The theme of the heart in the Philokalia (continued)

This article is the continuation of a documented study devoted to the theme of the heart in the Greek Philokalia. Drawing on a broad corpus of patristic texts — Maximus the Confessor, Gregory Palamas, Symeon the New Theologian, Peter of Damascus, and others — the author examines the ascetic and mystical dimension of the interior life according to the hesychast tradition. The central idea is that the "discovery" of the heart passes through an ordered process: metanoia as a fundamental turning, contrition, the progressive purification of the three powers of the soul — logistikon, thymikon, epithymikon — through the keeping of the commandments and the Prayer of the Name, and finally the illumination of the heart by the uncreated light. The theological contribution of the article lies in the rigorous distinction between purification of the nous and purification of the heart, and in the precise articulation between tripartite anthropology, ascetic praxis, and the theology of divine grace.