A Russian Orthodox scholar was the featured speaker at a symposium on Anglican divine Lancelot Andrewes held at Nashotah House Oct. 27-28.

Nicholas Lossky, the son of noted Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky, delivered two lectures on "Lancelot Andrewes: Anglican Spiritual Master (1555-1626)." Dr. Lossky is a historian and professor at the University of Paris and St. Sergius Orthodox Institute. In 1991, he published a theological study of Andrewes' famous sermons, Lancelot Andrewes The Preacher.

"Andrewes is a natural bridge between the Latin and Greek Fathers of the church," Dr. Lossky said. "He is an important link in ecumenism between Anglicanism and Orthodoxy."

A contemporary of Richard Hooker and the teacher of George Herbert, Lancelot Andrewes lived during the "golden age of Anglicanism" in the early 17th century. Andrewes had a distinguished ecclesial career, serving as Bishop of Winchester and dean of Westminster Abbey. Throughout his life he was a devoted scholar of the early Christian church. Dr. Lossky described Andrewes' sermons as having "recovered the mind and spirit of the Fathers of the Church and the catholic mind of the church."

But Andrewes' sermons were also deeply rooted in experience, Dr. Lossky noted, for they reveal "a spirituality that was absolutely inseparable from theology." In his private life, Andrewes recorded his prayers and reflections in a manual known as the Preces Privatae. These private devotions depict a man in deep communion with God. Andrewes' sermons seek to convey this "lived experience" of the Christian faith to the English Church of his time, Dr. Lossky said.

He added that for this reason Andrewes is very much like Orthodox theologians for whom the role of personal spirituality is an essential part of "doing theology." Recalling T.S. Eliot's 1928 essay, "For Lancelot Andrewes," Lossky observed that Andrewes was "at one with the subject of God when he preached."

"The Holy Spirit comes to us first and we echo the Spirit in our own words back to God," Dr. Lossky said in describing Andrewes' theology of preaching. "Andrewes' aim always was to lead his hearers to prayer."

Andrewes defended the sacrament of confession and the priest's power of absolution against the rising tide of Puritanism and Calvinism in 17th-century England. For Andrewes, confession was meant to lead the penitent to reconciliation with the eucharistic community of the church, Dr. Lossky said. "Andrewes is important to all persons who take Christianity seriously," he added. "He is a spiritual master in the fullest sense of the term."