Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Hesychasm'

In today’s global religious landscape, many beliefs and practices have been dislocated and thrust into unfamiliar cultural environments and have been forced to adapt to these new settings. There has been a significant amount of research on this phenomenon as it appears in various contexts, much of it centred on the concepts of globalisation/localisation and appropriation. In this dissertation, the same process is explored in relation to the traditions of contemplative prayer from within Eastern Orthodox Christianity known as the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm. These prayer practices have traveled from a primarily monastic Orthodox Christian setting, into general Orthodox Christian usage, and finally into wider contemporary Western culture. As a result of this geographic shift from a local to a global setting, due mainly to immigration and dissemination of relevant texts, there has been a parallel shift of interpretation. This shift of interpretation involves the way the practices are understood in relation to general conceptions of authority and tradition. The present work attempts to explain the divergence of interpretations of these practices by reference to the major themes of authority and tradition, and to several secondary themes such as appropriation, cultural transmission, “glocalisation,” memory, and Orientalism. By looking at accounts of the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm from a variety of sources and perspectives, the contentious issues between accounts will be put into a wider perspective that considers fundamental differences in worldviews.

Thesis advisor: Olivier Boulnois
Thesis advisor: Stephen F. Brown
The Dissertation Text has Three Parts. Each paragraph is referred at the end to the Part it summarizes. My dissertation places Saint Anselm’s Ontological Argument within its original Neoplatonic context that should justify its validity. The historical thesis is that Anselm’s epistemology, underlying the Proslogion, the Monologion and De Veritate, was a natural, often unaccounted for, reflection of the essentially Neoplatonic vision that defined the pre-thirteenth century mental culture in Europe. (Introduction and Part I) This thesis is shown through the reception of Anselm’s argument by 27 XIIIth-XIVth century thinkers, whose reading of it exhibits a gradual weakening of Neoplatonic premises up to a complete change of paradigm towards the XIVth century, the first reason being the specificity of the Medieval reception of Aristotle’s teaching on first principles that is the subject of Posterior Analytics (Part II), and the second reason being the specificity of the Medieval reception of Dionysius the Areopagite (Part III, see sub-thesis 4 below). The defense of this main historical thesis aims at proving three systematic sub-theses, including a further historical sub-thesis. The Three Systematic Sub-Theses: 1) The inadequacy of rationalist and idealist epistemology in reaching and providing apodictic truths (the chief one of which is God’s existence) with ultimate ontic grounding, as well as the inadequacy of objectivistic metaphysics that underlies these epistemologies, calls for another, non-objectifying epistemic paradigm offered by the Neoplatonic (Proclian theorem of transcendence) apophatic and supra-discursive logic (kenotic epistemology) that should be a better method to achieve certainty, because of its ability to found logic in its ontic source and thus envisage thought as an experience and a mode of being in which it is grounded. Within such a dialectic, there cannot be any opposition or division either between being and thought, or between faith and reason, faith being an ontic ground of reason’s activity defined as self-transcendence. The argument of the Proslogion is thus an instance of logic that transcends itself into its own principle – into ‘that than which nothing greater can be conceived’. Such an epistemological vision is also supported by contemporary epistemology (Russell’s Paradox and Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem) (Introduction and Part I) 2) In virtue of this apophatic and supra-discursive vision, God’s existence, thought by human mind (as expressed in the argument of the Proslogion), happens to be a common denominator between God’s inaccessible essence and the created essence of human mind, so that human consciousness can be defined as ‘con-science’ – the mind experiencing its own being as co-knowledge with God that forges being as such. (Part I) 3) However, God’s existence as a common denominator between God’s essence and the created essence of human mind cannot be legitimately accommodated within the XIIIth-XIVth century epistemology and metaphysics because of the specificity of relation between God’s essence and His attributes, typical of Medieval scholasticism and as stated by Peter Lombard and Thomas Aquinas. If this relation is kept, while at the same time God’s existence is affirmed as immanent to the human mind (God as the first object of intellect), God’s transcendence is sacrificed and He becomes subject to metaphysics (Scotus’ nominal univocity of being). In order to achieve real univocity between the existence of human thinking and God’s existence, one needs a relation between God’s essence and His attributes that would allow a real participation of the created in the uncreated. The configuration of such a relation, however, needs the distinction between God’s essence and His energies that Western Medieval thought did not know, but that is inherent to the Neoplatonic epistemic tradition persisting through the Eastern Church theologians and Dionysius the Areopagite up to Gregory Palamas. (Part III) Another Historical Sub-Thesis: 4) One of the reasons why Medieval readers of Anselm’s Proslogion misread it in the Aristotelian key, was that they did not have access to the original work of Dionysius the Areopagite, in which the said distinction between God’s essence and His energies is present. This is due to the fact that the Medievals read Dionysius through Eriugena’s translation. However, Eriugena was himself influenced by Augustine’s De Trinitate that exhibits an essentialist theology: in fact, it places ideas within God’s essence, which yields the notion of the created as a mere similitude, not real participation, and which ultimately makes the vision (knowledge) of God possible only in the afterlife. Since already with Augustine the relation between grace and nature is modified (grace becomes a created manifestation of God, instead of being His uncreated energy), God’s essence remains incommunicable. Similarly, God’s existence is not in any way immanent to the created world, of which the created human intellect is a part, so that it remains as transcendent to the human mind as is His incommunicable essence. This should explain why for the Medievals analogy, and eventually univocity, was the only way to say something about God, and also why they mostly could not read Anselm’s Proslogion otherwise than either in terms of propositional or modal logic. (Part III) The dissertation concludes that whilst Anselm’s epistemology in the Proslogion is an instance of Neoplatonic metaphysical tradition, the question of the possibility of certainty in epistemology, as well as the possibility of metaphysics as such, depends on the possibility of real communicability between the immanence of human predicating mind and the transcendence of God’s essence through His trans-immanent existence

