A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought (SU

by Robin Amis

This book presents the esoteric original core of Christianity with its concern for illuminating and healing the inner life of the individual. It is a bridge to the often difficult doctrines of the early church fathers, explaining the spiritual psychology of the fathers that underlies the current renewal of spirituality in the Greek church. This renewal, like this book, is closely linked to the understandings of the modern monks and abbots on Mount Athos. A Different Christianity is useful to the practitioner, as well as to the scholar, providing new insights into the problems of studying and following the spiritual path outside of a monastery.

Genres: Christianity, Theology, Esoterica, History, Mysticism, Religion, Spirituality

422 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Robin Amis (1932–2014) was a British author, poet, publisher, editor and translator. It was his conversion to the Eastern Orthodox Church and his relationship with Mount Athos, the ancient monastic republic in Greece, that ultimately defined his life and work. Over a thirty-year period, between 1982 and 2013, he made more than 60 visits to Mount Athos, where he was recognised as a "synergatis", a fellow worker and equal of the monks.[2] Amis documented the results of his research in A Different Christianity: Early Christian Esotericism and Modern Thought (SUNY, 1995), and recounted his experience on the Holy Mountain in Views from Mount Athos (Praxis 2014).[3] As founder of Praxis Institute Press, he translated, edited and published the three volume English language edition of Gnosis by Boris Mouravieff as well as books on Hesychasm and the spiritual tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. He was married to the American artist Lillian Delevoryas and in the last years of his life lived in Bristol, England.

Reviews

[Aleksandar · Rating 5 out of 5]

God blessed me with this little-known masterpiece by late and great Robin Amis, may he rest in peace. Mr. Amis was a synergatis, meaning a "fellow worker", at Mount Athos. He visited this holy place over 50 times and spoke with many monks and hermits. He was also erudite, a man truly commited to Truth, who studied and explored many different religions and philosophies. May he rest in peace, he has every reason to be in God's peace after blessing so many people with his great work trough his books and Praxis research institute.

This is one of the most important Christian book in the 20th and 21st century. I'd say that this book might be the MOST important book for a modern man or woman who is trying to understand the essence of Christianity and take up their Cross.

I would especially recommend the book to all the people that were turned away from Christianity by various cultural colorings of the Church, dogmas, focus on outwardly life, many scandals etc. This book focuses on the very essence of Lord Jesus Christ's message: inner transformation trough metanoia, cleansing of the nous. I once threw the baby out with the bathwater, because of immorality, hypocrisy and even criminality that I've witnessed in the Church. Thank God I haven't abandoned Lord Jesus Christ with the Church, my Yogic practice brought me back to real Christianity.

The book relies mostly on writings of the Church fathers from Philokalia and their own writings/books (Evagrius, Clement of Alexandria, Macarius the Great, St. Anthony, Origen...), Archimandrite Georgios Kapsanis (Gregoriou monastery) and connects them with 4th Path teachings of Mr. Boris Mouravieff and his Gnosis trilogy, but of course, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and Nicoll are present as well, but a lot less than the former. There are also parallels with Socrates, Plato and neo-Platonist thought. What I really liked and appreciated is that Real Yoga, Patanjali's Yoga was mentioned multiple times in a honorable, respectful way. Any honest, God loving man understands that Yoga is not in opposition to Christ in any way, just the opposite. But as everything else, including Christianity, modern versions of "Yoga" is a far cry from the real teaching and is mostly "spiritual gymnastics". As I wrote above, Yogic practice is what's responsible for my return to Christianity after years of rejection, because of disappointment with the Church.

I will not waste any more of your time: This is a very important, essential book for anyone who's trying to understand Real Christianity. The book is very dense and requires high awareness and concentration, so please give it due respect. I would sincerely recommend this book to ANY serious seeker, no matter which religion or philosophy they chose to follow, so they could at least know what Christianity truly is.

