Section 07: The Theological Chapters and Discourses
St. Symeon the New Theologian’s two great bodies of composed prose: the Practical and Theological Chapters — three “centuries” of short numbered sentences, the form (153 texts) in which the Philokalia carried his teaching — and the Ethical Discourses, the fifteen sustained treatises that are the most systematic part of his corpus and the place where his dogmatic content lives.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father)
Contents
| File | Topic |
|---|---|
| The Practical and Theological Chapters | The three centuries (Chapitres théologiques, gnostiques et pratiques, SC 51); the Philokalic 153 texts and their symbolic number; the kephalaia genre from Evagrius and Maximus to Stethatos and Palamas; the teaching on grace consciously experienced |
| The Ethical Discourses | The fifteen treatises (Traités théologiques et éthiques, SC 122, 129); mystical exegesis; the eternal “eighth day” of the Sunday after Pascha; the doctrine of deification; Golitzin’s On the Mystical Life and the most systematic Symeon |
Overview
St. Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022), abbot of St. Mamas in Constantinople, left a corpus assembled by his disciple Niketas Stethatos: the Catecheses, the Hymns of Divine Love, and the two bodies of composed prose in this section. The Chapters give his teaching in its most concentrated, memorizable form; the Ethical Discourses develop it at length. The thread running through both is Symeon’s defining conviction — that the grace of the Holy Spirit is to be consciously experienced, and that the vision of the uncreated divine light is offered to all who truly repent and keep the commandments. Carried in the Philokalia, this teaching made Symeon a forerunner of the fourteenth-century hesychasts (see Section 08).
Key Themes
- The kephalaia genre — gnomic “chapters” in “centuries,” from Evagrius and Maximus to Palamas.
- Grace consciously experienced — the possession of the Spirit is not separable from the perception of His working.
- The vision of the divine light — identified with the light of Tabor and with deification.
- The eternal “eighth day” and deification (theosis) — the eschatological summit of the Ethical Discourses.
See Also
- 08 — Influence on Hesychasm — how this teaching reached Palamas
- St. Maximus: Centuries on Love — the model of the kephalaia genre
- St. Gregory Palamas: The One Hundred and Fifty Chapters — the genre carried into the fourteenth century
- The Jesus Prayer — the neptic and hesychast tradition
References
- Symeon the New Theologian. Chapitres théologiques, gnostiques et pratiques. Ed. and trans. Jean Darrouzès. Sources Chrétiennes 51. Paris: Cerf, 1957.
- Symeon the New Theologian. Traités théologiques et éthiques. Ed. and trans. Jean Darrouzès. Sources Chrétiennes 122, 129. Paris: Cerf, 1966–1967.
- Symeon the New Theologian. The Practical and Theological Chapters and the Three Theological Discourses. Trans. Paul McGuckin. Cistercian Studies 41. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1982.
- Symeon the New Theologian. On the Mystical Life: The Ethical Discourses. Trans. Alexander Golitzin. 3 vols. Popular Patristics Series 14–16. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995–1997.
- The Philokalia: The Complete Text, vol. 4. Trans. G.E.H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware. London: Faber and Faber, 1995.