The Experience of Abandonment by in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology

Elizabeth Anderson

Spiritus: A Journal of Christian Spirituality, Volume 20, Number 1, Spring 2020, pp. 79-104 (Article)

Published by Johns Hopkins University Press DOI: https://doi.org/10.1353/scs.2020.0022

For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/753049

[ This content has been declared free to read by the pubisher during the COVID-19 pandemic. ] The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology

ELIZABETH ANDERSON

In his classic work The of the Eastern Church, the Orthodox theologian Vladimir Lossky criticizes Western ascetical theology for 79 its teachings on the Christian experience of feeling abandoned by God. Tar- geting Western writers on the spiritual life such as , Lossky insists that feelings of abandonment by God are “never thought of by the mystical and ascetical writers of the Eastern tradition as a necessary or nor- mal stage” of the spiritual life, and he alleges that this teaching is the result of “generally distorted dogmatic vision” in the Christian West, particularly an erroneous Christian theological anthropology.1 Yet despite Lossky’s polemic, there is also a significant strain of spiritual- ity in the Christian East that speaks of the experience of abandonment by God. Indeed, some Eastern Christian writers take this theme much further than John of the Cross, insisting that this is not merely a subjective experience, but rather that the indwelling Holy Spirit truly departs from the Christian at certain times during one’s spiritual life, and that this abandonment is a normal part of spiritual growth. The recovery of such writings could therefore play an important role in the of Christians, especially those from Eastern Christian churches. It can be important for Christians who feel that they have been abandoned by God to know that this experience is normal, and that it is far from being an aberrant development of the early modern West, having been attested to by writers in a diversity of Christian traditions from very early in Christian history. The different interpretations of this experience that are articulated by various Eastern Christian authors can also be a resource for Western Christians who are searching for a greater diversity of understand- ings about what this experience is, why it happens, and what the appropriate response to it should be. This essay will explore the theme of abandonment by God as it was discussed by several Eastern Christian writers of late antiquity. While the primary focus will be on writers from the traditions of East and West Syriac Christianity, given the interrelationship of Greek and Syriac Christianity in late antiquity, those Greek writers who seem to have influenced the development of Syriac thought will also be considered. These authors give different accounts

Anderson | The Experience of AbandonmentSpiritus by 20God (2020): in Syriac 79–104 ©Christian 2020 by Johns Ascetical Hopkins University Theology Press of this experience, and many of them also emphasize that there are several different kinds of abandonment by God that Christians may experience. It is therefore important for those who find themselves in such a situation to discern which kind of divine abandonment is being experienced, and thus what the appropriate response to it should be. Very often in contemporary Western Christianity, the phrase “” is tossed around uncritically to cover any and all experiences of , depression, emptiness, or despair, stretching the term far beyond what John of the Cross ever intended it to encompass. In addition, therefore, to showing that the experience of aban- donment by God is also to be found within the Christian East, this essay hopes 80 to demonstrate to both Eastern and Western Christians that there may be a variety of different experiences of abandonment by God, which have different causes and which therefore demand different responses from the person who experiences them.

DIVINE INDWELLING AND DIVINE ABANDONMENT It is important to clarify at the outset that none of these authors claimed that God ever ceases to care providentially for the Christian, even during those times of perceived “abandonment by God.” Indeed, for most of these writers, the experience of abandonment is precisely intended by God as a way to bring Christians to spiritual maturity, and is therefore a form of God’s pedagogi- cal care. When these authors speak of divine abandonment, therefore, what they actually mean is something far more specific, which is the departure, or in some cases the concealment, of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within each baptized person. The belief that each Christian is a temple of the Holy Spirit is drawn from 1 Corinthians, where Paul informs the Christians of Corinth that their bod- ies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and that the Spirit of God therefore dwells within them.2 Theological reflection upon this verse played a considerable role within the developing traditions of , and an emphasis on the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the baptized became one of the most important themes in Eastern Christian theological anthropology.3 Differ- ent authors certainly give different articulations of this theme, and there has been considerable disagreement around topics such as whether the Holy Spirit dwells within the mind or within the heart, or how such indwelling should be understood within the framework of previously existing understandings about the human person.4 Yet while we should not, therefore, assume that there is a monolithic un- derstanding among all of these authors about what it means for the Holy Spirit to dwell within the Christian, when they speak of abandonment by God, what they are all referring to is either the actual departure or else the concealment of

SPIRITUS | 20.1 that indwelling Spirit. For each of these authors, this is not simply a subjective “feeling” of being abandoned by God that has no correspondence to reality. It reflects an objective experience, either that of the Spirit’s departure, or that of the Spirit’s actively hiding itself from the perception of the senses. This emphasis on the objective reality of such an experience may be important for the spiritual direction of those Christians who believe that God has abandoned them. The response of well-meaning comforters may often be to try to assure a person that God has not really abandoned them, but rather that they “just feel that way.” While such reassurances could prove comfort- ing if they are believed, the disjunction between these claims and the person’s own experience could also result in a greater feeling of isolation. While it will 81 always be necessary to decide which approach is most appropriate on a case by case basis, the advantage to the understandings articulated by the authors considered here is that they take the spiritual experience of the believer seri- ously, affirming that the experience is indeed real, and also that it is normal. At the same time, these authors also all stress the fact that even when a Christian is abandoned by the indwelling Spirit of God, God’s providential care remains unaltered. This understanding allows a measure of comfort and hope to be offered without trivializing the person’s own experience, and these different au- thors give various suggestions for how Christians in the midst of such experi- ences should conduct themselves so that the experience may prove profitable rather than destructive.

EVAGRIUS OF PONTUS AND THE FIVE CAUSES OF ABANDONMENT One of the most influential early Christian authors on the subject of abandon- ment by God was the fourth-century writer Evagrius of Pontus. In the Greek Christian tradition (and also within Latin Christianity), his writings were con- sidered to be of questionable orthodoxy, but many of them were still widely circulated, and exercised a considerable influence upon other ascetical works. In Syriac Christianity, by contrast, Evagrius was never officially condemned, and exercised a profound influence on many writers. Most East Syriac ascetical theology seems to be strongly rooted in the Evagrian tradition, although most writers seem to have known his work only indirectly, primarily through the fifth-century commentary on his works produced by Mar Babai the Great.5 Divine abandonment is a significant theme in the Evagrian corpus, but while it is invoked frequently, it is never explored at great length. The most extensive treatment of it is given in one short paragraph, Chapter 28 of The Gnostikos, which articulates what Evagrius considers to be the five causes of abandonment by God. In this admittedly opaque passage, he writes:

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology 82

Courtesy of Harut Movsisyan from Pixabay.

