The Friends of Mount Athos Book Reviews
© 2008
Pantocrator: An
Introduction to Orthodoxy. By
Trevor Curnow. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007. 112
pages. £29.99 hardback. ISBN 1-84718-241-0.
Trevor Curnow is
Reader in Philosophy at St MartinÕs College, Lancaster, and a member of the
Friends of Mount Athos. He writes in this short book as a non-Orthodox for
non-Orthodox readers, describing what Orthodoxy is, in theory and in practice.
The book is unusual in combining general history and analysis with the
particular story of one monastery. Its structure is threefold. A chapter on the
history and doctrines of Orthodoxy includes under the first heading an
illuminating account of the seven Ecumenical Councils, and under the second a
clear and compelling analysis of the role of icons in Orthodox doctrine and
practice. There follows a chapter on Mount Athos and Orthodox monasticism,
including the history of the Holy Mountain and the structure and organization
of its monastic settlements. Curnow then narrows his focus to Pantocrator
Monastery, its location, architecture, history, and organization, and –
to me the most interesting part – the Ômonastic existenceÕ, by day, year,
and season. The final chapter is a reflection on Orthodox ethos and the future
of the Holy Mountain. The book is completed by useful sections on visiting
Mount Athos today, past visitors, sayings of the Holy Fathers, and further
reading.
All this is a lot to fit into 112 pages, but Curnow
succeeds in doing so without sacrificing essentials, by concision in his
historical and doctrinal narratives. Certain themes emerge from these
narratives as central to Orthodoxy, especially the importance it attaches to
tradition – which puts it in tension, or on collision course, with the
modern world. Tradition is distinguished from stagnation. The maxim Ôobedience
is life, disobedience is deathÕ illuminates the centrality of humility and
obedience for the monks. ÔPractical love is impossible without submission...Õ
(Joseph the Hesychast). What animates the monks is the Ôsearch for salvation
along the path of humilityÕ. Those who wish to pursue these themes further will
find guidance in the bibliography and further reading section.
The chapter on Pantocrator itself confirms what every
visitor to the Holy Mountain soon discovers: the refreshing particularity of
each monastery within the common doctrine and generally similar structures of
Athos. Pantocrator was founded around AD 1357. It became idiorrhythmic in the
seventeenth century (CurnowÕs account of the cenobitic and idiorrhythmic styles
is clear and useful) and was the last of the twenty monasteries to abandon the
idiorrhythmic form, in 1992. Though CurnowÕs account of this important change
is discreet, it looks as if it generated no little turmoil and some anguish. A
new abbot and group of monks moved in from Xenophontos Monastery and took
Pantocrator in hand, establishing the cenobitic way. Those attached to the old
idiorrhythmic way moved out. The history of Athos has seen many such changes,
but for the present the cenobitic form seems to have established itself solidly
throughout the monasteries of the Holy Mountain. As for the future of the Holy
Mountain more generally, Curnow writes prudently that ÔThe future is always
unpredictable, but it seems safe to say that in some ways the future of the
Holy Mountain looks more secure than it has done for some time.Õ
TodayÕs brotherhood of Pantocrator consists of
seventeen monks, with a lesser number at the skete of Profitis Ilias, part of PantocratorÕs
domain. Only one monk was in evidence when we visited the monastery in May
2007, the others presumably being out in the fields. Interestingly, there are
some sixty further monks living on Pantocrator land, in the Kapsala area
between the east coast and the central ridge of the mountain, one of Mount
AthosÕs ÔdesertsÕ.
This is an admirable book, which succeeds in the
difficult task, implied by its title, of combining an account of a particular
Athonite monastery with a concise and illuminating introduction to Orthodoxy.
It will be found useful equally by those planning a visit to the Holy Mountain
and by those who have been there on pilgrimage and wish to understand better
what they have experienced. I found that objects, practices, and statements
which I had seen and heard in the monasteries were frequently illuminated by
CurnowÕs account.
MICHAEL LLEWELLYN SMITH