V. Rev. Arch.

Maximos Constas

Introduction to the Philokalia: The Path of Entry

St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
Spring Semester 2022 - Mondays 2:00-4:45

August 29
Introduction - Distribution of syllabus.

I. The Philokalic Renaissance

September 5
Introduction: (1) The Philokalia and the “Philokalic Renaissance” (The Kollyvades
Movement); (2) Orthodoxy and the Enlightenment; (3) Survey of Pre-Philokalic Manuscripts;
(4) the Path of Entry into the Philokalia.

To read: [1] Philip Sherrard, “The Revival of Hesychast Spirituality”; [2] Paschalis
Kitromilides, “The Enlightenment and the Orthodox World”; [3] Vasilios Makridis, “The
Enlightenment in the Greek Orthodox East”; [4] Ioannis Zelepos, “Confessionalization in
Ottoman Orthodoxy in Comparative Perspective.”

II. The Heart and the Mind

September 12
To read: [1] Fr Maximos Constas, “St Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain: Life and Works”; [2]
St Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, trans. Peter Chamberas
(New York/Mahwah, NJ, 1989), 153-72 (= chap. 10: “Guarding the Mind and the Heart”); [3]
St Maximos the Confessor, Responses to Thalassios 6 (trans. Constas, 108-10).
First paper due

III. Prologue to the Philokalia

September 19
To read: [1] St Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, “Introduction to the Philokalia,” translated
by Fr Maximos Constas [cf. Constantine Cavarnos, “Proem to the Philokalia,” in id., The
Philokalia, vol. 1 (Belmont, MA, 2008), 27-40]; [2] Alkis Angelou, “J.D. Carlyle’s Journal of
Mt Athos (1801),” Ὁ Ἐρανιστής 3 (2016): 33-75.

IV. The Path of Entry

September 26
To read: [1] St Nikephoros the Hesychast, On Watchfulness and the Guarding of the Heart
(Philokalia 4:194-206); [2] Fr Maximos Constas, “Attend to Thyself (Deut 15:9): Attentiveness
and Digital Culture,” International Conference on Digital Media and Orthodox Pastoral Care,
Athens, 7-9 May 2015 (available on the instructor’s academia.edu page).
Second paper due
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October 3
To Read: [1] Sts Kallistos and Ignatios, Precise Method and Rule for Those Living in Inner
Stillness; chapters 1-56 (Φιλοκαλία 4:197-246).

October 10
To Read: [1] Sts Kallistos and Ignatios, Precise Method and Rule for Those Living in Inner
Stillness, chapters 57-100 (Φιλοκαλία 4:246-98).

October 17
To Read: [1] St Hesychios of Sinai, On Watchfulness and Holiness (Philokalia 1:162-98).
Third paper due

October 24
To Read: [1] A Discourse on Abba Philemon (Philokalia 2:344-57); [2] St. John Cassian, On
the Holy Fathers of Sketis and on Discrimination (Philokalia 1:94-108).

October 31
To Read: [1] Evagrios, On Prayer (Philokalia 1:55-71); [2] Fr. Maximos Constas, “Nothing
is Greater than Divine Love: Evagrios of Pontos, Maximos the Confessor, and the Philokalia,”
in Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth: Studies in Honor of Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia
(Oxford, 2016), 57-74.
Fourth paper due

November 7
To read: [1] St. Symeon the New Theologian, On Faith (Philokalia 4:16-24); [2] id., The
Three Methods of Prayer (Philokalia 4:67-75).

November 14
To read: [1] A Letter of St John Chrysostom on the Jesus Prayer, in St John Chrysostom and
the Jesus Prayer (Columbia, MO, 2019)
Fifth paper due (on Symeon, Three Methods; or Chrysostom)

November 21: Thanksgiving recess

November 28
To read: [1] St. Gregory of Sinai, On the Signs of Grace and Delusion (Philokalia 4:257-86);
[2] Elder Basil of Poiana Marului, “Introduction to St. Gregory of Sinai,” in Elder Basil of
Poiana Marului, Spiritual Father of St. Paisy Velichkovsky (Liberty, TN, 1996), 43-53.

