Dear Readers:
I am embarking on the translation of a short book of great spiritual benefit, titled "The Spiritual Mirror". The subtitle is "The Heart of Man: Either a Temple of God or a Habitation of Satan". This book does not have Orthodox origins. What we have now is an English edition published in 1812 in Berlin by the "divine" and philanthropist Johannes Gossner (1773-1858), but he merely repurposed an older Catholic German text from the early 18th century. Gossner, a Protestant, became a controversial figure in Russia because of a book he wrote against the Orthodox Church, but this book, "The Spiritual Mirror", passed the censors and was given enough editing to make it beneficial for Orthdox Christians. Eventually it was translated into Greek and published in 1840, where it was especially popular among the monks of Mount Athos, and it was republished several times.
The purpose of this text is to awaken within us a Christian disposition through the cleansing of the heart, and it does this by reflecting on ten symbolic images. I don't want to reveal too much else about this book, but I will be using Gossner's translation, and include the edits made to make this a more Orthodox text. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite is most well known for taking popular spiritual texts from the West, like "Unseen Warfare", and making them Orthodox, and something similar was done with "The Spiritual Mirror", except we don't know who wrote it, nor do we know who translated it and made it more Orthodox.
This translation will be progressively posted for the public through my website Salvation of Sinners, where many Orthodox texts will be translated and eventually published. You can read the first page at the link below:
I am embarking on the translation of a short book of great spiritual benefit, titled "The Spiritual Mirror". The subtitle is "The Heart of Man: Either a Temple of God or a Habitation of Satan". This book does not have Orthodox origins. What we have now is an English edition published in 1812 in Berlin by the "divine" and philanthropist Johannes Gossner (1773-1858), but he merely repurposed an older Catholic German text from the early 18th century. Gossner, a Protestant, became a controversial figure in Russia because of a book he wrote against the Orthodox Church, but this book, "The Spiritual Mirror", passed the censors and was given enough editing to make it beneficial for Orthdox Christians. Eventually it was translated into Greek and published in 1840, where it was especially popular among the monks of Mount Athos, and it was republished several times.
The purpose of this text is to awaken within us a Christian disposition through the cleansing of the heart, and it does this by reflecting on ten symbolic images. I don't want to reveal too much else about this book, but I will be using Gossner's translation, and include the edits made to make this a more Orthodox text. Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite is most well known for taking popular spiritual texts from the West, like "Unseen Warfare", and making them Orthodox, and something similar was done with "The Spiritual Mirror", except we don't know who wrote it, nor do we know who translated it and made it more Orthodox.
This translation will be progressively posted for the public through my website Salvation of Sinners, where many Orthodox texts will be translated and eventually published. You can read the first page at the link below:
Please continue to financially support the work of the Mystagogy Resource Center, where dozens of Orthodox texts like this will be produced and published in the future.
Thank you,
John Sanidopoulos
Thank you,
John Sanidopoulos
