Pastoral ascetics in the Hesychastic experience of St. Theophan the Recluse

Abstract

The spiritual correspondence of St. Theophan with O. S. Burachok, E. A. Arnoldi, N. V. Elagin, and the Kugushevs family gives us extraordinary examples of pastoral ascetics. St. Theophan, from the standpoint of Hesy­chast spiritual practice, mentors the laymen, gradually introducing them to spiritual practice, each in his own measure. Another example of St. Theophan’s pastoral ascetics is demonstrated by his “Letters on Spiritual Life”. Relying on the descriptions of M. M. Speransky’s spiritual experience, St. Theophan analyzes it in the light of the Hesychast tradition and refuses to consider Speransky’s experience as a type of contemplative quietism. In this case, St. Theophan pays attention to the middle stages of the Hesychast experience (spiritual enlightenment) associated with the inner-being of the mind and the ascent through the stages of prayer (active mental-heart prayer, the incessant Jesus prayer), and he designates contemplative prayer as the highest stage. The article reveals for the first time the concept of ascetic practices adjacent to Hesychasm. This is done on the examples of correspondence with O. S. Burachok and on the “Letters on Spiritual Life” in order to more clearly represent what tasks were solved in each case by St. Theophane. A similar approach can be used in the study of the ascetic writings of St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite and other Hesychast ascetics.