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Authority and Tradition in Contemporary Understandings of Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer

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Authority and Tradition in Contemporary Understandings of Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer Authority and Tradition in Contemporary Understandings of Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer Christopher David Leonard Johnson Ph.D. The University of Edinburgh 2009 Abstract In today’s global religious landscape, many beliefs and practices have been dislocated and thrust into unfamiliar cultural environments and have been forced to adapt to these new settings. There has been a significant amount of research on this phenomenon as it appears in various contexts, much of it centred on the concepts of globalisation/localisation and appropriation. In this dissertation, the same process is explored in relation to the traditions of contemplative prayer from within Eastern Orthodox Christianity known as the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm. These prayer practices have traveled from a primarily monastic Orthodox Christian setting, into general Orthodox Christian usage, and finally into wider contemporary Western culture. As a result of this geographic shift from a local to a global setting, due mainly to immigration and dissemination of relevant texts, there has been a parallel shift of interpretation. This shift of interpretation involves the way the practices are understood in relation to general conceptions of authority and tradition. The present work attempts to explain the divergence of interpretations of these practices by reference to the major themes of authority and tradition, and to several secondary themes such as appropriation, cultural transmission, “glocalisation,” memory, and Orientalism. By looking at accounts of the Jesus Prayer and hesychasm from a variety of sources and perspectives, the contentious issues between accounts will be put into a wider perspective that considers fundamental differences in worldviews. ii Acknowledgments There have been countless friends and colleagues that have directly or indirectly aided me in the research and writing of this thesis. First and foremost, the initial inspiration for this project comes from my father, Dr. David Pittman Johnson, and my mother, Linda Russell Johnson, who endured sitting through endless hours of encouraging talks over the last four years. This work is dedicated to both of them. My primary supervisor, Dr. James Cox, was a constant and reliable guide throughout the entire Ph.D. process and my secondary supervisor, Dr. Steven Sutcliffe, was also essential in helping me to define my focus and see its relation to the larger academic picture. Thanks also goes to the many friends in Edinburgh, Greece, and Alabama that helped me in so many ways: Evangelos Katafylis and his wonderful family, Caitlin and Lila Weaver, Elijah Webster, Ritske Rensma, Sara Saab, Adam Hollowell, Jonathan Benjamin, Lara Day, Suzanne Owen, Ephraim Rivers, and Sarah McClung. There were countless monks and priests from Mount Athos, Essex, Edinburgh, and Alabama and elsewhere who gave a human face to my topic and humbly offered their first-hand knowledge and advice to me. The New College office staff has also been instrumental in the completion of this thesis. iii Declaration I declare that I have composed this thesis and that it is my own original work. --------------------------------------------------------- iv Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………………………………...........................….ii Acknowledgments………………………………………………………………………………...….iii Declaration…………………………………………………………………………………….….…iv Chapter One: Introduction………………………………………………………………………...1 1.1 Thesis and Chapter Outline…………………………………………………...……....1 1.2 Motivations for Study………………………………………………………...…..…..4 1.3 Methodology and Theories……………………………………………...………..…..6 1.3.1 Distinctiveness from Past Approaches…………………………….....…….....6 1.3.2 Theoretical Sources……………………………….....…………......................9 1.3.3 Principles of Selection for Sources……………………………...……..……14 Chapter Two: Definitions - What Are the Practices?…………….…………….………..……..17 2.1 Defining Hesychasm………………………………………………….……………..17 2.1.1 Four Senses of the Term……………………………………...………..……19 2.2 Defining the Jesus Prayer……………………………………………..……..……...22 2.2.1 Elements of the Jesus Prayer……………………………………….....……..25 2.2.2 The Jesus Prayer and Reintegration………………......……………..............27 2.2.3 Stages of the Jesus Prayer……………………………………….....………..28 2.2.4 Uses: Free and Fixed, Personal and Communal…………………….………30 2.2.5 Flexibility and the Role of the Name…………………………….………….30 2.2.6 Aids: Prayer Rope, Breathing, Posture…………………………...…..……..32 2.3 The Monastic Calling………………………………………………….....………….34 2.4 Dangers……………………………………………...…………………..…………..36 Chapter Three: History - How Have the Practices Spread?…………………….……..….