Editing Hesychasm (section)

==Origins and development==
Metropolitan [[Kallistos Ware]], a scholar of Eastern Orthodox theology, distinguishes five distinct usages of the term "hesychasm":{{sfnp|Ware|1995|pp=4–7}}{{sfnp|Payne|2006|pp=130–131}}
# "solitary life", a sense, equivalent to "[[eremitic]]al life", in which the term is used since the 4th century;
# "the practice of inner prayer, aiming at union with God on a level beyond images, concepts and language"; 
# "the quest for such union through the [[Jesus Prayer]]";
# "a particular psychosomatic technique in combination with the Jesus Prayer", use of which technique can be traced back at least to the 13th century;
# "the theology of St. Gregory Palamas", on which see [[Palamism]].

===Early Christian monasticism===
{{See also|Christian contemplation|Christian mysticism}}

====Solitary ascetic life====
Christian monasticism started with the legalisation of Christianity in the 4th century.{{sfnp|Payne|2006|p=132}} The term ''hesychast'' is used sparingly in Christian [[ascetical]] writings emanating from [[Egypt]] from the 4th century on, although the writings of Evagrius and the ''Sayings of the Desert Fathers'' do attest to it. In Egypt, the terms more often used are ''anchoretism'' (Gr. {{lang|grc|ἀναχώρησις}}, "withdrawal, retreat"), and ''[[anchorite]]'' (Gr. {{lang|grc|ἀναχωρητής}}, "one who withdraws or retreats, i.e. a hermit").

The term ''hesychast'' was used in the 6th century in [[Palestine (region)|Palestine]] in the ''Lives'' of [[Cyril of Scythopolis]].{{sfnp|Stearn|2020|pp=269–324}} Many of the hesychasts Cyril describes were his own contemporaries; several of the saints about whom Cyril was writing, especially Euthymios and Savas, were in fact from [[Cappadocia]]. The laws ''(novellae)'' of the emperor [[Justinian I]] (r. 527–565) treat ''hesychast'' and ''anchorite'' as synonyms, making them interchangeable terms.

====Inner prayer====
The practice of inner prayer, which aims at "inward stillness or silence of the heart",{{sfnp|Ware|1995|p=5}} dates back to at least the 4th century. [[Evagrius Ponticus]] (345–399), [[John Climacus]] (St. John of Sinai; 6th–7th century), [[Maximus the Confessor]] (c. 580–662), and [[Symeon the New Theologian]] (949–1022) are representatives of this hesychast spirituality.{{sfnp|Ware|1995|p=5}} John Climacus, in his influential ''[[Ladder of Divine Ascent]]'', describes several stages of contemplative or hesychast practice, culminating in ''[[agape]]''.

The earliest reference to the [[Jesus prayer]] is in [[Diadochos of Photiki]] (c. 450); Evagrius, Maximus, nor Symeon refer to the Jesus prayer.{{sfnp|Ware|1995|p=6}} Saint [[John Cassian]] (c. 360–435), who transmitted Evagrius Ponticus's ascetical teachings to the West, forming the basis of much of the spirituality of the [[Order of Saint Benedict]] and the subsequent western [[Mysticism|mystical tradition]], presents as the formula used in Egypt for repetitive prayer "O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me."<ref group=web>{{cite book | first = John | last = Cassian | title = Conferences | number = 10 | chapter = 10–11 |publisher= New advent |access-date = 2014-02-06 | series = Fathers|chapter-url= http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/350810.htm }}</ref>{{refn|group=note|John Cassian is not represented in the ''Philokalia'' except by two brief extracts, but this is most likely due to his having written in Latin. His works ''(Coenobitical Institutions'' and the ''Conferences)''}}

