被提,狂喜与神圣空间的建构

——新神学家西门之生平的空间学

                                                   神父马克西姆·康斯塔斯

关家胜译

吴宗蔓编辑

阿甲修订和按语

按:本文梳理了拜占庭空间学和神光的传统,当然这一切都是在灵修传统中的。对于了解拜占庭传统极为重要。本文是上篇。本文感谢关家胜弟兄翻译。

凡例:

  • 本文译自: Maximos Constas, “Rapture, ecstasy, and the construction of sacred space: Hierotopy in the life of Symeon the New Theologian”, in Icons of Space, ed. Jelena Bogdanović (London:Routledge, 2021), 343-56. 原文下载地址见这里
  • 本译作已经作者神父马克西姆批准,可在本网站公开发表,若有国内杂志想出版此文,可联系我们的邮箱areopagusworksho@gmail.com.
  • 若参考了这篇中译,请注明引用格式如下:神父马克西姆康斯坦斯,《被提,狂喜与神圣空间的建构》,关家胜译(伦敦:教父原文中译计划,2023年7月22日),引用日期,附上本中译链接。
  • ()中的内容起注释作用,要么显明希腊原文或英文。按语会以注脚的形式出现,并注明:阿甲按。文中的按语是为帮助中文读者特地加的,以方便读者理解。但若读者还有任何问题,欢迎告知,以此完善的译作。

前言

     建筑图像,以及与之相随的空间特征和景观在拜占庭的宗教文献中非常丰富,以至于它的范围和应用不容易评估。在《旧约》和《新约》中,无论是所罗门的圣殿、以西结的异象中的圣殿,还是天上的耶路撒冷,建筑形象都是上帝临在(divine presence)的重要象征。作为上帝临在和接近上帝的场所,这些象征性的建筑等同于基督的身体,被认为是最卓越的圣殿(参看《约翰福音》2:19)。基督的奥秘身体是“鲜活灵宫”的“房角石”,神性一切丰富有形有体地居于其中”(参看《马太福音》21:42,《彼得前书》2:5,《歌罗西书》2:9)。这身体是一种铺展开来的结构,作为神秘相交之地址和宫殿,容纳了神秘的身体,是一个鲜活的表征空间,不可思议地被神性蕴含,同时又蕴含着神性。

     我愿将这篇论文献给我的朋友兼同事阿列克谢·利多夫(Alexei Lidov)教授,本文研究了圣尼基塔(Niketas Stethatos)的《新神学家西门的生平 Life of Symen the New Theologian (成书于约1055年)》中对空间和建筑概念的使用,以及新神学家西门(Symeon the New Theologian,约949-1022)1著作中与这一话题相关的平行段落。西门是一位有影响力,同时也备受争议的灵修者、作家和修道院领袖,而他的门徒和传记作者圣尼基塔是当时重要的神学家之一。2从广阔的空间视角去看待《生平》,有利于拓展神秘主义的还原认识论和语言学概念,理解多层次的对象和话语,包括西门的客观社会环境、他的神秘经历以及这些经历的空间化表现。在探究《生平》中呈现的空间融合和神秘体验的过程中,本文尝试提出关于神圣空间的理解和产生的新见解。《生平》中描述的可视化经验总是在特定空间中开展的亲身经历。这空间是一个多层次的,在那里,与上帝的相交融合于它们(即圣地)的社会,文本,圣像以及建筑的表征中。

作为光的空间

     在《生平》的复杂层次中,隐修者(mystic)的身体以及所处空间结构的稠密度(density)都通过光的媒介蒙圣化(was transformed)。这光使它们奥秘地流动,让它们变得精微(attenuate)——这种精微性和拜占庭圣像里描绘空间的形式相类(我们将在下文探讨这一话题)。然而,虽然人们可能理所当然地认为拜占庭的灵修是一种“光的神秘主义”,但在西门以前却没有一位作家如此重视光的现象,并对之抱有如此强烈的情感。3他以数十页的篇幅讲述了他与神圣之光的动人邂逅,并频繁地用特殊的空间术语来解释它,而这也是《生平》所遵循的一种描述方式。4《圣西门的生平》中描述的空间与光的融合在新柏拉图主义传统中有哲学先例,考察这一传统中与本文论点相关的方面是有帮助的。5

     在古希腊哲学传统中,“空间”主要不是指虚空或者真空状态,而是与“位置”(τόπος)有关的特质,它在根本上确定了存在物(beings)的本质。这种定性的确定以一种宇宙的动态模式发挥作用,该模式由让事物归向本位的运动所推动。例如,较重的物体自然地下落,而火等元素则上升。因此,对亚里士多德来说,地球位于宇宙的中心,处于被水环绕的“位置”,而水又处于被空气环绕的“位置”和炽热的高空的同心球体中。6

