CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Bogachev, Nikita |
|---|---|
| Title | Redeeming the Sinful Flesh: John Climacus and Symeon the New Theologian on Penitence and the Body |
| Summary | The practice of penitence (metanoia) lies in the core of the desert tradition of monastic spirituality. John Climacus in the fifth step of his Ladder paid special attention to the discourse on penitence describing his experience of visit into monastic prison where multiple male subjects tormented their sinful flesh. Through the gory descriptions of injured corporeality John in the parabolic way created the image of the ideal and visible repentance. I argue that in the descriptions of corporeal suffering and self-humiliation of penitent subjects, John’s narrative in the seventh century still relied on the metaphorical structures of the Early Christian language of martyrdom. In John’s nararative the connection between the act of repentance and corporeality was explicit and even accentuated. In the edge of millennium, Symeon the New Theologian delivered to his monks a Catechetical discourse about the practice of penitence. In this catechesis, he quoted the same fifth step of John’s Ladder recommending his monks to consult the whole excerpt. Further in his discourse, Symeon introduced to the audience a practice of repentance which included individual staged performance of prayer recitations intermingled with self-beating. In this way, as I demonstrate, Symeon attempted to set a role model to imitate for his monks. This model relied on the reinterpretation of John’s discourse, even though the idea of sinful flesh was not explicitly present in Symeon’s text. I claim that for Symeon repentance was not explicitly connected with the sinfulness of flesh but rather with historical and archetypal inability of humanity to perform proper repentance. This inability started with Adam and Eve’s failure to repent in Paradise. Symeon saw the history of corruptible existence as a history of portion of flesh which had been taken by God from the Adam’s side and transmitted through generations to the Theotokos’ womb preparing Christ’s Incarnation. For Symeon then, the act of repentance became a necessary act performed before the reception of Eucharist. So, repentant partaking of Christ’s deified flesh is a culmination of history of corruptible materiality. Repentant Eucharist, for Symeon, redeems the Adams reception of fruit and his failed repentance. In this way, Symeon embeds the penitent subject into the long history of Christian eschatology making salvation happen through the decisive act of repentance here and now every time during the communion. |
| Supervisor | van den Berg, Baukje |
| Department | Medieval Studies MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/bogachev_nikita.pdf |
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