SPIRITUS | 20.1 Remember the five causes of abandonment so that you can restore the weak souls brought down by this affliction. In fact, abandonment reveals hidden virtue. If virtue has been neglected, it reestablishes it through chastisement. Furthermore, it becomes the cause of salvation for others. Likewise, when virtue has reached a high degree, abandonment teaches humility to those who have shared in it. Indeed, the one who has had an experience of evil hates it. This experience is a flower of abandonment, and such abandonment is the child of passionlessness.6

With that pronouncement, the text leaves the subject of divine abandonment and goes on to other topics. Thus, it was left to later heirs of Evagrian spiritu- ality to attempt to work out what had been meant by these distinctions.7 83 The remainder of this paper will therefore explore these five different causes of abandonment by God as they were understood by different Greek and Syriac authors of late antiquity. It should be noted that while most of these authors were influenced by Evagrian theology, this is not the case in every in- stance. Nevertheless, the framework that was articulated by Evagrius remains the most useful organizing principle for structuring such a discussion, for no other author offers as many different causes of divine abandonment as he does, nor do any of them raise possibilities beyond the ones that he suggests.

ABANDONMENT TO DEVELOP AND REVEAL VIRTUE The first cause that Evagrius gives for abandonment by God is “to reveal hid- den virtue.” The belief that God providentially abandons Christians in order to enable them to develop and reveal virtue was perhaps the most popular of these different understandings of abandonment, and it was treated by a num- ber of different authors, although the two most distinctive treatments of it are given by Evagrius himself and by Aphrahat. This theme receives a few sparse, but influential, mentions within the rest of the Evagrian corpus. At one point, Evagrius suggests that the best example of this kind of abandonment is the Biblical character of Job, whose was not due to any he had committed, but rather to God allowing to test him in order to prove his great virtue. This was also something that Evagrius claimed to have seen in many of the monks that he knew. Evagrius seems to question the claim of the Psalmist “I have never seen a just man abandoned” (Psalm 36:25), writing that while that might have been true for the Psalmist, he had seen many just men abandoned by God!8 He also men- tions this kind of abandonment in his Scholia on Ecclesiastes, again citing the example of Job. In his commentary on Ecclesiastes 7:15, “I have seen the just man perishing in his justice,” Evagrius writes, “Abandonment for the sake of testing is also called “perishing,” as we see in the case of Job, who said, ‘I have perished and become an outcast.’”9 Apart from these brief mentions, however,

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology Evagrius does not develop this theme in any greater detail. Given that the only examples he provides of this kind of abandonment are Job and several holy as- cetics, it is tempting to conclude that perhaps Evagrius believed that this kind of abandonment would only be experienced by those who were well advanced in the spiritual life. It may also be the case, however, that he only wanted to use examples who were obviously beyond reproach, in order to emphasize that their abandonment by God could not have been due to any fault of their own, and must therefore have another explanation. By contrast, the Syriac writer Aphrahat insisted that the experience of abandonment by God is one that will be faced periodically by every Chris- 84 tian. Aphrahat, a fourth-century Persian ascetic, was one of the earliest Syriac Christian writers to leave a significant body of writings. There is no reason to suppose that Evagrius knew his work. Both, however, were to exercise a considerable influence on Syriac ascetical theology, and most of the later Syriac writings on divine abandonment that will be considered were born from a synthesis of these two different perspectives. In his work The Demonstrations, Aphrahat addresses the question of abandonment by the Holy Spirit at fairly considerable length. The entire second half of Demonstration VI is devoted to this question. He writes of the Holy Spirit that, “It is not always to be found with those who receive it. Rather, at times it goes off to him who sent it, and at times it goes back to the person who received it.”10 Aphrahat supports this argument by a detailed dis- cussion of the Biblical stories of Saul and David, arguing that the Holy Spirit, whom Saul had received when he was anointed, (1 Samuel 10:1) abandoned him and refused to return because he had grieved it. Thus, whenever Saul was afflicted by an evil spirit, David would strike upon the lyre, and the Holy Spirit that David had received when he was anointed (1 Samuel 16:3) would de- scend, causing the evil spirit that was consuming Saul to flee from its presence. However, Aphrahat insists that the Holy Spirit did not dwell with David at all times, for if it had done so, then he would not have been able to sin with the wife of Uriah (2 Samuel 11). This periodic departure of the Holy Spirit is also the reason for David’s in Psalm 51:13, “Take not your Holy Spirit from me.” According to Aphrahat, then, the Holy Spirit regularly abandons all of those who receive it at different times. Although he is insistent that the depar- ture of the Holy Spirit is not the result of any fault or sin within the person whom it abandons, the Spirit’s absence can very easily become the cause of sin, for Aphrahat believes that it is not possible to sin while the Holy Spirit dwells in the temple of the heart.11 Given the extent of human sinfulness, such an understanding would presumably indicate that the Spirit is absent from most Christians at least as often as it is present, if not much more frequently! This

SPIRITUS | 20.1 would therefore suggest that the experience of abandonment by the Holy Spirit is actually the norm rather than an exceptional event. Because Aphrahat believes that sin can only be committed when the Spirit departs, he explains that these periods of divine abandonment are times when the Christian is particularly vulnerable to attack by Satan. However, he ex- plains that Satan

does not have any prior knowledge enabling him to know or to see when the Spirit departs so that he can come along to despoil a person. Rather, he listens in and keeps watch. If he hears the person in whom the Spirit of Christ is dwelling uttering any ugly words, or losing his temper, or quarrelling or fight- ing, then Satan knows that the Spirit is not with that person, and he comes 85 along and fulfills his desire upon him.12

In contrast, however, if Satan finds that a person appears to be calm and un- disturbed, persevering in prayer, Satan will assume that the Holy Spirit is still dwelling within that person, and will therefore flee. In Aphrahat’s understand- ing, therefore, Satan does not have the ability to read a person’s mind, or to see into the heart, but is only able to judge whether the Holy Spirit is present or not by observing a person’s words and actions. Thus, according to Aphrahat, the best way to counteract the spiritual dan- ger that is present during these periods of divine abandonment is to pretend that one has not been abandoned at all, and to remain faithful to the spiritual disciplines that one has adopted, even though in some ways they are nothing more than playacting. It is rather like setting the lights in your house on a tim- er before you go on vacation as a deterrent to burglars! If the Holy Spirit sees that the Christian has maintained a suitable temple for it during its absence, it will be pleased to dwell within that person again upon its return. Evagrius gave intriguingly similar advice about deceiving demons as a spir- itual practice in his work The Praktikos, although there are no demonstrable links between the writers. In this text, Evagrius explains that because demons are material, they are not able to read a person’s thoughts, but can only discern someone’s inner by observing their words and the movements of their body.13 Later, he declares that it is not possible to commit the of lust and pride at the same time, and therefore suggests that when people are being af- flicted by one of these temptations, they should pretend that they are struggling with the other one. The demons, unable to see into the mind, will therefore be tricked, and will present those temptations which the person is better equipped to handle!14 Talk of demons remains unfashionable in many quarters of post-Enlight- enment Christianity, which might make some spiritual directors more reluctant to employ this advice. Nevertheless, the fact that two very different authors