Le psychanalyste Pierre Legendre propose une vision structuraliste du rapport de l'homme à l'image. Notre projet est de partir de cette réflexion fondatrice pour ensuite l'enrichir du concept de dynamisme -en se fondant sur des cultures autres qu'occidentales – qui viendra se substituer à celui de structure. Plus généralement, notre travail a pour objet de déconstruire certains stéréotypes liés à la relation entre l'homme et l'image dans le souci de restaurer une vision psychanalytique englobant la relation éthique (de 'je' à l'autre), sociale (de 'je' aux autres) et spirituelle (de 'je' au Tout Autre)qui correspond à une vision plus holistique de la cure psychanalytique mais sans la trahir
Pierre Legendre adopts a structuralist point of view in his studies. Our project is to establish – with the help of different cultures – a position more dynamics to deconstruct three sorts of stereotypes : – First, the stereotype as an obstacle between me and the others (social dimension) ; – the stereotype as a hitch between me and the Other (spiritual dimension) ; – and, finally, stereotype as an obstacle between me and me. As we can see, this question is deeply ethical and concerns the roots of the psychoanalysis

The Proto–Hesychasts suggests that the thinkers between and including Basil the Great and Symeon the New Theologian were important largely for their role in forming the fourteenth–century Hesychastic movement in the Eastern church. This conclusion is reached in part by viewing the period from an Orthodox rather than a broadly Christian perspective. Chapter Two surveys previous research on Proto–Hesychasm, and Chapter Three sets forth certain Hesychastic trends in the Proto–Hesychasts including monasticism, dark and light mysticism, an emphasis on the heart, the?sis, the humanity of Christ, penthos, and unceasing prayer. The author finds himself in agreement with Alexander Schmemann for whom Hesychasm was not a novel departure but the completion of a basic tendency of the Orthodox Church. The Hesychasts did not teach a new doctrine but continued and perfected the tradition that immediately preceded them. The thesis proper commences in Chapter Four with the fourth–century Cappadocians who established monasticism as the predominant milieu of Proto–Hesychasm and placed much emphasis on both the?sis and dark mysticism. This mysticism, codified by Gregory of Nyssa, would come into conflict with the light mysticism of their contemporary Pseudo– Macarius, but both currents would be passed on to the Hesychasts, though the latter would triumph to a degree. Macarius, affected by little besides the Bible and Syrian theology, was a seminal figure within Proto–Hesychasm, and Chapter Five shows him to be responsible not only for the stress on light mysticism but on heart mysticism in Proto–Hesychasm and Hesychasm. Mark the Monk and Diadochus of Photike were the first to recognize the vitality of his thought, and it was through them that Macarius’ spirit spread to subsequent Proto–Hesychasm, most notably that of Symeon the New Theologian. Fourteenth–century Hesychasm emerged from two main fonts, the philosophical and the ascetic. Dionysius the Pseudo–Areopagite and Maximus the Confessor, discussed in Chapter Six, were the philosophical precursors of Hesychasm, even though the former may have not been a Christian and the latter’s eschatology was characterized by a thoroughgoing Neoplatonic immanentism. The philosophers transmitted to the Hesychasts a virtually unacknowledged Platonism, but, despite their intellectualism, they exhibited typical Proto– Hesychast traits like dark and light mysticism, monasticism, the?sis, unceasing prayer, and, in Maximus, a stress on the humanity of Christ which would contribute to the Hesychasts’ distinctive refusal to disown man’s material nature. Representatives of the ascetic school of Proto–Hesychasm, covered in Chapter Seven, included Isaiah of Scetis, Dorotheus of Gaza, John Climacus, and Isaac of Nineveh. These monks, who were often abbots, concerned themselves mainly with issues like the?sis, penthos, and unceasing prayer but from a solely monastic point of view. In Chapter Eight the abbot Symeon the New Theologian is shown to be their redoubtable successor, but he was somewhat more philosophical than they were. Hesychasm has been called a recapitulation of his thought, and this is only slightly hyperbolic. Essentially the last Proto– Hesychast, Symeon took the theological elements that came before him and bequeathed these to the Hesychasts who tended to not acknowledge his influence due to his controversial career.
