First of all, we will say that Met. Anthony was a conductor of a strong psychologism and moralism. This is evident from his work "Psychological Evidence for Free Will and Moral Responsibility," in his articles on the moral application of dogma, and in his famous work "The Dogma of the Atonement." At that time, in the era of positivism and determinism, such a view was a ray of bright sunshine and a fresh breath of life-giving wind. In our time, theology is unable to reconcile itself to this alone.

Psychologism and moralism are also pursued by him in pastoral theology. Vocation has absolutely no significance, the emphasis is placed on spiritual and ascetic training. Attention was devoted to the revelation of one's pastoral gift and mood, and to the multiplication of this gift in oneself. This teaching can be schematically reduced to pastoral influence.

Man's will is free, but it is subject to the influence of every other will acting upon it to the extent of its importance. The power of influence is not so much in the words and content of what is said, but in the persuasiveness of the spirit, morality, and perfection. "Pastoral preaching," said Met. St. Anthony is presented in the Holy Scriptures as a force that acts independently of the content of the teaching, but depending on the inner mood of the speaker. The influence of a shepherd's soul on his flock depends mainly on the degree of his devotion to his calling. The main condition is not in scholarship, not in the psychological subtlety of the moral figure, but in something else that does not need any intermediary or external manifestation, or that remains undetermined externally in all these manifestations, but flows directly into the soul of the person being instructed.

What is this special mood that can have such an effect on the person being taught? The gift of compassionate love," Met. Antony. This gift can revive a fallen sinner, lift him from the depths of despair, and give him the strength to further moral improvement. It should not be forgotten that even the very redemption of the human race is explained by this author as compassion for people in their sins, moral bearing of their inner burdens, and experiencing them in His heart with compassion and love. As is well known, Christ's redemption of our race is attributed to the moment of Gethsemane's moral sufferings, in which the Chalice is not of the physical sufferings of the Cross, but of moral suffering for the human race.

In his work, the pastor must strive, and he is given the grace-filled gift of spiritually identifying himself with others, "assimilating to himself, to his heart, every neighbor" (Vol. 2, p. 256), to spread his message to the entire flock. In his moral experience of the sins of his flock, in his compassion for their shortcomings, the pastor should ideally reach the point of identifying himself with others to such an extent that "all I disappear and only We remain." In other words, this teaching tries to overcome separateness, subjectivism, and to reveal to the highest degree the conciliar empathy of all members of the Body of Christ with the sufferings and joys of others.

To this doctrine of compassion and empathy, Met. Anthony is easily confirmed in the epistles of Ap. Paul, and in the writings of some of the Fathers. In fact, if, according to the words of the Apostle, in contrast to the Old Testament, we have a High Priest who can have compassion on us in our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15), then Ap. Paul may say, "My children, for whom I am again in the pains of birth" (Tal. 4:19) or "Whosoever faints, with whom shall I not faint?" (2 Corinthians 11:29) and even strive that "I may be all things to all, that I may save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22).

That such a gift of compassion is given to the priest and precisely in the sacrament of consecration, Met. St. Anthony finds confirmation in St. Chrysostom, who, in his commentary on the Epistle to the Colossians, writes: "Spiritual love does not give birth to anything earthly: it comes from above, from heaven, and is given in the sacrament of the priesthood, but the assimilation and maintenance of the gift of grace depends on the striving of the human spirit."

Let us add some more thoughts of Sts. Fathers. Thus, St. Maximus the Confessor, in his letter 28 to Siricius, writes about the grace of the episcopate given to him to be an imitator of goodness and to be zealous for the gathering together of the scattered children of God, and to bind himself to them in an insoluble union of love. St. St. Isaac the Syrian wrote in his homily 8: "He who loves everyone equally out of compassion and without distinction has attained perfection." But especially remarkable is his word about the "merciful heart," which "is kindled in man for all creation, for man, for birds, for animals, for demons, and for all creation." "At the remembrance of them and at the sight of them, the eyes of man shed tears. Because of the great and strong pity that encompasses the heart, and because of the great compassion, the heart shrinks, and it cannot endure, or hear, or see any harm or small sorrow that the creature suffers. Wherefore for the dumb, and for the enemies of the truth, and for those who do him harm, he prays hourly with tears, that they may be preserved and have mercy, and also for the nature of reptiles he prays with great pity."

