Syncretism and the Indian Ocean: the genesis of Hesychasm by the Neoplatonic reception of Yoga in antiquity
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Date
2024
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University of Zululand
Abstract
This work responds to the – largely consensual – assumption, held over a century, that the Christian Orthodox meditation form of Hesychasm owes essential features to Yoga. The time and pathway of this reception has so far remained unclear. With a set of theoretical tools I investigate, how, why, when, and by which pathway, it took place, and fathom its depth. I show that this reception did not go directly from (Hindu) Yoga into Christian Orthodoxy, but by mediation through formations of spiritually engaged philosophies of Hellenistic and Greco-Roman culture in Antiquity, especially Neoplatonism, and from thence into Christian Orthodox monasticism, by the end of this era. In this way, this study makes an original, and long overdue, contribution to the field.
Yoga, as practice and doctrine, comprises ‘eight steps’. These are described, fairly consistently, in Yogic tradition and commentaries over centuries, already in Antiquity. They have been recognised to exist in Hesychasm, in principle, but not in systematic detail. I identify them in the literature of Hesychasm, from early on, in late Antiquity, up to the culmination of Hesychast theory in the 14th century. I show that they can be regarded as a set of significant, symbolic, and performative, practices, processes, phenomena, perceptions, ritual elements and experiences, with their supporting metaphysical concepts, and social forms. This system has not been analysed in coherence, for Hesychasm, so far.
As to design and method, I apply the systemic Theory of Syncretism, as conceptualising the structured reception of foreign elements by a receiving religion, that is transformed in the process, reasserting itself. The extended cultural and religious contact, as well as the perception of the alien elements as compatible and useful, are identified here. Therefore, I trace the historiography of exchange between the Indian and the Greco-Roman realms, their mutual philosophical understanding, the appreciation of Yogis in the latter, and encounters, as documented by Neoplatonists and Christian authors of the patristic age. As main realm of this transfer, Alexandria is identified, as centre of commerce, academic Neoplatonism, religious syncretism, and of Pagan-Christian coherent systems, I apply perspectives of Embodiment and Habitus. The consistency of Yoga and Hesychasm is conceptualised as ‘Formations of Longue Durée’.
I show that the reception did not only comprise (external) features of body practices, such as breathing meditation, postures, the calming of the mind and stillness, self-awareness, ‘energetic centres’ of the body, such as the ‘heart’, and the navel region, but also philosophical, anthropological and cosmological notions, especially the concept and role of ‘pneuma’ and ‘prana’, in relation to body, intellect, and the Divine. I also compare the perceptions and phenomena of ‘spiritual light’ and their conceptualisation. Here, Neoplatonism, as mediating formation, but also Cynicism, is shown to be important. As a feature of ‘Tantra’, I identify the mantra-like invocation of the ‘holy name’, the ‘Jesus-Prayer’, as indication that this reception lasted into very late Antiquity. Thus, I work out a long-standing assumption of reception of Yoga into Hesychasm. Furthermore, I show it to comprise not merely elements of practice, but also their symbolism, philosophical, and systemic significance.
Regarding purpose, I show that a comparison of religious-philosophical literature of Yoga, and of Hesychasm, remains meaningful, and should comprise both the knowledge of their historical and systematic connection. (The theological implications remain to be worked out further.) In view of the deep global reception of Yoga, and the renewed interest in Hesychasm, over the past century, in Orthodoxy, and in other denominations of Christianity, the identification of their relation is of interest, systematically and historically. In view of rising interest in inter-cultural, and inter-religious exchange, this study is intended to present a profound and formative case of such processes. It shows that a Euro-centric perspective, that takes only the Middle East as wider realm of origin into regard, is insufficient to understand this most eminent form of Christian meditation. Considering that Syncretism Theory focusses on ‘reception’, a merely ‘Orientalising’ view is avoided, to ascribe mystic ‘Indian origins’ as form of mystic legitimisation. Rather, the ‘agency’ of active interest, understanding, and ensuing systematic appropriation, as source of new development, is taken into view in this study, of a paradigmatic case.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy and Applied Ethics at the University of Zululand, South Africa [2023].