     新柏拉图主义哲学家试图调和亚里士多德与柏拉图的思想,他们批评亚里士多德的空间概念只不过是一个静止的边界系统,这边界标记并衡量其中所包含的物体的界限。7因此,他们用更具本体论色彩的术语重新定义了亚里士多德的范畴,将它们定位为一种参与的学说(a doctrine of participation),这学说包含物理学、形而上学与心理学。8“空间”的概念被再次界定:它不是简单地指将物体运送到特定地址,而是一个在分级阶层(graded hierarchy)中,不同维度之实在的桥梁或媒介——不仅是在形而下和形而上之间,还在无形灵魂和空间上区隔的身体间。这些实在之间的运动需要以两极之间的“空间”为中介,这中介在某种程度上兼有两极的属性。实现这一点的方式是将空间等同于光:光是一种弥漫全宇并将之维系在一起的元素,它将属灵事物(intelligible,阿甲按:字面译为可理解的,在柏拉图语系中,常与有形的,可感知的,物质的相对)的活动与临在作为一种空间性的延伸映射进入(into )——更确切地说,为 (as)——可感知的事物中。 9于是,被理解为光体的空间成为物质界与灵界(physical bodies and the noetic world)的媒介。每一级存有,都以光为媒,而这光本身不是别的,[仅]是“对神圣存有的参与”。10

     这是迈向《丢尼修著作集》的一小步。[《丢尼修著作集》中],超验神性涌出,如光那样扩散开来,空间性地产生了各个阶层的实在。对丢尼修来说,神显的进程具有独特的基督教特征,因为神性的原始之光是基督,他是“父的光”和一切等级的“源头”。11有趣的是,神性的“积极”(或“肯定的”)自我显现被称为“θέσεις”,这个词的字面意思是局部范围内的“地方”或“位置”。12这种“位置”涵盖了一切:从在一个实质中“位置”的质,到一种结构的正式安排[都包括了](Such “placements” encompass everything from the “location” of quality in a substance to the formal arrangement of a structure),使θέσις等同于τάξις,它标示了等级、秩序或等级职分和机构。13θέσις的概念标志着上帝对受造物的护理,体现在存在物的和谐秩序和位置上。

     在认信者马克西姆的著作中,丢尼修的θέσις概念经过了重大修改。这个术语不再指某种与上帝处于静止的关系,而是指朝向上帝的运动以及最终的神化,这同样可以被称为θέσις。14这个重要的修改意味着马克西姆不喜欢严格的本体论秩序,它们在不可跨越的实体层次之间充当着无法逾越的界限。15如果说丢尼修创造了“等级”(hierarchy)这个词,那么马克西姆则完全回避它。16相反,认信者采取了一种倾向于“空间上敞开”的模式,该模式以他著名的“理”(logoi)学为基础。17

  • 阿甲按:Logos为道,logoi是理。道为总目,理则是细分。具体区分参加Mork的讲座

这个模式中,等级上的高低有效地消融重合为道、“理”和造物(Logs, logoi and beings)之间直接而动态的连续体,这就像“星星在太阳出现时消失了”18。这一新模式在一种全新的现实秩序中得到表达,不是在丢尼修的等级中,而是在《释疑篇》(Ambiguum)第41章描述的五种区分中。那里,首要的区分——造物主和被造物——在成为肉身的道身上得到超越和统一。19与这种对丢尼修体系的重构相一致的是,跨越这些新的本体论边界的运动出奇地简单,即取决于每个参与者的自由抉择之能。

      尽管如此,马克西姆仍然力图将“位置”的真实性当作存有不可简化的属性(希腊词汇άτοπον表示奇怪、不自然和不合理之事,这并非巧合)。空间和时间是存在物能存在的条件,除此以外,存有无法维系。20“这是因为一切受造之物都是相对于“哪里”和“何时”而有,因此,它们的存在与一个外部位置相关,并朝上帝(principle of origin, 阿甲按:字面译为,原初法则,但从下文可知,是上帝)运动。”21在这里,“朝向”(motion toward)的元素是重要的,表明空间和时间的确定性并不排除一种可能性,即理性存在者狂喜地“走出”时空的边界,朝向他们的“原初法则”,即上帝[运动]。这方面最突出的例子是马克西姆在《释疑篇》第20章中的描述:保罗越过天使等级向上飞升(参见《哥林多后书》12:2-4),在直接朝向上帝的情况下到达终点,超越了所有对立、界限和限制。22丢尼修则宁可避免保罗这些话语带来的问题,以及超越等级地向上运动的暗示,因为这是有问题的越轨行为,准许了与神圣的运动更完美的联合——[但是,]正是这神圣运动将受造物确立在等级中的固定位置的。23

