The Terms and Their Greek
The master reference table of the collection: each technical term of Orthodox ascetic theology with its Greek, its Church Slavonic or Russian equivalent where the Russian tradition carries it differently, a one-line gloss, and the file in which it is treated at length. Read the notes on how to use the table before using it — several of these words are ordinary Greek words pressed into technical service, and two of them mean nearly the opposite of what their usual English renderings suggest.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox
How to Use This Table
Four cautions govern every row.
The Greek is the anchor. English renderings vary between translators, and the same English word does duty for different Greek words in different volumes. Where a text confuses you, find the Greek term; it is usually stable even when its translation is not. This is why the table gives the Greek first.
The Slavonic and Russian column is not a translation gloss. It is given because the Russian ascetic tradition — St. Paisius Velichkovsky, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov, St. Theophan the Recluse, the Optina elders — is a primary tradition in its own right and sometimes carries a term with a force the Greek does not have. Прелесть (prelest) is the clearest case: it renders Greek πλάνη but is not a synonym for it (see What Plane and Prelest Name). Where the Slavonic is simply a calque, the column says so by giving the obvious equivalent and nothing more.
Some of these are ordinary words used technically. Λογισμός in ordinary Greek is simply a reckoning or a calculation; in the ascetic writers it is a specific thing, a thought that carries a temptation. Πάθος in ordinary Greek is anything undergone; here it is a settled disorder of the soul. Reading the technical sense back into every occurrence is as much an error as missing it.
Two terms actively mislead in English. Νοῦς is rendered “intellect” in the standard English Philokalia and means very nearly the opposite of what modern English “intellect” suggests. Ἀπάθεια is rendered “dispassion” and is regularly heard as “apathy”, which it is not. Both are treated at length — the first in The Sources and Their Limits, the second in Dispassion and What It Is Not — and neither should be used without reading those files.
The Table
The human composite
| Term | Greek | Slavonic / Russian | Gloss | Treated in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| nous | νοῦς | ум (um) | The highest faculty of the soul; the eye of the soul, which knows God and the inner principles of things by direct perception, not by reasoning. Rendered “intellect” in the English Philokalia. Not discursive reason; not the brain | Nous, Heart, and Soul |
| dianoia | διάνοια | рассудок (rassudok) | Discursive reason: the faculty that argues, infers, and forms concepts. Distinguished from the nous and subordinate to it | Nous, Heart, and Soul |
| heart | καρδία | сердце (serdtse) | The spiritual centre of the person, where the nous is to dwell; not the seat of sentiment but of the whole self before God | Nous, Heart, and Soul |
| soul | ψυχή | душа (dusha) | The whole animating principle of a human being, with its faculties; not a separable “real self” | Nous, Heart, and Soul |
| spirit | πνεῦμα | дух (dukh) | In trichotomist usage, the God-directed apex of the soul; the tradition uses the trichotomy without making it a division of substances | Nous, Heart, and Soul |
| rational faculty | λογιστικόν | словесная / разумная сила | The reasoning power of the soul in the tripartite scheme | The Passible Part and the Garments of Skin |
| incensive power | θυμός / θυμικόν | раздражительная сила (razdrazhitelnaya sila) | The aggressive, repelling, zealous power — anger in its root sense; created good and meant to be turned against evil | The Passible Part and the Garments of Skin |
| desiring power | ἐπιθυμία / ἐπιθυμητικόν | желательная сила (zhelatelnaya sila) | The appetitive power — desire, longing, attraction; created good and meant to be turned toward God | The Passible Part and the Garments of Skin |
| the passible part | παθητικὸν μέρος | страстная часть (strastnaya chast) | The incensive and desiring powers taken together — the part of the soul capable of being moved, and therefore of disorder | The Passible Part and the Garments of Skin |
| garments of skin | δερμάτινοι χιτῶνες | ризы кожаные (rizy kozhanye) | Genesis 3:21 read as the post-lapsarian mode of existence: mortality and everything that follows from it — both consequence of sin and merciful provision | The Passible Part and the Garments of Skin |
Thoughts and their movement
| Term | Greek | Slavonic / Russian | Gloss | Treated in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| thought (tempting) | λογισμός, pl. λογισμοί | помысл, pl. помыслы (pomysl) | A thought bearing a temptation; the unit of the inner warfare. Not “idea” and not “opinion” | What a Thought Is |
| provocation | προσβολή | прилог (prilog) | The first suggestion, arriving unbidden and carrying no guilt | What a Thought Is |
| coupling | συνδυασμός | сочетание (sochetanie) | Entering into conversation with the thought | What a Thought Is |