December 5
To read: [1] St. Gregory Palamas, In Defense of Those who Devoutly Practice a Life of
Stillness (= Triads 1.2) (Philokalia 4:332-42).
Sixth paper due

December 5
Summary and Review
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Final Exam

Course Description
The Philokalia is a collection of Orthodox Christian spiritual writings consisting of both extracts and
whole works of thirty-six ecclesiastical writers from the fourth through the fifteenth century. Compiled
on Mount Athos in the eighteenth century (but based on similar collections compiled in the late
Byzantine period), the Philokalia was soon translated into Slavonic, after which a number of Russian
translations appeared. It has exerted profound influence on modern Orthodox spirituality—in Russia
from the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and in the West especially from the 1950s—and is
now generally recognized as a definitive expression of the ascetic and spiritual tradition of the Orthodox
Church. This course focuses on select works from the Philokalia, with special attention to the Prayer of
the Heart, also known as the “Jesus Prayer.” Through lectures, discussions, and close study of the texts,
participants will gain an informed understanding of the spiritual traditions and practices described in the
Philokalia, along with the collection’s complex historical origins and development.

Required Texts
St John Chrysostom and the Jesus Prayer

Course Requirements
(1) Time Commitment: For every hour spent in class, students must spend a minimum of
two to three hours studying outside of class. You will therefore need to set aside around six
additional hours a week in which to read and study the assigned texts, and to write your
papers.

(2) Class Participation: You are expected to be on time to class, and to participate actively in
discussions.

(3) Absence Policy: As this class meets only once a week, and as each week presents a new
work or theme, attendance at all class meetings is essential. One excused absence is permitted
in case of a documented emergency; absences beyond this will negatively affect the final
grade.

(4) Papers: Six (6) three-page papers due at the beginning of class on:
(1) Sept. 12 (on Nikodemos, Handbook chap. 10)
(2) Sept. 26 (on Nikephoros)
(3) Oct. 17 (on Hesychios)
(4) Oct. 31 (on Evagrios)
(5) Nov. 14 (on Symeon, Three Methods; or Chrysostom)
(6) Nov. 28 (on Palamas)

As you read the texts, you should keep a set of notes: these will provide the material for your
papers. Each paper should contain the following five (5) elements: (1) a one-page
description of the contents of the assigned reading; (2) a two-page analysis of/reflection on
the contents, focusing on a theme or aspect of the text that interests you; (3) a memorable,
one-sentence quotation from the text; and (4) three questions. Papers must be typed, 1.5
spaced, standard margins, in Times New Roman.
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Select Bibliography and Further Reading

The Philokalic Renaissance
Philip Sherrard, “The Revival of Hesychast Spirituality,” in Christian Spirituality: Post-
Reformation and Modern, ed. Louis Dupré and Don E. Saliers (New York: Crossroad, 1989),
417-31; Paschalis Kitromilides, “The Enlightenment and the Orthodox World,” in id.,
Enlightenment and Religion in the Orthodox World (Oxford: Voltaire Foundation, 2016), 5-16;
Vasilios N. Makridis, “The Enlightenment in the Greek Orthodox East: Appropriation,
Dilemmas, Ambiguities,” in Kitromilides, Enlightenment and Religion, 17-47; Ioannis
Zelepos, “Confessionalization in Ottoman Orthodoxy in Comparative Perspective: The
Publishing Program of the Kollyvades and Jewish Ladino Musar Literature in the Eighteenth
Century,” in Confessionalization and/as Knowledge Transfer in the Greek Orthodox Church,
ed. Kostas Sarris, et al. (Wiesbaden: Harrasowitz Verlag, 2021), 229-350.

