"The worship of the modern Eastern Orthodox Church is fundamentally monastic, and the near hegemony of “philokalic” theological reflection in modern Orthodox thought—that is, an approach to theology inspired by the collection of fundamentally monastic ascetic and mystical texts published in 1782 as the Philokalia—only reinforces a sense of the centrality of monastic experience in modern Orthodoxy." - Andrew Louth in The Reception of Dionysius in the Byzantine World; Maximus to Palamas
What are your thoughts on this quote? Is Louth correct in his generalization? Is t here something essentially monastic in Orthodoxy that is lacking in other Christian traditions?
