The
inner unity of the Philokalia
How
far does the Philokalia possess an all- embracing unity and
coherence? Are there common themes which bind together the thirty-six
authors that it contains? Are we entitled to speak of a distinctive
and characteristic 'spirituality' of the Philokalia?
At
first sight it might appear that there is no underlying unity, no
specifically 'Philokalic' spirituality. The different texts are given
simply in chronological order, with no attempt at systematic
classification, no grouping of topics, and no clear indication which
writings are considered suitable for 'beginners' and which for the
more 'advanced'. In this connection it is relevant to keep in mind
the meaning of the title ' Philokalia'. This can certainly be given a
spiritual sense: it may signify love for what is beautiful and good,
love for God as the source of all things beautiful, love for whatever
leads to union with the divine and uncreated beauty. Yet the term '
Philokalia' can also mean merely an 'anthology', a collection of good
and beautiful things. Is that perhaps the true character of the
Philokalia of St Makarios and St Nikodimos? Is it no more than a
selection of disconnected texts, chosen more or less at random?
If
we look deeper, however, we find that the Philokalia is in reality
far more than a series of unrelated writings, bound up for
convenience between the covers of the same volume. There are certain
dominant motifs, certain master-themes, which give to the Philokalia
a coherent unity and a definite purpose. Let us consider in
particular three basic themes, pervading the whole work, and after
that three further features that are more specific in character.
1.
The General Scope of the Philokalia: Inner Action
The
primary concern of the texts in the Philokalia is with ' inner'
rather than Outer' action. It deals, not with that the Desert Fathers
term ' bodily toil', but with ' the guarding of the intellect'(10).
It does not concentrate upon detailed regulations concerning the
observance of fasts, the hours of sleep, or the number of
prostrations, but it looks beyond the letter of these outward rules
at their inner spirit, at their spiritual purpose and effect. What it
reveals to us, says St Nikodimos in his preface, is 'the kingdom of
God that is within you' (see Luke 17:21), 'the treasure hidden in the
field of the heart' (see Matt. 13:44) (11).
This
'kingdom within us' is characterized according to the Philokalia more
particularly by two virtues: by νῆψις, a term denoting
sobriety, temperance, lucidity, and above all vigilance and
watchfulness; and by ἡσυχία, which signifies not so much
exterior silence as inner stillness of heart. Key concepts in Eastern
spirituality as a whole, these two connected qualities are key
concepts more specifically in the Philokalia. If we are asked to sum
up the message of the Philokalia in not more than two words, the best
way to do so would be to use the terms nepsis and hesychia. The
central!ty of nepsis is indicated at the very outset in the Greek
title of the book, Φιλοκαλία τῶν Ἱερῶν Νηπτικῶν,
Philokalia of the Holy Neptic [Fathers]. St Nikodimos in his preface
describes the Philokalia as a ' treasury of watchfulness' (νήψεως
ταμεῖον) (12).
Interpreting the word in a wide-ranging sense -he refers to it as
'all-embracing watchfulness' (ἡ καθόλου νῆψις) -he
links it with two other basic notions in Orthodox ascetic theology,
'attentiveness' (προσοχή) and 'keeping guard over the
intellect' (φυλακή τοῦ νοός) (13).
It is nepsis that secures our entry into the inner kingdom; in the
words of an author included in the Philokalia, St Philotheos of
Sinai, it is 'a path leading to the kingdom - both to that which is
within us and to that which is to be' (14).
The second key term, hesychia, is understood in the Philokalia
chiefly in the Evagrian sense of 'pure prayer', that is to say,
prayer in which the intellect is 'naked' and free from all images and
discursive thinking. Towards the end of the Philokalia the basic
sense of the word is well summed up in an epigrammatic phrase of St
Gregory of Sinai: 'Hesychia is a shedding of thoughts' (ἡσυχία
γάρ εστιν άπόθεσις νοημάτων) (15).
2.
The Basic Aim: Deification
If
such is the general scope of the Philokalia, in what way does the
work envisage the basic aim and purpose of the spiritual life? St
Nikodimos provides a clear answer in the very first sentence of the
preface: 'God, the blessed nature, perfection that is more than
perfect, the creative principle of all that is good and beautiful,
Himself transcending all goodness and all beauty, in His supremely
divine plan preordained from all eternity the deification (θέωσις)
of humankind’ (16).
