Course Description
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the theology and the spirituality of the Philokalia, using the classic English translation by palmerm Sherrard and Ware, while occasionally also looking at the original texts. The class will outine the historical development of Philokalic thought from its Origenist beginnings in the Evagrian tradition, the Chalcdonian turn and the theology of Maximos the Confessor, the role of the prayer of the heart, and the full flowering of the hesychastic tradition in the thought of Gregory Palamas. The class will also touch on the reception of the Philokalai in the Slavic and Russian world. The course will show the continued significance and relevance of the vision of the Philokalia for a contemporary Catholic audience, which can continue to draw on the intellectual and spiritual sources of the undivided church, as well as some of the voices in the eprido following the 1054 schism.
Bibliography
Philokalia, trans. by G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware, Vol. 1, Faber and Faber, London, 1978. Philokalia, trans. by G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware, Vol. 2, Faber and Faber, London, 1981. Philokalia, trans. by G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware, Vol. 4, Faber and Faber, London, 1992. JOHN MEYENDROFF, Christ in Eastern Christian Thought, St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood, N.Y., 1974. BROCK BINGAMAN and BRADLEY NASSIF (eds.), The Philokalia, a Classic Text of Orthodox Spirituality, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012.