[Gordon Laatz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book that surveys the inner tradition of early Christianity, particularly as expressed by the exploration of the Desert Fathers and Orthodox monks and solitaries who studied their interior states under very rigorous conditions. "Inner tradition" or esoteric Christianity means the practices of interior prayer, contemplation, meditation and physical discipline (together known as a "praxis") which have the power to work on the individual both consciously and unconsciously and together bring about real spiritual growth and change in the individual necessary to carry out the work of a true follower of Christ as expressed in the Gospel.

If your Christianity consists mostly of political and tribal identity and has more to do with voting Republican and being seen in church on Sunday than doing the very hard work of improving yourself and deeping the maturity of your soul against the urgings of your personality and false self, then this book is not for you...although you are the person who needs it the most.

[Asdfhfjf · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Different Christianity is a masterpiece of spiritual insight, bringing together for the first time in a stunning feat of metaphysical detective work the mystical teachings of early Christianity with Perennial esoteric wisdom. Here we find the thread that connects Gurdjieff and the hermits of third century Egypt, John of the Cross and Isaac the Syrian, Hesychia (inner tranquility) and Hindu Advaita (non-duality), ancient monastic spiritual practices and the holistic insights of the New Age. Author Robin Amis, a long-time teacher of the path to conscious evolution, offers a world desperate for inner transformation a treasure map to the house of the soul. This book has the potential of revolutionizing contemporary assumptions about the Christian Faith and providing the missing links in esoteric teachings such as the Fourth Way. A masterwork of synergy and understanding, A Different Christianity is potent food for the serious reader's transformation of being. The author's fundamental thesis is that Christianity possesses an inner tradition that has never been common knowledge in the Western world. This Esoteric Christianity was once known as the "Royal Way" and has barely survived except in places like the monasticism of the Eastern Church. The author claims that we can find traces, in some of the great spiritual texts, of teachings that deal with experiential transformation and go back to the first centuries of the Church. But from the time of Clement of Alexandria, one of the beacons of this inner wisdom, various factors have caused the "unplanned but effective censorship" and forgetfulness of these powerful ideas. Amis clearly differentiates between Christian gnosis and the gnostic sects. Gnosis, as used here, is a special kind of inner knowledge handed down unwritten by the Apostles and is quite different from the mythologies of the later sects. Along with his scholarly research, Mr. Amis shares his own personal experiences in seeking out this lost teaching. He details his visits to Mount Athos where this spiritual wisdom has been passed on for a thousand years. He describes the island as a "place that can help one discover the eternal within oneself." His conversation with a pneumaticos (spiritual hermit) is particularly striking for he is given a message to the West: "You English have served man very well with your intellect...Now you should do another work: to understand and to tell the world of the inner truth, the truth of the heart." This book is the fulfillment of that extraordinary charge. In another sharing of his experience on the Greek peninsula, the author describes the psychosomatic impact of liturgy: "I began to understand what was really possible for a human being." Later, under a pine tree overlooking the Aegean Sea, he encounters the inward stillness that is the apex of hesychast wisdom. "Within that stillness emerged a presence I can never describe." Amis proceeds to detail the psychological phenomenon of spiritual awakening as expressed by the inner tradition. He writes extensively of the Greek philosophical concept of the nous which he understands as the cognitive power at the center of our being. The author provides numerous quotes from sources of wisdom rarely found in the West, including the second century work of Clement and of the nineteenth century Russian starets (spiritual teacher) Theophan the Recluse. Such teachings may be found in classic texts like The Philokalia and Unseen Warfare but virtually no one has integrated them with modern esoteric thought.

Th. J. Nottingham, A Masterpiece of Spiritual Insight
November 2002

[Philemon - · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author went to Mt. Athos as a young man, got on the right side of monks who became mentors, stayed a good while, then left and spent the next three or four decades studying Eastern Orthodoxy and its time-honored ways of seeking and finding God. He has much to say and inserts well-framed quotations from varied mystical traditions. God is real, more real than we can imagine, but to find God first one must first believe (for which you need God's help). Then one must be willing to wait a very long time (God's clock is not our clock). In the end God's peace and love are worth the wait.

[Theodore · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book, great theme.

Outer traditions vary, but the inner tradition is one.