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology independently offer such similar suggestions for how the Christian should act in times of abandonment by God surely means that it is at least worth contem- plating what there was about engaging in this kind of demonic trickery that would have made it such an attractive option. One possibility is that it takes an experience that could be potentially terrifying, and turns it into almost a game, a contest to see if the person is able to prevail against their spiritual opponents. A belief in demons also gives the Christian a reason to want to struggle bravely against the fear or despair that the experience of abandonment could easily provoke, a struggle that could clearly lead to spiritual maturity and growth quite independently of the question of the existence or non-exis- 86 tence of demons. It is therefore worth considering whether the advice given by both Aphra- hat and Evagrius about tricking Satan and the demons by pretending that the Holy Spirit is present could be re-contextualized so that similar strategies could still be employed today, even by those Christians who would be uncomfort- able speaking of demons. Such advice is similar, but not actually identical, to the commonly given spiritual counsel that one should continue to go through the motions of one’s spiritual practice, even if one’s heart is not in it. While they would appear to be similar strategies, it is one thing to say that a person should continue in their spiritual practices even without feeling the consolation of God’s presence, and it is quite a different thing to tell the person to pretend that they actually are feeling God’s presence! In the contemporary novel Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco, the narrator remarks, “I believe that you can reach the point where there is no longer any difference between developing the habit of pretending to believe and developing the habit of believing.”15 While Eco himself might be surprised to see these words being deployed for the purposes of spiritual direction, this is a sentiment that, when taken together with authors such as Aphrahat and Evagrius, carves out a legitimate space for pretending in the Christian life, and opens the door for such pretending to give way to reality. By pretending that they have not been abandoned by God, the Christian may both grow in virtue and maturity, and may even come to believe their own pretense that the Holy Spirit still dwells within them.

ABANDONMENT BY GOD AS THE RESULT OF NEGLIGENCE OR SIN In these previous examples, both authors were keen to stress that those who are abandoned by God in order to develop virtue should not in any way be blamed for the fact that the Holy Spirit has departed from them. Their need to stress this point gestures towards the second cause of divine abandon- ment, which is indeed intended as a punishment, designed to goad negligent Christians on to regain the virtues they have lost. According to Evagrius, the

SPIRITUS | 20.1 reason for this second kind of divine abandonment is that “if virtue has been neglected, it reestablishes it through chastisement.”16 He again speaks of this form of abandonment in his work On Evil Thoughts, in which he writes that “the doctor of souls cures this love [for sin], or rather, this horrible gangrene, through abandonment.”17 The concern of a number of these authors seems to be that people may immediately leap to sin as the obvious conclusion for why a person has been abandoned by God. Thus, most of them seem to be focused on demonstrating that sin is not necessarily the reason why a person has been abandoned. They do not deny that it could be the reason in some cases, but do not go to great lengths to develop this thought, seemingly because it was already accepted by 87 their readers. It is perhaps telling, then, that two different Syriac writers who do dis- cuss sin as the reason for abandonment by God both seem to suggest that sin is the only reason for abandonment by God. Simon of Taibutheh (or Simon of Grace), a seventh-century East Syrian ascetical writer, discusses this in his Medico-Mystical Work. He insists that:

When a man falls away from the truth and sinks into negligence, and Grace wishes to raise him up, the following things happen to him. The man despises himself and becomes small in his own eyes, and his soul loses its self-esteem. And he also becomes perplexed, as if everyone were looking down on him. He will then lose the inner comfort, thinking that even those who loved him despise him, scorn him, and turn away from him. If, however, he becomes conscious of his negligence, rises up, and amends himself, Grace will come upon him, and he will revert to his inner comfort. But if he does not become conscious of his negligence, or if, when he does become conscious, he tramples on his conscience in his pride, Grace will little by little neglect him, and his stumbling and the withdrawal of divine help from him will increase, until he falls into despair. That will then happen to him in reality which he had previ- ously only thought would happen to him, because he will lose both the inward and the outward comfort, through the above withdrawal of divine help. 18

Grace, a term which is used by Simon and other East Syrian authors to refer to the indwelling presence of God within the baptized Christian,19 therefore withdraws itself from a person little by little if that person gives in to negli- gence or sin, and returns only when the person amends their life. There does not seem to be any flexibility for Simon about whether or not the withdrawal of Grace might be for some other reason, for he insists that “every slip that oc- curs to us has its origin either in our negligence, or in our false suppositions, or in our scorning of our neighbors, or in our love of glory, or in our envy, or in our desire to assert our will, or in our natural inclinations, or in our hatred.”20 Thus, if a person becomes aware that God’s presence within them seems to be

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology diminished, or has even abandoned them altogether, their primary task should immediately be to examine their own life in order to determine where they have gone astray. This will permit them to amend their life in order that Grace will return to them. Similar presuppositions about divine abandonment seem to form the back- drop for a very different text, written by the West Syrian bishop Philoxenus of Mabbug. Philoxenus wrote an entire treatise, entitled On the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which was dedicated to refuting the belief that the Holy Spirit periodically departed from the Christian and returned again. Whereas the other authors that have been considered here seem to agree that the Holy Spirit 88 actually departs from a person, Philoxenus is troubled by what such a pneuma- tology suggests about God.

The Spirit does not run away from the soul in which He is dwelling at the time of sin, returning to it when he repents, as the ignorant say. Rather, He remains within us, not being put to use. What reason is there for Him to depart from us when we sin, as if our sin could harm Him, or as if His sanctity was thereby involved in some stain, or as if He could not prevent Himself from getting injury from our sin while within us? In that case, He too would be infirm, and subject to injuries just as we are. But this is not the case—far from it!21

Instead of claiming that the Holy Spirit objectively departs from the sinner, Philoxenus instead insists that the Spirit merely “contracts” itself within the person so that the person is no longer able to perceive its presence. Despite his insistence upon the fact that the Holy Spirit does not actually depart, however, Philoxenus seems to agree with Simon of Taibutheh that the subjective experi- ence of divine abandonment is due to the Christian’s sins. While Philoxenus seems to be writing against the view that the Spirit actually departs, his main aim in writing this treatise seems to be somewhat different from those authors. While he acknowledges the reality of the subjec- tive experience of feeling abandoned by the Holy Spirit, his primary concern in this treatise is not with the spiritual care of the Christian who is undergoing this experience. Instead, he is troubled by the theological question of how it is possible for a person in whom the Holy Spirit dwells to sin. Philoxenus claims that his theological opponents, whom he does not name, argue that the Holy Spirit departs from a person whenever the person sins, and returns whenever the person repents.22 Philoxenus insists that this cannot be the case, however, because without the help provided by the indwelling Holy Spirit, it would not even be possible for the Christian to repent in the first place.23 Thus, rather than being the condition of the Holy Spirit’s return, repentance is in fact proof of the Holy Spirit’s presence.

