Spiritual plagiarism

[anglomedved]

In a late-night conversation I said recently of Archimandrite Sophrony and of his book on Starets Silouane that "I don't like people walking in other people's spiritual boots".

Was I being too harsh?

Comments

[yakov-krotov.livejournal.com]

"Не любви" - сурово, а в целом мягко, я так не умею. Но само явление - разновидность идолопоклонства - в каком-то объёме неизбежно в любом духовном возрасте, увы, хотя должно бы заканчиваться с совершеннолетием.

[ursusanglicanus.livejournal.com]

Is there not, at least in western Christianity, an idea that you get beyond any idolatry, to a situation where there is the naked you and a pretty naked Christ - nudus christianus nudo Christo sequens.

[yakov-krotov.livejournal.com]

I guess, this is the Bible. Abraham, Isaak and Yakov... But nudeness... Sin deprived human from some invisible clothes--clothes of God's Glory. To be in this glory is not to be naked. Every time when I glorify a creation, not Creator, I am making an idol and losing my own glorious clothes. Lord Jesus wasn't naked on the cross, He was in the same Light as on the Tabor. Idol-making is in modern philosofical term an objectivisation. The problem is that salvation came out to be two-staged and in the world where we are saved through faith, not through vision, we still cannot live without objectivisation, without involuntary process of perception of outer world, people included, as something dead, stable, materialistic. We cannot avoid being another, losing (or not finding) our own name and face. It is very painful to walk without any shoes (Andersen's mermaid.) I think there must be some tolerance and lenience of a pedagogical sort to objectivation. Yes, idol-making is sinful. But looking on the woman with lust is also sinful, but to some extent it is so inevitable in some age... Memory is a strange thing, and it is very hard to restrict ourselves with "remember those who led you" without making "those" idols a little bit... Ingratitude is more dangerous and more widespread temptation...

[ursusanglicanus.livejournal.com]

I need to think about this one a bit more. It is a question of just how much of his glory Christ laid aside a) at the time of his incarnation and b) at the time of his crucifixion. I'll be back.

[mmekourdukova.livejournal.com]

Мне кажется, стоило бы уточнить в записи - относительно возраста и духовного стажа последователей.
Одно дело - идти по протоптанной тропинке, когда нет ни сил, ни компаса в голове/сердце.
А другое - прицепиться к ряске святого, пиарить его имидж и тем продвигать свой.
Я не про арх. Софрония лично. Мне просто кажется, что ты только вот это второе не любишь, но недостаточно точно это высказал :-)).

[ursusanglicanus.livejournal.com]

On Sophrony I hesitate to express a definite opinion. What I can say is that
- personally found his "His Life is Mine" useful at one rather difficult stage in my spiritual career
- as with many other Orthodox writers in the “desert years” until the re-opening of Russia and Romania, it is very much ‘in the world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king’. The key test of authors from this period is possibly whether they will be read in 20 years' time (when their personal fan club has died or moved on). In this respect I note that “His Life is Mine” appears to be out of print – we can’t find it for our Christian book club…
- Another rough-and-ready test of spiritual value (not watertight) may be in the gender ratio of the fan club. I feel (as a male) a lot safer with a writer who has a strong male following, not just women. Here again, I suspect (but cannot corroborate this with hard figures), that Antony is out ahead of Sophrony here.
- If the verbal information I have is correct, Metrop. Antony Bloom (who will certainly still be around in 20 years’ time) disliked Sophrony intensely.

[vladimir-xt.livejournal.com]

Майкл,

я читал не раз, как владыка Антоний ссылается на о. Софрония как на "опытного духовника" и приводит его метафоры, например, перевернутую пирамиду как образ Церкви. Можешь сам проверить по поиску на сайте вл.Антония.
Мне сложно представить, что он при этом его бы не любил - не любил о.Серафима Роуза и конкретно о нем и говорил.

про самого о. Софрония судить не берусь.