| assent | συγκατάθεσις | сложение / соизволение (slozhenie) | The soul’s consent to what it has been shown; the point at which sin is committed inwardly | What a Thought Is |
| captivity | αἰχμαλωσία | пленение (plenenie) | The forcible carrying-off of the mind, no longer freely resisted | What a Thought Is |
| struggle | πάλη | борьба (borba) | The contest between the thought and the will, won or lost | What a Thought Is |
| prepossession | πρόληψις | предрасположение | A predisposition laid down by past assents, making the next one easier | What a Thought Is |
| the eight thoughts | οἱ ὀκτὼ λογισμοί | восемь помыслов | Evagrius’ eight generic thoughts: gluttony, fornication, avarice, dejection, anger, listlessness, vainglory, pride | The Eight Thoughts and the Seven Sins |
The passions
| Term | Greek | Slavonic / Russian | Gloss | Treated in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| passion | πάθος, pl. πάθη | страсть, pl. страсти (strast) | A settled movement of the soul contrary to nature; a disposition, not an episode. Not simply “emotion” | What a Passion Is |
| blameless passions | ἀδιάβλητα πάθη | неукоризненные страсти | Hunger, thirst, weariness, fear of death, and the like: natural and innocent, assumed by Christ | What a Passion Is |
| gluttony | γαστριμαργία | чревоугодие (chrevougodie) | Disordered relation to food; the first of the eight | The Catalogue and the Chief Passions |
| unchastity | πορνεία | блуд (blud) | Disordered sexual desire, in act and in thought | The Catalogue and the Chief Passions |
| avarice | φιλαργυρία | сребролюбие (srebrolyubie) | Love of money; literally “love of silver” | The Catalogue and the Chief Passions |
| dejection | λύπη | печаль (pechal) | Sorrow of the world; grief at the loss of what was desired | The Catalogue and the Chief Passions |
| anger | ὀργή | гнев (gnev) | The incensive power turned against the neighbour instead of against evil | The Catalogue and the Chief Passions |
| listlessness | ἀκηδία | уныние (unynie) | Torpor, weariness, the flight from one’s place and work — the “noonday demon”. Neither modern “sloth” nor modern “depression” | The Catalogue and the Chief Passions |
| vainglory | κενοδοξία | тщеславие (tshcheslavie) | Craving the good opinion of others; distinct from pride | The Catalogue and the Chief Passions |
| pride | ὑπερηφανία | гордость / гордыня (gordost, gordynya) | The refusal of God’s help and of one’s creaturehood; the root and the last | The Catalogue and the Chief Passions |
| self-love | φιλαυτία | самолюбие (samolyubie) | In Maximus, the mother of all the passions | What a Passion Is |
Attention and the guard of the heart
| Term | Greek | Slavonic / Russian | Gloss | Treated in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| watchfulness | νῆψις | трезвение (trezvenie) | Sobriety, wakefulness: the continual inner vigilance that meets a thought at its entrance. The adjective neptic (νηπτικός) names the whole literature | Watchfulness and the Guard of the Heart |
| attention | προσοχή | внимание (vnimanie) | Focused inner attentiveness; the working component of watchfulness | Attention, Prayer, and the Descent of the Nous |
| guard of the heart | φυλακὴ (τῆς) καρδίας | хранение сердца (khranenie serdtsa) | Keeping the door of the heart; also guard of the intellect, τήρησις τοῦ νοός | Watchfulness and the Guard of the Heart |
| stillness | ἡσυχία | безмолвие (bezmolvie) | Inner and outer silence; the condition, and the name, of hesychasm | Attention, Prayer, and the Descent of the Nous |
| memory of God | μνήμη Θεοῦ | память Божия | The continual awareness of God’s presence; the positive content of watchfulness | Attention, Prayer, and the Descent of the Nous |
| remembrance of death | μνήμη θανάτου | память смертная | The deliberate keeping in mind of one’s own death; not morbidity, and repeatedly said to produce joy | Attention, Prayer, and the Descent of the Nous |
| unseen warfare | ἀόρατος πόλεμος | невидимая брань (nevidimaya bran) | The inner combat; title of the work adapted by St. Nikodemos and rendered into Russian by St. Theophan | Watchfulness and the Guard of the Heart |
Discernment and delusion
| Term | Greek | Slavonic / Russian | Gloss | Treated in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| discernment | διάκρισις | рассуждение (rassuzhdenie) | The judgment that distinguishes the sources and the measure of things; called by the desert the greatest of the virtues | Discernment and the Measure |
| discernment of spirits | διάκρισις πνευμάτων | различение духов | The specific judgment as to whether a movement, thought, or vision is from God, from nature, or from the enemy | The Discernment of Spirits |
| disclosure of thoughts | ἐξαγόρευσις (τῶν λογισμῶν) | откровение помыслов (otkrovenie pomyslov) | The manifestation of one’s thoughts to an elder; the primary safeguard | The Discernment of Spirits |
| delusion | πλάνη | прелесть (prelest) | Spiritual deception: false spiritual states accepted as true. The Russian word additionally connotes charm, hence a seductive deception | What Plane and Prelest Name |
| “opinion” | — | мнение (mnenie) | Brianchaninov’s second and subtler form of prelest: the settled conviction of one’s own attainment | The Marks of Delusion and the Safeguards |