For further reading: Amphilochios Radović, Ἡ Φιλοκαλική ᾽Αναγέννησι τοῦ XVII καί XIX aἰ.
και οἱ πνευματικοί καρποί της (Athens: Goulandri Horn Institute, 1984); on Makarios of
Corinth, see the Life of Makarios of Corinth, in The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox
Church. 17 April (Buena Vista, CO: Holy Apostles Convent, 2005), 479-526; Constantine
Cavarnos, “St. Macarios of Corinth,” SVSQ 12 (1968): 30-43; id., St Macarios of Corinth,
Moder Orthodox Saints 2 (Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies,
1972); Stylianos G. Papadopoulos, Ἅγιος Μακάριος Κορίνθου ὁ Γενάρχης τοῦ Φιλοκαλισμοῦ
(Athens: Ouranos, 2000); A. Charokopou, Ὁ Ἅγιος Μακάριος ὁ Νοταράς (Athens, 2001). On
Athanasios Parios, see Constantine Sathas, “Ἅθανάσιος Πάριος,” in Νεοελληική Φιλολογία.
Βιογραφίαι τῶν ἐν τοῖς γράμμασι διαλαμψάντων Ἑλλήνων (1453-1821) (Athens: Andreas
Korombilas, 1868), 630-42; Constantine Cavarnos, St Athanasios Parios (Belmont, MA:
Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 2005); Athanasios Parios, Δήλωσις τῆς ἐν
τῷ Ἁγίῳ Ὄρει ταραχῶν ἀληθείας, ed. Theodoretos Hieromonachos (Athens, 1988); Ἅγιος
Ἀθανάσιος ὁ Πάριος. Πρακτικά ἐπιστημονικοῦ συνεδρίου (Πάρος 29 Σεπτεμβρίου - 4
Ὀκτωβρίου 1998). Constantine Papoulides, Τό κίνημα τῶν Κολλυβάδων (Athens, 1971); For
background, see Speros Vryonis, The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor in the
Process of Islamization from the Eleventh through the Fifteenth Century (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1971). On Orthodoxy and the Enlightenment, see Paschalis
Kitromilides, “Orthodoxy and the West: Reformation to Enlightenment,” and id., “The Legacy
of the French Revolution: Orthodoxy and Nationalism,” in The Cambridge History of
Christianity, vol. 5: Eastern Christianity, ed. Michael Angold (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006), 187-209; and 229-49; Paschalis Kitromilides, “Athos and the
Enlightenment,” in Mount Athos and Byzantine Monasticism, ed. Anthony Bryer and Mary
Cunningham (London: Routledge, 2017), 257-72; Panagiotes Chrestou, “Neohellenic
Theology at the Crossroads,” Greek Orthodox Theological Review 28 (1983): 39-54; Kallistos
Ware, “The Hesychast Renaissance,” The Study of Spirituality, ed. Cheslyn Jones, et al.
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 255-58; On the Enlightenment and its critics, see
Peter Gay, The Enlightenment: An Interpretation. The Rise of Modern Paganism (New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1967); Eric Voeglin, From Enlightenment to Revolution (Durham, NC: Duke
University Press, 1975); Graeme Garrard, Counter-Enlightenments from the Eighteenth
Century to the Present (London and New York; Routledge, 2006), 80-108.
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The Heart and the Mind

