ST GREGORY PALAMAS AS A HAGIORITE

St Gregory Palamas as a Hagiorite

Revised Translation

Translator’s Note in the First English Edition

Preface to the First English Edition

Introduction

1. The Importance of the Teaching of
St Gregory Palamas

1. For Orthodoxy

2. For Monasticism

3. For the Holy Mountain

2. A Monk on the Holy Mountain

1. His Life before he Moved to the Holy Mountain

2. His Life on the Holy Mountain

3. Hesychastic Aspects of his Struggles

4. The Falling Asleep of the Saint

3. Expressing the Hesychastic Life of
the Holy Mountain

1. The Holy Mountain and the Orthodox Church

2. Orthodox Hesychia

3. Expressing the Hesychastic Life

a) His ‘Dispute’ with Barlaam

b) His Homilies

4. The First Settler on the Holy Mountain

1. The Reason for Writing about St Peter the Athonite

2. The Holy Mountain and its Value

3. The Ascetic Life of St Peter

4. The Temptations of the Devil

5. The End of St Peter’s Life

6. Characterisations of St Peter

5. Monasticism and Monks

1. Monasticism as the Way of Life of Prophets, Apostles and Martyrs

2. The Holy Mountain in the Time of St Gregory Palamas

3. Monasteries and the Monastic Life

a) Names of Places where Asceticism is Practised

b) Monks and those in the World

c) Two Categories of Nuns

d) Monks and Education

e) Different Types and Places of Asceticism

f) The Purpose of Withdrawal

g) How one Lives the Monastic Life

h) Monks and Reading

i) Monks Going into the World

j) Imitating the Honourable Forerunner

4. Conclusion

6. Fasting, Vigil, Prayer

1. Fasting

a) Fasting and Prayer

b) The Scope of Fasting

c) The Value of Fasting

d) Fasting and Abstinence from Food

e) Demonic Fasting

2. Vigil

a) The Holy Fathers on Keeping Vigil

b) St Gregory Palamas and Vigil

3. Prayer

a) The Views of Nicephorus the Solitary

b) The Theological Presuppositions for Noetic Prayer

c) Common Energies of Soul and Body

d) Prayer by Christians in the World

4. Conclusion

7. The Essence of Orthodox Monasticism

1. His Concern, and Writing the Letter

2. Passions and Cure of the Tripartite Soul

3. Spiritual Poverty

4. Blessed Mourning

5. Conclusions

8. His Social Teaching as a Dimension of the Monastic Life

1. Zealotism and Zealots

2. The Zealots of Thessaloniki

3. St Gregory’s Stance towards the Civil War and the Zealots

4. The Romanity of St Gregory and the Anti-Romanity of the Anti-Hesychasts

5. The Social Teaching of St Gregory

6. True Sociability and Monasticism

9. The Keeper of the Holy Mountain

1. The Fathers of the Holy Mountain and the Theotokos

2. Personal Relationship of St Gregory with the Theotokos

3. St Gregory’s Teaching about the Theotokos

a) The Birth of the Most Holy Theotokos

b) The Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple

c) The Annunciation of the Theotokos

d) The Theotokos at the Resurrection of Christ

e) The Dormition and Ascension of the Theotokos

4. Characterisations of the Theotokos

10. The ‘Declaration of the Holy Mountain’

1. Introduction

2. Summary

3. Analysis of the Work

a) Essence - Energy

b) Uncreated Light

c) Nous and Heart

d) Man’s Union with God

e) Deification of the Body

f) The Experienced Saints

4. Conclusion

11. The Vision of God on the Mountain

1. Contemporary Hagiorite Testimonies to Deification

2. The Transfiguration of Christ

3. The Passage on the Transfiguration and Interpretative Comments

Interpretative Comments

a) Kingdom of God and Uncreated Light

b) The Three Disciples

c) The Transfiguration of Christ and
the Transfiguration of the Disciples

d) The Brightness of Christ’s Clothes

e) Moses and Elijah

f) The Word of the Father

g) The Path to Deification

4. General Theological Comments

a) Deification as the Purpose of Christian Life

b) Degrees of Theoria

c) The Ascetic Method

5. Conclusion

12. Empirical Theology

1. The Presuppositions of the Theology of St Gregory Palamas

2. Elements from the Theology of St Gregory Palamas

a) The Two Wisdoms

b) Truth and Church

c) Healing the Soul

d) The Interpretation of the Scriptures

e) The Knowledge of God

13. The Fourth Hierarch and Theologian

1. St Gregory and the Three Hierarchs

2. The Four Hierarchs and Theologians in the Tradition of the Church

In Place of an Epilogue

Glossary

Bibliography