Crumbs from the Table

The next phase of history in the Orthodox East was overshadowed by the break with the western church (the Great Schism) in 1054, the sacking of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204, and the threat of conquest by the Turks which finally materialised in 1453. The place which encapsulates this time is Mount Athos, a concentration of monastic settlements in Greece. In 963 the first monasteries were founded on Mount Athos, and this become the centre of Eastern Orthodox monasticism. A seminal figure at this time was Gregory Palamas from Thessalonica who spent time at Athos. His practice of silent prayer epitomised Orthodox spirituality. Palamas undergirded this mystical experience by a theology which differentiated God's essence from his energies. God-in-himself in his divine essence is unknowable, however we can participate in God's uncreated "energies" (action) - a process of gradual participating in the divine energies culminating in the goal of "theosis". ...

After the fiery passion of the Protestant Reformation "cooled down" and solidified into a new "orthodoxy", there was a need to rediscover inner spiritual life and to get beyond the formalism of church services and rigid theologies.  The next chapter in the history of the Christian church began in Germany in the Lutheran churches. The pioneer was Jakob Philip Spener and the movement he began is called "Pietism". Philipp Spener was and remained a Lutheran and held to all the tenets of his Lutheran faith, including the belief that the body of Christ is literally chewed in the mouth at Communion. However, the focus of his life and work was elsewhere - namely, on spiritual vigour and the need for Christian community. His famous book, Pia Desideria, published in 1675, identifies six important points. For example, the importance of preaching being edifying not merely polemical. Spener put this into practice, first at Strasburg, then in Frankfurt and finally in Dr...