To many modern people, apatheia (being "without suffering"/"without passion") sounds like cold-heartedness and indifference to others, a condition to be avoided. However, in the classical world and for many in the historic Christian church it was a spiritual state to aspire to. What exactly is apatheia? What is its origin? How has it been used in spiritual writings throughout the centuries of Christian practice? And how may it help us today to articulate a Christian understanding of the soul's spiritual well-being? The central aim of the book is twofold: to rediscover the meaning and function of the Greek term apatheia as it was understood and employed by the Stoics in their philosophical and religious writings, and to explore how the theologians of the church--Origen, Evagrius, John Cassian, Maximus, and Ignatius of Loyola--interpreted apatheia for their spiritual practice. Nguyen argues that the concept of apatheia in the Christian spiritual tradition connotes the state of "spiritual peace" or "well-being" of the human soul wherein excessive and negative emotions--such as lust, excessive desire for food and drink, anger, envy, resentment, self-love, and pride--are replaced by reasonable desires, love, and humility.

To many modern people, apatheia (being “without suffering”/“without passion”) sounds like cold-heartedness and indifference to others, a condition to be avoided. However, in the classical world and for many in the historic Christian church it was a spiritual state to aspire to. What exactly is apatheia? What is its origin? How has it been used in spiritual writings throughout the centuries of Christian practice? And how may it help us today to articulate a Christian understanding of the soul’s spiritual well-being? The central aim of the book is twofold: to rediscover the meaning and function of the Greek term apatheia as it was understood and employed by the Stoics in their philosophical and religious writings, and to explore how the theologians of the church—Origen, Evagrius, John Cassian, Maximus, and Ignatius of Loyola—interpreted apatheia for their spiritual practice. Nguyen argues that the concept of apatheia in the Christian spiritual tradition connotes the state of “spiritual peace” or “well-being” of the human soul wherein excessive and negative emotions—such as lust, excessive desire for food and drink, anger, envy, resentment, self-love, and pride—are replaced by reasonable desires, love, and humility.

I propose to study the axiomatic significance of apatheia (divine impassibility) in contemporary Christian understanding of atonement. The claim that God suffers, an anathema for centuries, is commonplace in many contemporary theologies. In the face of the human suffering witnessed in the bloodiest century, God's apatheia as held by the great fathers and doctors of the church seems both immoral and unscriptural to modern Christians. As Western thinkers reject the patristic concept of divine impassibility and immutability as a Hellenistic contamination, East-Asian theologians such as Kazoh Kitamori and Andrew Park also attempt to contextualize the gospel based on divine pathos (suffering). Kitamori's "theology of pain" attempts to reconstruct Luther's theology of cross with the Japanese traditional ethos of tsurasa (pain). Park's "theology of han (deep wound)" makes a radical claim that God's han relieves human han, as he incorporates the insights of Process Theology through his Korean experience. Against the widespread contemporary rejection of the classical axiom of divine impassibility, this dissertation contends that the patristic articulation of apatheia is indispensable to express a holistic salvation of Christ's redemptive life and work. At stake is the theological grammar of salvation: to posit that God is a passible God in order to assuage human suffering would not only undermine a true understanding of God, but also distort the mystery and integrity of the Incarnation. Among many patristic theologians who uphold apatheia as apophatic (negative) qualification of God's perfect affections, Cyril of Alexandria augments it to be the ontological and soteriological certitude for divine agape. Cyril's mia (one subject) Christology construes the transformative redemption of sinners in the person of the incarnate Word whose "impassible suffering" not only undoes the effects of the fall but also restores humanity to God's original intention of eternal communion. Contrary to simplistic modern misunderstanding of apatheia, divine impassibility deepens our understanding of God's unconditioned love and its transformative power with a greater hope that divine healing will lead us to participate in his divine nature.

A monumental work in scope and content, Aloys Grillmeier's Chirst in the Christian Tradition offers students and scholars a comprehensive exposition of Western writing on the history of doctrine. Volume One covers the Apostolic Age to Chalcedon (451).

The essays in this volume explore the role of emotions and affections in the Christian tradition, focusing also on the importance of pneumatology in Christianity.

A monumental work in scope and content, Aloys Grillmeier's Chirst in the Christian Tradition offers students and scholars a comprehensive exposition of Western writing on the history of doctrine. It covers the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590-604), with Part Two focusing on the Church of Constantinople in the sixth century.

Scholars of the patristic era have paid more attention to the dogmatic tradition in their period than to the development of Christian mystical theology. Andrew Louth aims to redress the balance. Recognizing that the intellectual form of this tradition was decisively influenced by Platonic ideas of the soul's relationship to God, Louth begins with an examination of Plato and Platonism. The discussion of the Fathers which follows shows how the mystical tradition is at the heart of their thought and how the dogmatic tradition both moulds and is the reflection of mystical insights and concerns. This new edition of a classic study of the diverse influences upon Christian spirituality includes a new Afterword which brings the text completely up to date. Book jacket.

This study compares Maximus the Confessor's concept of apatheia and Ignatius of Loyola's concept of "indifference," and their respective views of divine union. I demonstrate that the central concern in both theologians is the transformation of disordered human desires into the desire for God, whereby Christ, being both God and human, becomes the Mediator that makes possible that transformation. From this perspective, apatheia and "indifference" are not ends in themselves but means to divine union, realized in a life of clarity and service. The dissertation argues that the concept of apatheia in Maxiums, with its deep Christological grounding, helps us retrieve a more authentic sense of what "indifference" means for Ignatius, and that in turn, Ignatian "indifference" is a springboard for a life in action. I contend that for Ignatius and Maximus, the states of "indifference" and apatheia, respectively, do not imply a complete eradication of all desires so that what is left is a pure mind in pursuit of spiritual contemplation; rather, in the state of union with God, disordered desires continue to be transformed by the grace of Christ and are thus reoriented to a life of love and service. The dissertation studies the nature, cause, and function of Ignatian "indifference" and the early Christian understanding of apatheia as they developed within their respective historical contexts, considering each concept in the light of its theological underpinnings and corresponding spiritual practice. I explore "indifference" within the context of the Ignatian desire to discern God's will as presented in the Spiritual Exercises, and apatheia within the early Christian view articulated by Maximus the Confessor, focusing on Maximus' understading of deification of the human will. Finally, I compare the two spiritual states, considering how apatheia helps to clarify and reinforce the Ignatian concept of "indifference." Though I do not seek to establish a strict historical continuity between Maximus and Ignatius, I demonstrate that both theologians inherited certain Stoic insights regarding one's relationship to external factors and the internal disposition to them. For the Stoics this disposition conduces to eudaimonia (human flourishing), while for the Christian, to divine union. Maximus inherited this philosophical framework directly from Evagrius Ponticus, while Ignatius might have been inspired by the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam. I show how Maximus and Ignatius made use of this common insight in their spiritual theologies. Essentially, the dissertation addresses the following three questions: 1) what are the cause, nature and function of Ignatian "indifference" and Maximian apatheia in the spiritual life of Christians? 2) How are the two concepts related to each other, historically and theologically? 3) How many the insights gained from the discussion contribute to a sound spiritual formation and pedagogy?

This book presents the esoteric original core of Christianity, with its concern for illuminating and healing the inner life of the individual. It is a bridge to the often difficult doctrines of the early church fathers, explains their spiritual psychology, and provides new insights for studying and following the spiritual path outside a monastery.

First published in 2014. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.