SPIRITUS | 20.1 Philoxenus also insists that “we received the Holy Spirit from the baptis- mal waters, but the purpose of our receiving it was not that it should some- times remain with us and sometimes leave us, but that we should be temples for it and that it should dwell with us continually.”24 According to Philoxenus, because Christians receive the Holy Spirit at baptism, it is accurate to say that “our baptism is the Holy Spirit.”25 Thus, if the Holy Spirit truly departed from Christians, then their baptism would also depart, and they would be compelled to be re-baptized each time the Spirit abandoned them. Since this is not the case, the only conclusion must be that the Spirit does not truly depart at all. While it might at first seem that Philoxenus is writing against authors such as Aphrahat or Evagrius, we must remember that they were not terribly inter- 89 ested in the question of abandonment by the Holy Spirit due to sin. While both acknowledge that sin can be a possible reason for the Spirit’s departure, they are much more interested in discussing those times when the Spirit abandons a person through no obvious fault of their own. It is tempting, therefore, to conclude that perhaps, rather than Philoxenus writing against the followers of Aphrahat and Evagrius, all of these authors were actually united in writing against individuals who claimed that the Holy Spirit abandoned people who sinned. Whereas Aphrahat and Evagrius accepted the reality of the abandon- ment but insisted that it need not be taken as evidence of sin, Philoxenus emphatically denied that the Holy Spirit abandoned anyone at all, with the exception of complete apostates. Philoxenus does acknowledge that it is very common for a person to feel the Spirit’s withdrawal from the soul, but he insists that this is entirely a sub- jective experience rather than an objective reality. He writes that “the Spirit is within our soul, sometimes retracting from it, at other times shining forth over it. But when it retracts itself, it does not depart, and when it shines forth, it does not come in from somewhere else.”26 Thus, Philoxenus acknowledges that it is normal to feel at times that the Spirit is absent, and he seems to think that this experience is usually and perhaps even always correlated with sin. This does not, however, imply the Spirit’s actual absence. Philoxenus illustrates this by an example drawn from his understanding of optics. He explains that light always exists within the pupil of the eye, and when that light meets the light on the outside of the eye, then sight is possible. At times it is necessary to close the eye, which renders everything dark. This does not, however, mean that light no longer dwells within the pupil of the eye, or that the person is actually blind. Just as the light is always there within the pupil of the eye, even when every- thing is darkness, so the Holy Spirit always dwells within the soul, even when the Christian does not perceive it. The use of the literature about divine abandonment due to sin in spiritual direction should obviously be approached with caution. It cannot simply be

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology 90

Dark courtesy of Pexels from Pixabay.

SPIRITUS | 20.1 discounted, for all of the authors considered in this essay agree that it remains a real possibility for why a Christian has been abandoned by God. Most of them, however, are very cautious about jumping to such a conclusion too quickly. If a person is undergoing this experience for any of the other reasons that are mentioned, then the last thing that they need is to be told that their suffering is entirely their own fault. Nevertheless, the possibility that abandon- ment by God is due to sin or negligence must still be taken into consideration along with the other possible explanations. This discernment requires a high degree of self-knowledge on the part of the individual Christian, as well as wisdom on the part of a spiritual director, so that this explanation is neither disregarded nor assumed too readily. 91

DIVINE ABANDONMENT AND DIVINE CONCEALMENT Before moving on to discuss the remaining three causes of abandonment by God, it is worth pausing to consider Philoxenus’ argument that the Holy Spirit hides itself from the Christian rather than actually departing and the anteced- ents to this argument, since such a view was taken up by a number of later au- thors within the Syriac tradition, including those who wrote on abandonment by God for reasons other than sin. This belief did not originate with Philox- enus, for it is found in a number of earlier Greek patristic writings, and would eventually become a standard feature of Greek ascetical theology. Philoxenus, however, appears to have been its most vociferous defender within the Syriac tradition, where the more radical position that the Holy Spirit actually depart- ed seemed to have had greater popularity. Generally, although not consistently, the Greek Christian ascetical tradi- tion differentiates between two different types of abandonment (parachoresis) by God.27 According to the first type of abandonment, God actually abandons a person. In the second case, God appears to abandon a person in order to encourage the person to struggle harder and to grow in the spiritual life. This distinction is articulated by a number of authors, one of whom is Diadochus of Photike. Diadochus explains that there are some instances when God turns away from people and actually withdraws the divine presence from them (kata apostrophen parachoresis).28 More often, however, what appears to be God’s withdrawal is only an apparent abandonment, which is intended for the in- struction of the soul (paideutike parachoresis). Grace is concealed, but remains present and effective, “supporting the soul in an ineffable way.”29 John of Damascus makes this same distinction, although he uses different terminology for it. He describes the first kind of abandonment as complete despair (teleia apognostike), whereas the second kind of abandonment, which is only apparent, is providential (oikmomike) and pedagogical, serving for “the correction, salvation, and glory of the one who suffers it.”30 Some authors,

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology therefore, prefer to describe the later experience as divine concealment rather than divine abandonment. For example, in The Life of Antony by Athanasius, Antony seems to be left alone to struggle with the demons. When God finally appears to him, Antony reproaches Him for having abandoned him at such a time of struggle, but God merely replies, “I was here, Antony, but I waited to watch your struggle. And now, since you persevered and were not defeated, I will be your helper forever, and I will make you famous everywhere.”31 As this example from The Life of Antony reveals, it is not always pos- sible for a person to determine whether God has actually abandoned them, or whether the presence of God is merely concealed from their perception. 92 According to Diadochus, the criterion for determining which of these kinds of abandonment is being experienced by a person is the effect that it has upon them. When God has truly abandoned a person, the soul will be filled with “despair, unbelief, pride, and anger,” whereas when the presence of God within the soul has merely been concealed, the heart will be “filled with the fear of God, and tears of , and a great longing for the beauty of silence.”32 According to other authors, however, particularly those within the Syriac tradition, these experiences are not so easily distinguished, and despair, anger, and blasphemous thoughts may be a common outcome of even the perceived abandonment by God. Thus, the question of whether one has been actually abandoned by God or only appears to have been so often seems to be unanswerable, and thus may be less relevant when attempting to formulate a response to the experience.

