# The Philokalia

Canonical: https://www.bookquiver.com/andrew-louth/the-philokalia/9780241201374

![The Philokalia](https://quivercdn.com/covers/penguin-classics/andrew-louth/the-philokalia_978-02-4120-137-4.jpg?v=2026-04-24%2011%3A25%3A15)

- Book: [The Philokalia](https://www.bookquiver.com/andrew-louth/the-philokalia) ([The Philokalia.md](https://www.bookquiver.com/andrew-louth/the-philokalia.md))
- Authors: [Andrew Louth](https://www.bookquiver.com/andrew-louth), [Jonathan L. Zecher](https://www.bookquiver.com/jonathan-l-zecher)
- Publisher: penguin_classics
- ISBN: 978-02-4120-137-4
- Pages: 496
- Published: 2025-10-30
- Language: en_GB
- Binding: Softcover

## Description

The Philokalia is the most influential book in the recent history of the Orthodox Church, aside from the Bible. It is an anthology of thirty-six spiritual texts written between the fourth and fifteenth centuries by the masters of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, tracing a continuous tradition of the prayer of the heart, or hesychasm, in which the Jesus Prayer plays a growing role, from Evagrios of Pontos to Gregory Palamas. First published in Greek in 1782, and revered for offering a rich tapestry of wisdom on the path to union with God, the texts, largely of monastic origin, serve as a guide to lay people as well as monks in their pursuit of contemplative prayer, ‘inner asceticism’, and the purification of the soul.