Rozwój teologii monastycznej w okresie po soborze chalcedońskim

Abstract

The role played by monks in the triumph over iconoclasm illustrates their traditional involvement in theological debates. Thus, monasticism appears not only as a school of spiritual perfection, but also as a collective body which feels responsible for the content of the faith and for the fate of the whole Church. At the same time, the peculiarity of monasticism, founded upon the idea that “the Kingdom of God is not of this world”, and its opposition to all compromises with “this world”, gave rise to a theology which may rightly be called “monastic”. In contrast to the fornal conservatism of the official ecclesiastical circles and to the traditions of secular Hellenism, this theology came to be the most dynamic and creative current in the whole of Christian thought.