Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Will the Real Macarius Please Glaze Up, February 10, 2004
This review is from: Pseudo-Macarius: The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter (Classics of Western Spirituality) (Paperback)
Its too bad at times that history can cross over its facts. Macarius is one of its victims, maybe a mix of two different persons from around 385-430 AD, one an Egyptian desert father & the other a Syrian monk, therefore the term 'Pseudo' is always used before this collection of writings. Because of this mix up, it is not know if this set of writings were condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD as a part of the heretical movement called `Messalians' which emphasized prayer rather than the sacraments, or if these writings are `Orthodox' & have greatly influenced eastern Christian spirituality, & later Pietism & Methodism. Within this spiritual masterpiece, Macarius writes about the `Brotherhood' with its duties & instructions of living, a sort of monastic manual. Then the writings focus of the primary need to follow Jesus Christ, under the control of the Holy Spirit, while grazing directly at God the Father by direct experience. This is done chiefly by prayer with 12 steps of progression to perfection that causes a 'Sober Intoxication' that affects first the single person, than the community at large. Paulist Press does another fine job creating an easy to read, well-made paperback that can fit nicely with the other books from the fantastic series `Classics of Western Spirituality'. Highly recommend.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Macarius Enthusiasm rooted in the Realism of the Desert, August 24, 2007
This review is from: Pseudo-Macarius: The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter (Classics of Western Spirituality) (Paperback)
"I read Macarius and sang, wrote John Wesley ... There are countless others, who have experienced a similar joy through reading Macarius. The Homilies are written with a Warmth of feeling, an affectivity and enthusiasm, that are instantly attractive. ... his is an enthusiasm rooted in the realism and austerity of the desert." Bp. K. Ware, Preface
Desert Traditions in p-Macarius:
The teachings of Macarius, in harmony of all Desert Father are identified by a mystical and spiritual typos of thought which has endeared them to Christian mystics of all ages, while in his anthropology and soteriology he follows Athanasius, and leads to Cyril.
Simon Tugwell, wrote on Macarius, in 'The Study of Spirituality', "What we learn from this is an extremely high ideal of perfection. At times Macarius seems to imply that, by grace we can attain to this ideal in this life, but what matters is that we should believe that God's commandments and promises are realistic, even if perfection comes only after this life."
Fifty Spiritual Homilies:
This fine book, written twenty years ago, on Eastern Spirituality explores the theological foundation, and mystical legacy of the fourth-century edifying Homilies. The anonymous author of the writings (referred to as Pseudo-Macarius, or Macarius-Symeon) had a decisive influence on shaping of the Christian monastic and mystical tradition. The book offers a serious attempt to analyze the mode and extent of its influence. Fr. Maloney, S.J. who pioneered to take this project of providing a modern English translation, went beyond the exploration of the writings to the core of the desert fathers, and the scope of their living tradition. He elaborates, in the book introduction, a systematic coverage, following the development of the dual emphasis in early Christianity. He located Pseudo Macarius in the Semitic holistic approach of Antioch, amended by his editors to consider Alexandrine tradition of Clement, Origen, and above all his disciple, Gregory of Nyssa. He covers the history of the manuscripts, in their four collections. Then he speculates on the author's identity, religious community, and relationship with the Cappadocians, concluding in the complexity of the issue. He then tries to systemize the Macarian Doctrine, analyzing the main emphases of the writings. He concludes with the proof of the orthodoxy of the Macarian sublime teaching on spiritual perfection, and mystical life, confirming its harmony with the Holy scripture and Patristic traditions.
Author, Pseudo-Macarius:
Macarius of Egypt (301-391) who inspired Wesley, assuming he was reading in the Spiritual Homilies, is one of the most revered of the desert fathers, described as 'bearer of the Spirit.' The publication of seven new homilies in 1918 of Macarii Anecdota, attributed to St. Macarius of Egypt in the Harvard Theological Studies has revived the interest in the authorship of the Macarian writings, and the mystery surrounding them.
