Globalization of Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer: Contesting Contemplation

The meditative prayer practices known as Hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer have played an important role in the history of Eastern Orthodox Christianity. This book explores how these prayer practices have spread from a primarily monastic setting within Orthodox Christianity, into general Orthodox Christian usage, and finally into wider contemporary Western culture. As a result of this gradual geographic shift from a local to a global setting, caused mainly by immigration and dissemination of related texts, there has been a parallel shift of interpretation causing disagreement. By analyzing ongoing conversations on the practices, this book shows how such disagreements are due to differences in the way groups understand the ideas of authority and tradition. These fundamental ideas lie beneath much of the current discussion on particular aspects of the practices and also contribute to the wider academic debate over the globalization and appropriation of religious traditions.

Acknowledgements		vi
Chapter 1 Introduction		1	(14)
Chapter 2 Definitions: What Are the Practices?		15	(16)
Chapter 3 History: How Have the Practices Spread?		31	(15)
Chapter 4 Survey: Where Have the Practices Spread?		46	(42)
Chapter 5 Discussions of the Practices		88	(26)
Chapter 6 Authority		114	(12)
Chapter 7 Tradition		126	(26)
Chapter 8 Appropriation		152	(24)
Chapter 9 Conclusions		176	(5)
Notes		181	(5)
Bibliography		186	(6)
Websites Cited		192	(3)
Index		195

Christopher D.L. Johnson is Instructor of Religious Studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, USA.