A Conversation on the Philokalia with Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)

your eminence metropolitan kallisto's thank you so much for entertaining this interview it's a true delight to have His Eminence Metropolitan College doeseth dial CLIA visiting with us today and giving us an interview on behalf of patristic nectar publications His Eminence doesn't need much of an introduction at all to anyone in the english-speaking Orthodox world he is perhaps the most well known Orthodox Christian in the english-speaking world his books have contributed to the edification of many many persons and are read all over the world he was for many decades for about 35 years a professor at Oxford University as well as the son of the church and a priest and then a bishop of the Church in England and now in his retirement if you can call it retirement is traveling all over the world lecturing and speaking and continuing his academic studies our theme today for this interview is the subject of the Phil Oakey Leah a collection of spiritual texts from the 4th to the 15th century of the greatest value to Orthodox Christians the English translation of which metropolitan kallisto's was intimately involved with these fantastic volumes the first four of five volumes in the English language were edited and translated by metropolitan kallisto's and two colleagues and if I could start there your eminence would you tell us a little bit about the falaqa Leah what is the Philippa what is the villa Kalia yes you have already described it briefly it is a collection of spiritual texts texts dealing with the practice of the Christian life and particularly with inner prayer and there are in the falaqa Lea about 35 different writers from the forth of the 15th century the falaqa Lea was originally published as a single volume a large folio tome of 1,200 pages in double column and it was printed in Greek in 1782 in Venice but the editors were both in Greece itself they were st. Macarius who was former bishop of Corinth and Saint Nicodemus the hagyó right was a monk of the holy mountain of athel's now the word fellow Kalia could mean just an anthology but it bears a deeper sense literally it signifies love of beauty of spiritual Beauty love of things beautiful love of God as the supreme beauty and source of all things beautiful there are a number of unifying themes in the filler Kalia one of the most important is the practice of the Jesus Prayer the invocation of the Holy Name Lord Jesus Christ son of God have mercy on me but the fellow Kalia is very much more than simply a manual of how to say the Jesus Prayer it covers the whole range of in life it is not specifically concerned with sacraments baptism and Eucharist are mentioned but they are not the main theme the main theme is inner prayer and we could sum up the message of the falaqa Lea in the words of the gospel the kingdom of heaven is within you the conviction that lies behind the falaqa Lea is that within each one of us there is an inner kingdom and we can enter this realm a realm full of wonder full of spiritual space full of mysteries we can enter this through prayer thus a sentence by the seventh century writers and Isaac the Syrian I don't think it comes in the Greek for locally oh but it sums up the message of the fellow Callea be at peace with your own soul then heaven and earth will be at peace with you enter eagerly into the treasure house that lies within you and so you will discover the treasure house of heaven well that is but one single entry to them both enter into yourself dive deeply within yourself and you will discover the steps by which to ascend that I think thumbs-up the basic message of the fellow Kalia your eminence what was the genesis of the collection of these spiritual texts together who made this selection and why did they make it that is a very difficult question to answer we do not really know some people think that it was the decision of more particularly st. Macarius of Corinth who chose the texts and that then he brought the text to st. Nicodemus who edited them and prepared them for publication but probably st. Macarius was not simply relying on his own individual judgment it seems that there was a pre-existing tradition that on the holy mountain of Athos it was a costume by spiritual fathers to recommend particular works to their disciples and so we do not find in manuscript on the holy mountain anything corresponding exactly to the collection of the falaqa Lia but we do find manuscripts which have many of the texts that are in the Filioque idea so it seems there was a pre-existing monastic tradition a kind of agreed approach of selecting certain works which were recommended to those pursuing the life of prayer your eminence is there a schema behind the layout of the text themselves as we see them at least in the English volumes that have come out is there a some ordered ordering of the texts in the Greek village earlier the texts are placed simply in historical order according to chronology so the earliest text is a work attributed to sedan Geneva Egypt in the 4th century though most people think it's not actually by him and the latest scum from the 15th century from people like sand mark of ephesus so in its presentation the fil Acharya is not