SR
← Letters on the Christian Life/Book 1 · Письма о христианской жизни
Chapter 60FeofanPisma.1.60

Письмо 60

The Test of Spiritual Reading

True spiritual reading is discerned by its impact on the heart rather than by idle intellectual curiosity.

What kind of reading do you have going on over there? And of what you're reading, what do you find useful and applicable to your life? That last point should be the test of how sound your study of Scripture really is. But there is another kind of investigation that is useless—the barren curiosity of the mind. Here's how you sort it out! If, while you're listening, you see that every thought is like a soap bubble—pretty enough, yet empty, and easily burst by the lightest breath of sound reasoning—know that what you've heard is the work of idle curiosity.1 But if, while you're listening, you find that what you hear settles in your heart, presses into it, and either weighs on it, crushing it, or expands it, gladdening it with unearthly hopes—then know that what you've heard is not idle curiosity at work, but truth proven by experience. For some people, probing the Scriptures can be a great temptation.2 Does that surprise you? And yet it is so.

The Danger of Prying

Excessive, prideful inquiry into Scripture is a dangerous temptation that has historically led to heresy.

Remember how Abba Serid beat Dositheus because the latter had begun, without any need, to pry into what this means and what that is, and why it was written this way and not otherwise? Here is another example. In Philippi (Acts chapter 16), there was a young girl with a prying spirit, and the Apostle Paul cast it out.3 Look also at Philotheus or Diadochus in the Philokalia. They consider it a bad thing when the urge to theologize pulls you away from attention and prayer. You'll find plenty of similar advice about prying into the Scriptures. Have you ever looked into how heretics came about? Every last one of them came from prying into the Scriptures.4 So it turns out, this is a double-edged sword.✦ And so you have to handle it carefully.

The Orthodox Approach to Scripture

The Orthodox method involves humble submission to the Church's interpretation and testing personal insights against the whole body of faith.

Here's what I'll tell you so you can tell the true spirit from the spirit of deceit in this regard.✦ An Orthodox Christian reads the Word of God and imprints on his heart the truths plainly contained in it, not carrying his thought beyond what is contained there and not raising his mind over it in a domineering, self-willed way, but humbly submitting his mind to it. For example: “Obey your leaders.”✦ . . “Let every soul submit to the authorities that hold power.”✦ The matter is clear! There's nothing here that needs interpreting. Just imprint it on your heart, and that's all there is to it. . . If something hard to understand comes up, the Orthodox Christian seeks its resolution not in his own mind, not in his own guesses, but in the common keeper of every truth—the Church, that is,5 i.e. He looks for a ready solution, one recognized by all and offered to all in the Church; for example, "You are Peter, and on this rock," and so on. It's hard to see how the Church can be founded on Peter when her foundation is the Lord—so much so that there can be no other foundation. Instead of over-philosophizing to resolve this difficulty, turn to the Church and accept the solution already at hand: the word Peter here doesn't refer to the person of the Apostle Peter, but to the firm confession of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That same firmness made every martyr a rock.6 They pound and pound, and they still can't smash it. But the Catholics started looking for a solution in their own heads and landed on the Pope. As absurd as it is, they still keep at it to this day. If some place in Scripture stirs a thought, and that thought starts drawing conclusions that press irresistibly into the mind—never mind: the Orthodox person has no objection even to that. He only treats those conclusions, his own offspring, not as legitimate children but as stepchildren, and subjects them to merciless torture—namely: he sets them into the whole body of the truths of the holy faith (that is, all the truths contained in the catechism) and looks to see whether they fit with them; and if they don't fit, or contradict them, he drives them out of his mind as illegitimate children! If he can't make this comparison himself, he turns to living or past teachers and asks them. That’s all there is to it—how the Orthodox person acts, and how you ought to act.

The Path of Error

Heresy and false teaching arise when one forces personal opinions onto Scripture rather than submitting to the Church's tradition.

The non-Orthodox person doesn't do it that way. Some thought or other pops into their head—whether good or bad, they don't care, as long as they like it—and they start digging through Scripture looking for confirmation. With that kind of mindset, of course, every line—and even every phrase—that points even slightly toward the seeker's fantasies is taken as proof.7 So they gather a few texts, attach arbitrary interpretations to them, and then draw a conclusion—the very thought that was already in their head before they even opened Scripture—and finally shout, "This is what all of Scripture teaches." That is how all heresies were formed, and so too Protestantism, and so too the papacy—with this difference from the first of these: that the latter still dig among the holy Fathers and force them to their purpose (as recently with the new dogma).8 What N. read to you is of that same nature. N.

Read the original Russian

Что у вас там за чтения? И что из сего читаемаго вы находите полезным и приложимым к жизни?

Последний признак должен быть пробою доброты исследования Писаний. Но есть и другое исследование, никуда негожее – бесплодная пытливость ума. Вот как разбирайте! Если, слушая, видите, что все мысли, как мыльные пузыри, хоть и красны, да пусты и скоро от легкаго движения воздуха здраваго рассуждения трескаются; знайте, что слышанное есть дело пытливости праздной. А если, слушая, найдете, что слышанное садится на сердце и втесняется в него, и давит его, сокрушая, или расширяет, возвеселяя неземными надеждами; то знайте, что слышанное не есть дело праздной пытливости, а есть опытом дознанная истина. Для иных испытание Писаний может быть великим искушением. Вы подивитесь? А так есть.

Помните, как авва Серид прибил Досифея за то, что сей последний начал без всякой нужды пытать, что то значит и что это, от чего так написано, а не иначе? Вот и другой пример. В Филиппах (Деян. гл. 16) была отроковица, имевшая дух пытлив, и Апостол Павел изгнал его. Посмотрите еще у Филофея или у Диодоха (в Добротолюбии). Там недобрым делом сочтено, когда от внимания и молитвы отвлекает желание или позыв побогословствовать. Да и много найдете подобных советов относительно пытания Писаний.

