The Proto–Hesychasts : origins of mysticism in the Eastern church
Abstract
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.
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