…...38 3.1 A History of the Practices………………………………………..…………...……..38 v 3.1.1 Emergence of Elements…………………………………...…………..……..38 3.1.2 The Fourteenth Century Hesychast Controversy…................…………........43 3.1.3 The Eighteenth Century and the Philokalia………............……………........45 3.1.3 Opinions on Lay Use………………………………………………..…...….47 3.1.4 The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries…………................………….......48 3.2 Transmission in History……………………………….....................……..…..........53 3.3 Summary……………………………………………………………….…..…….....55 Chapter Four: Survey - Where Have the Practices Spread?.……………………….……..…..57 4.1 A Survey of Settings………………………………………...................……..…......57 4.2 Eastern Orthodoxy…………………………………………………..…………...….57 4.2.1 Guidebooks……………………………………………………..…………...60 4.3 Roman Catholic Church………………………………………………….……….....64 4.4 Anglican and Episcopalian…………………………………………………..……...76 4.5 Evangelical and Emerging Churches………………………………...…………..….79 4.6 Perennialism……………………………………………….......................................87 4.7 Gurdjieff and Ouspensky’s Fourth Way……………………………………….....…96 4.8 Yoga………………………………………………………......................................104 Chapter Five: Discussions on the Practices……………………………………………....……107 5.1 Chapter Summary……………………………………………………..……...……107 5.2 Amazon Book Reviews……………………………………………………………107 5.3 Internet Discussion Boards………………………………………………….....…..111 5.3.1 Monachos Forum 1: ‘Looking for some books’………………………..….111 5.3.2 Monachos Forum 2: ‘On Boris Mouravieff’s “Gnosis”’………….....…….114 5.3.3 Monachos Forum 3: On Prince Charles………………………..…………..119 5.3.4 MySpace Traditional Studies Forum………………...……………..……...121 5.4 Printed Discussion………………………………………………………….....…...125 vi 5.4.1 Paths to the Heart……………………………...……………………..……125 5.5 Blogs……………………………………………...…………………………..……128 5.5.1 ‘Way Out West’ Blog……………………………………………….……..128 5.5.2 ‘Tall Skinny Kiwi’ Blog………………………………………….....……..131 5.6 Conclusion…………………………………………………...……………..……...134 Chapter Six: Authority………………………………………………………...………….…….135 6.1 The Subjectivisation Thesis…………………………………………...………...…135 6.1.1 The Complications of Subjective-Life and Life-As…………...……..…….136 6.2 Weber on Authority………………………………………………………….....….141 6.3 Transmission of the Practices…………………………………………..…...……..143 6.3.1 Ong on Orality………………………………………………..………...….143 6.3.2 The Spiritual Guide…………………………………………………….......145 6.4 Locality and Globality…………………………………………………..…………147 Chapter Seven: Tradition……………………………………………………………...……......150 7.1 Theories of Tradition……………………………………………………………....150 7.1.1 Shils’ Sociology of Tradition……………………………………………....150 7.1.2 Hobsbawm and Ranger’s ‘Invented Traditions’…………………………...151 7.1.3 Hervieu-Legér and Memory…………………………………………….....153 7.1.4 Clark on The American Discovery of Tradition…………………………....158 7.1.5 Canon and Interpretation in J. Z. Smith and Murphy……………..…….....159 7.1.6 Pelikan and the Recovery of Tradition……………………………….....…161 7.1.7 Thompson’s Aspects of Tradition. …………………………………..........164 7.2 Issues of Tradition……………………………………………………………..…..168 7.2.1 The Contemplative Renewal of Christianity…………………………….…168 7.2.2 Orientalism………………………………………………….……...……....169 7.2.3 Gifts of the Desert to the City…..........................................................….....171 vii 7.2.4 The Esoteric/Exoteric Distinction……………………………………….…176 7.2.5 Other Traditions……………………………………………………….…...179 Chapter Eight: Appropriation…………………………………………………………....…….182 8.1 Theories of Appropriation……………………………………………………....…183 8.1.1 Robert Wallis on Neo-Shamanism…………………………………….…...183 8.1.2 Paul C. Johnson on Appropriation………………………………………....190 8.1.3 Howes and Cross-Cultural Consumption………………………...……..….192 8.2 Orthodox Critiques of Appropriation……………………………………..…..…...197 8.3 Therapy…………………………………………………………………..………...200 8.3.1 Selling Spirituality……………………………………………....................200 8.3.2 Orthodox Therapeutic Interpretations………………………………...…....206 Chapter Nine: Conclusions…………………………………………………………………...…209 Works Cited…………………………………………………………………………......................215 Websites Cited.........…………………………………………………………………….......……..234 viii Chapter One: Introduction “But the thing is, the marvelous thing is, when you first start doing it [the Jesus Prayer], you don’t even have to have faith in what you’re doing. I mean even if you’re terribly embarrassed about the whole thing, it’s perfectly alright. I mean you’re not insulting anybody or anything. In other words, nobody asks you to believe a single thing when you first start out. You don’t even have to think about what you’re saying, the starets said. All you have to have in the beginning is quantity. Then, later on, it becomes quality by itself.” “If you’re going to say the Jesus prayer, at least say it to Jesus […]. Keep him in your mind if you say it, and him only, and him as he was not as you’d like him to have been. […] I can’t see […] how you can pray to a Jesus you
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