Feel God

If, in Holy Scripture, it is written that those who follow Christ are called to judge the world, it is also said that judgment must begin with the house of God, that is, the Church. Only those who are part of it and who live in it are in a position to pronounce a pertinent judgment on this Institution. This means that in no way is it a question of calling into question the foundations laid by the Apostles themselves. But the weight of the centuries and the vicissitudes linked to history and human weaknesses have necessarily given the Institution a particular configuration which, like a mirror chipped and wrinkled by time, only partially reflects an image that conforms to its model. Thus, Western Christianity was characterized very early on by a theology that developed in reference to the philosophical systems of pagan antiquity. The result was an intellectualist approach and expression of the Christian mystery, accessible to cultivated clerics, but alien to the piety of the people of God, and thus relegated to the realm of private devotions.


Being except the immutable deposit of faith, it is therefore licit to exercise a critical judgment on a construction which has been built up over centuries and which today reveals ever wider faults. To the point of endangering the Institution itself. However, in order to avoid the trap of sterile negativity, a critique, whatever it may be, must refer to a positive vision, to another model dealing with the same realities as those it considers. Where can this point of support be found? In the Christian East, which offers a valid alternative through a spirituality whose contours are the subject of this book. Ancient monastic literature from the Egyptian and Syrian deserts opens up to the vision of a Christianity that today becomes more accessible to us.


However, this book does not claim, by its content, to provide a recipe for the spiritual crisis that the Western Church is going through in the face of the reality of the modern world. It merely describes the various stages of a spiritual path that has been tried and tested and that is likely to stimulate reflection aimed at getting out of certain ruts in which theology has been tangled for too long.