Such, then, is the purpose for which humans were created, and such is
the supreme end of the spiritual life: theosis. It is no coincidence
that theosis should be mentioned by Nikodimos not only in the opening
sentence of his preface, but on no less than five other occasions on
the first page alone. This ideal of theosis, of direct, transforming
union with the living God, constitutes a unifying thread throughout
the Philokalia as a whole.
3.
The Means: Continual Invocation of the Holy Name
Having
indicated in the first sentence how humans were created for theosis,
Nikodimos goes on to speak in the preface about the Fall, Christ's
Incarnation, and the gift of the Holy Spirit conferred at Baptism.
This grace of Baptism, bestowed on us in infancy, has been obscured
by worldly cares and passions. How can it be reactivated? Nikodimos
answers:
The
Spirit... revealed to the Fathers a method (τρόπος) that is
truly wonderful and altogether scientific (έπιστημονικώτατος),
whereby grace can be rediscovered. This was to pray continually to
our Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God, not simply to pray with the
intellect and the lips alone (for this is something obvious to all in
general who choose the life of devotion, and is easy for anyone); but
to turn the whole intellect towards the inner self, which is a
marvellous experience; and so inwardly, within the very depths of the
heart, to invoke the all-holy Name of the Lord and to implore mercy
from Him, concentrating our attention solely on the bare words of the
prayer, not allowing anything else whatever to gain entry from within
or from without, but keeping the mind totally free from all forms and
colours (17).
This
'spiritual and scientific work' (πνευματικὴ καὶ
ἐπιστημονική εργασία), if accompanied by the
practice of the commandments and the acquisition of the virtues, will
burn up the passions and enable us to 'return to the perfect grace of
the Spirit that was bestowed upon us in the beginning through
Baptism' (18).
To help us with the invocation of the Name, St Nikodimos adds,
several Fathers have recommended' a practical method through the use
of certain physical techniques' (19).
Such,
then, are the means proposed in the Philokalia whereby the supreme
goal of theosis is to be achieved. The 'scientific method' envisaged
by St Makarios and St Nikodimos may be summarized in five
points:
i. to
pray without ceasing;
ii. tο
pray in the depths of the heart;
iii. during
prayer to exclude all images and thoughts;
iv. to
invoke the Holy Name of Jesus;
v. to
use, if so desired, the physical technique (head bowed on chest;
control of the breathing; inner exploration). This technique may
assist us, but it is not essential.
St
Nikodimos makes it abundantly clear in his preface that the
invocation of the Name of Jesus is one of the fundamental themes in
the Philokalia. We must be careful, however, not to exaggerate its
place in the work as a whole. Some of the selections from the
Philokalia published in the West give the misleading impression that
the book is predominantly a manual on the practice of the Jesus
Prayer, with little else besides. But in fact the two authors to whom
the greatest amount of space is allotted in the Philokalia, St
Maximos the Confessor and St Peter of Damaskos, nowhere mention the
Jesus Prayer at all. It is only in the final part of the work that it
occupies a central position. When the Philokalia is read in its
entirety, it becomes evident that the editors were far from regarding
the invocation of the Name as a 'spiritual technique', to be
practised in isolation, but they were concerned always to place it in
a wider ascetic and 'neptic' context, such as would involve a
personal relationship with Christ at every level. Yet, even though
'Philokalic' spirituality cannot be reduced simply to the practice of
the Jesus Prayer, the invocation of the Holy Name certainly forms a
significant unifying thread within the Philokalia.
The
characteristics of a distinctly 'Philokalic' spirituality are now
beginning to emerge. There are three other features that call for
special mention:
3.1.
The Evagrian -Maximian Tradition
Although
the works included in the Philokalia reflect a variety of viewpoints,
the predominant influence is that of Evagrios and St Maximos. There
is nothing from the Apophthegmata, from the Greek version of St
Ephrem, from St Gregory of Nyssa, St Dionysios the Areopagite, St
Varsanuphios or St Dorotheos. There is, it is true, a relatively long
section of Makarian material, in the version of Symeon Metaphrastis.
But it is the Evagrian terminology and classification that prevails,
and this is apparent particularly in the texts from St Maximos the
Confessor, which occupy a central place in the Philokalia.
3.2.