ABANDONMENT AS A CAUSE OF SALVATION FOR OTHERS According to Evagrius, the third cause of abandonment by God is that aban- donment “becomes the cause of salvation for others.”33 This seems to be the theme that is the least discussed among both Syriac and Greek writers, and it is not even entirely clear what Evagrius himself means by it. He may simply mean that those who have passed through this experience themselves are able to give guidance and counsel to others who must face it. This does not seem entirely satisfying, however. While it is undeniably true that those who have experienced divine abandonment are able to pass on their wisdom to others, this would seem to be more of a result than a cause, and Evagrius does not give any examples of those who went through this experience for such a reason. A more tantalizing possibility is that perhaps the suffering caused by being abandoned by God is in some way vicariously salvific for others. The most obvious illustration of such a possibility would be the cry of abandonment by Christ upon the cross. In all of their discussions of abandonment by God, not one of the writers mentioned here discusses ’ words “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”34 There are oblique hints of a connection,

SPIRITUS | 20.1 particularly in Greek, where the preferred term for the Christian experience of abandonment by God, enkataleipsis, is related to the same verb that is used in Matthew 27:46 to describe Jesus’ experience on the cross, enkataleipo.35 No explicit connection, however, is made by any of these authors between Christ’s experience of abandonment and the one that his followers undergo. The silence surrounding Matthew 27:46 (and Psalm 22:1, which it quotes) in the context of these discussions may well be linked to the silence surround- ing this third cause of abandonment by God. These biblical texts would seem to be an obvious starting place for reflection on divine abandonment, and so the fact that they remain uncited is perhaps evidence that the authors were reluctant to try to draw too close a parallel between Christ’s abandonment by 93 God and the kind of abandonment experienced by Christ’s followers. It could also be that ordinary human beings can potentially share in this experience, but that our authors did not want to dwell upon this option, since it would be unhelpful for a person to identify their own abandonment as a participation in the saving work of Christ if in reality it was a sign that they needed to repent of sin, or to engage in a spiritual struggle in order to develop virtue. If the third cause of abandonment by God is, indeed to be interpreted as the same one that was experienced by Christ, then the contemporary spiritual director should perhaps be likewise cautious about too readily identifying a Christian’s experience of abandonment by God with Christ’s abandonment by the Father on the cross. It may be that Christ’s experience was unique and un- repeatable, or perhaps it is merely the case that most human beings will never reach a point at which their experience of abandonment holds this significance. If, on the other hand, Evagrius merely meant that a person who passes through this experience will be equipped by it to help others who come to it themselves, then it might offer encouragement for individuals to learn from their experi- ences of abandonment in order that they may eventually draw upon them to guide others.

ABANDONMENT TO TEACH HUMILITY TO THE VIRTUOUS In contrast to the silence surrounding the third cause of abandonment by God, nearly every author who writes on the theme of abandonment touches upon the fourth cause. Few of them, however, treat it in extensive detail, preferring instead to focus on the other causes while mentioning that this one is also a possibility. The most detailed account appears to be the minimal one that is given by Evagrius himself. According to Evagrius, the fourth cause of aban- donment by God is that “when virtue has reached a high degree, abandonment teaches humility to those who have shared in it.”36 In contrast to the possibility that abandonment may be caused by sin, in this case it is actually caused by virtue! Because a Christian who has become virtuous may too easily forget that

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology they did not achieve this state by their own efforts, the indwelling presence of God abandons the person in order to combat pride and to secure humility. According to Evagrius, pride is ultimately a form of insanity, a total misap- prehension of the nature of reality, in which a person is abandoned to become the plaything of demons. He writes, “Do not give your soul to pride, and you will not see chilling fantasies. For the soul of the proud is abandoned by God, and it becomes a source of glee for demons.”37 But this kind of abandonment is meant to be temporary, functioning to recall someone to their senses. “He who has been abandoned has thus come to know the weakness of his nature. You possess nothing that you have not received from God. You have ascended to 38 94 citizenship in the heights, but it is he who led you there.” It should be noted that this is an abandonment that is intended to prevent pride from developing, not necessarily a punishment for pride that has al- ready been formed. Indeed, such abandonment only occurs when a person has achieved very great progress in prayer, such that it would be very difficult for them to maintain humility about their spiritual state without this experience of abandonment. Some of the same potential difficulties for spiritual direction that we saw in the last instance recur here as well. Just as it may be problem- atic for a Christian to assume that their experience of abandonment should be indexed to the redemptive abandonment experienced by Christ, so likewise it may be equally troubling for the Christian to assume that their experience of abandonment by God must be the result of their great virtue! The most important thing, perhaps, about the inclusion of this cause for abandonment in Evagrius’ list is that it provides the necessary balance for his idea that abandonment may be the result of sin. Without denying that it can sometimes be so, by pointing out that abandonment can also be the result of virtue, Evagrius prevents anyone from drawing any firm conclusions about a person’s moral state based on the experience of abandonment by God. There is no inherent shame in this experience, but neither is there any inherent virtue in it. The experience can occur in people at all stages of moral and spiritual development, including great sinners, great saints, and the vast majority of people who are somewhere in the middle, struggling against sins, passions, and demons. While neither Evagrius nor the other authors have a great deal to say about the specific form of divine abandonment that is experienced by the saints, the fact that it is included in this list means that, ultimately, the experi- ence of abandonment by God is a great leveler. While this experience comes to different people for different reasons, depending upon what each one needs to learn from it, the experience itself seems to be one that is shared by people of all kinds and at all stages of spiritual development. Indeed, if the abandon- ment that saves others does refer to the abandonment that was experienced by Christ, then even he was not exempt from what seems to be a universally

SPIRITUS | 20.1 human phenomenon, even if perhaps he experienced it in a unique and unre- peatable way.

ABANDONMENT AS A NECESSARY STEP FOR SPIRITUAL MATURITY The final cause of abandonment by God that Evagrius articulates is the most difficult to unpack. He writes that “the one who has had an experience of evil hates it. For experience is a flower of abandonment and such abandonment is the child of passionlessness.”39 Passionlessness, or apatheia, is the proximate goal of the Evagrian ascetical program, and it would thus appear that when apatheia is cultivated, it gives birth to abandonment. For abandonment to be referred to as the child of the goal of the ascetical process is very high praise 95 indeed for abandonment, making it clear that abandonment is apparently the natural fruit of ascetic achievement. The “flower” of abandonment is experi- ence—in this case, specifically the experience of evil, which it is only possible to hate after one has known it firsthand. Demons flee the soul when God dwells within it, and thus we cannot encounter demons and learn to hate them unless and until the soul is temporarily abandoned by God. This emphasis on struggle with the demonic is pervasive throughout early Christian accounts of divine abandonment, as we have already seen in a num- ber of authors, ranging from Aphrahat to Athanasius. Demons were believed to be always seeking influence over human beings, to whatever extent God would permit. As long as the Holy Spirit dwelt within a human soul, however, the power of the demons was believed to be minimal. The departure of the Holy Spirit is often referred to with the term parachoresis, which can mean “withdrawal”, but also has the connotation of “leaving space” or “permit- ting.”40 This is key, for the reason that the Holy Spirit withdraws from the soul is to “leave space” for the demons to struggle with the Christian, and to “permit” their tests and temptations. Thus, according to Pseudo-Macarius, when the Holy Spirit departs from a person, “his mind is expelled and excom- municated from spiritual joy, since the divine grace and love are diminished in him, as well as every good action of the Spirit, and he is delivered to , temptations, and evil spirits.”41 In practice, this would appear similar to the first cause of abandonment, the struggle to develop virtue, which also led to spiritual combat with demons. While the response of the Christian seems to be the same in both cases, how- ever, Evagrius seems to suggest that there is a different cause of that struggle here. Instead of the goal being to develop virtue by struggling against temp- tation, this goal seems to be to raise the Christian to a new level of spiritual experience and maturity through the encounter with evil and the absence of God. While the details of this ascetical program appear somewhat inchoate in this brief passage, what is clear is that abandonment is a necessary criterion

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology 96

Courtesy of Julius Drost from Unsplash.

