The study of Russia's past has led me to the unshakeable conviction that today the Orthodox theologian can find for himself the true measure and the living source of creative inspiration only in the patristic tradition.

I am absolutely convinced that the spiritual distancing from the Fathers and Byzantine thought was the main cause of all the setbacks and failures in the spiritual development of Russia. This book addresses the history of those failures. All genuine achievements of Russian theology have been a consequence of a creative return to the patristic sources.

This narrow path of patristic theology is the only true one, and this is particularly clear in historical perspective. Moreover, the return to the Fathers should not be merely intellectual or historical, but a return to the spirit and prayer, a living and creative self-restoration in the fullness of the Church that lives within the entirety of the sacred tradition.

We have the privilege of living in a time of theological awakening that is evident throughout the divided Christian world. It is time to reconsider and remember very carefully all those once harsh and sometimes inspired lessons and legacies of the past.

And a true awakening can only begin when the past and the future resonate with not only the answers but also the questions. The inexhaustible strength of the patristic tradition in theology continues to be determined by the fact that theology was a living experience for the Holy Fathers, that is, a spiritual quest, a confession of faith, a creative solution to vital problems.

From this creative spirit, ecclesiastical texts have always drawn their inspiration. Only by returning to the Fathers can healthy theological sensitivity be restored in our ecclesiastical community, a sensitivity without which the anticipated Orthodox awakening will never take place.