Drawing upon St. Theophan the Recluse's commentary, Fr. Seraphim Rose briefly discusses how souls formed in the "emotional and spiritual wasteland of our times" can become aware of this reality and how to live spiritually profitable lives in the Orthodox Church. Sometimes, as a stepping stone, even the best of the secular arts can be used to form the soul in godliness.
đź“– Forming the Soul - Spirit, Soul and Body (from _Orthodox America_ , Issue #19, May 1982)
https://www.roca.org/oa/volume-ii/issue-19/forming-the-soul
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Note: It appears one more article in this series was published before Fr. Seraphim's repose just a few months after this first article appeared in print. It was a review of "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens in _Orthodox America_ , Issue #20, June 1982.
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Fr. Seraphim writes:
Many, of course, survive as Orthodox despite their background; some come to some spiritual disaster because of it; but a good number remain cripples or at least spiritually undeveloped because they are simply unprepared for and unaware of the real demands of spiritual life.
In our own day, the chief ingredient missing from this ideal harmony of human life is something one might call the emotional development of the soul. It is something that is not directly spiritual, but that very often hinders spiritual development. It is the state of someone who, while he may think he thirsts for spiritual struggles and an elevated life of prayer, is poorly able to respond to normal human love and friendship; for "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar; for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God Whom he hath not seen” (1 John 4:20).
In a few people this defect exists in an extreme form; but as a tendency it is present to some extent in all of us who have been raised in the emotional and spiritual wasteland of our times.
This being so, it is often necessary for us to humble our seemingly spiritual impulses and struggles and be tested on our human and emotional readiness for them. Sometimes a spiritual father will deny his child the reading of some spiritual book and give him instead a novel of Dostoevsky or Dickens, or will encourage him to become familiar with certain kinds of classical music, *not with any “aesthetic” purpose in mind–for one can be an “expert” in such matters and even be “emotionally well-developed” without the least interest in spiritual struggle, and that is also an unbalanced state–but solely to refine and form his soul and make it better disposed to understand genuine spiritual texts.*
Bishop Theophan, in his advice to a young woman who was preparing in the world for monastic life, allowed her to read (in addition to other non-spiritual books) certain novels which were “recommended by well-meaning people who have read them” (What the Spiritual Life Is, p. 252): With this in mind, this new column in “Orthodox America” will recommend and introduce certain works of literature and art (not excluding the modern art form of the movie) which can be of use in forming souls, especially of young people, in basic human attitudes and emotions which can dispose them to understand and pursue the higher things of the spiritual life.
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