SPIRITUS | 20.1 for developing spiritual experience, or spiritual maturity. Later Syriac authors give several different interpretations of how it is that ascetic practice leads to abandonment and therefore to spiritual maturity. Two of the most influential articulations of this are given by John of Dalyatha and Isaac of Nineveh. The eighth-century East Syriac theologian John of Dalyatha writes in his homilies on the monastic life that there are three stages of the religious life. This division of the spiritual life into three stages is common in Syriac asceti- cal literature, and seems to have originated with John of Apamea in the fifth century.42 According to Robert Beulay, however, it is with John of Dalyatha that this tripartite division of the spiritual life receives its fullest and most inte- 43 grated expression. 97 The first of these three stages is a period of spiritual consolations and ease. John explains that when Grace (the indwelling presence of God) “descends upon the monk in the beginning, it produces in him sense perceptions and pleasures and unknown consolations. Then, little by little, it causes his mind to grow with pleasures and workings and wondrous visions and revelations.”44 Most people, he alleges, never progress beyond this first stage of the spiritual life, and therefore if they actually reach the stage of receiving visions and revelations, they falsely assume that this must be the pinnacle of the spiritual life.45 According to John, however, there remain two stages of the Christian life beyond this one, even if most Christians never reach them. The second state is the experience of complete abandonment by God. Although few attain to it, this experience is an essential component for spiritual growth, and apart from it, it is impossible to progress beyond the spiritual childhood in which most human beings remain trapped. In describing this experience of abandonment, John writes:

When [Grace] has visited [the monk] in these things, then it withdraws its operations from him, hiding in him with no operation, so that he might be buffeted by trials, and so that he might be instructed. Sufferings and griefs and impure passions assail him, and darkness of the soul cleaves to him, and depression and cold movements, and disturbance and darkness and doubt, and the cutting off of hope for his salvation. And he stumbles into transgressions if he is not on guard, supposing that he will never again obtain that peace which was taken from him. And he asks himself which of his deeds destroyed it.46

John is aware that it is all too easy to assume that the departure of God’s grace is the result of sin, and thus he portrays the monk as worrying over that very possibility. John responds, however, with words of assurance. “Rest your soul, my brother, and do not carry heaviness and distress because of this postponement, because your virtues are not able to be perfect, and your peace

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology has disappeared. Because in these things, Grace, your educator, truly educates you, and it absolutely does not depart from pursuing you as you believe.”47 He closes this section by instructing the reader that it is very necessary for the Christian to have a spiritual guide during this period of the spiritual life, for many of those who reach this stage fall away during this time, unable to weather this experience of divine abandonment and therefore unable to reach the third and final stage of the spiritual life, that of perfection, which would follow in its wake. In John’s case, therefore, divine abandonment (or more accurately, divine hiddenness) is a normal stage of spiritual growth that all Christians would 98 reach if they progressed far enough. Most, however, never reach this stage of the spiritual life, and remain making slow and relatively pleasant progress in the spiritual infancy of the first stage. Therefore, while it is essential for Christians who reach this second stage to have adequate guidance so that they do not give up in despair, in John’s estimation, it seems that a spiritual direc- tor would only rarely encounter such a person, and that most Christians will continue along in blissful ignorance that such a stage of the spiritual life even exists. This is in marked contrast to the understanding of divine abandonment that is articulated by Isaac of Nineveh. Like John of Dalyatha, the seventh-century writer Isaac of Nineveh insists that abandonment by God is a necessary component of spiritual maturation. However, whereas John seemed to think that most people would never attain to the experience of abandonment, Isaac believes that people quickly enter this experience, and that they never fully leave it. Isaac writes that the Holy Spirit does not always dwell within the Christian, but comes and goes at regular in- tervals. This periodic departure of the Holy Spirit takes place “at all times and at all stages in the ascetic life,” and will be experienced by everyone from the newly baptized to the accomplished spiritual master until the day of death, for “in this life we should not expect to receive freedom from this struggle, nor to receive perfect consolation.”48 Isaac is very clear that this is a normal part of the Christian life, and that it is not caused by any fault in the Christian who experiences it. He insists that it occurs simply because that “is God’s pleasure,” and that “the cause of it is not in us, but is a work of God’s providence, for a reason which He alone knows.”49 Unlike Evagrius, with his list of five possible reasons for such aban- donment, Isaac seems to be at a loss to explain it, and he does not venture an explanation beyond the fact that this is a universal pattern that occurs due to the inscrutable will of God. In some sense, then, Isaac transcends the Evagrian scheme of five causes, for he himself seems reluctant to ascribe any cause to this experience apart from the incomprehensible will of God. Of the five Evagrian causes, however, his understanding seems to correspond most closely

SPIRITUS | 20.1 with the final one, since it serves to deepen the spiritual maturity and experi- ence of the Christian, even if it does not transport the person to a new stage of the spiritual life where such abandonment will not occur. To a much greater extent than any of the other authors we have consid- ered, Isaac is primarily interested in offering a detailed description of the ex- perience of divine abandonment and offering pragmatic responses to it rather than in probing its causes. He writes that the experience of abandonment produces “a mighty force of despondency, wherein he feels that his soul is be- ing suffocated. This is a foretaste of Gehenna.”50 Later he explains in greater detail, 99 At times our soul is suffocated and is, as it were, amid the waves. And whether a man reads the Scriptures or performs his liturgy, or approaches anything whatsoever, he receives darkness upon darkness. He leaves off prayer and cannot even draw nigh to it. He is wholly unable to believe that a change will occur and that he will be at peace. This hour is full of despair and fear. Hope in God and the consolation of faith are utterly effaced from his soul, and it is wholly and entirely filled with doubt and fear.51

Like the other writers that have been considered, Isaac agrees that the best possible option for the Christian who is beset by such an experience is prayer. Unlike the other authors, however, he recognizes that the experience of aban- donment may be so spiritually and emotionally debilitating that prayer is an impossibility. Because Isaac also considers these periods to be times of great spiritual danger, his more prominent concern is in preventing the monk from allowing his despair to lead him to do anything rash. Thus, he counsels that “if you do not have the strength to master yourself and to fall upon your face in prayer, then wrap your head in your cloak and sleep until this hour of darkness passes from you, but do not leave your dwelling.”52 This indicates that for Isaac, divine abandonment is usually a frequent experience of very short duration rather than a prolonged stage of the spiritual life. Indeed, he insists that “God does not leave the soul in these things for an entire day, for otherwise it would perish, being estranged from the Christian hope, but He speedily provides it with an escape.”53 It would seem, therefore, that Isaac is talking about a completely different kind of experience of abandonment by God than the one that John of Daly- atha discussed. For John, the experience of abandonment is long lasting, but it occurs at only one point in the spiritual life, a point that most people never even reach. For Isaac, the experience is episodic and intense, with moments of abandonment punctuating the entirety of the spiritual life. These very different descriptions may each resonate with different individuals who feel themselves

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology to be abandoned by God, and the extent of the differences between them should help to clarify the fact that divine abandonment is not a single, uniform experience, but is rather a general category of experience that can take many different forms.

