About the book: There are not may of them now, but not long ago, within our memory, in piously disposed patriarchal village parishes and even sometimes among educated society, it was possible to meet pastors who were so disposed and so involved with people that their conversations with their flocks, at home or at gatherings or anywhere else, could hardly be distinguished at all from their conversation during confession: salvation of the soul, the will of God, the truth of God - this is what was always the subject of the intercourse between the pastor and his flock. - Metropolitan Anthony
The present work, Confession (1996), is based on the lectures Vladika (Bishop) 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.
Confession 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.
Confession is translated from the the Russian by Father Christopher Birchall. It was first published in Russian in Warsaw, Poland, in 1928; and, subsequently, in English in 1975.
About the author: 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.
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