Thesis (Ph.D. (Church and Dogma History))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

This dissertation offers the first systematic historical contextualization and literary analysis of the five saints' lives composed by Philotheos Kokkinos (ca. 1300-1378) for his contemporaries Nikodemos the Younger, Sabas the Younger, Isidore Boucheir, Germanos Maroules, and Gregory Palamas. Notwithstanding Kokkinos' prominent role in the political and ecclesiastical scene of fourteenth-century Byzantium, as well as the size and significance of his hagiographic oeuvre, both the hagiographer and his saints' lives have received surprisingly little scholarly attention. My dissertation fills this gap and shows Kokkinos as a gifted hagiographer who played a leading role, both through his ecclesiastical authority and hagiographic discourse, in orchestrating the societal breakthrough of hesychast theology that has remained at the core of Christian Orthodoxy up to this day. The dissertation is structured in three parts. The first, Philotheos Kokkinos and His OEuvre, offers an extensive biographical portrait of Kokkinos, introduces his literary oeuvre, and discusses its manuscript tradition. A thorough palaeographical investigation of fourteenth-century codices carrying his writings reveals Kokkinos' active involvement in the process of copying, reviewing, and publishing his own works. This section includes an analysis of the 'author's edition' manuscript Marcianus graecus 582, and presents its unusual fate. Moreover, Part I establishes the chronology of Kokkinos' vitae of contemporary saints and offers biographical sketches of his heroes, highlighting their relationship to their hagiographer. The second part, Narratological Analysis of Kokkinos' Vitae of Contemporary Saints, constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of Kokkinos' narrative technique. It first discusses the types of hagiographic composition ('hagiographic genre') Kokkinos employed for his saints' lives (hypomnema, bios kai politeia, and logos), and then it offers a detailed investigation that sheds light on the organization of the narrative in Kokkinos' vitae and his use of specific narrative devices. This includes a discussion of hesychastic elements couched in the narrative. Part II concludes with considerations on Kokkinos' style and intended audience. The third part, Saints and Society, begins with a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of the miracle accounts Kokkinos wove in his saints' lives. This considers the miracle typology, types of afflictions, methods of healing, and the demographic characteristics of the beneficiaries (such as age, gender, and social status), revealing that Kokkinos shows a predilection for including miracles for members of the aristocracy. Second, it presents Kokkinos' view on the relationship between the imperial office and ecclesiastical authority by analysing how he portrays the emperor(s) in his vitae. Moreover, this part addresses the saints' encounters with the 'other' (Muslims and Latins), revealing Kokkinos' nuanced understanding of the threats and opportunities raised by these interactions. Finally, it makes the claim that through his saints' lives Kokkinos offers models of identification and refuge in the troubled social and political context of fourteenth-century Byzantium, promoting a spiritual revival of society. As my dissertation shows, Kokkinos' vitae of contemporary saints sought to shape and were shaped by the political and theological disputes of fourteenth-century Byzantium, especially those surrounding hesychasm. Their analysis offers insights into the thought-world of their author and sheds more light on the late-Byzantine religious and cultural context of their production. The dissertation is equipped with six technical appendices presenting the chronology of Kokkinos' life and works, the narrative structure of his vitae of contemporary saints, a critical edition of the preface of his hitherto unedited Logos on All Saints (BHG 1617g), a transcription of two hitherto unedited prayers Kokkinos addressed to the emperors, the content of Marc. gr. 582 and Kokkinos' autograph interventions, and manuscript plates.