Michel Meslin, “Heart,” in the Encyclopedia of Religion 6 (1987), 3881-84; “David Bradshaw,
“The Mind and the Heart in the Christian East and West,” Faith and Philosophy 26 (2009):
576-98; B.V. Foltz, “The Prayer of the Heart, and the Heart of Prayer: On the Eastern Orthodox
Practice of Prayer,” Byzantine Incursions on the Borders of Philosophy, Studies in
Contemporary Culture 26, 153-64 (available online); Jill Gather, Teachings on the Prayer of
the Heart in the Greek and Syrian Fathers (Piscataway, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2014); Elisabeth
Behr-Sigel, The Place of the Heart: An Introduction to Orthodox Spirituality (Torrance, CA:
Oakwood Publications, 1992); Sebastian Brock, “The Prayer of the Heart in Syriac Tradition,”
Sobornost 3 (1981): 131-43; Anna Marmodoro and Sophie Cartwright, eds., A History of
Mind and Body in Late Antiquity (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018); Robert
Jewett, Paul’s Anthropological Terms (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1971); Sarah Harding, “Paul’s
Eschatological Anthropology: The Eso Anthropos and the Intermediate State,” Transformation
(2016): 1-16; Thomas Dixon, From Passions to Emotions: The Creation of a Secular
Psychology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003); Iain McGilchrist, The Master
and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World (New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press, 2009); id., The Matter with Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions, and the
Unmaking of the World (Perspectiva, 2021); Adam Gazzaley and Larry D. Rosen, The
Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press,
2016).

The Prologue to the Philokalia

Elia Citterio, “Nicodemo Agiorita,” in Conticello, La théologie byzantine, 905-97; Vassa
Kontouma, “The Philokalia,” in The Orthodox Christian World, ed. Augustine Casiday
(London and New York: Routledge, 2017), 453-64; ead., “La Philocalie des saints neptiques:
un bilan,” Annuaire de l’École pratique des hautes études, Section des sciences religieuses 119
(2012): 191-205; Vassa Conticello (Kontouma) and Elia Citterio, “La Philocalie et ses
versions,” in La théologie byzantine et sa tradition, vol. 2 (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), 999-1021;
Kallistos Ware, “Philocalie,” Dictionnaire de spiritualité 12 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1984), 1336-
1352; id., “St Nikodimos and the Philokalia,” in Mount Athos the Sacred Bridge, ed. Dimitri
Conomos and Graham Speake (Oxford: Peter Lang, 2005), 69-121; id., “St Nikodemos and the
Philokalia,” in The Philokalia: A Classic Text of Orthodox Spirituality, ed. Brock Bingaman
and Bradley Nassif (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 9-35; See also George Dokos,
Made for Union: The Sacramental Spirituality of St Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain
(Columbia, MO: Newrome Press, 2020).

Kallistos and Ignatios Xanthopoulos

Kallistos Ware, “A Fourteenth-Century Manual of Hesychast Prayer: The Century of St
Kallistos and St Ignatios Xanthopoulos” (Toronto: Canadian Institute of Balkan Studies, 1995);
Antonio Rigo, “Une summa ou un florilège commenté pour la vie spiritualle? L’oeuvre
Μέθοδος καί κανών de Calliste et Ignace Xanthopouloi,” in Encyclopedic Trends in Byzantium?
Proceedings of the International Conference held in Leuven, 6-8 May 2009, Orientalia
Lovaniensia Analecta 212 (Leuven: Peeters, 2011), 387-437.

