likely that he wrote all of these quotes from memory. This would explain his occasional slight misquotations. There are two general schools of thought with regard to the originality of Peter of Damascus' spiritual teachings. On the one hand, historian Jean Gouillard maintains that there is little originality in Peter's work, but rather that he faithfully teaches exactly what was handed down to him from the Fathers. In Gouillard's own words, "In summary, entirely concentrated on putting into clear formulas the teachings of the greatest contemplatives of the east, the Damascene does not invent, nor does he prepare anything." This dismissal could explain the lack of academic research on Peter of Damascus. On the other hand, Rev. Dr. Greg Peters argues that Peter did in fact contribute to spiritual theology with original work, "Although Gouillard correctly places Peter in the mainstream of the Byzantine monastic tradition, he fails to do complete justice to Peter's innovative use of that tradition." A notable theme in Peter's writing is his position that salvation is not only for monastics, but for laypeople as well. For example, he writes in one place that "marriage is natural" and that "if someone wants to be saved, no person or no time, place or occupation can prevent him." These words reveal his position that the spiritual life is available to both monastics and non-monastics even if monasticism was seen as superior. As Bishop Kallistos Ware says, "Although writing for monks, he [Peter] insists that salvation and spiritual knowledge are within the reach of everyone; continual prayer is possible in all situations without exception." The Philokalia In 1782, Nicodemus the Hagiorite and Macarius of Corinth published an anthology of teachings from Christian spiritual masters of the 4th through 15th centuries, called the Philokalia. The Philokalia was compiled and edited from manuscripts that were available to Nicodemus at Vatopedi and other monasteries on Mount Athos. The book was initially published in Venice with the title "Philokalia of the Sacred Neptic Ones ()". The writings of Peter of Damascus, which exist in this anthology, were first translated from Greek to Slavonic by Paisius Velichkovsky and have since been translated into many more languages. Describing his joy at finding the works of Peter on Athos in the 18th century, Paisius says, "When the brother returned to the cell, I began to ask him with great joy and unutterable astonishment, how it was