systematic but chronological when the fellow Kalia was later translated into Russian at the end of the 19th century by Cynthia Pham the recluse then there was more of a grouping of texts by the subject matter but even so it was not done systematically so the village idea is not really a book to read from cover to cover starting with page 1 and ending with page 1207 it's better to have guidance from your spiritual father if you have one from reading books and articles guidance as to which texts you should start with for example I usually recommend people to begin with a text at the end of the photo Kalia from the 14th century the hundred texts are concerning hezakiah inner stillness written by Kerastase and agnostic Sam Thor Poulos and then I would say go back to the first volume read Evagrius 153 texts on prayer and then perhaps look in the second volume read the life of a Buffy Lee mode and then move on to certain other texts the fado Korea is a difficult work and in our English translation we have not included a lot of explanatory footnotes we want the text to speak for themselves what we have done is include a short glossary at the end discussing the key texts but otherwise people need personal guidance from an experienced elder about how to read the pillow kallea or they need to read there are some good books on the pillow Kalia one published recently edited by Brock Bingaman and Bradley nassif on the fiddle Kalia published by the Oxford University Press that will offer people some help what is the title of that book your eminence um I do not remember exactly but the words the fellow Kalia come in your title you mentioned your collaboration your work in English translation would you share with us a little bit about how this came about how did you connect with this project yes as I said the fellow Kalia was originally published in Greek at Venice 1782 during the Ottoman period when the Greek Church was oppressed by Turkish rule it was fairly quickly translated into Slavonic by Saint Pius II Velikovsky who had been on the holy mountain some 20 years before the Greek fella Kalia appeared and he already was translating most of the works in the Greek fella Kalia independently of Macarius and Nicodemus relying on a pre-existing tradition now the Greek fellow Collier was not reprinted for more than a hundred years the second edition came out around 1893 and then the Nara two generations passed for the third edition of the Greek felucca Lea came out in in 1957 and the years following so the Greek Philip alia was not exactly a best-seller three editions in nearly 200 years but since 1957 it's been reprinted a number of times in Greece and there are at least two translations of the Filioque alia into modern Greek because the texts in the original filo Kalia are in Byzantine Greek that is not easily understood by Greeks today the Slavonic fellow Kalia was quite popular many people will know the little book called the way of a pilgrim D about a Russian pilgrim a and orphan who goes from monastery to monastery and in his knapsack he has the Bible and the other book in his knapsack is the fellow Kalia in the Slavonic translation and that worked translated into Western languages around 1930 and afterwards has been very popular it's written in an easy attractive style and so that made the Filippelli are better known but then there was a translation the end of the 19th century into Russian of the hallo Kalia and this was quite widely circulated before the Revolution the real era of the philic area however is not in the Greek world of the late 18th century under the ottomans and not in holy Russia of the 19th century the real heir of the villa Kalia has been in the second half of the 20th century the first English translation of the fellow Kalia was done in 1952 and the second volume came out later in the 1950s a selection of text and the translation was made from the Russian and the translator was an Englishman Gerald Palmer who came from a wealthy family before the Second World War he'd been a member of parliament he joined the Orthodox Church and with the encouragement of his spiritual father a monk on Mount Athos father Nikon he continued with translations of the Philip Elia that he'd began to make before he was Orthodox and he had a Russian lady to help him Madame evgenia a cattle buff ski and so that was how with the encouragement of anathan it-- monk to orthodox living in Britain produced the first English translations in the 1950s now it was quite difficult for them to find a English publisher they sent it to a well-known publisher Faber and Faber and the people at Faber's said no doubt these texts are very interesting but they will only appeal to very few people it could never be a commercial success but one of the directors of papers the celebrated poet TS Eliot said these texts are of such importance that they should be published even if we lose a lot of money let us undertake that and so the first volume was printed in 1952 and favors thought nobody's going to buy this book so they printed about 2,000 copies but they only bound a few dozen and then to their surprise demands for the book came in and they had hastily to RIBA to bind all the other volumes and since 1952 that volume called to writings from the fellow