PART 1

OF ARCHBISHOP LAZAR PUHALO

The late Archbishop Nikon (Rklitsky) made an inestimable contribution to Orthodox Christian theological study when he compiled many of the works of St Antony of Kiev. In ****, he appointed Vasili Novkashonoff (now Bishop Varlaam) and myself (then Deacon Lev Puhalo) as "official translators" of his collection. In his letter to us, he expressed the great importance of collecting and translating Metropolitan Antony's writings and sermons. Moreover, the late Metropolitan Philaret of New York blessed and encouraged our effort, and the late Bishop Gregory Grabbe spoke with me at considerable length about the life and works of Metropolitan Antony. As Aerchbishop of Canada, the now retired Metropolitan Vitaly also encouraged us in this effort.

As our work progressed over several years, we came to a more full understanding of the significance of this great Church father and his struggle against the spirit-deadening pall of scholasticism which had enshrouded Orthodox theological thought from the late 1600's through the beginning of our present century.

We were especially struck by the attacks on Metropolitan Antony's works by the highly controversial scholastic mystic, Archbishop Theophan of Poltava. Archbishop Theophan, a long time disciple of Rasputin, and an unsober Platonistic mystic, was a leader of the extreme Latin scholastic and emotional pietist school in Russia.

This is the man who conducted a lengthy diatribe against St Antony, and especially attacked the saint's profoundly patristic work on the dogma of redemption. Archbishop Theophan of Poltava's struggle against the saint's writing and the fact that he could actually attract a following can only reveal to us the deep spiritual and theological illness that permeated much of the Russian Church on the eve of the revolution. Theophan belonged to a school which knew the fathers well but could only read and interpret them through a medieval Latin, scholastic grid. He himself was a pietistic Western-style mystic who was prone to hallucinations which he interpreted as "visions". Toward the end of his life, he had descended into paranoid psychosis, guarding himself from imaginary assassins with Doberman Pincer dogs. He was once visited by two bishops on their way to Sremsky Karlovtsy, Serbia for a Synod meeting of the Russian Church in Exile. He begged the two bishops not to attend the meeting, crying that, "It was revealed to me by an angel that Metropolitan Antony intends to poison all the other bishops." This is the pitiful, deranged man that our present pietistic scholastics choose as a spiritual example and pit against the pure, patristic writings of St Antony. Having become aware of this, we pursued our research more deeply and translated responses of various theologians to the arguments of Theophan of Poltava against the patristic theology of St Antony. In presenting these translations, we begin with the preface sent to us by the ever-memorable Archbishop Nikon (Rklitsky).

In order to fully evaluate the theological works of Vladika Antony, it would first be necessary to gather all that he had written during his lifetime and publish a full collection of his writings. This would be the most significant task of future Russian theologians in the Russian Orthodox Church that will be reborn [after the fall of Communism].

Presently, we can best understand the theological thought of Vladika Antony from his all-encompassing works, The Revision of the Orthodox Christian Catechism  and The Dogma of Redemption.