According to a widespread view, the Orthodox Church is not a missionary church. Some Orthodox even claim that the Orthodox Church does not need any mission. ‘We are the holders of the Truth, and we testify to it by the very fact of our existence,’ said proudly one Orthodox clergyman with whom I was speaking on this subject. One wonders, though, whether this approach can be justified by the church history. If the apostles after Christ’s Resurrection sat behind closed doors in Jerusalem, testifying to the truth by the simple fact of their existence, any further spread of Christianity would have been extremely unlikely.

‘...When you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father Who is in secret; and your Father Who sees in secret will reward you. And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask them’. These words of Christ may provoke the following question: what is the sense of praying if God knows beforehand what we actually need?

My presentation will consist of three parts. In the first part I will attempt to describe the contemporary situation of Christianity vis-à-vis the secular world, with special reference to the predominant trends in the Western system of elementary, secondary and higher education. In the second part I will try to formulate certain principles around which, I believe, the system of Christian theological education should be shaped in the 21st century. In the third part I intend to speak about patristic theology and why the church Fathers are important for the 21st century students of Christian doctrine and morality.

My presentation will be dedicated to the theology of St Isaac the Syrian, known also as Isaac of Nineveh, a famous Eastern Christian ascetical writer who lived in the seventh century. The biographical information on Isaac is contained in two Syriac sources: The Book of Chastity by the East Syrian historian Isho‘denah, the Bishop of Basra, comprised of short biographies of Persian ascetics, and in a West Syrian source of uncertain date and origin.