The Enlightener

Description

The great Russian apologetic tome of the early 16th century, St. Joseph Volokolamsk’s “Enlightener” was written as an exhaustive rebuttal against the so-called Judaizers. Among the heresies which are repelled in this book are:

• The denial of the Trinity as one God
• An insistence upon following the Mosaic Law
• That it was unbecoming of God to become a man when he could have saved mankind by willing it
• A renewed attack against icon veneration, and that God should not be depicted
• Refusing to venerate man-made objects
• A denial of the Second Coming, on the basis that it has not yet happened
• That monasticism is not an apostolic institution, but rather an innovation

All of these assertions are thoroughly dealt with, with some of the most pointed and profound commentary on the Old Testament to be found anywhere among the Fathers of the Church. The book ends with a defense of severe treatment of heretics as a defense of the truth.

This is the first time this work has been translated into English.