Saint Theophan the Recluse’ 19th century book “Unseen Warfare” is a classic of Orthodox literature, but it is a very difficult read, both because of some archaic language and styling and because it is just very profound material written by a great spiritual warrior. Father Sparks has refashioned the book into three books — “Victory in the Unseen Warfare,” “Virtue in the Unseen Warfare” and “Prayer in the Unseen Warfare” — and in doing so has managed to keep the incredible insight and aids of the original while putting the text into a form that makes it easier to understand. Because he ends each chapter with a few questions to help you consider the reading, it seems to me to be ideal material for a young adult or adult study group.

Just to restate, for those who aren’t familiar with St. Theophan, the material isn’t for the faint of heart, a fact that Fr. Sparks alludes to the preface:

The book you are holding contains essential information for all Christians. Its use, however, requires a context: the Church and Orthodox spiritual guidance. No one should undertake to follow all that is said here without guidance. Everyone needs a spiritual father or guide.

In case a personal anecdote says it better, this is my second time through the trilogy. The first time around, I had to get some corrective instruction from my spiritual father to help me out of some of the problems I got into by getting too ambitious for my level of spiritual maturity.

I think the best way to illustrate both the edification and difficulty of the material is just to offer the first chapter from “Victory in the Unseen Warfare” as an excerpt. It makes for a long read, but I think this chapter in its entirety contains some of the best advice a new Orthodox beginner — or an old one — may ever get. (If you really want the 1-minute version, skip to the parts I’ve italicized, though you’ll be missing some of the context):

The Challenge of Christian Perfection
As sincere Christians, we wish to be whatever God wants us to be — and ultimately, that means to be perfect. Our Lord commands: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matthew 5:48).
Saint Paul tells us, “Do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature” (1 Corinthians 14:20). He also writes, “Epaphras … [labors] fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4:12). In another place we read, “Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God” (Hebrew 6:1).

The command to strive for perfection is found in the Old Testament as well. In Deuteronomy, God says to Israel, “You shall be blameless [or perfect] before the Lord your God” (Deut. 18:13). David advises his son Solomon, “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal [or perfect] heart and with a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever” (1 Chronicles 28:9).
We cannot fail to see from these examples that God calls for perfection on the part of Christians — that is, He wants us to be perfect in all virtues.

What is Christian perfection?
If we wish to reach such heights, we must first learn what constitutes Christian perfection. If we have not learned this lesson, we may turn away from the right path and go off in a different direction, thinking all the while that we are progressing toward perfection.

Here is the truth we must absorb: The greatest and most perfect thing a human being can ever desire to achieve is to come near to God and dwell in union with Him.

Some people — those who judge by appearances — say the perfect Christian life consists in carrying out fasts, vigils, prostrations, sleeping on bare earth, and similar severities of the body. Others will say it consists in saying many prayers at home and attending long services in church. Still others think perfection consists entirely of mental prayer, solitude, isolation and silence.

The majority, however, will say perfection comes only by strictly observing all the rules and practices of the tradition, neither going overboard nor being deficient, but keeping to a sort of “golden moderation.”

So we see that, by and large, people judge perfection by the external standard of observance of certain practices. But all the virtues mentioned above do not, in and of themselves, constitute the Christian perfection we are seeking. They are only means and methods designed to help us acquire it — and they may or may not do so.

There is, of course, no doubt these things do help some people to attain perfection in the Christian life. There are virtuous people who practice these virtues as they should, to acquire strength and power against their own sinful tendencies. Through these practices, they gain courage to withstand the temptations and seductions of our three main enemies: the world, the flesh and the devil. By using these means properly, and at the right time, they gain the spirtual support so necessary to all servants of God, and especially to beginners.

These virtuous people practice piety, each as is appropriate for himself. They may fast to subdue their unruly flesh, practice vigils to sharpen their inner vision, and sleep on uncomfortable surfaces to keep their minds and bodies from becoming soft through too much sleep. They may practice silence and go into solitude to avoid any enticement to offend the All-Holy God. They also recite prayers, attend church services, and carry out other acts of devotion in order to keep their minds on heavenly things.

In addition, they read of the life, suffering and death of our Lord for the sole purpose of understanding more clearly their own deficiencies and the merciful loving-kindness of God. This reading helps them desire and learn to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing their cross with self-denial. It also strengthens their love of God as they learn to abhor their own sinfulness.

Pitfalls of deception
On the other hand, these same activities may do more harm than good to those who take them as the sole basis of their life and their hope. It is also dangerous to undertake them independently or inappropriately, without the direction of a spiritual father or guide. The harm can come, not from the nature of the deeds, but through the fault of those who use them improperly — giving attention only to the external practice, allowing their hearts to be moved only by their own will and the will of the devil. In their case the devil, seeing that they have left the right path, gleefully refrains from interfering with their activities, even allowing them to increase and multiply their efforts in obedience to their vain ideas.

Experiencing certain spiritual stirrings and comforts along with their pious activities, such people begin to imagine they have already attained the condition of the angels and to feel that God Himself is present in them. At times, in fact, engrossed in the contemplation of abstract and unearthly things, they imagine they have completely transcended this world and have been transported to the third heaven.

Nevertheless, Christians who examine the life and character of such people can clearly see how sinfully they behave and how far they are from true perfection. As a rule, people who rely on their righteous deeds as their sole basis of life and hope display certain discernible characteristics:

• They always wish to be considered better and more important than other people.
• They want their own way and are stubborn in their decisions.
• They are blind in everything concerning themselves, but are very clearsighted when it comes to examining the words and actions of others.

