The spiritual tradition in eastern Christianity : ascetic psychology, mystical experience, and physical practices / by David T. Bradford.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bradford, David T., 1951- author.

Series:

Studies in spirituality. Supplement ; 26.

Studies in spirituality. Supplement ; 26

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Evagrius, Ponticus, 345?-399.

Evagrius.

Maximus, Confessor, Saint, approximately 580-662.

Maximus.

Isaac, Bishop of Nineveh, active 7th century.

Isaac.

Symeon, the New Theologian, Saint, 949-1022.

Symeon.

Asceticism--Eastern churches.

Asceticism.

Mysticism--Psychology.

Mysticism.

Psychology, Religious.

Mysticism--Orthodox Eastern Church.

Spiritual life--Eastern churches.

Spiritual life.

Spiritual life--Christianity.

Eastern churches.

Physical Description:

x, 446 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leuven ; Paris ; Bristol, CT : Peeters, 2016.

Summary:

"The Spiritual Tradition in Eastern Christianity is a comprehensive survey of the means, goals, and motivations of the ascetic life as represented in texts spanning the fourth and the nineteenth century. Contemporary examples are also included. The main themes are the dynamics of the soul, the disabling effects of the passions, mental and physical ascetism, the desirable condition of dispassion, and the experience of deification. A variety of topics are addressed, including hesychast prayer, religious weeping, the spiritual senses, dream interpretation, luminous visions, the holy 'fool', ascetic demonology, and pain in ascetic practice. Typical ascetic and mystical experiences are interpreted from the psychological and the neuroscientific perspective. Comparative analyses based on Sufism, Vedantic mysticism, and especially early Buddhist psychology highlight distinctive features of the Christian ascetic life. Major figures such as Evagrius Ponticus, Maximos the Confessor, Isaac the Syrian, and Symeon the New Theologian receive extensive individual consideration"-- Page 4 of cover.

Contents:

Chapter 1 The Powers of the Soul 5

1.1 The Incentive Power 9

1.2 The Desiring Power 10

1.3 The Intellect 11

1.4 Image and Archetype 14

1.5 Brightly Shining Mind 15

Chapter 2 The Heart 17

2.1 Spiritual Anatomy 18

2.2 Hesychast Prayer 18

2.3 Four Phases of Prayer 20

2.4 Intracorpoteal Space 22

2.5 Posture and Respiration 24

2.6 Attention 29

2.7 Two Patterns of Autonomic Arousal 31

2.8 Parallels in Other Traditions 36

2.9 The Influence of Sufism 40

Chapter 3 The Luminous Presence 45

3.1 Properties of the Luminous Presence 45

3.2 The Hesychast Controversy 53

3.3 Divine and Demonic Visions 57

3.4 Four Kinds of Luminous Visions 59

3.5 Focal-Extracorporeal Light 65

3.6 Global-Extracorporeal Light 69

3.7 Corporeal Light 71

3.8 Intracorporeal Light 78

3.9 A Complex Visionary Experience 79

3.10 Chromatic Visionary Light 81

3.11 Visionary Light and Divine Omnipresence 84

Chapter 4 Sleep, Dreams, and Prayer 93

4.1 Prayer During Sleep 94

4.2 Sleep Deprivation 100

4.3 Dream Interpretation 104

4.4 Visions and Revelations While Asleep 108

4.5 Illustration of Prayer While Dreaming 110

4.6 Illustration of Mystical Experience While Asleep 117

4.7 Dreamless Sleep and Mystical Experience 121

Chapter 5 The Spiritual Senses 127

5.1 Spiritual Perception 129

5.2 Sensory Perception 136

5.3 One and Many 137

5.4 Mystical Synesthesia 139

5.5 Spiritual Odor 141

5.6 Smell and Demonic Entrapment 154

Chapter 6 The Passions 161

6.1 Eight Dispositions 161

6.2 The Five Hindrances 165

6.3 The Constructing Activities 168

6.4 The Demons 170

6.5 Anchorite and Cenobite 175

6.6 Psychotherapy of the Passions 178

6.7 Illustration of Evagrian Psychotherapy 187

6.8 Demons, Delirium, and Migraine 188

Chapter 7 Stillness and Dispassion 195

7.1 The Delicacy of Stillness 197

7.2 Nipsis and Attention 199

7.3 Nipsis and Emotion 202

7.4 Nipsis and Memory 204

7.5 The Permanence of Dispassion 206

7.6 A Dispassionate 'Fool' 208

Chapter 8 Acedia 217

8.1 Depleted Fervor 217

8.2 Acedia and Physical Symptoms 219

Chapter 9 Pride and Vainglory 223

9.1 Vainglory and Social Display 223

9.2 Clothing and Other Possessions 225

9.3 Vainglory and Cognition 226

9.4 A Psychosis of Pride and Vainglory 227

Chapter 10 Fornication 231

10.1 Morbid Defluxions 231

10.2 Intoxication and Sexual Fantasy 234

10.3 Fornication and Sense-Desire 235

Chapter 11 Gluttony 237

11.1 Diverse Expressions of Gluttony 237

11.2 Fasting 238

11.3 A Syndrome of Ascetic Fasting 242

11.4 The Precedence of Gluttony over Fornication 243

11.5 The Desire for Immortality 245

Chapter 12 Physical Practices 247

12.1 Surface and Depth Interventions 248

12.2 Discomfort and Pain 252

12.3 The Prostration 255

12.4 Face, Eyes, and Gaze 258

Chapter 13 Evagrius on Impassioned Mental Activity 263

13.1 Thoughts 263

13.2 Illustration of Objective Perception 265

Chapter 14 Images of Bodily Corruption 271

14.1 The Buddhist Meditation on Foulness 272

14.2 The Ascetic Utility of Raw Emotion 277

Chapter 15 Maximos on Impassioned Mental Activity 279

15.1 Conceptual Images 279

15.2 Illustration of Objective Perception 282

Chapter 16 Religious Weeping 285

16.1 Tears 286

16.2 Weeping 288

16.3 Isaac the Syrian on Tears 289

16.4 Permanent Autonomic Change 295

Chapter 17 The Body in Dreams and Fantasy 299

17.1 The Imaginal Body 299

17.2 A Principle of Mental Transformation 302

Chapter 18 The Deified Body 305

18.1 The Flesh 309

18.2 Weight-mess 310

18.3 Illusory Movement 312

18.4 Weightiness and Cosmology 317

Chapter 19 The Remembrance of Death 321

19.1 Fear and Love 321

19.2 An Imaginal Practice 322

19.3 The Thought of Death 325

19.4 Change in the Practice 326

19.5 An Imitation of Christ 328

Chapter 20 Three Forms of Mystical Experience 331

20.1 Near-Absorption 331

20.2 The Ecstatic Vision 332

20.3 The Imageless Grasp 336

20.4 Mystical Experience in Temporal Perspective 337

Chapter 21 Maximos on Dispassion and Deification 349

21.1 Eros 350

21.2 Preliminary Dispassions 352

21.3 Advanced Dispassions 355

21.4 Inhibition of Perceptual Experience 356

21.5 Deification 358.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789042932845

9042932848

OCLC:

965200428

Publisher Number:

99971662498