Kalia on prayer of the heart that's been reprinted about fifteen or twenty times so favors in fact made a lot of money so that illustrates what our Lord said seek first the kingdom of heaven and everything else will be given to us as well Touche but translations have been made in other languages since the Second World War in Romania the Romanian edition by the celebrated theologian father Dimitri Stanley Louie has a lot of other texts in addition to the ones in the Greek for local yeah and it's now run to 11 volumes perhaps more are these texts that he selected or were the inner Slavonic t they were not in the Slavonic for the most part the russian polakov Slavonic philip Elia is exactly the same as the Greek the Russian fella Kalia has already expanded edition but steadily following the traditions of Romanian monasticism included a lot of other texts but there are now more or less complete texts in translation of the Philip Elia in French in Italian in Finnish in Arabic I think in Spanish probably not in German and in English the original translations made in the 50s by Paul Anka dubofsky have now been largely superseded by a new translation made from the original Greek in five volumes four volumes of appeared the fifth volume is waiting for me to work on the editing forgive me but let me ask you more about fifth volume your eminence you say it lacks editing this is a thirsty soul wondering when the water of life will be delivered on the fifth volume do you have plans in the near future to be working on this or is it behind several other projects I am deeply penitent that there has been such a delay my two collaborators Gerald Palmer who was responsible for the original Villa Kali and the 50s and Philip Sherrod have both died I only am left and I'm not so young so it depends on me to bring the project to completion without alas their help in fact a lot of preliminary work has been done what I must do is not go travelling not go giving lectures at conferences not spend my time giving interviews but simply stay quietly at home and work on the fellow Kalia oh don't answer letters don't answer the telephone or just sit and work and I think that if only I can clear my desk of other tasks because I have had a lot of other responsibilities in the last 20 years if I can only clear my desk this year most of the remaining work will be done so we might hope that it would come out perhaps in 2015 but I do hope I will have strength and time to complete this task I owe it to my friends Gerald and Philip we hope as well we hope as well your eminence could you give us foreshadowing what is in the fifth volume v volume consists almost entirely of writings by persons called callistos save names I have there are probably three of them callistos katha fiji ot's who may have been of the 12th century maybe a bit later callistos angular Cody's who is 14th century and Caritas an agnostic Amphipolis the author of the hundred texts on the life of Hezekiah which I've already mentioned and I think the work of Caritas and Ignacio stop-loss is the most important there are one or two other short texts by other people Sen Mark of Ephesus for example now all of these people were writing with the possible exception of calestous katha figlio T's in the period after the middle of the 14th century the middle of the 14th century was marked by the celebrated hesychast or pala might controversy a dispute which involved the whole tradition of in a mystical prayer that the Filioque alia represents and which was attacked by a certain other greeks and if this tradition was defended by st. Gregory Palamas those a fierce controversy but hesychast pala might pillow colic approach prevailed and in the fourth volume of the Filioque alia the two chief authors are the two Gregory's said Gregory of Sinai who died party about 1347 st. Gregory Palamas who died 13:59 they are the chief writers in the fourth volume in the fifth volume these authors come after the hesychast controversy they accept the principles of pala mite theology they are not writing in a controversial situation with the need to defend this tradition against hostile attacks so they are able to write we might say in a spirit of greater detachment and equanimity far from any polemic and yes some of the text in the fifth volume are quite complex were difficult to translate difficult to understand but I think the century of Calais Ostend ignacio's can topple loose forms an excellent hesychast Fatima qu a little handbook on hesychasm and it's full of texts from the earlier writers in this tradition now that work did appear in the early English translation which I mentioned the writings from the philic alia on prayer of the heart by Candlebox Qian Palma but it was made from the Russian so I think making a translation from the Greek will give it a greater accuracy in sharpness of outline 21st century Christians find it difficult your eminence with traditional Christian theological categories and vocabulary the fellow Kalia presents many concepts and words noose passions watchfulness Neb sees contemplation theoria that could be stumbling blocks obstacles to the reader today why should a 21st century Christian push through those obstacles to read the Philip Kalia today that's a good question first of all