La présente recherche doctorale porte sur la contribution philosophico-théologique de Jean de Cyparission(XIVe s.). Opposé aux interprétations théologiques et ecclésiologiques d'une grande partie du courant hésychaste, le penseur nous propose un commentaire favorable à l'union ecclésiale, ainsi qu'à la bonne organisation spirituelle de l'Église orientale. L'élaboration des textes inédits et l'étude codicologique de divers manuscrits qui conservent la littérature antihésychaste de Jean, sont accompagnées d'une recherche prosopographique sur l'auteur, ainsi que d'un commentaire sur son appropriation des sources aristotéliciennes, néoplatoniciennes, stoïciennes, patristiques et byzantines.
Doctorat en Philosophie
info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

碩士
淡江大學
俄羅斯研究所碩士班
99
From the early 10th century on, the Orthodox monks had to practice hard to purify their bodies and souls in order to be able to accept “the uncreated divine light” as a form of mystical communication with God. By that time there were already individual Orthodox adepts who did this practice both in the monastery and, more often, outside of it. In this sense the highest forms of Orthodox spirituality paradoxically at first glance came back to the world. This practice was named Hesychasm which means in Greek “profound silence”. This study focuses on the life and thought of Older (in Russian: Starets) Siluan (1864-1938), one of the most outstanding Hysechasm followers in modern times. Siluan inherited the tradition of Russian startsy who played the role of spiritual masters and teachers in Russian society. Siluan had a dramatic life with many drastic turns and hardships. This also fits the pattern of Orthodox saint’s life. In the 3rd century A.D. some there came into being in the desert Scetes in North Africa a tradition of ascetic monks who vowed to lead a life of hardships emulating Jesus Christ and this hetting nearer to God. Anthony the Great was the most famous representative of these so called Desert Fathers. Later this new practice spread into other countries, and in the early 10th century, it came to Mt. Athos in Northern Greece. That was the place where Orthodox monks (only males were allowed to enter Mt. Athos) practiced Hesychasm. Hysechasm’s most important theoretician was St. Gregory Palamas who lived in the 14th century. Starets Siluan has also been practicing for many years at Athos mountain.. Apart from Siluan’s life and thought the author investigates the conceptual and methodological issues of Hysechasm and the latter’s relation to society. A special attention is paid to the political significance of Hysechast tradition and controversies around this issue in contemporary Russia. When it comes to economics, educations, society or political issues Orthodox Church has always played an important role in it. The views of Siluan on Hesychasm provide important insights to the nature of Orthodox Christianity and its social nature.