CONCLUSIONS It should be clear from the texts that have been considered here that many Eastern Christian authors have spoken of the experience of abandonment by God, just as those of the Western Church have. Although Vladimir Lossky’s criticisms of the Western understanding of divine abandonment are rooted in 100 what he perceives as a “distorted” Christian theological anthropology, it is clear that divine abandonment can also be experienced within the context of an Eastern Christian anthropology as well. In fact, the emphasis within Eastern Christianity upon the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within the Christian actu- ally helps to sets the stage for authors who wish to speak of the Holy Spirit’s departure. Indeed, it should be noted that not all scholars have accepted Lossky’s claim that this experience is foreign to the spirituality of the Christian East, even if they have not necessarily turned to the Syriac tradition as a resource. Irenée Hausherr has argued that all of the elements of John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul can also be found in the spirituality of the Christian East, although some of the similarities that he sees may at times be more superfi- cial than substantial.54 Henri-Charles Puech, for example, has cautioned that while Eastern Christian texts very frequently use terminology such as gnophos (gloom) and skotos (darkness), these terms are intended metaphorically and do not denote an experiential reality in the way that they do in John of the Cross’s affective .55 While Puech may be correct with regards to some East- ern Christian authors (such as Pseudo-Dionysius, who is the primary focus of his article), the texts we have surveyed so far would make it difficult to sustain his claim that this is true of Eastern Christianity universally. Given the vivid descriptions of the distress caused by divine abandonment in an author such as Isaac of Nineveh, who was respected as a spiritual master in the Byzantine Christian tradition as well as in his own Syriac tradition, it certainly seems to be the case that at least sometimes such language in authors from the Christian East also describes an experiential reality rather than a metaphorical abstrac- tion. The most notable difference between the description of the dark night described by John of the Cross and the account of this experience that is given by Eastern Christian writers may, Hausherr suggests, have primarily to do with the image of God that each of them portrays.56 For the Eastern Christian writ- ers, the agony and torment that is experienced when God departs is primarily

SPIRITUS | 20.1 the work of demons, and the task of the Christian is therefore to battle against them. John of the Cross, however, hardly mentions demons at all. Instead, this agony is inflicted directly by God. True, God inflicts this experience upon Christians out of love and mercy rather than cruelty. However, because God is the agent of this torment, the response of the Christian is not to resist this experience, but to accept it patiently. Myrrha Lot-Borodine characterizes this as one of the major differences in the spirituality of the Christian East and that of the Christian West. According to her, while the spiritual tradition of John of the Cross places “a great stress on the soul’s learning to be passive” in the East, the soul is seen as an active agent that must battle against all of the forces that would separate it from God. Thus, periods of divine abandonment occur so 101 that the soul can become strong in battling against the demons that will try to draw it away from God while it is at its weakest.57 While sketching a sharp distinction between Eastern and Western Chris- tianity would be problematic, it does seem to be the case that each tradition has different general emphases in its discussions of abandonment by God and how a Christian should respond to it. It is perhaps most useful, then, for the spiritual director to be aware of the resources within each of these traditions, and to be able to draw on both of them according to the strategy that is the most appropriate for an individual personality or situation. It is certainly the case, however, that abandonment by God (whether real or perceived), is not merely a development of the early modern West, as Lossky had alleged, but is rather something that has been experienced by Christians in both the East and the West, from the earliest centuries of Christianity until today. Christians who experience this feeling of abandonment and their spiritual directors, therefore, have a wide range of resources on which they can draw in order to probe the specific nature of an individual’s experience, and to determine what the appro- priate response to that experience should be.

NOTES 1. Vladimir Lossky. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. (Crestwood, NY: Saint Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1957), 225–227. 2. 1 Corinthians 6:19 (NRSV). 3. Tomas Spidlik. The Spirituality of the Christian East: A Systematic Handbook. (Ka- lamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1986), 30–34. 4. For example, a common debate was whether the Holy Spirit replaced a previously exist- ing human faculty, or was something altogether separate. Likewise, there was consider- able speculation about the relationship of the indwelling Holy Spirit to the human body. 5. Alexej Muravjev, “Macarian or Evagrian: The Problem of Origenist Legacy in East- ern Syriac Mystical Literature,” in Origeniana Octava vol. 2, ed. L. Perrone. (Leuven: Peeters Press, 2003), 1188–1189. 6. Evagrius Ponticus. Le Gnostique. Translated by Antoine and Claire Guillaumont. Sources Chrétiennes n. 356. (Paris: CNRS, 1989), 28.

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology 7. There is an intriguing, but not identical, parallel to this passage in Maximus the Confes- sor. “It is said that there are five reasons why we are allowed to be warred upon by demons. First, so that in offensive and defensive battle we come to distinguish virtue and vice. Second, that in acquiring virtue by struggles and toil, we shall hold on to it firmly and steadfastly. Third, that while advancing in virtue we do not become haughty, but rather learn to be humble. Fourth, that having experienced vice we will hate it with a consummate hate. Fifth, and most important, that when we become detached we do not forget either our own weakness or the power of the one who has helped us.” Maxi- mus the Confessor, Four Hundred Chapters on Love in Selected Writings. Translated by George C. Berthold. (New York: Paulist Press, 1985), II:67. 8. Evagrius, Scholia on Psalms 36:25, in Jeremy Driscoll. Steps to Spiritual Perfection: Studies on Spiritual Progress in Evagrius Ponticus. (New York: Newman Press, 2005), p. 114. 102 9. Evagrius, Scholies a l’ecclesiaste. Translated by Paul Géhin, Sources Chrétiennes n. 397. Paris: CNRS, 1993, 7:15. 10. Aphrahat, The Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Translated by Adam Lehto. (Piscataeay, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010), 6:15. Regarding “it,” the author notes that the Holy Spirit was referred to with feminine pronouns in early Syriac literature, which gradually shifted to masculine pronouns. Although many scholars might choose to render this as “she”, given that Syriac has no neuter pronouns, I suspect that “it” is a closer rendering of Aphrahat’s meaning. 11. Aphrahat, The Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Translated by Adam Lehto. (Piscataeay, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010), 6:17. 12. Aphrahat, The Demonstrations of Aphrahat the Persian Sage, Translated by Adam Lehto. (Piscataeay, NJ: Gorgias Press, 2010), 6:15. 13. Evagrius Ponticus, The Praktikos & Chapters on Prayer, Translated by Bamberger. (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1972), 47. 14. Evagrius Ponticus, The Praktikos & Chapters on Prayer, Translated by John Eudes Bamberger. (Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1972), 48. 15. Umberto Eco. Foucault’s Pendulum. (London: Harcout, 1988), 453. 16. Evagrius, Evagrius Ponticus. Le Gnostique. Translated by Antoine and Claire Guillau- mont. Sources Chrétiennes n. 356. (Paris: CNRS, 1989), 28. 17. Evagrius, Sur Les Pensées. Translated by Paul Géhin. Sources Chrétiennes n. 438. (Paris: CNRS, 1998), 10. 18. Simon of Taibutheh, Medico-Mystical Work, Translated by Alphonse Mingana in Early Christian Mystics. (Cambridge: W. Hefer & Sons, 1934), 30. 19. Robert Beulay. La lumière sans forme: Introduction à l’étude de la mystique chrétienne syro-orientale. (Chevetogne: Monastere de Chevetogne, 1980), 205. 20. Simon of Taibutheh, Medico-Mystical Work, Translated by Alphonse Mingana in Early Christian Mystics. (Cambridge: W. Hefer & Sons, 1934), 31. 21. Philoxenus of Mabbug, “On the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Translated by Sebastian P. Brock in The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987), 119 22. Philoxenus of Mabbug, “On the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Translated by Sebastian P. Brock in The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987), 106. 23. Philoxenus of Mabbug, “On the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Translated by Sebastian P. Brock in The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987), 116. 24. Philoxenus of Mabbug, “On the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Translated by Sebastian P. Brock in The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987), 107.