Pseudo-Macarius, according to some scholars, was a Messalian monk (condemned as heretical in 383). Recent notions support that the author was a fifth-century Syrian monastic, 'whose conception of Christian spirituality was derived almost exclusively from Gregory of Nyssa,' one of the greatest of all the Eastern Church teachers in the quest for perfection. Although Gennadius recognizes a letter addressed to the novice monks, as the only writing of Macarius, there is no evidence to deny the authenticity of the fifty homilies ascribed to him, even if edited later by the Syriac Symeon the Logothete. Macarius likewise seems to have been the author of several minor writings, and a number of other letters and prayers including the Arrow Prayer (adopted by the Hesycasts as the Jesus Prayer).
Macarian Homilies & Spirituality:
Fr. Golitzin of Marquette University, relates Macarius' Paradigm on luminous metamorphosis as "Many Lamps are Lightened from the One," saying, "...since I take the transfiguration of my title as inclusive for Macarius of all of these. To touch briefly on some of the points to follow, he perceives Christianity as the renewal of the human being. God in Christ has entered into our world and, in baptism, into the Christian's body and soul. The latter is thus, in potential, the royal throne of Christ, and to work toward the conscious fulfillment of that potential, that is, to a loving awareness and even perhaps vision of the indwelling glory of Christ in the Spirit, is the whole aim of Christian life on this side of the eschaton. Hope and longing for that encounter engage one in a total effort of moral and psychological reform, an effort which, once committed to, reveals in its turn the limitations of any purely human effort, and so the necessity of grace to overcome the force of sin rooted in the soul. Humility, thus, and constant prayer provide the necessary ground for that stress on the visitation of grace for which the Macariana are primarily known: the light-filled experience of the divine presence 'perceptibly and with complete assurance."
A reviewer's note:
Those who read Macarius are instructed on the stages of divine ascent, holiness of the heart, progressive perfection, and the affective manifestations of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. According to Macarius, the Lord's coming, was to alter and create our souls anew, "partakers of the divine nature," and to give into our soul a heavenly soul, that is the Spirit of the Godhead leading us to all virtue, that we might be enabled to live eternal life. (Homily 44.9)
The Macarian Legacy: The Place of Macarius-Symeon in the Eastern Christian Tradition (Oxford Theological Monographs)St. Macarius The Spirit Bearer: Coptic Texts Relating To Saint Macarius The Great (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press "Popular Patristics" Series)
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Macarius & Sanctity, March 17, 2009
This review is from: Pseudo-Macarius: The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter (Classics of Western Spirituality) (Paperback)
In his diary entry for July 30, 1736, John Wesley wrote: "I read Macarius and sang." One assumes he sang because he found in this ancient "Father" a message of life and light, an explanation of the gracious spiritual transformation available to us sinners through the workings of a gracious God.
According to Macarius, "Whoever approaches God and truly desires to be a partner of Christ must approach with a view to this goal, namely to be changed and transformed from his former state and attitude and become a good and new person, harboring nothing of 'the old man' (2 Cor 7:17)" (p. 223; H.44). Unlike Wesley, however, few of us have the facility with Greek to read Macarius, so we're blessed to have a modern translation, Pseudo-Macarius: The Fifty Spiritual Homilies and the Great Letter, tr., ed. George A. Maloney, S.J. (New York: Paulist Press, c. 1992). Modern scholars have almost given up trying to decide who exactly "Macarius" was (several candidates by that name have been located) or precisely when he lived. So we just call him "pseudo-Macarius" and know he lived sometime around 400 A.D.
Wesley's affinity for Macarius, becomes understandable when you discover the ancient saint's concern for the work of the Holy Spirit which imparts Grace and brings about entire sanctification, holiness of heart, in obedient believers. "Thus the soul is completely illumined," Macarius said, "with the unspeakable beauty of the glory of the light of the face of Christ and is perfectly made a participator of the Holy Spirit" (p. 38; H.1).
