Andrew Louth

This article by Andrew Louth examines the relationship between the Jesus Prayer and the theology of deification through the thought of two major figures of the Russian spiritual renaissance, Father Paul Florensky and Father Sergius Bulgakov. The study adopts an impressionistic rather than systematic approach, in keeping with the authors it draws upon. The central idea is that the Jesus Prayer and deification do not share a simple overlapping relationship, but rather a dynamic and transformative interaction. Louth develops this thesis around two fundamental themes: the Name of Jesus, as a bearer of real presence rather than arbitrary convention, and the Heart, understood as the meeting point between the physical and spiritual dimensions of the person. The theological contribution of the article lies in its demonstration that the Jesus Prayer constitutes the ascetic path par excellence leading to deification, understood in its full sense and not as a mere soteriological metaphor.

This article examines the pneumatology of Saint John of Damascus, an eighth-century Syro-Palestinian theologian, through an analytical study of the *Exposition of the Orthodox Faith* and the homilies on the Dormition. Andrew Louth begins from the observation that Damascus is relatively reticent on the subject of the Holy Spirit, and shows that this reserve reflects a sacred awe rather than a theological oversight. The article highlights the original formula according to which the Spirit "proceeds from the Father and rests in the Son," distinct from the Latin *Filioque* and heir to an Alexandrian exegetical tradition concerning Isaiah 11 and John 1:32. This pneumatology structures the whole of Damascus's sacramental theology: the Spirit purifies the Virgin to make her receptive to the Word, and acts in the same way in baptism and the Eucharist. The contribution of the article is to reveal the internal coherence of a pneumatology often considered abstract, by demonstrating its rootedness in the history of salvation.