碩士
淡江大學
俄羅斯研究所碩士班
96
St. Nil Sorski(1433-1508) was a distinguished reformer of Russian Orthodox Christianity who renewed ascetic monasticism in northern Russia. He is especially known for promoting a mystical practice of Hesychasm which has reached maturity in Byzantium Empire in the previous centuries. Nil Sorski adhered to this tradition of monastic practice with exceptional vigor. His religious teaching affected greatly the traditional Christian Church of Russia. Nil Sorski advocated renouncing the world and communicating with the Kingdom of Heaven through mystical contemplation. Because of this conviction, he was thought by many later thinkers to be an advocate of escapism who did not value secular authority. He is often considered the first exponent of Russian liberalism. Yet Nil Sorski’s principles of personal salvation, his tough monastic reforms and strict discipline demonstrate his devotion to the Orthodoxy and willingness for self-sacrifice. His motto “the more severely you penance, the happier you are.” is also the religious philosophy of Russian mysticism. He thought people can discover the uncreated God’s light and to attain redemption through this approach. This thesis aims at explicating the unique religious thought and activities of Nil Sorski as well as their social background through the study of Nil Sorski’s writings and life. Compared with the fate of spiritual culture in the West, which has been declining gradually Russian ascetic tradition has shaped a unique and quite solid pattern of religious mentality which keeps on influencing contemporary Russian thought and culture.

The aim of this research is to explore the possible relationship between the religious movement of hesychasm and the development of new artistic trends in Byzantine and Slavic lands during the Palaeologan period (1261-1453). This research also investigates the background currents, circumstances and persons which impelled the outbreak of the hesychast controversy. It further examines the doctrinal views of both hesychasts and humanists and considers the iconographical and stylistic changes in the Christian art of 14th and 15th centuries. Three compositions depicting three major feasts, the Transfiguration, the Anastasis and the Trinity, are selected as case studies to illustrate the transformations of art that occurred during the Palaeologan period. Combined methods of analysis are used in this thesis, including broader sociological and theological methods, with emphasis on several key issues, such as the cultural context, the thematic content, the aesthetic status and the theological role of images within theological discourse. However, formal and iconographical analyses are the principal means for study of the qualities, nature and history of the selected compositions.

In the diploma thesis "St. Nikodemus Hagioreites and the sources of his thought" I focus on the writings and views of this saint, which some scholars do not consider as Orthodox and find there an influence of the West. For example, professor Yannaras finds in the work of St. Nicodemus the influences of the Trident Council, of Enlightenment and Pietism. These and other influences, according to the researchers, are reflected in the writings of the saint. His writings Invisible Combat and Spiritual Exercises are also problematical. These are revised books of Roman Catholic spiritual literature. It is a matter of exploring who translated these handbooks and how they came into the hands of the saint. In my work I gradually attend to the possible influences on the work of St. Nicodemus, to the writings considered to be influenced by the West, some of the saint's views and their comparison with the views of other theologians and peripheral to the hesychastic movement. Very important Nicodemus' issue is the question of frequent Communion. Is it really about trying to restore the practice of the early Church? In each chapter there is the task to provide briefly basic information and to outline issues related to the topic.

The thesis interprets the icon Transfiguration by Theofan the Greek. It collects the information needed for the interpretation. The first part is devoted to the meaning of a religious picture - an icon in the context of historical development of Byzantine art and Christian thinking. It presents Theofan the Greek as the author of the icon and the doctrine about the uncreated nature of the Light of Tabor, that emerged in his time and might have influenced his work. The second part is devoted to the nterpretation of the Transfiguration icon. It consist of an explication of the biblical texts which are related to the Transfiguration and reflects other possible resources of depiction: apocryphal texts and liturgy. The conclusion of the thesis holds the interpretation of the icon.

The identity of Russian Evangelical Churches theology is considered in this thesis. This identity arose as result of interactions of Western Evangelical movements with the Orthodox Church, and with native pre-Protestant groups. The separate area of theology chosen as the subject of research is ecclesiology. The historical background of the appearance of inner-orthodox movements is shown in this work in order to understand the theological peculiarities. Peculiarities of the orthodox and extra-orthodox mentality also are considered, as they become an important environment for the appearance and development of Evangelical theology in Russia. The last part of this work shows peculiarities of recent Evangelical ecclesiology.
Systematic Theology and Theological Ethics
M.Th. (Systematic Theology)