EVERY HERESY has its own “spirituality,” its own characteristic approach to the practical religious life. Thus, Roman Catholicism, until recently, had a clearly distinguishable piety of its own, bound up with the “sacred heart,” the papacy, purgatory and indulgences, the revelations of various “mystics,” and the like; and a careful Orthodox observer could detect in such aspects of modern Latin spirituality the practical results of the theological errors of Rome. Fundamentalist Protestantism, too, has its own approach to prayer, its typical hymns, its approach to spiritual “revival”; and in all of these can be detected the application to religious life of its fundamental errors in Christian doctrine. The present book is about the “spirituality” of Ecumenism, the chief heresy of the 20th century.

Until recently it appeared that Ecumenism was something so artificial, so syncretic, that it had no spirituality of its own; the “liturgical” agenda of Ecumenical gatherings both great and small appeared to be no more than an elaborate Protestant Sunday service.

But the very nature of the Ecumenist heresy — the belief that there is no one visible Church of Christ, that it is only now being formed — is such that it disposes the soul under its influence to certain spiritual attitudes which, in time, should produce a typical Ecumenist “piety” and “spirituality.” In our day this seems to be happening at last, as the Ecumenical attitude of religious “expectancy” and “searching” begins to be rewarded by the activity of a certain “spirit” which gives religious satisfaction to the barren souls of the Ecumenist wasteland and results in a characteristic “piety” which is no longer merely Protestant in tone.

This book was begun in 1971 with an examination of the latest “Ecumenical” fashion — the opening of a “dialogue with non-Christian religions.” Four chapters on this subject were printed in The Orthodox Word in 1971 and 1972, reporting chiefly on the events of the late 1960s up to early 1972. The last of these chapters was a detailed discussion of the “charismatic revival” which had just then been taken up by several Orthodox priests in America, and this movement was described as a form of “Ecumenical spirituality” inclusive of religious experiences which are distinctly non-Christian.

Especially this last chapter aroused a great deal of interest among Orthodox people, and it helped to persuade some not to take part in the “charismatic” movement. Others, who had already participated in “charismatic” meetings, left the movement and confirmed many of the conclusions of this article about it. Since then the “charismatic revival” in “Orthodox” parishes in America, judging from Fr. Eusebius Stephanou’s periodical The Logos, has entirely adopted the language and techniques of Protestant revivalism, and its un-Orthodox character has become clear to any serious observer. Despite the Protestant mentality of its promoters, however, the “charismatic revival” as a “spiritual” movement is definitely something more than Protestantism. The characterization of it in this article as a kind of “Christian” mediumism, which has been corroborated by a number of observers of it, links it to the new “Ecumenical spirituality” out of which is being born a new, non-Christian religion.

In the summer of 1974, one of the American monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia was visited by a young man who had been directed to one of its monks by the “spirit” who constantly attended him. During his brief visit the story of this young man unfolded itself. He was from a conservative Protestant background which he found spiritually barren, and he had been opened up to “spiritual” experiences by his Pentecostalist grandmother: the moment he touched a Bible she had given him, he received “spiritual gifts” — most notably, he was attended by an invisible “spirit” who gave him precise instructions as to where to walk and drive; and he was able at will to hypnotize others and cause them to levitate (a talent which he playfully used to terrorize atheist acquaintances). Occasionally he would doubt that his “gifts” were from God, but these doubts were overcome when he reflected on the fact that his spiritual “barrenness” had vanished, that his “spiritual rebirth” had been brought about by contact with the Bible, and that he seemed to be leading a very rich life of prayer and “spirituality.” Upon becoming acquainted with Orthodoxy at this monastery, and especially after reading the article on the “charismatic revival,” he admitted that here he found the first thorough and clear explanation of his “spiritual” experiences; most likely, he confessed, his “spirit” was an evil one. This realization, however, did not seem to touch his heart, and he left without being converted to Orthodoxy. On his next visit two years later this man revealed that he had given up “charismatic” activities as too frightening and was now spiritually content practicing Zen meditation.

This close relationship between “Christian” and “Eastern” spiritual experiences is typical of the “ecumenical” spirituality of our days. For this second edition much has been added concerning Eastern religious cults and their influence today, as well as concerning a major “secular” phenomenon which is helping to form a “new religious consciousness” even among non-religious people. None of these by itself, it may be, has a crucial significance in the spiritual make-up of contemporary man; but each one in its own way typifies the striving of men today to find a new spiritual path, distinct from the Christianity of yesterday, and the sum of them together reveals a frightening unity of purpose whose final end seems just now to be looming above the horizon.

Shortly after the publication of the article on the “charismatic revival,” The Orthodox Word received a letter from a respected Russian Orthodox ecclesiastical writer who is well versed in Orthodox theological and spiritual literature, saying: “What you have described here is the religion of the future, the religion of antichrist.” More and more, as this and similar forms of counterfeit spirituality take hold even of nominal Orthodox Christians, one shudders to behold the deception into which spiritually unprepared Christians can fall. This book is a warning to them and to all trying to live a conscious Orthodox Christian life in a world possessed by unclean spirits. It is not an exhaustive treatment of this religion, which has not yet attained its final form, but rather a preliminary exploration of those spiritual tendencies which, it would indeed seem, are preparing the way for a true religion of anti-Christianity, a religion outwardly “Christian,” but centered upon a pagan “initiation” experience.

May this description of the increasingly evident and brazen activity of satan, the prince of darkness, among “Christians,” inspire true Orthodox Christians with the fear of losing God’s grace and turn them back to the pure sources of Christian life: the Holy Scriptures and the spiritual doctrine of the Holy Fathers of Orthodoxy!