Dispassion, the virtues, and the way
| Term | Greek | Slavonic / Russian | Gloss | Treated in |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| dispassion | ἀπάθεια | бесстрастие (besstrastie) | The healed state of the passible part, in which desire and the incensive power move toward God. Not insensibility, not the extinction of feeling, not sinlessness | Dispassion and What It Is Not |
| love | ἀγάπη | любовь (lyubov) | The end to which dispassion is the door; in Maximus, begotten of dispassion | From Dispassion to Love |
| humility | ταπείνωσις, ταπεινοφροσύνη | смирение (smirenie) | The ground of every other virtue and the condition of safety | The Virtues and the Order of Progress |
| repentance | μετάνοια | покаяние (pokayanie) | The turning of the mind; the permanent mode of the Christian life, not a stage passed through | The Virtues and the Order of Progress |
| mourning | πένθος | плач (plach) | Godly grief for sin; the “joy-creating sorrow” of Climacus | The Virtues and the Order of Progress |
| compunction | κατάνυξις | умиление (umilenie) | The piercing tenderness of heart that accompanies genuine prayer | The Virtues and the Order of Progress |
| ascetic labour | ἄσκησις | подвиг (podvig), аскеза | Training; the disciplined effort of the whole person. Russian podvig adds the note of a feat undertaken | The Virtues and the Order of Progress |
| the practical life | πρακτική | деятельная жизнь | The stage of purification: keeping the commandments and fighting the passions | The Virtues and the Order of Progress |
| contemplation | θεωρία | созерцание (sozertsanie), видение | The stage of illumination: perception of the inner principles of things, and then of God | The Virtues and the Order of Progress |
| inner principles | λόγοι (sg. λόγος) | логосы / словеса | The divine intentions of created things, perceived in theoria | The Virtues and the Order of Progress |
| deification | θέωσις | обожение (obozhenie) | The end of the whole process; deferred to Theosis | Theosis |
Three Notes on the Table
On nous. Every row above depends on this one, and it is the one the standard English translation makes hardest. The Palmer–Sherrard–Ware Philokalia renders νοῦς as “intellect” and explains in its glossary that it means “the highest faculty in man, through which — provided it is purified — he knows God or the inner essences or principles of created things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual perception,” and that it must be carefully distinguished from the dianoia or reason (The Philokalia, vol. 1, trans. Palmer, Sherrard, and Ware, Faber, 1979, glossary, s.v. “Intellect”). A reader who does not consult that glossary will import the ordinary modern sense — the analytical, reasoning faculty — and will then read the entire literature backwards, as a programme for disciplining one’s thinking. It is not. See The Sources and Their Limits.
On the Slavonic column. The Church Slavonic ascetic vocabulary was fixed largely through St. Paisius Velichkovsky’s Dobrotolyubie (Moscow, 1793) and the nineteenth-century Optina translations, and passed into modern Russian usage through St. Theophan’s Russian Dobrotolyubie (5 vols., Moscow, 1877–1889). The transmission is treated at The Philokalia: The Slavonic Dobrotolyubie and The Russian Philokalia, and is not repeated here.
On what the table cannot do. A glossary fixes meanings; it does not confer the thing meant. The tradition is unanimous that these terms are learned in use, under guidance, and that a person who has mastered the vocabulary without the practice has acquired a way of talking — which the same tradition identifies as a specific danger (see The Marks of Delusion and the Safeguards; Cautions for the Modern Reader).
See Also
- The Sources and Their Limits — who produced this vocabulary and what is problematic about them
- Nous, Heart, and Soul — the anthropology on which the table rests
- Cautions for the Modern Reader — the guardrails
- The Philokalia — the anthology in which most of these texts are transmitted
- Theological Anthropology — the hub article on the nous, the heart, and the human composite
References
- The Philokalia: The Complete Text. Trans. G. E. H. Palmer, Philip Sherrard, and Kallistos Ware. 5 vols. London: Faber and Faber, 1979–2023. (The glossary printed in each volume; vol. 1, 1979, s.vv. “Intellect”, “Passion”, “Dispassion”, “Watchfulness”, “Heart”.)
- Evagrius Ponticus. The Praktikos; Chapters on Prayer. Trans. John Eudes Bamberger. Cistercian Studies 4. Kalamazoo, MI: Cistercian Publications, 1972.
- Sinkewicz, Robert E., trans. Evagrius of Pontus: The Greek Ascetic Corpus. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Trans. Colm Luibheid and Norman Russell. New York: Paulist Press, 1982. (Step 15, on the stages of temptation.)
- Maximus the Confessor. Four Hundred Texts on Love. In The Philokalia, vol. 2. London: Faber and Faber, 1981.
- Brianchaninov, Ignatius. The Arena: An Offering to Contemporary Monasticism. Trans. Archimandrite Lazarus. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1991. (Mnenie.)
- Theophan the Recluse. Dobrotolyubie. 5 vols. Moscow, 1877–1889. (The Russian vocabulary.)
- Paisius Velichkovsky. Dobrotolyubie [Slavonic]. Moscow, 1793.