The Living Tradition An Orthodox Archive of the Church Fathers and Early Church

Orthodox worship and spiritual life — lesson 4

Spiritual fatherhood and obedience

What a spiritual father is, what obedience means, and the failure modes the tradition names.

  • Pastoral applicationHow a teaching is ordinarily applied in practice, under the guidance of a priest and bishop. Never a substitute for that guidance.
  • Received Orthodox teachingTaught consistently and received throughout the Orthodox Church, though not necessarily formulated in a conciliar definition. This is not a claim that no Father ever wrote differently.

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  • Confirm the account of spiritual fatherhood and of pastoral safeguards against an official Orthodox source.

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What this lesson covers

  • Describe the relationship between a spiritual father and a spiritual child.
  • Distinguish obedience from submission to an individual's will.
  • Name the abuses the tradition itself warns about.

About 6 minutes to read.

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The ascetic tradition assumes that a person does not direct their own spiritual life. Cassian's Conferences, Climacus's Ladder and the sayings of the desert fathers all take for granted that discernment is learned from someone further along, and that self-direction is the standard route into self-deception.

For most Orthodox Christians the spiritual father is their parish priest, and the relationship is ordinary: confession, occasional counsel, and a rule set together. The intense form described in monastic literature belongs to monasteries and is not the pattern for a layperson.

What obedience is and is not

The purpose of the relationship is freedom, not dependence. Climacus is explicit that the aim is a person who can eventually see clearly, not one who remains permanently unable to judge anything.

Key Scripture

  • Proverbs 11:14 — In an abundance of counsellors there is safety.
  • Hebrews 13:17 — Obey your leaders — a passage that has been misused and that has a real meaning.
  • Galatians 5:1 — For freedom Christ has set us free.

On Scripture references. References are given so you can read the passage in the translation your parish uses. This site does not reproduce a modern copyrighted Bible text.

Why this matters in lived Orthodoxy

In practice most Orthodox Christians find their confessor by attending a parish and getting to know the priest. Choosing a spiritual father at a distance, from reputation, is generally discouraged.

Review

Who is a spiritual father for most Orthodox Christians?
Their parish priest, in an ordinary relationship of confession, counsel and a rule set together.
What does obedience in this tradition not cover?
It is not the surrender of conscience and does not extend to instructions to do wrong.

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Going deeper

Sources for this page

  1. Tier C Sulpitius Severus, Vincent of Lérins, John Cassian Philip Schaff and Henry Wace (eds.) John Cassian, Conference 1 translated edition of primary texts Source record

Tiers are explained in the methodology. No page on this site has been reviewed or approved by any bishop, priest, synod or seminary.