Still more: "the souls who seek the sanctification of the Spirit, which is a thing that lies beyond natural power, are completely bound with their whole love to the Lord" (p. 52; H.4). Unlike many of the Western Fathers, who at times over-stressed the role of good works, Eastern Orthodox theologians such as Macarius singularly attributed sanctification to the Holy Spirit.
Indeed, in his "Introduction," George Maloney writes: "Macarius is one of the first witnesses of what modern Christians would call the baptism in the Holy Spirit. He conceives this to be an ongoing process of surrendering to the indwelling guidance of the Holy Spirit to the degree that the individual cries out for the Spirit to heal the roots of sinfulness that lie deeply within the soul" (p. 19). The cleansing from sin, which comes about as one participates with the life of the Holy Spirit, Who enables one to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Being holy is not so much a matter of external performance as of inner attitude and commitment. "Perfection" is not flawless behavior but forthright surrender to God's perfect will.
Surrender is our free response to God's gracious invitation and working. Macarius continually insists that we retain freedom of the will throughout the sanctifying process. "You can trust me," said Macarius, "that grace did not prevent the Apostles, who were brought to perfection by grace, from doing whatever they wished to do, even if they preferred occasionally to do something that was not in keeping with grace. For, indeed, our human nature tends toward both good and evil and the opposing force acts by enticement, not by necessity. You possess free choice to move in the direction that you wish" (p. 178; H.27). Yet our free choice, our role in the process, never diminishes the fact that we are saved by grace. Wesley no doubt found Macarius' stance on prevenient grace congruent with his own. Maloney insists: "Macarius gives a solidly orthodox teaching on the interrelationships between God's unmerited grace and man's free will to cooperate with grace and thus actively work for his salvation. Macarius always insists that the Christian could not even begin to make a move toward the Good, toward God, without God's graceful help" (p. 15).
In the Preface to this volume, a contemporary Eastern Orthodox scholar, Kallistos Ware, summarizes Macarius' theology: "Christianity, as Macarius understands it, involves much more than assent to reasoned arguments or outer obedience to a moral code. It consists above all in the awakening of our spiritual senses, so that we attain a direct, palpable awareness of God's Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts" (p. xiv). Since it's a lived experience, a process whereby God fully saves sinners, the prescribed spiritual process takes a soul born into sin which needs to be (and may in fact be) delivered from sin's bondage. This involves a successful struggle with evil whereby the believer, the disciple, cooperates with the divine initiative, culminating, Ware says, in "the stage when sin is cast our from the heart by the Holy Spirit, working in cooperation with our human will. Cleansed from evil, the soul is then united to Christ the heavenly Bridegroom and is 'mixed' or 'mingled' with the divine Spirit, in this way attaining a state higher than that enjoyed by Adam before the fall" (p. xiii).
In Macarius's words: ". . . sin is uprooted and man receives again the first creation of the pure Adam. By the power of the Spirit and the spiritual regeneration, man not only comes to the measure of the first Adam, but also reaches a greater state than he possessed. For man is divinized" (p. 164; H.26). Westerners, Wesleyans included, rarely go so far as Macarius in claiming so much for the sin-cleansing work of God in man. Wesley himself refused to even allow the possibility of regaining "Adamic perfection" while here on earth. Yet Macarius shares with the Orthodox the conviction, espoused by first-rate thinkers such as St Irenaeus and St Athanasius, that "God became man that man might become God."
I've extensively cited the Preface and Introduction to this volume because they admirably sum up and evaluate Macarius' thought. The "fifty homilies" and "great sermon" are, as the titles suggest, simply collected sermons. Macarius treated various texts and developed appropriate themes. Thus any systematic understanding of his works is considerably helped by the scholarly interpretations found in this volume. The sermons themselves, however, are refreshing to read, delighting both devotional and theological appetites.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
|
