A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought

by Robin Amis

Overview

This book presents the esoteric original core of Christianity, with its concern for illuminating and healing the inner life of the individual. It is a bridge to the often difficult doctrines of the early church fathers, explaining their spiritual psychology, which underlies the spirituality of the Greek church. The book helps to show links between that patristic spirituality and the present-day understandings of living monks and abbots on Mount Athos.

A Different Christianity is useful to the practitioner, as well as to the scholar, providing new insights into the problems of studying and following the spiritual path outside a monastery.

"The tradition is one," says Boris Mouravieff in his book Gnosis: Study and Commentaries on the Esoteric Tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. And today, despite claims to the contrary, my observations have convinced me that this links with the fact that Christianity possesses and always has possessed an inner tradition: not a system, but what might be called a discipline. To those with sufficient experience in investigating this field, I believe that this book will convey the same conviction. In addition, I would add to the idea that the inner tradition is one--although with local variations--certain other observations about it:

1. All the major religions of the world possess a complete tradition of inner knowledge (or a version of the one tradition), although it has only reached a small percentage of the most able individuals within that faith.
2. Many or all of the great civilizations of the world are formed by the great faiths of the world.
3. In each case of a civilization formed by one of the great faiths, the inner tradition is a fundamental element in the structure of the associated civilization.

[from T. Nottingham's 2002 review: ] "The process of awakening [to this inner knowledge] presented in A Different Christianity includes inner separation, the watch of the heart, metanoia, remembrance of God, magnetic center, self-observation, dispassion, and theosis (God-realization) and other foundational methods. Part of the discipline of the Royal Way (the inner tradition of the early Church) is to perceive without prejudgement, an effort that requires the development of transcendent self-control. This process is one that does not go against one's nature as happens with misguided asceticism but rather uncovers one's true nature."

"A key idea in this teaching is Diakrisis (discrimination) which enables us to change our attitudes to ourselves and to detect influences acting upon our minds. 'Effective diakrisis is nothing more than clear psychological perception...given form by real knowledge of our human nature.' This implies the development of profound and brutally honest self-knowledge, a critical step to spiritual evolution. Here we find direct links between the ancient wisdom of the early Fathers of the desert and the contemporary teachings of Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, known as the Fourth Way, dealing with inner work on oneself. These efforts contribute to the goal of esotericism which Amis defines as 'inner autonomy of spirit.' "

"One of the most important contributions of this work comes with the author's presentation of noetic prayer. This 'method' is at the heart of the Royal Way. But it little resembles what usually passes for prayer. 'Prayer as it progresses depends more on a relinquishing of control than on its intensification...Directed prayer involves what one can only call a kind of effortless effort'."

"This book offers us the missing pieces that can revive a teaching of great power, which has the potential of revitalizing the spirituality of the Western world."

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781872292397
Publisher:	Praxis Research Institute
Publication date:	06/13/2003
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	503,591
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.93(d)

