Overview

This book is a study of the mystical nature of tradition, and the traditional nature of mysticism, and of St Symeon as both a highly personal and very traditional ecclesiastical writer. The teachings of St Symeon (late tenth to early eleventh century) created much controversy in Byzantium and even led to a short-lived exile to Asia Minor. For the first time in modern scholarship St Symeon's attitude to Scripture and to church worship, his relations with his spiritual father, Symeon the Studite, and the Studite tradition in general are examined. Separate chapters are dedicated to Symeon's cycle of daily reading, to his attitude to hagiographical literature, to his trinitarian theology, ecclesiology, anthropology, and mysticism. Special attention is also paid to the links between Symeon and preceeding authors such as Gregory Nazianzen. In this book Dr Alfeyev aims to redress the balance existing in the modern scholarly approach to Symeon and, more generally, to the Byzantine mystical tradition. By examining Symeon from within the tradition to which both he and the author belong Dr Alfeyev breaks new ground in original research.

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9780198270096

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Reviews

... fine book ... one of the best available in English, written with commanding rigour and sobreity, exactness and perceptiveness. Alfeyev's linguistic proficiency is impressive: he can read secondary literature in five or six languages, mastering also the ancient Greek, Syrian and Latin orginal sources. Archaevs: Studies in History of Religion The book's structure is friendly and accesible ... thorough bibliography ... excellent index of Greek words ... Bishop Hilarion's writing is neat, careful and respectful towards other researchers in the field. Archaevs: Studies in History of Religion The author, the editors of the series, and the publisher, deserve altogether loud praise for making this first-rate Patristic monograph available to the general public. Alfeyev's volume will certainly appeal to all scholars of Christian doctrine, Byzantine history, orthodox monasticism, theology and comparative research in religious studies. None of them should have this book missing from their shelves. Archaevs: Studies in History of Religion ... thorough and indispensable monograph. Journal of Theological Studies

Author Information

Hilarion Alfeyev is a Russian scholar in Byzantine and Syriac Patristics.

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