paul, as illumined by the insights of a Maximus the Confessor or Isaac the Syrian and, without losing any of that power or brilliance, communicating their essence in a form accessible to the sensibilities of people born in modern times. This book is truly a treasure among books, hidden in plain sight in a field of works of so-called spirituality that are as weeds or stubble in comparison. Find this book. Dig into it. Savor it. Take it into your heart. You will not be disappointed

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superior Spirituality, August 2, 2005

By 

Martin R. Davis "Truth Seeker" (Cincinnati, OH USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation (Paperback)

I have been a spiritual "seeker" for a long time. Disenchanted with 18 years of "traditional" protestant theology I had sought the path of Buddhism and so-called eastern spirituality. Then a good friend introduced me to Eastern Orthodox Christianity - WOW!! I found the lid to the spiritual puzzle that I'd been trying to put together for so many years.

This book by St. Theophan is the real deal. It describes the path to Salvation. Not just how to become a Christian, but how to be transformed into the likeness of God becoming "partakers of the divine nature" - 1 Peter 1:4.

It's not an easy read, but well worth the effort. It also contains some great advice on raising children and teenagers, with pointers on education and discipline.

You can access some of the writings of St. Theophan on the Internet. Just search for "St. Theophan" and you'll find excerpts from this book and others on Orthodox Christian websites. After that you'll want this book. It's a classic.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fortunate, December 12, 2002

By 

Reijo Elsner (Ikast, Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Path to Salvation: A Manual of Spiritual Transformation (Paperback)

St. Theophan translated Philokalia and other works to Russian and had a vast correspondence during his 23 years as a recluse. Tha Path to Salvation is his main work in which he goes through the Christian life from cradle to grave; from birth to salvation.
The practical instructions in the book are many: starting from the beginning of the Christian life, on turning towards God and the union with Him. 'Staying within', prayer, the meaning of the 'mysteries and sacraments' are all gone through thoroughly and spelled out as the unceasing work in remembering God. The death of the tyrant, the enemy, satan, what we normally call self, is one step on the way.
Besides the instructions to the Christian life The Path to Salvation will give many clues to better understanding of the Patristic writings of Philokalia as well as to what is meant with concepts like the struggle, labour and work of the Christian life.