Palamism
How
far is it legitimate to regard the Philokalia as a work reflecting,
not only the Evagrian-Maximian approach to the spiritual life, but
more specifically the theology of St Gregory Palamas? Any answer
requires to be carefully qualified. The Kollyvades were definitely
upholders of Palamism, and St Nikodimos himself prepared an edition,
never in fact published, of Palamas' collected works in three volumes
(the Greek press in Vienna, to which St Nikodimos had sent the
manuscript of this, was closed by the Austrian authorities in 1798,
following the arrest of Rhigas Velestinlis; a small part of the
manuscript was saved, but most of it was destroyed by the Austrian
police, or otherwise dispersed and lost) (20).
On the other hand, fourteenth century Hesychast writings occupy no
more than a quarter of the Philokalia; moreover, the Hesychast texts
included by the editors are for the most part pastoral and
non-polemical, and there is relatively little that alludes explicitly
to the technical Palamite teaching concerning the divine light and
the distinction between the essence and the uncreated energies of
God.
In
a broader sense, however, the Philokalia is certainly a work
conceived and executed in a Palamite spirit. The basic antinomy which
the essence-energies distinction seeks to safeguard underlies the
Philokalia from one end to the other: that God is at the same time
unknown and yet well known, both transcendent and immanent, both
beyond all being and yet everywhere present. On the one hand, the
apophatic approach to the divine mystery is repeatedly emphasized in
the texts selected by St Makarios and St Nikodimos; God, to quote
from the writings of St Maximos the Confessor included in the
Philokalia, is the 'supremely unknowable', 'infinitely transcending
the summit of all spiritual knowledge', apprehended only by faith 'in
a manner beyond all unknowing' (21).
On the other hand, the Philokalia constantly affirms that it is
possible, even during this present life, to attain an unmediated,
divinizing union with the infinitely transcendent Deity. To use the
daring phrase of St Maximos, through deification the saints are
granted 'identity with respect to energy' with the triune God,
although not identity of essence(22).
If, then, the essence-energies distinction (itself much older than
Palamas) is seen not simply as a piece of philosophical speculation
but in its true experiential dimensions -as a way, that is to say, of
expressing the living experience of the saints during prayer- then
the Philokalia should indeed be regarded as fundamentally 'Palamite'
in its orientation.
3.3.
Absence of Western Influence
The
works included in the Philokalia all belong to the tradition of
Eastern Christian spirituality. In other publications St Nikodimos
was prepared to adapt for an Orthodox audience Roman Catholic works
such as the Combattimento Spirituale of Lorenzo Scupoli, the Esercizi
Spirituali of Giampetro Pinamonti (based on Ignatius Loyola), and Il
confessore istruito and Il penitente istruito of Paolo Segneri (23).
St Nikodimos seems to have valued the psychological insight displayed
by these Western authors, and the sense of 'feeling', the fervent,
affective tone, that distinguishes their works. Doubtless he also
felt that the methods of discursive meditation, centred especially on
the Passion, which these writers advocate, might be of assistance to
Orthodox readers who experience difficulty with the imageless,
non-iconic prayer recommended in the Evagrian tradition; yet even so
he considered it necessary in Unseen Warfare to add a chapter -not to
be found in his source, Scupoli- on the control of the imagination
and the memory (24).
In the Philokalia, however, St Nikodimos and St Makarios restricted
themselves exclusively to the traditional spirituality of the
Christian East, without any borrowings from Roman Catholic sources.
Although the Philokalia contains a number of texts involving
imaginative meditation on the life and Passion of Christ -a notable
example occurs in St Mark the Ascetic' s Letter to Nicolas (25)-
the manner of praying that is normally proposed is the Evagrian
'shedding of thoughts'.
Such,
then, are some of the unifying threads within the Philokalia, which
justify us in claiming that there is indeed a distinctively
'Philokalic' spirituality. As a book devoted primarily to inner
action -to the 'inner kingdom' of the heart -the Philokalia ascribes
particular significance to the two connected qualities of nepsis and
hesychia. The basic aim set before the spiritual aspirant is nothing
less than theosis, direct participation in the uncreated energies and
glory of God. The chief means whereby this aim is to be achieved is
through the unceasing invocation of the Holy Name, accompanied when
appropriate by the 'physical technique'; but the Philokalia does not
emphasize the Jesus Prayer in a one-sided or exclusive manner. It is
a work basically Evagrian and Maximian in its orientation; a work
which presupposes the Palamite essence-energies distinction; a work
which makes no use of Western Counter-Reformation spirituality, but
which nowhere attacks Western Christendom; a work intended for all
Christians, monks and laity alike. Without being exhaustive or
systematic, the Philokalia possesses none the less a genuine unity
and coherence of its own. Far more than a group of disparate texts
bound together at random in a single volume, it is indeed what its
editors St Makarios of Corinth and St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain
claim it to be: 'a mystical school of noetic prayer' (26).