About the Author

Robin Amis was a British author, poet, publisher, editor and translator. Although he had studied a wide range of spiritual traditions, including Kabbalah, the Fourth Way and Hindu teachings, it was his conversion to the Eastern Orthodox Church and his relationship with Mount Athos, the ancient monastic republic in Greece, that ultimately defined his life and work. Over a thirty-year period, between 1982 and 2013, he made more than 60 visits to Mount Athos, where he was recognised as a "synergatis", a fellow worker and equal of the monks. Amis documented the results of his research in A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought (SUNY 1995, Praxis 2003), and recounted his experience on the Holy Mountain in Views from Mount Athos (Praxis 2014). As founder of Praxis Institute Press, he translated, edited and published the three volume English language edition of Gnosis by Boris Mouravieff as well as books on Hesychasm and the spiritual tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. He was married to the American artist Lillian Delevoryas and in the last years of his life lived in Bristol, England. In the early 1960s Amis joined the Study Society in London, which was led by one of P. D. Ouspensky's former students, Francis Roles. By the late 1960s, Amis was leading study groups in various parts of England, including Bristol, Birmingham, Sussex and Gloucestershire. In 1979, Amis took a group of his students to meet with Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh, Bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church. This meeting, in turn, led to Amis' interest in Orthodoxy and the ancient monastic tradition that had been preserved on Mount Athos. Amis first visited Athos in 1982 and by chance met with Gerald Palmer, a former student of Ouspensky who had converted to Orthodoxy in 1950. Palmer's spiritual teacher on Athos was Father Nikon who encouraged Palmer to acquire, translate and publish the Philokalia, the compendium of teachings of the Church Fathers of the Eastern Orthodox Church. This translation was started by Gerald Palmer and E. Kadloubovsky, and continued by Palmer, Kallistos Ware and Philip Sherrard. It was begun at a time when very few Orthodox books were available in the English language. Amis' initial visits to Mount Athos in turn led to his own conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy in 1983. Between 1987 and 1993, Amis and a small team that included Lillian Amis, Sergei Kadleigh and his wife Leslie, translated, edited and published the three volume work, Gnosis, A Study and Commentary on the Esoteric Tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy by Boris Mouravieff. Originally published in France between 1960 and 1963 Gnosis was based on the course entitled "An Introduction to esoteric philosophy according to the esoteric tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy" that Mouravieff had taught at the University of Geneva. In his later years Amis concentrated on writing, lecturing and teaching. He continued to make regular bi-annual visits to Mount Athos, establishing a close relationship with Osiou Gregoriou monastery, its Abbot, Archimandrite George Kapsanis, and the brotherhood of monks there. During those visits, Amis placed himself under obedience with an elder, Saint Paisios of Mount Athos. At one of these meetings St. Paisios told him: "You English have served man very well with your intellect, giving him many things he needs, the solutions to many problems that have made life easier for everyone. Now you should do another work - to understand and tell the world of the inner truth, the truth of the heart as well". In many ways this instruction defined the latter part of Amis's life, which he devoted to this task. He formed Praxis Research Institute (www.praxisresearch.net) and working with a small number of associates and students around the world through video conferencing he developed his ideas for bringing Hesychasm to spiritual seekers who have to live and work in the world. Amis died in Bristol, England, aged 82 on 13 June 2014.

Table of Contents

The following is an abridged Table of Contents:

PREFACE - The Forgotten Christian Inner Tradition

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION - Searching in the Ruins, From Investigation of the Past, a New Vision.

CHAPTER 1
The Royal Road of the Early Church
The Path of Heart
Pray for Help
Unchanging Truth
Loss of Ancient Knowledge

CHAPTER 2
The Burning Bush
A Hermit Speaks
Trial by Fire
Symeon the New Theologian on Inner Experience
Saint Maximos on the Fall
Modern Man's Inability to Remember Inner Experience
Gregory of Nyssa's View

CHAPTER 3
The Rediscovery of Spirit
The Christian Overcomes the Fall
The Life of Moses
Philosophy in the Early Church
Saint Isaac's Prayer for Gnosis
Two Very Different Kinds of Knowledge
The Role of Knowledge in Spirituality

CHAPTER 4
The Wise and Foolish Virgins
The Quest for Energies
"Ask, and it shall be given you."
Christianity as a State of Being
The Startsi
The Five Virgins as the Senses

CHAPTER 5
Gnosis Is Not Gnosticism
An Experiential Gnosis
Different Worldviews
False Gnosis
A World Without Gnosis
The Question of Education

CHAPTER 6
The Work of God
Doing the Will of God
Gregory of Nyssa and the Chariot Parable
Work on Oneself
Modern Solutions
The Biblical Paradox of the Knowledge of God
Ascesis as Work on Oneself

CHAPTER 7
Three Renunciations Defined
The First Renunciation: "Dying to the World"
The Turn Toward Reality
The Two Nights
Bitter Waters
The Second Renunciation
The Third Renunciation
A Fourth Stage
Theosis: Deification
Saint Silouan of Mount Athos

CHAPTER 8
Faith and Assent
Two Stages of Faith
Faith Without Works
Faith of Consciousness

CHAPTER 9
The Eye of the Soul
Transformation of the Heart
The New Man as the Prodigal Son
The Struggle for Metanoia
"The love of the soul is its salvation"
Recognition

CHAPTER 10
Metanoia and Ascesis
Modern Views of Metanoia
Metanoia as Change of Being
Saint Paul and the Ascetic Struggle
Obedience and Cutting off the Will
Obedience to the Commandments
The Passions
A Transformed Eros

CHAPTER 11
Prayer, The One Thing Needful
Theocentric Selflessness
Epiousion - 'super-substantial' bread
Prayer as Relation to God
The Inner Room
The Jesus Prayer
Noetic Prayer
Non-Doing

CHAPTER 12
A Nonmonastic Path
Renunciation of Inner Possessions
The Two "Legs" of the Tradition
Mouravieffs Method
Watchfulness (Nepsis)
Presence
The Ark As Separation from the World
Magnetic Center
Active Stage: The Struggle
Through Knowledge to Detachment
Second Passive Stage: Magnetization to God

