Viaţa monahală, conform Părintelui Sofronie
The monastic life according to elder Sophrony

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of this presentation is to highlight the theological originality in Fr Sophrony’s perceptionof monasticism. Pitted against the negative views of monasticism in the twentieth century,Fr Sophrony theology highlights the richness of monasticism as the “fullness of life” brought tomankind by Christ’s Gospel. The chief method of Fr Sophrony’s approach to monastic life is to seehow it reveals the divine Image in man. As the fathers highlighted the Christological dimension ofimage, Fr Sophrony, continuing their line of thought, particularly dwells on the tria- dological aspect of the image. In the Trinity we are given a prime model of love, which we are to follow. The Sonloves the Father, just as the Father loves the Son. Man, like God, is a relational being, and relationsto other hypostases (persons) constitute the fundamental principal of Divine and human beings: Ilove therefore I am. It is refl ected in St Silouan’s understanding of monasticism: “Our brother is ourlife”. Monastic community is set forth as a supreme opportunity to realise the image of the trinitarianlove. “The monastic community sets out to achieve unity... in the image of the oneness of theHoly Trinity”. Prayer for the whole world is set forth as a fi nal achievement. All the monastic vows:poverty, chastity and obedience are seen as subsumed to this aim. That is why for Fr. Sophronyeverything in his ascetic vision acquires a personal, hypostatic dimension.“The deviation from this theology would lead to the ‘supra- personal’, with the result that the ‘general’will prevail over the ‘personal’. Obedience in this case will be required not in relation to the humanperson, but as a subjection to the ‘law’, ‘rule’, ‘function’, ‘institution’ etc.” Fr. Sophrony makesa distinction between gospel-type obedience and discipline. Obedience is an expressionof love, wheraswhereas discipline is an expression of power. When discipline prevails over gospeltypeobedience, ‘there is a possibility,’ as he says, ‘of the ultimate loss of the very aim of Christianity and the sense of life’.

• Details
• Contents