SPIRITUS | 20.1 25. Philoxenus of Mabbug, “On the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Translated by Sebastian P. Brock in The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987), 112. 26. Philoxenus of Mabbug, “On the Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.” Translated by Sebastian P. Brock in The Syriac Fathers on Prayer and the Spiritual Life. (Kalamazoo: Cistercian Publications, 1987), 119. 27. Nicholas V. Sakharov, I Love Therefore I Am: The Theological Legacy of Archiman- drite Sopheony. (Crestwood, NY: Saint Vladimir’s Press, 2002), 188. 28. Diadochos of Photike, One Hundred Practical Texts of Perception and Spiritual Dis- cernment. Translated by Janet Elaine Rutherford. (Belfast: Byzantine Texts and Transla- tions, 2000), 85–86. 29. Diadochos of Photike, One Hundred Practical Texts of Perception and Spiritual Dis- cernment. Translated by Janet Elaine Rutherford. (Belfast: Byzantine Texts and Transla- tions, 2000), 87. 103 30. John of Damascus, Fragments Mat. 96:1412 in Nicholas V. Sakharov. I Love Therefore I Am: The Theological Legacy of Archimandrite Sopheony. (Crestwood, NY: Saint Vladimir’s Press, 2002), 189. 31. Athanasius, The Life of Antony. (Translated by Robert C. Gregg. New York: Paulist Press, 1980), 10 32. Diadochus of Photike, One Hundred Practical Texts of Perception and Spiritual Dis- cernment. Translated by Janet Elaine Rutherford. (Belfast: Byzantine Texts and Transla- tions, 2000), 87. 33. Evagrius Ponticus. Le Gnostique. Translated by Antoine and Claire Guillaumont. Sources Chrétiennes n. 356. (Paris: CNRS, 1989), 28. 34. Matthew 27:46. 35. Nicholas V. Sakharov, I Love Therefore I Am: The Theological Legacy of Archiman- drite Sopheony. (Crestwood, NY: Saint Vladimir’s Press, 2002), 191. 36. Evagrius Ponticus. Le Gnostique. Translated by Antoine and Claire Guillaumont. Sources Chrétiennes n. 356. (Paris: CNRS, 1989), 28. 37. Evagrius of Pontus, On the Eight Thoughts in The Greek Ascetic Corpus, Translated by Robert E. Sinkewicz. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 17. 38. Evagrius of Pontus, On the Eight Thoughts in The Greek Ascetic Corpus, Translated by Robert E. Sinkewicz. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 18. 39. Evagrius Ponticus. Le Gnostique. Translated by Antoine and Claire Guillaumont. Sources Chrétiennes n. 356. (Paris: CNRS, 1989), 28. 40. Maximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Chapters on Love in Selected Writings. Trans- lated by George C. Berthold. (New York: Paulist Press, 1985), 2:67, 2:124 and Diado- chos of Photike, One Hundred Practical Texts of Perception and Spiritual Discernment. Translated by Janet Elaine Rutherford. (Belfast: Byzantine Texts and Translations, 2000), 86–87, 99, 146–147, 161. 41. Pseudo-Macarius, The Fifty Spiritual Homilies, Translated by George A. Maloney. (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1992), 21:4. 42. Robert Beulay. La lumière sans forme: Introduction à l’étude de la mystique chrétienne syro-orientale. (Chevetogne: Monastere de Chevetogne, 1980), 97–100. 43. Robert Beulay. La lumière sans forme: Introduction à l’étude de la mystique chrétienne syro-orientale. (Chevetogne: Monastere de Chevetogne, 1980), 112. 44. John of Dalyatha. The Homilies. Houghton Library, Harvard MS Syriac 115, Homily VI:3. 45. John of Dalyatha. The Homilies. Houghton Library, Harvard MS Syriac 115, Homily VI:4. 46. John of Dalyatha. The Homilies. Houghton Library, Harvard MS Syriac 115, Homily VI:5.

Anderson | The Experience of Abandonment by God in Syriac Christian Ascetical Theology 47. John of Dalyatha. The Homilies. Houghton Library, Harvard MS Syriac 115, Homily VI:6. 48. Isaac of Nineveh On Ascetical Life. Translated by Mary Hansbury. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989), 1:50. 49. Isaac of Nineveh On Ascetical Life. Translated by Mary Hansbury. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989), 1:42 and 1:50. 50. Isaac of Nineveh On Ascetical Life. Translated by Mary Hansbury. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989), 1:42. 51. Isaac of Nineveh On Ascetical Life. Translated by Mary Hansbury. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989), 1:50. 52. Isaac of Nineveh On Ascetical Life. Translated by Mary Hansbury. (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989), 1:50. 53. Isaac of Nineveh On Ascetical Life. Translated by Mary Hansbury. (Crestwood, NY: St. 104 Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1989), 1:50. 54. Irenee Hausherr. “Les Orientaux connaissent-ils les ‘nuits’ de saint Jean de la Croix?” Hesychasme et Priere. (Rome, 1966), 181. 55. Henri-Charles Puech, “Les Tenebre Mystique chez le pseudo-Denys,” Etudes carmelit- aines 23:2 (1938), 53. 56. Irenee Hausherr. “Les Orientaux connaissent-ils les ‘nuits’ de saint Jean de la Croix?” Hesychasme et Priere. (Rome, 1966), 123. 57. Myrrha Lot-Borodine. La Déification de l’homme, selon la doctrine des Pères grecs. Paris: 1970.

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