Redeeming the Sinful Flesh: John Climacus and Symeon the New Theologian on Penitence and the Body
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Nikita Bogachev REDEEMING THE SINFUL FLESH: JOHN CLIMACUS AND SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN ON PENITENCE AND THE BODY MA Thesis in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Central European University Budapest June 2020 CEU eTD Collection REDEEMING THE SINFUL FLESH: JOHN CLIMACUS AND SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN ON PENITENCE AND THE BODY by Nikita Bogachev (Russian Federation) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ Chair, Examination Committee ____________________________________________ Thesis Supervisor ____________________________________________ Examiner ____________________________________________ Examiner CEU eTD Collection Budapest Month YYYY REDEEMING THE SINFUL FLESH: JOHN CLIMACUS AND SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN ON PENITENCE AND THE BODY by Nikita Bogachev (Russia Federation) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Reader CEU eTD Collection Budapest June 2020 REDEEMING THE SINFUL FLESH: JOHN CLIMACUS AND SYMEON THE NEW THEOLOGIAN ON PENITENCE AND THE BODY by Nikita Bogachev (Russian Federation) Thesis submitted to the Department of Medieval Studies, Central European University, Budapest, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Master of Arts degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies. Accepted in conformance with the standards of the CEU. ____________________________________________ External Supervisor CEU eTD Collection Budapest June 2020 I, the undersigned, Nikita Bogachev, candidate for the MA degree in Comparative History, with a specialization in Late Antique, Medieval, and Renaissance Studies declare herewith that the present thesis is exclusively my own work, based on my research and only such external information as properly credited in notes and bibliography. I declare that no unidentified and illegitimate use was made of the work of others, and no part of the thesis infringes on any person’s or institution’s copyright. I also declare that no part of the thesis has been submitted in this form to any other institution of higher education for an academic degree. Budapest, 08 June 2020 Nikita Bogachev Signature CEU eTD Collection Abstract The practice of penitence (metanoia) lies in the core of the desert tradition of monastic spirituality. John Climacus in the fifth step of his Ladder paid special attention to the discourse on penitence describing his experience of visit into monastic prison where multiple male subjects tormented their sinful flesh. Through the gory descriptions of injured corporeality John in the parabolic way created the image of the ideal and visible repentance. I argue that in the descriptions of corporeal suffering and self-humiliation of penitent subjects, John’s narrative in the seventh century still relied on the metaphorical structures of the Early Christian language of martyrdom. In John’s nararative the connection between the act of repentance and corporeality was explicit and even accentuated. In the edge of millennium, Symeon the New Theologian delivered to his monks a Catechetical discourse about the practice of penitence. In this catechesis, he quoted the same fifth step of John’s Ladder recommending his monks to consult the whole excerpt. Further in his discourse, Symeon introduced to the audience a practice of repentance which included individual staged performance of prayer recitations intermingled with self-beating. In this way, as I demonstrate, Symeon attempted to set a role model to imitate for his monks. This model relied on the reinterpretation of John’s discourse, even though the idea of sinful flesh was not explicitly present in Symeon’s text. I claim that for Symeon repentance was not explicitly connected with the sinfulness of flesh but rather with historical and archetypal inability of humanity to perform proper repentance. This inability started with Adam and Eve’s failure to repent in Paradise. Symeon saw the history of corruptible existence as a history of portion of flesh which had been taken by God from the Adam’s side and transmitted through generations to the Theotokos’ womb preparing Christ’s Incarnation. For Symeon then, the act of repentance became a necessary act performed before the reception of Eucharist. So, repentant partaking of Christ’s deified flesh is a culmination of history of corruptible materiality. Repentant Eucharist, for Symeon, redeems the Adams reception of fruit and his failed repentance. In this way, Symeon embeds the penitent subject into the long history of Christian eschatology making salvation happen through the decisive act of repentance here and now every time during the communion. CEU eTD Collection i Acknowledgements I owe much to people who were helping and supporting me in course of this research. I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to professor Baukje van den Berg for her interest in my work and constant intellectual guidance, for encouraging conversations and amount of time she spent on revision of my drafts. I would like to thank professor Gábor Klaniczay for critical attitude, support and providing me with books that could hardly ever be found. I would like to thank professor Zsuzsanna Reed for her thorough amendments to my texts. I would like to thank professor István Perczel for his thought-provoking commentaries to the excerpts from my work and to my ideas. I would like to thank Zsófia Gode for the fastest responses and the most valuable help in resolving unexpected problems. I would like to thank Sámuel Gábor for confident guidance of once-novices in the realm of Greek language. In the end of all things, I would like to express my sincere thankfulness to all my friends and my family for their constant care and tenderness in times of my desolation. CEU eTD Collection ii Table of contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1. John Climacus’ penitent self .................................................................................... 8 1.1. John Climacus and Symeon the New Theologian .......................................................... 8 1.2. Prologue to Climacus’ views on penitence ................................................................... 10 1.3. John’s Ladder and his authorial persona ...................................................................... 12 1.4. The prison and the corporeality of penitence ................................................................ 16 1.5. Alogoi and the spectacle of martyrdom ........................................................................ 24 1.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 30 Chapter 2: Symeon the New Theologian and Climacus’ Ladder: monastery and penitence .. 32 2.1. Symeon as hegoumenos and author .............................................................................. 33 2.2. Climacus’ Ladder in Symeon’s writings and monastic reading ................................... 36 2.3. Penitence as self-transformative performance .............................................................. 42 2.4. Repentant confession .................................................................................................... 46 2.5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 49 Chapter 3: Symeon the New Theologian and the role of repentance in the History of Creation .................................................................................................................................................. 51 3.1. Symeon’s authorial persona of theologian .................................................................... 52 3.2. John Chrysostom in the Eleventh Century .................................................................... 54 3.3. Symeon and John Chrysostom on the making of human being .................................... 56 3.4. Symeon and John Chrysostom on the transgression of Adam and Eve ........................ 58 CEU eTD Collection 3.5. The history of Divine portion in Symeon’s text ........................................................... 63 3.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 68 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................... 70 Bibliography ............................................................................................................................ 73 iii Introduction In his discourses, Symeon the New Theologian (949-1022), arguably the most important tenth- and eleventh-century Byzantine spiritual writer, repeatedly quotes Matthew 4:17.1 He writes: