Do any of the Church Fathers or any Orthodox theologian state that you should not call spiritual leaders “father” or “teacher?”

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Chrysostom's Sermon 72 is one example of an Eastern Father who wrote on this topic.

For what says He? But 'be not ye called Rabbi.' Then follows the cause also; For one is your master, and all you are brethren; [Matthew 23:8] and one has nothing more than another, in respect of his knowing nothing from himself. Wherefore Paul also says, 'For who is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers?' [1 Corinthians 3:5] He said 'not masters.'

And again, Call not 'father,' [Matthew 23:9] not that they should not call, but they may know whom they ought to call Father, in the highest sense. For like as the master is not a master principally; so neither is the father. For He is cause of all, both of the masters, and of the fathers.

So Chrysostom clearly cautioned against confusing God the Father with any spiritual father or teacher, but did not go so far as to forbid the mere "calling" of these titles.

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Do any of the Church Fathers or any Orthodox theologians state that you should not call spiritual leaders “father” or “teacher?”

The short answer is no.

Although St. John Chrysostom wrote how not to apply these terms in a way the would be confusing and ambiguous with its’s usage in reference to God the Father. No Church Father has stated that we cannot call our spiritual teacher father, teacher or master.

They understood that Christ is are perfect teacher and master and leads us to the Father.

Right from the very being the Desert Fathers freely used the wordings similar to father to denote their trust in a person dedicated to enlighten them matters of the spiritual life.

St. Paul of Thebes is often credited with being the first hermit monk to go to the desert, but it was St. Anthony of the Desert who launched the movement that became the Desert Fathers. Sometime around AD 270, Anthony heard a Sunday sermon stating that perfection could be achieved by selling all of one's possessions, giving the proceeds to the poor, and following Jesus. He followed the advice and made the further step of moving deep into the desert to seek complete solitude.

The Sayings of the Desert Fathers are full of references of hermits and monks calling their mentors Abba which means Father.

For example:

  • One time, the blessed Abba Theophilus the archbishop went to Scetis. But the brothers gathered and said to Abba Pambo: 'Tell the Father one word that he may benefit.' The old man told them: 'If he does not always benefit from our silence, then if we speak he will still not benefit.'

  • Abbot Pastor said: If a man has done wrong and does not deny it, but says: I did wrong, do not rebuke him, because you will break the resolution of his soul. And if you tell him: Do not be sad, brother, but watch it in the future, you stir him up to change his life.

  • A hermit saw someone laughing, and said to him, "We have to render an account of our whole life before heaven and earth, and you can laugh?"

  • Abba Longinus said to Abba Acacius: 'A woman knows she has conceived when she no longer loses any blood. So it is with the soul, she knows she has conceived the Holy Spirit when the passions stop coming out of her. But as long as one is held back in the passions, how can one dare to believe one is sinless? Give blood and receive the Spirit.'

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