In the first part of the book, on the basis of all the carefully worked out and critically analyzed literature published at different times and by various persons, as well as archival documents about the Holy Father, the complete life of St. Tikhon is given, covering all aspects of his life and work at the cathedra and in retirement. At the end of this part, the editions of the works of the saint are considered and a brief description of each of these works is given.

In the second part, in the light of the statements of St. Tikhon, the Orthodox teaching on salvation is revealed and, in particular, the teaching of the saint concerning the creation of the world and man, as well as the key issues of anthropology, Christology and soteriology, is analyzed.

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Schema-Archimandrite John (Maslov)

St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and His Teaching on Salvation

Preface

The year 1983 marked the 200th anniversary of the blessed repose of the great luminary of the Russian Church, St. Tikhon, Bishop of Voronezh and Yeletsk.

The literary theological heritage of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk is extensive and multifaceted in its subject matter. The saint considered the main goal of man's existence on earth to be the salvation of the soul. The idea of salvation runs like a red thread through all his creations. A Christian will find here answers to many questions that arise on his path to eternity. The letters of the Holy Father, which are included in the collection of his works, almost always end with the words: Be saved!", "Save yourself in the Lord!", "Save yourself in Christ Jesus!"

As a spiritual-life process, salvation is the work of both God and man. In other words, there are objective and subjective sides in this process. Everything that the Lord has given to man for salvation is the objective side of salvation; the efforts of man himself, with the grace of God that helps him, constitute the subjective side. Both of these aspects are clearly reflected in the works of the Voronezh saint. In addition, in them the inner richness of his highly moral personality is fully revealed, and the revelation of this wealth makes it possible to present the theological views of the Holy Father more clearly and completely. The facts of the biography of St. Tikhon also help to understand the spirit and meaning of his works. "Reducing the feats of the saint to general features," says one of his biographers, "we find that in his life... the living relation of dogma to life and their mutual connection are revealed, i.e., how Christian dogmas, vividly and constantly recognized by the believing mind, should be expressed in the corresponding dispositions of the heart and free actions of the will" [1].

On the basis of this, this work is divided into two parts: the first gives a biography of St. Tikhon, and the second reveals the central theme of his teaching – the salvation of man. Speaking in more detail about the content of the work, we note, in particular, the following key points.

First of all, the preface gives a critical analysis of some of the main works and studies on St. Tikhon.