Both discernment and discretion involve the Christian’s development of a correct relationship with various ideas and concepts. They are intellectual virtues in that to display them means to recognize certain truths and realities clearly, without being deceived. Abba Moses defines discernment in the first conference as the ability first to avoid any kind of incorrect doctrine or idea that might lead a monk astray.
Whatever has found entrance into our hearts, and whatever doctrine has been received by us, should be most carefully examined to see whether it has been purified by the divine and heavenly fire of the Holy Spirit … or whether it comes from the pride of a worldly philosophy and is only pious in superficial appearance.25
Abba Moses continues by saying that he has known many monks who have been led astray by ideas that seemed, at first, to be consistent with a pious Christian life. Chief among these kinds of ideas, it would appear, are theological heresies of various sorts, teachings that encourage monks to return to a life in the world, and various prideful teachings about how to live the Christian life.
Abba Moses then gives just a few examples, focusing on those ideas that lead monks into spiritual arrogance, such as the idea of going to extreme lengths in fasting, or desiring to become priests for prideful reasons.26 He also highlights the problem of false interpretations of scripture that are disguised under apparent piety and truth,27 and his mention of heresies above implies that one can be similarly misled by false theological teachings, though he does not give any specific examples of these. Yet, the particulars of the various errors into which Abba Moses has seen his brothers fall are not what is most critical for us in trying to understand his concern about the problem of false teachings. What is important is that, for Abba Moses, there are a lot of ideas about Christian life and theology that may seem good and holy, but are not. It is the task of the Christian to develop discernment such as to recognize the truth from deception.
But how does one do this in principle? One crucial element of Abba Moses’ understanding of discernment sheds light on how it is cultivated. For Abba Moses, the monk runs the risk of various intellectual errors when he begins to trust the instincts of his own mind too readily. Bad ideas are those that seem good to the one hearing them, but that have not met with the approval of the fathers.
All these things, though they are contrary to our salvation and monastic commitment, can deceive the unskilled and incautious because they are covered with a sort of veil of compassion and religiosity. They imitate the coins of the true king since they appear to be completely pious, but they are not from the real mint—that is, from the proven and orthodox fathers …. The devil deceives when he has the appearance of holiness, “but he hates the sound of the watchman” [Prov II.15 LXX], i.e. the power of discretion that comes from the words and warnings of the fathers.28
Discernment, it seems from Abba Moses’ description, involves a certain kind of distrust for one’s own spiritual and theological instincts in light of the devil’s ability to use a little bit of truth to perpetrate a lie. One turns, in light of this distrust, to the fathers of the Church and so, over time, begins to develop a fluency with their teachings, and their correct interpretations of scripture. Eventually one starts to recognize, through discernment, the difference between true and false teachings of whatever sort.
~Daniel G. Opperwall, A Layman in the Desert
25 Conf. I.XX.2. Translation adapted from Gibson.
26 Conf. I. XX.3-5.
27 Conf. I.XX.4.
28 Conf. I.XX.6–8.