===Addition of psychosomatic techniques===
[[Nikephoros the Monk|St. Nicephorus the Hesychast]] (13th century), a Roman Catholic who converted to the Eastern Orthodox faith and became a monk at Mount Athos, advised monks to bend their heads toward the chest, "attach the prayer to their breathing" while controlling the rhythm of their breath, and "to fix their eyes during prayer on the 'middle of the body'", concentrating the mind within the heart in order to practice ''[[nepsis]]'' (watchfulness).{{sfnp|Ware|1995|p=6}}{{sfnp|Palmer|Ware|Sherrard|1999|p=205}}<ref group=web name="EB_Hesychasm"/> While this is the earliest attestation of psychosomatic techniques in hesychast prayer, according to Kallistos Ware "its origins may well be far more ancient",{{sfnp|Ware|1995|p=7}} influenced by the [[Sufism|Sufi]] practice of ''[[dhikr]]'', " the memory and invocation of the name of God", which in turn may have been influenced by [[Yoga]] practices from India,{{sfnp|Ware|1992}} though it's also possible that Sufis were influenced by early Christian monasticism.{{sfnp|Ware|1992}}{{refn|group=note|Other authors have also speculated about Indian influences on Hesychasm via the Sufi's. {{harvtxt|Dupuche|Dunn|Cross|2003}} states that Indian monks were present in  Mesopotamia and Syria in the 8th and 9th centuries, while [[Nath]] yogins were in Central Asia and Iran in the 11th century, influencing Sufi brotherhoods.}}

In the early 14th century, [[Gregory of Sinai|Gregory Sinaita]] (1260s–1346) learned a form of disciplined mental prayer from Arsenius of Crete, rooted in the tradition of [[John Climacus]].<ref group=web name="EB_Gregory-of-Sinai"/> In 1310, he went to [[Monastic community of Mount Athos|Mount Athos]], where he remained until 1335 as a monk at the Skete of Magoula near [[Philotheou Monastery]],{{sfnp|Palmer|Ware|Sherrard|1999|p=PR7}} introducing hesychast practice there.<ref group=web name="EB_Gregory-of-Sinai"/> The terms ''Hesychasm'' and ''Hesychast'' were used by the monks on Mount Athos to refer to the practice and to the practitioner of a method of mental ascesis that involves the use of the Jesus Prayer assisted by certain psychophysical techniques.

===Hesychast controversy and Palamism===
[[Image:Gregor Palamas.jpg|thumb|upright|Gregory Palamas]]
{{main article|Hesychast controversy|Palamism}}

About the year 1337, hesychasm attracted the attention of [[Barlaam of Seminara]], a Calabrian monk who at that time held the office of abbot in the Monastery of [[Chora Church|St. Saviour]] in Constantinople and who visited [[Mount Athos]]. Mount Athos was then at the height of its fame and influence, under the reign of [[Andronicus III Palaeologus]] and under the leadership of the ''Protos'' Symeon.<ref name="EB1911">{{EB1911|inline=y|wstitle=Hesychasts|volume=13|page=414}}</ref> On Mount Athos, Barlaam encountered hesychasts and heard descriptions of their practices, also reading the writings of the teacher in hesychasm of St. [[Gregory Palamas]], himself an Athonite monk. Trained in Western [[Scholasticism|Scholastic]] theology, Barlaam was scandalized by hesychasm and began to combat it both orally and in his writings. As a private teacher of theology in the Western Scholastic mode, Barlaam propounded a more intellectual and propositional approach to the knowledge of God than the hesychasts taught.

