Philip Sherrard

Sherrard was a practising Eastern Orthodox Christian and was responsible, along with Kallistos Ware and G. Palmer, for the first full translation of the Philokalia into English. Sherrard also wrote prolifically on theological and philosophical themes, describing what he believed to be a social and spiritual crisis occurring in the developed world, specifically modern attitudes towards the biophysical environment from a Christian and perennialist perspective.

• Name — Philip Sherrard • Birth Name — Philip Owen Arnould Sherrard • Born — 23 September 1922 • Birthplace — Oxford, England • Died — 30 May 1995 • Place of death — London, England • Occupation — Author, translator, theologian • Education — Dauntsey's School • Alma Mater — Peterhouse, Cambridge King's College London • Subject — Modern Greek studies, Orthodox Christianity, the environment • Notable Works — The Greek East and the Latin West The Rape of Man and Nature The Marble Threshing Floor • Spouses — Anna Mirodia Denise Harvey • Children — 2

Philip Owen Arnould Sherrard was born on 23 September 1922 in Oxford. His family had many connections with the literary world of the period: his mother, Brynhild Olivier, had been a member of Rupert Brooke's circle before the First World War and his half-sister was married to Quentin Bell, the nephew of Virginia Woolf. He was educated at Dauntsey's School and at Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he obtained a degree in history. Sherrard first came to Greece as a soldier after the liberation of Athens in 1946. The culture and traditional way of life of the country made a profound impression on him. At this time he first corresponded with the poet George Seferis, whose work he was subsequently to translate into English. He also met and married his first wife, Anna Mirodia. After living for a period in London, he returned to Greece to serve as assistant director of the British School of Archaeology at Athens in 1951-52 and again in 1957–62. His doctoral thesis on the Greek poets Solomos, Palamas, Cavafy, Angelos Sikelianos and Seferis (King's College, London) was published in 1956 as The Marble Threshing Floor. In the same year he was baptised in the Orthodox Church. In 1959 Sherrard bought part of disused magnesite mine near the small shipping town of Limni on the island of Evia. He planted trees and plants where the former mine installations had been, and helped to restore the homes of the former directors who had lived there before the mine was abandoned at the outbreak of the Second World War. In 1970 he accepted a lectureship on the history of the Orthodox Church, a post attached jointly to King's College, London and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES). After his resignation in 1977, he moved back to Greece, where Limni now became his permanent home. In 1979 he married his second wife, the publisher Denise Harvey. In 1980, together with Keith Critchlow, Brian Keeble and the poet Kathleen Raine, he was one of the founding members of the journal Temenos, a review devoted to the "arts of the imagination". This eventually led to the foundation of the Temenos Academy, a teaching organisation based in London. Sherrard died in London on 30 May 1995 at the age of 72 and was buried near the Orthodox chapel he had had built on his property. He had two daughters.