06 — Influence on the Tradition
The long reach of the Macarian corpus. Under the name of Macarius, the spirituality of the heart entered and shaped the whole Christian East — and, much later and more soberly, touched the West. This section traces the Eastern reception, from Diadochus through the Philokalic Metaphrasis to hesychasm, and the wider reception, from the Syriac roots through Maximus to the eighteenth-century Protestant and Wesleyan reading.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father)
The Macarian Homilies are among the most influential ascetic-mystical writings of Christian history, and their influence is the best testimony to the orthodoxy the Church found in them. The first file follows the Eastern reception: Diadochus of Photike, who drew on Macarius while correcting his Messalian-sounding edges; the parallel with Gregory of Nyssa; the use made of the corpus by Maximus the Confessor and, decisively, by the hesychasts and Gregory Palamas; and the entry of the Homilies into the Philokalia through Symeon Metaphrastes’ paraphrase, under Macarius’s name. The second file follows the wider reception: the Syro-Mesopotamian roots that modern scholarship has uncovered; and the much later and more surprising afterlife of the corpus among German Pietists and in the perfectionism of John Wesley — a reception reported here soberly, with attention to what is actually documented.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Eastern Reception | Diadochus of Photike, the Gregory of Nyssa parallel, Maximus, hesychasm and Palamas, and the Philokalic Metaphrasis. |
| Wider Reception | The Syriac roots; Maximus; German Pietism (Arnold) and the Wesleyan reception, noted soberly. |
See Also
- Grace and Experience — the theology that was received
- The Messalian Boundary — Diadochus’s correction in context
- The Symeon Authorship Question — the Gregory of Nyssa parallel and the Syriac roots
- Orthodoxy: The Jesus Prayer — the hesychast inheritance
- St. Gregory Palamas — the hesychast theologian who drew on Macarius
References
- Plested, Marcus. The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
- The Philokalia, vol. 3. Trans. and ed. G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware. London: Faber and Faber, 1984.
- Stewart, Columba. “Working the Earth of the Heart”: The Messalian Controversy in History, Texts, and Language to A.D. 431. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.