On Love
Article summary proposed by the Contacts review with LLM assistance
This article presents a spiritual letter by Elder Joseph the Hesychast (1897-1959), a major figure of twentieth-century Athonite monasticism, addressed to a hermit of the Holy Mountain. It is a text of a mystical and epistolary nature, translated and introduced for an Orthodox theology journal. The central idea rigorously distinguishes between the fulfillment of the commandment of brotherly love, attainable through will and works, and divine Love as an infused mystical experience, a gratuitous gift of Christ alone. Drawing on the Mosaic typology of the burning bush and the cloud, Joseph the Hesychast describes the transforming union with the Trinity as the summit of the hesychast life. The theological contribution lies in the articulation between the practice of the Jesus Prayer and the theology of deification, illustrating the living continuity of the hesychast tradition within contemporary Orthodox monasticism.
This article has not been translated yet — it is available in its French version here.
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