Разбирали ли вы, как произошли еретики? Все до единаго от пытания Писаний. Так выходит, – это меч обоюду острый! И стало быть, надо с ним осторожно обходиться.

Вот что скажу вам для распознания духа истиннаго от духа лестча в сем отношении.

Православный Христианин читает Слово Божие и истины, прямо в нем содержимыя, печатлеет в своем сердце, не двигая своей мысли за пределы содержимаго и не возвышая над ним господственно и самоуправно своего ума, а ему смиренно подчиняя его. Наприм. , «повинуйтесь наставником вашим. . . всяка душа властем предержащим да повинуется». Дело ясное! Тут нечего и толковать.

Печатлей только на сердце, да и все тут. . . Если встретится что неудобопонятное, православный ищет разрешения не в своем уме, не в своих догадках, а в общей хранительнице всякой истины – Церкви, т. е. , ищет решения готоваго, всеми признаваемаго и всем предлагаемаго в Церкви; напр. , «ты еси Петр и на сем камени» и пр. Непонятно, как Церковь может быть основана на Петре, когда основание ея есть Господь и притом так, что другаго основания быть не может.

Не мудрствуя для решения сего недоумения, обратитесь к Церкви и возьмите существующее решение, что здесь слово – Петр не означает лица Апостола Петра, а означает твердое исповедание веры в Господа нашего Иисуса Христа. Эта твердость каждаго мученика делала камнем. Колотят, колотят и не расколотят. А вот католики стали искать решения в своей голове и попали на Папу. Как ни нелепо, а вот и доселе упорствуют.

Если какое либо место Писания расшевелит мысль, и сия начнет делать выводы, неотразимо теснящиеся в голову, – ничего: православный и от сего не прочь, только обходится с сими выводами, порождениями своими, не как с родными чадами, а как с пасынками, подвергает их немилосердной пытке, именно: вставляет их во всю совокупность истин святой веры (это все истины, в катихизисе содержащияся) и смотрит, вяжутся ли они с ними, и, если не вяжутся, или противоречат им, гонит вон из головы, как незаконнорожденных чад! Если не сможет сделать сие сличение сам, то снова обращается к живым или прежним учителям и их вопрошает. Вот все, как творит православный и как подобает творить.

Неправославный не так делает. Родятся у него в голове какия-нибудь думы (хорошия или худыя, ему нужды нет, лишь бы нравились); он и начинает рыться в Писании и искать им подтверждения. При таком настроении, конечно, каждая строка и даже речения, чуть-чуть указывающия на мечты искателя, берутся, как доказательство. Вот собрано несколько текстов, к ним приданы произвольные толкования, и за тем сделан вывод, то есть, та мысль, какая родилась в голове прежде чтения Писания, а наконец и возглас: «так учит все Писание».

Так образовались все ереси, так протестанство, так папство, с тою разницею от первых, что сии еще роются у святых Отцев и их насилуют (как недавно в новом догмате). Такого рода и то, что вам читал N. N.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Eph.6.17 — And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
  2. ↩1John.4.1-1John.4.6 — Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 1John.4.2 — By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. 1John.4.3 — And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and now is already in the world. 1John.4.4 — You are from God, little children, and you have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1John.4.5 — They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and the world listens to them. 1John.4.6 — We are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us, and whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception.
  3. ↩Heb.13.17 — Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account—so that they may do this with joy and not with groaning; for that would be of no benefit to you.
  4. ↩Rom.13.1 — Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God, and the authorities that exist have been appointed by God.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩красны rendered as 'pretty' (beautiful/showy), not chromatic 'red'; old Russian sense of fair/handsome.
  2. 2 ↩испытание rendered as 'probing' to match the pejorative force of idle inquiry (cf. next section's пытания Писаний); could also be 'examining' or 'testing'.
  3. 3 ↩Russian 'дух пытлив' (prying/inquisitive spirit) deliberately echoes the letter's theme of idle curiosity (пытливость). In Acts 16:16 the girl has a spirit of divination (πύθωνα); Feofan bends the wording toward curiosity, not mere reportage of the biblical label.
  4. 4 ↩Russian пытание means probing/interrogating/prying, not mere devout reading; rendered to match the cautionary force of the letter's argument against restless scriptural curiosity.
  5. 5 ↩Source ends mid-abbreviation «т.» (start of «т.е.» = «that is / i.e.»); rendered as «that is,» and completed across the following fragment sentences.
  6. 6 ↩Russian «делала камнем» continues the Petros/petra image: firmness of confession turns each martyr into a «rock».
  7. 7 ↩мечты can mean dreams, fantasies, or cherished notions; rendered as fantasies to keep Feofan's critical force without modern psychologizing.
  8. 8 ↩«Сии» most naturally points to Protestantism and the papacy as opposed to earlier heresies («первых»); Feofan may also mean especially Rome, given the parenthetical about the recent new dogma. «Насилуют» is rendered as forcing/twisting the Fathers to a preconceived use, not physical violence.

Letters on the Christian Life companion

Rule yourself daily, not just on retreat

Chosen Portion turns the mirror into a daily practice — a short reading and examining question each morning before you lead anyone.

Chosen Portion makes the mirror daily: the ruler-formation questions this collection preserves become a two-minute morning examination in the app.

  • A daily formation reading drawn from centuries of counsel to those in authority
  • One pointed examination question a day — two minutes, before the meetings start
  • Track your practice over weeks and watch the examined life become a habit
Chosen Portion — Daily Prayer (free iOS app) →