Catechesis and hesychasm: missionary paradigms proposed through the theology of St. Gregory Palama

Catechesis and hesychasm: missionary paradigms proposed through the theology of St. Gregory Palama

15 September 2015

This study presents the theological background of the XIVth century, which led to the establishing of the important elements of Saint Gregory Palamas’ theology. The conflict between hesychasts and the humanists of that period also has importants echoes in St. Gregory’s works. The hesychast movement, which was not just a division of the Church, nor an exclusively monastic movement, but it represented the Church in its most proper attitude and was also the clear expression of Tradition, manages to remain the only manifestation of spiritual life that can be assumed by both the clergy and the laymen. The abandonment of concepts is not a distortion of the crucial role that the mind has in the hesychast approach.