Evagrios of Pontus
http://evagriusponticus.net/ | http://www.ldysinger.com/Evagrius/00a_start.htm | Robert
Sinkewicz, Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
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2003); Julia Konstantinevsky, “Evagrius in the Philokalia of Sts Macarius and Nicodemus,”
in Bingaman and Nassif, eds., The Philokalia, 175-92; Kevin Corrigan, Evagrius and Gregory:
Mind, Soul, and Body in the Fourth Century (London: Routledge, 2019); Augustine Casiday,
Reconstructing the Theology of Evagrius Ponticus: Beyond Heresy (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2013); Luke Dysinger, Psalmody and Prayer in the Writings of Evagrius
Ponticus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Columba Stewart, “Imageless Prayer and
the Theological Vision of Evagrius Ponticus,” Journal of Early Christian Studies 9 (2001): 173-
204; Kathleen Gibbons, “Passions, Pleasures, and Perceptions: Rethinking Evagrius Ponticus
on Mental Representation,” ZAC 19 (2015): 297-330; Adrian Pirtea, “The Origin of Passions
in Neoplatonic and Early Christian Thought: Porphyry of Tyre and Evagarius Ponticus,” in
Platonism and Christian Thought in Late Antiquity, ed. Panagiotis Pavlos, et al. (London:
Routledge, 2019), 258-74; Monica Tobon, “The Health of the Soul: Ἀπάθεια in Evagrius
Ponticus,” Studia Patristica 47 (2010): 187-201; Andrew Crislip, “The Sin of Sloth or the
Illness of Demons? The Demon of Acedia in Early Christian Monasticism,” Harvard
Theological Review 98 (2005): 143-69; Jeremy Driscoll, “Penthos and Tears in Evagrius
Ponticus,” Studia Monastica 36 (1994): 147-64; id., “Spiritual Progress in the Works of
Evagrius Ponticus,” in id., Steps to Spiritual Perfection: Studies on Spiritual Progress in
Evagrius Ponticus (New York/Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2005), 11-37; Simon
Tugwell, “Evagrius and Macarius,” in The Study of Spirituality, ed. Cheslyn Jones, et al.
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 168-75; Brouria Bitton-Ashkelony, “The Limit of
the Mind: Pure Prayer according to Evagrius Ponticus and Isaac of Nineveh,” Zeitschrift für
Antikes Christentum / Journal of Ancient Christianity 15 (2011): 291-321.

Gregory of Sinai
David Balfour, “Saint Gregory of Sinai’s Life Story and Spiritual Profile,” Θεολογία 53.1
(1982): 30-62; id., “The Works of Gregory the Sinaite,” Θεολογία 53.2 (1982): 417-29; 53.4
(1982): 1102-18; 54.1 (1983): 153-83; id., “Saint Gregory the Sinaite: Discourse on the
Transfiguration. First Critical Edition, with an English Translation and Commentary,”
Θεολογία 52.4 (1981): 631-81 (text = 644-81); John Maximovitch, “The Life of St Gregory of
Sinai,” The Orthodox Word 5 (1969): 165-79; Graham Speake, “St Gregory of Sinai (c. 1265-
1346): Initiator of the ‘Hesychast International,” in id., A History of the Athonite
Commonwealth (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2018); Kallistos Ware, “The Jesus
Prayer in St Gregory of Sinai,” Eastern Churches Review 4 (1972): 3-22; Angeliki Delikari,
Ἅγιος Γρηγόριος ὁ Σιναϊτης. Ἡ δράση καί ἡ συμβολή τοῦ στή διάδοση τοῦ ἡσυχασμοῦ στά
Βαλκάνια. Ἡ σλαβική μετάφραση τοῦ βίοῦ τοῦ κατά τό ἀρχαιότερο χειρόγραφο (Thessaloniki:
University Studio Press, 2004); A.-E. Tachiaos, “Gregory Sinaites’ Legacy to the Slavs:
Preliminary Remarks,” Cyrillomethodianum 7 91982): 113-65; repr. In id., Greeks and Slavs.
Cultural, Ecclesiastical and Literary Relations (Thessaloniki, 1997), 259-311: Dimitri
Obelensky, “Gregory of Sinai,” in id., The Byzantine Commonwealth: Eastern Europe, 500-
1453 (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1971), 301-309.

Gregory Palamas
John Meyendorff, A Study of Gregory Palamas (London: The Faith Press, 1964); Robert Sinkewicz,
“Gregory Palamas,” in La théologie byzantine, vol. 1, 131-88; David Bradshaw, “Essence and Energies:
What Kind of Distinction?” Analogia 6 (2019): 5-36; Eric Perl, “St Gregory Palamas and the
Metaphysics of Creation,” Dionysius 14 (1990): 105-30; Norman Russell, Gregory Palamas and the
Making of Modern Palamism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2019); Tikhon Pino, “Beyond Neo-
Palamism: Interpreting the Legacy of St Gregory Palamas,” Analogia 3 (2017): 53-73; id., Essence and
Energies: Being and Naming God in St Gregory Palamas (London and New York: Routledge, 2023).