CHAPTER 13
Memory and Discrimination
What We Think Determines What We See
The Garden, a Model of Memory
Plato's Wax Tablet Model
The Parable of the Sower
Illusory Memories
The Nature of Diakrisis (discrimination)
Cassian on Diakrisis
Meat Diet and Milk Diet

CHAPTER 14
Provocation
Stages of Provocation
1. Provocation
2. Conjunction
3. Joining
4. & 5. The Struggle Against Habit
6. Captivity
Observation of Provocations
Resisting Provocation
First Provocation: Gluttony
Second Provocation: Lust
Third Provocation: Avarice
Fourth Provocation: Sadness
Fifth Provocation: Anger
Sixth Provocation: Accidie
Seventh Provocation: Vanity
Eighth Provocation: The demon of Pride
The Fear of Opening Ourselves to God

POSTSCRIPT 1: (1995) Healing the Soul: Some Conclusions from Matthew 13
The Barbarians Within
Need for Christian Teaching
Taking up the Cross
Reports of a Lost Esotericism
The Psychological method
A Method for Today
A Christian Origin
If Thine Eye Be Single
A Different Kind of Concentration

POSTSCRIPT 2: (2003) The Elders of the Inner Tradition, and the Nature of True Spirituality
Monasticism Depends on Turning Away from Life
The Church Offered This Kind of Guidance
The Teachers of the Tradition
Modern Spirituality has Definite Requirements
Experiential Spirituality of the Inner Tradition

Editorial Reviews

A Masterpiece of Spiritual Insight - Theodore J. Nottingham, November 2002 A Different Christianity is a masterpiece of spiritual insight, bringing together for the first time in a stunning feat of metaphysical detective work the mystical teachings of early Christianity with Perennial esoteric wisdom. Here we find the thread that connects Gurdjieff and the hermits of third century Egypt, John of the Cross and Isaac the Syrian, Hesychia (inner tranquility) and Hindu Advaita (non-duality), ancient monastic spiritual practices and the holistic insights of the New Age. Author Robin Amis, a long-time teacher of the path to conscious evolution, offers a world desperate for inner transformation a treasure map to the house of the soul. This book has the potential of revolutionizing contemporary assumptions about the Christian Faith and providing the missing links in esoteric teachings such as the Fourth Way. A masterwork of synergy and understanding, A Different Christianity is potent food for the serious reader's transformation of being. The author's fundamental thesis is that Christianity possesses an inner tradition that has never been common knowledge in the Western world. This Esoteric Christianity was once known as the "Royal Way" and has barely survived except in places like the monasticism of the Eastern Church. The author claims that we can find traces, in some of the great spiritual texts, of teachings that deal with experiential transformation and go back to the first centuries of the Church. But from the time of Clement of Alexandria, one of the beacons of this inner wisdom, various factors have caused the "unplanned but effective censorship" and forgetfulness of these powerful ideas. Amis clearly differentiates between Christian gnosis and the gnostic sects. Gnosis, as used here, is a special kind of inner knowledge handed down unwritten by the Apostles and is quite different from the mythologies of the later sects. Along with his scholarly research, Mr. Amis shares his own personal experiences in seeking out this lost teaching. He details his visits to Mount Athos where this spiritual wisdom has been passed on for a thousand years. He describes the island as a "place that can help one discover the eternal within oneself." His conversation with a pneumaticos (spiritual hermit) is particularly striking for he is given a message to the West: "You English have served man very well with your intellect...Now you should do another work: to understand and to tell the world of the inner truth, the truth of the heart." This book is the fulfillment of that extraordinary charge. In another sharing of his experience on the Greek peninsula, the author describes the psychosomatic impact of liturgy: "I began to understand what was really possible for a human being." Later, under a pine tree overlooking the Aegean Sea, he encounters the inward stillness that is the apex of hesychast wisdom. "Within that stillness emerged a presence I can never describe." Amis proceeds to detail the psychological phenomenon of spiritual awakening as expressed by the inner tradition. He writes extensively of the Greek philosophical concept of the nous which he understands as the cognitive power at the center of our being. The author provides numerous quotes from sources of wisdom rarely found in the West, including the second century work of Clement and of the nineteenth century Russian starets (spiritual teacher) Theophan the Recluse. Such teachings may be found in classic texts like The Philokalia and Unseen Warfare but virtually no one has integrated them with modern esoteric thought.

From the Publisher