Divine Eros: Hymns of St Symeon the New Theologian (Popular Patristics Series)
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
Symeon the New Theologian was a Tenth-Century Greek monk and ascetic writer. Among his writings, his Hymns are inspiring poetry of timeless value, which challenge the reader to internalize Christian values, even to embrace the Christ event as an individual experience. The Hymns are well suited for devotional reading, but they are not mere devotional tracts; they include time-honored Christian doctrine, made all the more meaningful by the beauty of its expression. These hymns are spiritual reading at its best, that is, they are Symeon’s interpretation of his life and his relationship with God in light of Scripture and the Fathers. With heartfelt zeal and biblical imagery, Symeon makes the doctrines of the Fathers intimately relevant for the individual.
Top Highlights
“Come, You Who separated me from everyone and made me alone on the Earth. Come, You Who have become desire itself in me and Who made me desire You, the utterly unapproachable one. Come, my breath and my life (Acts 17:25). Come consolation of my dejected soul. Come, my joy, and glory, and endless luxury.” (Page 33)
“Hymn 1 insists on the necessity of seeing God in this life for salvation in the next. The basic assumption is that if one is spiritually blind and out of touch with God in this life, then so also in the afterlife. There is no way to develop one’s spiritual vision after death. Thus spiritual blindness, though subjective, is hell itself because it cuts one off from God. Similar teachings may also be found in Hymns 34, 42, 44, and 50.” (Pages 23–24)
“Finally, Symeon advises the monk to read ‘about six pages with attention,’ alone after the evening office.61 This last example is most clearly spiritual reading in the fullest sense. Symeon’s own evening reading may have been the occasion of one of his contemplative experiences. He describes himself as ‘examining the sayings and considering the passages … meditating on these things’ just before a luminous vision.” (Page 22)
“Still, this doctrine seems less extreme when one considers that he understood contemplation as love and as a sensitivity to spiritual values.” (Page 29)
“and like a fire You cast into me a passionate love of divine longing,11” (Page 141)