“Wealth without work
Pleasure without conscience
Science without humanity
Knowledge without character
Politics without principle
Commerce without morality
Worship without sacrifice.
https://vidjambov.blogspot.com/2023/01/book-inventory-vladimir-djambov-talmach.html
Together with Christianity, the spiritual work of the ancient Egyptian hermits was also transferred to Russia, which subsequently developed among monasticism in the Byzantine Empire for more than 1000 years of its existence.
In the XV century, when Russia lost touch with the Christian East, due to the invasion of the Turks, this inner work was forgotten. And when at the end of the XVIII century he was revived in Moldova by the Archdiocese Paisy Velichkovsky, it is a work that many seemed like an unprecedented innovation.
Since its penetration into Russia, Optina Pustyn has been the main focus of this feat and the associated old age.
In Optina, it was transmitted for about 100 years from generation to generation and was interrupted only with the defeat of this monastery by the Bolsheviks.
I devoted my whole life to this topic.
When at the Theological Academy I had to choose a topic for my candidate essay, I wanted to write about Optina Desert and its elders. For a candidate's essay, it is necessary to study all the literature on this topic.
When I studied it, I saw that the question of the essence of old age was not completely covered in theological science. Moreover, there were incorrect and conflicting opinions.
There was not even a definition of the concept of old age. Therefore, I started from the very beginning: with an explanation of spiritual work and its occurrence in history, and in particular in the spiritual life of our people, since the spiritual life of the people is connected with the spiritual life of monasticism.
The fruit of this was my book "Gaining of the Holy Spirit in the ways of ancient Russia."
It expresses the Orthodox worldview with a historical perspective. But this book only serves as an introduction to the main theme.
