Translator’s Introduction.

Metropolitan Anthony (1863-1936) is best known as the organizer and first primate of

the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia. Even before the Russian revolution he was

well known as a theologian and bishop. After being rector of the Moscow and Kazan

Theological Academies, in 1900 he was consecrated Bishop of Ufa; in 1902 he was

transferred to the Volynia diocese in the western Ukraine, and then in 1914 he was made

Archbishop of Kharkov. In his theological writings he stressed primarily the moral

implications of Christian doctrine. He fought against the influence of western

scholasticism and stressed the need to turn to the Church Fathers for theological

inspiration. As a bishop he also fought against all anti-canonical and un-Orthodox

tendencies of Church life, in 1918 he was appointed Metropolitan of Kiev and Galich,

and after the revolution, as the senior of the exiled bishops, he was chosen to head the

Russian Church Abroad. He kept the exile Church on the path of strict Orthodoxy, both

in refusing to accept Metropolitan Sergei’s declaration of loyalty to the atheistic Soviet

state, and also in opposing all kinds of theological modernism. This modernism was the

chief cause of the sad schisms which divided the exile Church and which grieved

Metropolitan Anthony very deeply.

The keynote of Metropolitan Anthony’s personal life, as of his theology, was

love. He unhesitatingly gave away his personal possessions and the income he received

as a bishop. He was a spiritual abba of countless people, including almost a whole

generation of monks and bishops. Many testify to his enormous spiritual experience,

manifested in the guidance they received from him. Among these is Metropolitan

Philaret, the present primate of the Russian Church Abroad. While he was a young priest

monk in China he corresponded with Metropolitan Anthony and preserved as a precious

treasure for many years the letters he received; he refers to Metropolitan Anthony as the

“abba of all abbas.” Vladika Anthony was also granted the gift of tears during prayer: it

was said that all one had to do was look at him praying in church in order to he enflamed

with prayer oneself.

The present work, Confession, is based on the lectures Vladika Anthony gave

during his courses on pastoral theology, but it was actually written down in 1920, while

he was temporarily confined in a Uniate monastery in western Russia, due to the

circumstances of the Civil War. It is primarily a manual for priests, written to show them

how to give spiritual advice and help during confession, and gives great insight into the

various ways in which the passions afflict the human soul. It is precisely this struggle,

and, with the help of God’s grace, gradual victory, which is, in the view of Vladika

Anthony, the feature distinguishing Orthodoxy from all other religions — the very

essence of Orthodoxy (see his “How does Orthodoxy differ from the Western

Denominations?” in Orthodox Life, 1970, No. 2). Although it is addressed to priests, it is

obviously of great value to all Orthodox Christians, who are engaged in this struggle

(with the exception of chapters 2-5). There are already many books about spiritual life,

such as the Philokalia and St. John Climacus's Ladder, but these often go over the heads

of contemporary lay-people, as they are written primarily for monks, who are generally

able to give more attention to their spiritual life. The special value of Metropolitan

Anthony’s Confession is that it deals with such problems as are familiar to most

contemporary Orthodox lay people, but which are not treated elsewhere. Although it was

written over fifty years ago it is still remarkably relevant to modern life, although of

course there are also new problems that have arisen in the last few decades and are not

covered by it. There are some obvious anachronisms: in particular, his comments on

Church life often do not apply today. Nevertheless, the perspicacious reader will easily be

able to see the connection between some of the things he touches upon (such as the “mass

delusion” movements in Chapter 10), and similar phenomena of contemporary life.

A feature that should he of special value to priests today is that Vladika Anthony

is dealing chiefly with situations where the confessor has to elicit some remnant of

conscience in someone who is little more than nominally Orthodox — this must be a very

common situation today! Lay people reading Confession should be on their guard against

a temptation to judge their confessor’s “technique.” Also, after reading Vladika

Anthony’s advice to show love and concern, to ask questions in a certain way, and so

forth, priests should beware of trying to act the part of a “Russian Spiritual Father.”

When Confession was written, people were closer to the roots of an Orthodox culture —

now it is so easy to be infected by the many pseudo-Orthodox tendencies that are

prevalent in the ecclesiastical world today.

In Confession, Metropolitan Anthony often advises the reader to refer to other

books, many of which are not available in English. In footnotes the translator has tried to

indicate which of these can be found in English, and sonic source material is included in

the appendices. However, in the face of this difficulty we should bear in mind Vladika

Anthony’s own words (at the end of Chapter 5) that “the priest should he concerned not

so much to have the printed material for guidance through confession in perfect

readiness, as to immerse his attention in this field of spiritual pathology and therapy,

which is revealed by the holy ascetics.”

The footnotes were all written by the translator, with one exception: note 5 to

Chapter 15, which was in the original text. The scriptural references that were in the

original have been left in the body of the text, and some others have been added as

footnotes. The Russian word “dukhovnik,” which means “spiritual father,” has been

rendered sometimes as “spiritual father” and sometimes, for convenience, simply as

“priest.” In the Russian Church all priests have the right and duty to be spiritual fathers,

hence the two terms coincide in meaning, whereas in the Greek Church only those priests

who have been blessed for the task (pneumatikoi) have this right.

“Metropolitan Anthony had a deep knowledge of human souls. That is why his

writings on pastoral theology are so striking. His book Confession can be compared only

with St. Gregory the Great’s Pastoral Rule,” writes Protopresbyter George Grabbe (in

The Church and Her Teaching in Life, Vol. 2, Montreal, 1970, p. 113).