Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses
Overview
St. Symeon (942–1022), abbot, spiritual director, theologian and church reformer, was the great spiritual master of Eastern Christianity. His Discourses, the central work of his life, were preached to his monks during their Matins ritual. Modern researches may examine the style of St. Symeon and can better assess ancient homiletical technique, comparing past examples to more recent Christian teaching.
For a massive collection including over a hundred and twenty of the volumes in this series, see the Classics of Western Spirituality Bundle (126 vols.).
Key Features
- Presents an ancient sermon delivered to monks
- Fully integrates and cross references with other resources from your Logos library
- Reveals the inner-world of a monestary during the tenth and eleventh centuries
Top Highlights
“‘Adam and Eve were in the garden naked and were not ashamed’ (Gen. 2:25). [100] Do you see that neither the fact that Eve was female, nor that they were both naked, caused either of them to lose self-control? They were indeed naked, and did not know each other, nor were they ashamed, nor were they compelled by the nature of the body to have intercourse. It was after they had sinned and transgressed and had been expelled from paradise, despoiled of God and fallen from His divine glory, that, as it is written, ‘Adam knew his wife and she conceived and gave birth’ (Gen. 4:1).” (Pages 269–270)
“Rejoice and leap for joy that you have been found worthy to join the holy angels in singing praise to God!” (Page 60)
“Basically his argument is that they err who insist that no one living at that time can truly experience God mystically, directly, and intensely, habitually living in the consciousness of God’s immanent indwelling, since he himself has reached this. And this should not be an exceptional case but Holy Scripture and early Fathers constantly exhort Christians to obtain such a treasure. This, for Symeon, is the end of the Christian life, an obligation on all who call themselves Christians.” (Pages 3–4)
“For this reason, therefore, I say and will not cease to say that those who have failed to imitate Christ’s sufferings through penitence and obedience and have not become partakers of His death, as we have explained above in detail, will neither become partakers of His spiritual resurrection nor receive the Holy Spirit.” (Pages 128–129)
“human language cannot express what he has personally experienced and he knows he is not deluded” (Page 11)
- Title: Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses
- Author: Symeon
- Series: The Classics of Western Spirituality
- Publisher: Paulist Press
- Print Publication Date: 1980
- Logos Release Date: 2016
- Pages: 416
- Era: era:byzantine
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Asceticism › History--Middle Ages, 600-1500; Spiritual life › Christianity--Early works to 1800
- ISBNs: 0809122308, 9780809122301
- Resource ID: LLS:SYMNNWTHLDSCRSS
- Resource Type: text.monograph.sermons
- Metadata Last Updated: 2024-03-25T20:59:25Z