going back to the 18th century we know two different approaches saint pius Velikovsky did not originally want his Slavonic translations to be printed he thought that the texts in the villa Kalia should be kept in manuscript and should be given by spiritual fathers to their children only to individual people whom they thought were spiritually prepared and that these texts should not be read without guidance but st. Nicodemus of the holy mountain was of a different opinion he admitted that the texts were difficult he agreed that it was highly desirable to have guidance from an experienced teacher but he considered that these texts should not be restricted and hidden and he said we must trust the Holy Spirit if some people go astray because they don't have spiritual guidance yet many many more will be helped by these texts so he considered that they should be printed once you put a book in print you can't restrict who's going to read it and he admitted that not everyone would have the proper guidance they need but he hoped the Holy Spirit would prevail and so he entrusted the work to the world Cynthia Pam the recluse had a similar approach the editor of the Russian to look earlier in his correspondence people write to him saying tell me where I can find a spiritual father where I can find someone will solve all my problems who will give me answers to everything and the ofan replies again and again perhaps God doesn't wish you to have a spiritual father like that who will relieve you of all responsibility for yourself perhaps you must listen to the voice of God in your own conscience read the scriptures humbly they will tell you what you need and so they have had also believed that it was important to print these texts and make them available and that was the attitude equally a father nico who encouraged Gerald Palmer and Afghani academ offski to publish their translations now villa Kalia is a difficult work it does require from people a committed effort perhaps many people will be baffled and will need help that is much more help available now in different books by different people on the tradition of the philic alia much more than fifty years ago but I believe like Saint Nicodemus that we should trust the Holy Spirit sometimes people have criticized us for making English translation available they say this is not a text to be read by everyone I say God guides people to read the books they need what has astonished me is that it's quite clear the fellow Kalia is very often read by people who are not Orthodox but belong to other Christian churches and not only that it is often being read by people who are not Christians not members of any church tradition now of course if you're going to practice a thing like the Jesus Prayer you ought to be a practicing Christian regularly receiving the sacraments of confession and communion but God moves in a mysterious way God has many ways of calling people outside the normal channels and it's quite clear that non-christians reading the fiddle Kalia have been significantly helped in their own spiritual life perhaps they've not necessarily become Christians things are not as simple as that and to say well everybody is going to become a Christian we have to accept that there are persons of deep spirituality who don't belong to any Church and it's clear that some of these persons of deep spirituality outside any church life have found the fellow Collier immensely helpful so yes it is meant for people who are within the church and practicing members but it has an outreach far beyond that now why has the villa Collier appealed so widely in the second half of the 20th century it was planned by Macarius and Nicodemus for a totally different world the Greek world under Ottoman rule 18th century and yet the moment for the Filioque alia it's chaos it's special time of opportunity has been the last 5060 years in that way the village area could be seen as a spiritual time bomb which has in fact spoken to an age long after its first publication and to a totally different cultural situation I can only say I believe that God speaks to every human heart within every human person there is a god-shaped hole that only he can fill within every human person there is a thirst for salvation in Christ even if the people in question don't realize it and somehow the fellow Kalia difficult though it is has appealed to people who have not been drawn by more obvious popular books somehow in our secular postmodern age when institutional Christianity is being challenged in the North America and Western Europe somehow the fellow Kalia has a message seek the inner kingdom a message that people need to hear and that's why I counted an immense privilege to have been associated with the translation of the Philip idea your eminence thank you for your your ministry in this area and for your many hours of labor of love to bring the fellow Kalia into an accessible format for English seekers

Channel: PatristicNectarFilms

Views: 90,260

Keywords: Philokalia, Kallistos, Timothy Ware, Christian, Orthodox, Patristic, Father Josiah Trenham, G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, The Orthodox Way, hesychast

Id: R4qtQ6AUrRE

Length: 35min 55sec (2155 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 15 2013