Sometimes
I am asked: in what order should the writings of the Philokalia be
read? Should we start at the beginning, on page one, and read
straight through to the end? Probably that is not the best method. To
one who is unfamiliar with Hesychasm but who has a serious and deep
longing to discover its true meaning, I sometimes suggest the
following sequence of texts:
i. St
Kallistos and St Ignatios Xanthopoulos, Directions to Hesy-chasts
(Philokalia IV, 197-295, English translation Kadloubovsky and Palmer,
Writings from the Philokalia, 164-270) (27).ii. St Hesychios the Priest, On Watchfulness and Holiness (Philokalia I, 141-73, English translation I, 162-98).
iii. Evagrios the Solitary (alias Neilos the Ascetic: i.e. Evagrios of Pontus), On Prayer (Philokalia I, 176-89, English translation I, 55-71).
iv. A Discourse on Abba Philimon (Philokalia II, 241-52, English translation II, 344-57).
v. St Gregory of Sinai, On the Signs of Grace and Delusion; On Stillness; On Prayer (Philokalia IV, 66-88, English translation IV, 257-86) (28).
But here I strongly recommend readers not to attempt the physical technique mentioned by St Gregory, unless they are under the direct instruction of an experienced spiritual teacher.
Notes
10. Compare the analogy of the foliage of a tree and its fruit in the Gerontikon, Alphabetical Collection, Agathon 8 (PG 65:112AB).
11. Philokalia I, xxiv.
12. Philokalia I, xxiii.
13. Philokalia I, xx.
14. Forty Texts on Watchfulness 3 (Philokalia II, 275; ET III, 17).
15. St Gregory of Sinai, On Prayer 5 (Philokalia IV, 82; ET IV, 278). The phrase comes from St John Climacus, Ladder 27 (PG 88:1112A), who is adapting Evagrios, On Prayer 71 [70] (Philokalia I, 182; ET I, 64).
16. Philokalia I, xix.
17. Philokalia I, xx.
18. Philokalia I, xxi. Compare St Kallistos and St Ignatios Xanthopoulos, Directions to Hesychasts 4 (Philokalia IV, 199; ET E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer, Writings from the Philokalia on Prayer of the Heart [Faber & Faber, London 1951], 166).
19. Philokalia I, xxi.
20. See Citterio, L’orientamento (note 3), 349-52.
21. Maximos, On love 3:98[99]; Various chapters 3[1]:1 (Philokalia II, 40, 91; ET II, 99, 164).
22. Maximos, Various chapters 6[4]:19 (Philokalia II, 150; ET II, 240); cf. To Thalassios 59 (PG 90: 609A; Corpus Christianorum 22, 53, lines 137-8).
23. See Citterio, L'orientamento (note 3), 112-36.
24. See H.A. Hodges, introduction to Unseen Warfare: Being the Spiritual Combat and Path to Paradise of Lorenzo Scupoli as Edited by Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain and Revised by Theophan the Recluse, translated by E. Kadloubovsky and G.E.H. Palmer (Faber & Faber, London 1952), 49-51.
25. Philokalia I, 134-5; ET I, 155-6 (PG 65:1041B-1045A). Mark the Ascetic, also known as 'Mark the Hermit', is more correctly designated 'Mark the Monk'.
26. Philokalia I, xxiii.
27. See Kallistos Ware, A Fourteenth- Century Manual of Hesychast Prayer: the Century of St Kallistos and St Ignatios Xanthopoulos (Canadian Institute of Balkan Studies, Toronto 1995).
28. See Kallistos Ware, 'The Jesus Prayer in St Gregory of Sinai', Eastern Churches Review 4:1 (1972), 3-22; David Balfour, Saint Gregory the Sinaite: Discourse on the Transfiguration, offprint from Θεολογία 52:4- 54:1 (1981-3).
Edit. Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation, Athens 2004.
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