If someone else is held by others in the same esteem, these people think they enjoy (or should enjoy), they cannot bear it and become openly hostile to that person. And if anyone intereferes with them in their pious activities, God forbid! They immediately become indignant, boil over with anger, and become quite unlike what they are believed to be.

If, desiring to bring them to a knowledge of themselves and to lead them on the right path to perfection, God sends them afflictions and sickness — or allows them to be persecuted, the means by which He ordinarily tests His true and real servants — this test immediately shows what is hidden in their hearts and how deeply they are corrupted by pride. For whatever affliction comes upon them, they refuse to bend their necks to the yoke of God’s will and to trust in His secret and righteous judgments. They do not want to follow the example of our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, who humbled Himself and suffered for our sakes. They refuse to be humble, to consider themselves the lowest of all creatures, to regard their persecutors as good friends, tools of God’s generosity toward them and helpers in their salvation.

Thus, it is clear such people are in great danger. Their inner eye, that is, their spirit, is darkened, and looking at themselves through it, they see incorrectly. Remembering their external pious works and considering them good, they imagine they have already reached perfection. Puffing themselves up, they begin to judge others. After this it is impossible for anyone to convert such people, except through God’s special influence. An obvious sinner will turn toward good much more easily than will a secret sinner who hides under the cloak of visible virtues.

Drawing near to God
Now, having seen clearly and definitely that spiritual life and perfection do not consist in these visible virtues of which we have written, we must learn in what they do consist: in coming near to God and dwelling in union with Him, as we said at the very beginning.

Along with this will come a heartfelt realization of the goodness and greatness of God,. together with consciousness of our own weakness, inability, and susceptibility to sin. We must love God and feel remorse for our sins, humbling ourselves not only before God but also before all people, for the sake of our love of God. We must renounce all will of our own and learn perfect obedience to the will of God. Finally, we must desire all these things with a pure heart, to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31), from sheer desire to please God — because He Himself wishes it and because we should so love Him and work for Him.

This is the law of love, which the Holy Spirit Himself has written on the hearts of the faithful. This is the self-denial our Savior calls for so earnestly in the Gospels. This is the blessed yoke of Jesus Christ and His burden that is light. This is the submission to God’s will which our Redeemer and Teacher demands from us both by His word and by His example.

Did not our Master, the Author of our salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ, tell us to say when praying to the heavenly Father, “Our Father … Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9, 10)? And did not He Himself exclaim on the eve of His suffering and death, “Not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42)? And did He not say of His whole work, “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38)?

Do you now see what all this means, brothers and sisters? Like most sincere Christians, you are probably already expressing your readiness and are longing to reach the height of such perfection. Blessed by your zeal! But prepare yourself for labor, sweat, and struggle, beginning with your very first steps on the path. You must sacrifice everything to God and do only His will. You will meet within yourself a multitude of desires, all clamoring for satisfaction, whether or not it agrees with the will of God. Nor can you reach perfection all at once — sometimes a lifetime is required.

Therefore, to reach our chosen aim, we must first curb our own desires, submitting them to the will of God. In order to succeed in this, we must constantly oppose all evil in ourselves and urge ourselves toward good. In other words, we must ceaselessly fight against ourselves and against everything that arouses and supports our sinful passions. So prepare yourself for this struggle and this warfare, knowing the crown — the attainment of your desired aim — is given to none but the most courageous of those who go to war.

Weapons for victory
But if this is the hardest of all wars — since it is within ourselves that we meet opposition — victory in it is the most glorious of all. And, what is most important, it is the most pleasing to God. If, inspired by devotion, we overcome and put to death our unruly passions — our sinful lusts and desires — we will please God more and will work for Him more beautifully than if we whip ourselves till we draw blood, or exhaust ourselves by fasts more than any ancient hermit of the desert.

On the other hand, not even the most magnificent good deed will save us if we remain slaves to our passion. Indeed, whatever work we may undertake, however glorious, will not lead us to our desired aim if we give our passions free rein, allowing them to live and act within us.

Finally, if after learning what constitutes Christian perfection, and realizing that to achieve it you must wage a constant, cruel war with yourself, you really desire to be victorious in this unseen warfare and be rewarded with a crown, you must plant in your heart the following four dispositions and spiritual activities. You must arm yourself with these invisible weapons, the most trustworthy and unconquerable of all:

• Do not rely on yourself in the spiritual warfare.
• Bear always in your heart a perfect and all-daring trust in God alone.
• Strive without ceasing.
• Remain constantly in prayer.

Study questions
[first section] “What is Christian perfection?”

1. Be sure you understand the definition of Christian perfection. Try to give it in one brief sentence.
2. Consider the things many people think constitute the perfect Christian life. Why would they think this way? Consider what Scripture says concerning each of these practices.
3. What is the value of those virtous practices considered so important? Consider them one by one. What role can they play in making us what God wants us to be?

“Pitfalls of deception”

1. What is the danger in misuse of these virtous practices?
2. What are some signs of their misuse? What danger signs should we look for in ourselves?
3. How can we help ourselves when we see we are in such danger?

“Drawing near to God”

1. Consider those qualities of heart, soul, and spirit which are connected with perfection. What is their distinguishing mark?

“Weapons for victory”

1. How can we make ourselves ready for the pursuit of Christians perfection, for the unseen warfare?