This teaching about the compassionate assimilation into the pastoral heart of every suffering, and especially a sinful person, was to a large extent inspired by the writings of Dostoevsky, on whom Met. Antony often and willingly refers to and under whose influence he was undoubtedly placed. It has undoubtedly to a great extent renewed our pastoral science, dried up in scholasticism and rationalism, and has inspired many young priests in their sacrificial service to humanity. This influence was undoubtedly strengthened by the charm of the personality of the metropolitan himself, who in fact carried out the same teaching and practically carried out this revival of the soul.

But the doctrine of compassionate pastoral love and of assimilating the conscience of another person to one's heart, which is correct in itself, should not, however, be absolutized. This is not the only task of the pastorate. If such a gift is given in a priesthood ordinance, it is not limited to it. Theology is not only asceticism, pastoral care is not only moralizing, the transfiguration of man is accomplished not only by psychological assimilation and the influence of one will on another.

The metropolitan wrote: "There is no pastoral activity: there is a pastoral conscience." If it is possible to say, "He is not a bad shepherd who does not know how to speak Greek, who does not have an ear for music or an imposing appearance, but he who does not know how to pray, who has not killed self-love in himself as the goal of his life, who does not know how to love, compassion and forgive," then the pastor's ministry is not exhausted by this alone.

And Anthony Khrapovitsky himself was not inclined to draw extreme conclusions from his positions. He did not identify Christianity, or even monasticism, with repentance alone (2, p. 417); He is the author of beautiful lines about the degeneration of our hymnography from the specimens of inspired poetry in hymns, in which "a darker character, full of slavish fear and fear of torments beyond the grave predominates"; He perfectly took into account the inclination of other pastors to engage in "forced salvation" and, misunderstanding what eldership is, to put the emphasis "on the podvig of obedience in the sense of only the fulfillment of certain duties." Such, as he says, "deeply religious and pious ascetics, but little gifted with a pastoral spirit" become heavy officials for their flock.

His demand for pastoral scholarship is certainly true, not so much to enumerate the duties and individual functions of a priest, as to cultivate in him this pastoral spirit and mood. It is wrong to limit this mood to compassion alone, to the psychological influence of conscience on conscience, to the preaching of moral perfection, etc. Anthony's psychologism and moralism always overshadowed the other, and especially excluded everything mystical. In the pastoral mood, however, the moment of mysticism cannot but occupy a very important place.

The moral element enters into the Christian gospel as it takes its rightful place in all religious teaching. But this moment cannot exhaust the entire spiritual life in Christianity. Although the Christian sermon itself began with the words of the Forerunner: "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt. 3:2), the understanding of repentance in Christianity contains two aspects: negative and positive. The genius of the Greek language expresses this religious feeling by the word metanoite, which is very different from our "repentance." In repentance one hears regret for what has been done, remorse, something passive in the sense of creation. The bitterness of irreparability occupies the main place here. We do not hear in this word "do good," but only "turn away from evil." The Greek word metania does not contain this sorrow for what has been done, namely, something impulsive, calling for a new work, the opposite of that which led to sin, since literally this word means "a change of thought," or, more broadly, a change of actions, a life, a doing. There is something active and constructive in this call. Sermon by Ap. St. Paul tells us this directly, since "every one must understand us as ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God" (1 Cor. 4:1), or even more specifically: "He (Christ) ordained some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ" (Eph. 4:11-12). The same moral, spiritual aspect acquires the character not only of regret for what has been done, of repentance, which in itself is fruitless, but also of the creation of a new, good, positive deed, namely, the work of building up the Body of Christ. This is the meaning of the sermon of a Christian pastor and teacher. The construction of mysteries, the work on the tasks of the church, on the creation of its mystical body. This is a much broader task than weeping over one's sins.