What do Protestants think of the Philokalia?
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I just read https://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/52081/117426 and felt inspired to ask the same question from a Protestant perspective, which also relates closely to my previous question [here](https://christianity.stackexchange.com/q/108199/117426) .
According to Wikipedia, the *[Philokalia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philokalia)* is described as follows:
> The Philokalia (Ancient Greek: φιλοκαλία, lit. 'love of the
> beautiful', from φιλία philia "love" and κάλλος kallos "beauty") is "a
> collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by
> spiritual masters" of the mystical hesychast tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. They were originally written for the guidance and instruction of monks in "the practice of the contemplative life". The collection was compiled in the 18th century by Nicodemus the Hagiorite and Macarius of Corinth based on the codices 472 (12th century), 605 (13th century), 476 (14th century), 628 (14th century) and 629 (15th century) from the library of the monastery of Vatopedi, Mount Athos.
>
> Although these works were individually known in the monastic culture of Greek Orthodox Christianity before their inclusion in the Philokalia, their presence in this collection resulted in a much wider readership due to its translation into several languages. The earliest translations included a Church Slavonic language translation of
selected texts by Paisius Velichkovsky (Dobrotolublye, Добротолю́бїе) in 1793, a Russian translation by Ignatius Bryanchaninov in 1857, and a five-volume translation into Russian (Dobrotolyubie) by Theophan the Recluse in 1877. There were subsequent Romanian, Italian, French, German, Spanish, Finnish and Arabic translations.
OrthodoxWiki.org also has an [article](https://orthodoxwiki.org/Philokalia) on the *Philokalia*:
> The Philokalia is a collection of writings, mostly centering on practicing the virtues and spiritual living in a monastery. In recent decades it has become an important resource for Orthodox Christians, laity and clergy alike, in personal living and in some ways has achieved status as a major secondary spiritual written resource (after the primary one, Holy Scripture) along with St. John Climacus' The Ladder of Divine Ascent.
The original question aimed at Catholics says:
> The absence of a "mysticism"-oriented text in Catholic Christianity
> has always struck me. The *Philokalia* are an incredible source of
> ascetic instructions for the believer who seeks communion with God.
>
> (1) In what consideration do Catholic Christians keep the Philokalia?
> And, (2) is there a similar text in the Catholic tradition?
I would like to ask similar questions of Protestants:
1. What do Protestants think of the spiritual teachings found in the *Philokalia*?
2. Are there Protestant traditions with teachings emphasizing ascetic practices and mystical spirituality?
Asked by user117426
(370 rep)
Jul 30, 2025, 07:32 PM
Last activity: Aug 6, 2025, 12:32 AM
Last activity: Aug 6, 2025, 12:32 AM