Section 04: The Russian Philokalia

St. Theophan’s Russian Dobrotolyubie — his five-volume rendering of the Greek Philokalia (1877–1890) — and the editorial vision behind it. This section treats, with the citation care the topic demands, both the work itself (an expanded, rearranged, freely adapted anthology that includes texts not in the Greek and omits or paraphrases others) and the pastoral philosophy that shaped those choices, honestly noting where the Dobrotolyubie diverges from the Greek Philokalia of St. Nikodemos the Hagiorite.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (canonized 1988)

Contents

File Topic
Translating the Dobrotolyubie The Greek source (Venice, 1782); the five Russian volumes (1877–1890); the rearrangement by author; the texts Theophan added (Ephrem, Climacus, Barsanuphius and John, Dorotheos, Theodore the Studite, Isaac the Syrian) and the question of the omitted psycho-physical breathing texts; the Paisius Velichkovsky legacy
The Editorial Vision Why he made these choices — pastoral accessibility for a broad lay readership; the caution about the physical techniques and prelest; the tension with the later from-the-Greek translators; the contrast with St. Ignatius Brianchaninov’s stricter method

How to Use

  • Read Translating the Dobrotolyubie for the facts of the work — its contents, its divergences from the Greek, and the careful distinction between what is documented and what is inferred about the omitted hesychast techniques.
  • Read The Editorial Vision for the mind behind the work: the conviction that the Fathers are a living medicine for souls and that an editor’s task is to make the medicine take.
  • The cautions that govern his editing reappear in his teaching on prayer in Section 07.

Cross-References