The “Outline of Christian Moral Teaching” by St. Theophan the Recluse was originally part of his famous essay “Letters on Christian Life,” which he later revised. The saint abolished the epistolary form and added new material. The author, tracing the stages of a Christian’s life, pays special attention to the moral side and offers rules that should guide a Christian on the path to salvation. In his work, Saint Theophan relies on the Holy Scriptures, the teachings of the holy fathers of the Church, the ascetic writings of the ascetic fathers, as well as on his own experience of spiritual life.

Contemporaries of the Recluse Vyshensky highly appreciated this work, saying that “Inscriptions…” are not inferior to the best courses in moral theology. And today this work of the saint is a practical guide to the spiritual development of man.