Barlaam took exception to the doctrine entertained by the hesychasts as to the nature of the light, the experience of which was said to be the goal of hesychast practice, regarding it as [[Christian heresy|heretical]] and [[blasphemy|blasphemous]]. It was maintained by the hesychasts to be of divine origin and to be identical to [[Tabor Light|the light]] which had been manifested to Jesus' disciples on [[Mount Tabor, Israel|Mount Tabor]] at the [[Transfiguration of Jesus|Transfiguration]].{{sfnp|Parry|1999|p=231}}<ref>{{cite book |last=Slobodskoy |first=Serafim Alexivich |title=The Law of God |date=1992 |publisher=[[Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville, New York)]] |isbn=978-0884650447 |translator-last=Price |translator-first=Susan |chapter=The Sundays of Lent |access-date=21 March 2019 |translator-link=Susan Price |chapter-url=https://www.orthodoxphotos.com/readings/LGFLS/sundays.shtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180812061034/https://www.orthodoxphotos.com/readings/LGFLS/sundays.shtml |archive-date=12 August 2018 |url-status=live}} ''Original:'' {{cite book |last=Слободской |first=Серафим Алексеевич |date=1957 |publication-date=1966 |language=ru |script-title=ru:Закон Божий |trans-title=The Law of God |chapter=Недели Великого Поста |trans-chapter=The Sundays of Lent |quote={{langx|ru|Паламы […] учил, что за подвиг поста и молитвы Господь озаряет верующих благодатным Своим светом, каким сиял Господь на Фаворе.|label=none}} |access-date=21 March 2019 |chapter-url=https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Serafim_Slobodskoj/zakon-bozhij/277 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170725070702/https://azbyka.ru/otechnik/Serafim_Slobodskoj/zakon-bozhij/277 |archive-date=25 July 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> This Barlaam held to be [[Polytheism|polytheistic]], inasmuch as it postulated two eternal substances, a visible and an invisible God.<ref name="EB1911"/> Hesychasm was linked with [[Euchites|Messalianiam]] and [[Bogomilism]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Russell |first=Norman |author-link=Norman Russell |title=Gregory Palamas and the making of Palamism in the Modern Age |publisher=[[Oxford University]] Press |year=2019 |chapter=1. The Orthodox struggle to assimilate Palamite thinking |doi=10.1093/oso/9780199644643.003.0001}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Meyendorff |first=John |author-link=John Meyendorff |date=1988 |title=Mount Athos in the Fourteenth Century: Spiritual and Intellectual Legacy. |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1291594?read-now=1&seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents |journal=[[Dumbarton Oaks Papers]] |volume=42 |pages=157–165 |doi=10.2307/1291594 }}</ref>

On the hesychast side, the controversy was taken up by St. [[Gregory Palamas]], afterwards Archbishop of [[Thessalonica]],<ref name="EB1911"/> who was asked by his fellow monks on Mt Athos to defend hesychasm from the attacks of Barlaam. St. Gregory himself was well-educated in Greek philosophy. St. Gregory defended hesychasm in the 1340s at three different synods in [[Constantinople]], and he also wrote a number of works in its defense.

In these works, St. Gregory Palamas uses a distinction, already found in the 4th century in the works of the [[Cappadocian Fathers]], between the energies or operations (Gr. ''energeiai)'' of God and the essence of God. St. Gregory taught that the [[Essence-Energies distinction|energies or operations of God were uncreated]]. He taught that the essence of God can never be known by his creature even in the next life, but that his uncreated energies or operations can be known both in this life and in the next, and convey to the hesychast in this life and to the righteous in the next life a true spiritual knowledge of God. In Palamite theology, it is the uncreated energies of God that illumine the hesychast who has been vouchsafed an experience of the uncreated light.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}

In 1341, the dispute came before a [[synod]] held at [[Constantinople]] and presided over by the Emperor Andronicus III; the synod, taking into account the regard in which the writings of the [[pseudo-Dionysius]] were held, condemned Barlaam, who recanted and returned to Calabria, afterwards becoming a bishop in the [[Catholic Church]].<ref name="EB1911"/>

One of Barlaam's friends, [[Gregory Akindynos]], who originally was also a friend of St. Gregory Palamas, took up the controversy, which also played a role in the [[Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347|civil war]] between the supporters of John Cantacuzenus and [[John V Palaiologos]].{{Citation needed|date=July 2023}} Three other synods on the subject were held, at the second of which the followers of Barlaam gained a brief victory. But in 1351 at a synod under the presidency of the Emperor [[John VI Cantacuzenus]], hesychast doctrine was established as the doctrine of the Orthodox Church.<ref name="EB1911"/>

===Introduction in Russia===
St. [[Paisius Velichkovsky]] and his [[Starets|disciples]] made the practice known in [[Russia]] and [[Romania]], although hesychasm was already previously known in Russia, as is attested by [[St. Seraphim of Sarov]]'s independent practice of it.{{citation needed|date=January 2025}}