     如果说西门正好熟悉新柏拉图主义形而上学,那么他的著作中几乎没有任何内容表明这一点。他对柏拉图的“洞穴寓言”进行重新阐述,独特地将空间和光线并列起来,这似乎表明他熟悉柏拉图的著作。24然而,这个著名的神话长期以来都被吸收到基督教的话语中,西门著作中的哲学元素很可能是受到他涉猎的柏拉图主义基督教作家的影响。25例如,神圣空间作为圣灵的光辉临在的概念是凯撒利亚的巴西尔(Basil of Caesarea)神学的中心点,也是大马士革约翰的《论正教信仰 on the Orthodox Faith》中的一个主题,这两部作品无疑为西门所知。26然而,西门不可能与拜占庭中期君士坦丁堡的整个基督教新柏拉图文化结构完全分离,后者很快就会经历与迈克尔·普赛洛斯(Michael Psellos 逝世于约1078年)和约翰·伊塔洛斯(John Italos 逝世于约1082年)有关的复兴,而“君士坦丁堡版本”的认信者马克西姆的著作也在当时出版。27如果西门本人没有直接参与科穆宁(Komnenian)早期的新柏拉图主义复兴运动,他的门徒兼传记作家圣尼基塔与该运动实际上是同代的。28

     新柏拉图主义形而上学把空间视为光,为《新神学家西门的生平》的空间动力提供了一个暗示性的(不一定是直接的)哲学框架。同时,西门对他的异象经历的自我理解——如圣尼基塔告知的那样——深深地植根于保罗的被提和狂喜(rapture and ecstatic)地进入第三层天的传统(《哥林多后书》12:1-4。这一传统得到了几个世纪以来的保罗著作集的教父和早期拜占庭释经的支持)。

保罗的被提

     尽管使徒保罗被正确地称为“新神学家西门的模范灵修者”,这位伟大的使徒对拜占庭灵修的影响却尚未得到充分评估和重视。29西门的异象确实非常仔细地模仿了保罗(《哥林多后书》12:1-4)的“被提”(αρπαγή),而“被提”在拜占庭传统中长期都被认为是保罗在去大马士革的道路上遇见的神光异象(《使徒行传》9:1-19; 22:6-11; 26:13-14)。

     保罗的记述是一世纪幸存下来的唯一关于升上天堂的唯一一手描述。30非常简短——大约五十字——只是关于 “异象和启示”的隐晦题外话,它被嵌入一个更大的论证当中。在反话式的自夸的习惯中,保罗写到“某个人”被“提”到了“三层天”,在那里听到了“隐秘的言语,是人不可说的”。更为复杂的是,使徒反复地指出,他不知道这种经历是发生在“身内或身外”。因此,我们很好奇“三层天”与“乐园”之间的确切关系,两者可能是同一个目的地,除非保罗所说的是两个阶段的飞升,或者是两个不同的飞升。31这是一种灵性体验还是肉身体验,又引起了分歧;我们无从得知启示的内容、意义或目的,以及使徒所听到的话为什么无法传达给他人。32

尽管存在这些歧义——或者可能因为这些歧义——这段话在整个教父时期和后来的拜占庭时代中都引起了人们相当大的兴趣。总之,教父们认为这个记述完全恰当自然,他们在保罗的被提中看到了自己灵性体验的一种范式,而这种联系是由具有影响力的《安东尼的生平》(Life of Antony)所授予的。33然而,这种联系本身要古老得多,在奥利金的《<雅歌>注疏 commentary on the Song of Songs》中就已经以高度完善的形式出现,里面把夫妻的内室(inner chamber)和使徒的“三层天”混为一谈。这个注疏只在拉丁文译本(Commentarius in Canticum Canticorum)中存留下来,不过将保罗的被提与基督教神秘体验联系在一起的段落仍然存在,保留于加沙的普罗科匹乌斯(Prokopios of Gaza约460-526年)编纂的《雅歌》注疏集萃中。34至少从三世纪开始,灵修作家就将保罗的飞升解释为最高级神秘体验的表现,而根据这个普遍规律,新神学家西门也不例外。

在这个戏剧性的经历中,有两个元素是拜占庭灵修的核心:在视觉上神光涌现和身体空间位置变得模糊。因为在他被提的时候,保罗承认不知道“他是在身内还是身外”(《哥林多后书》12:3)。在《生平》中,西门的神秘经历明确而多次地与保罗的被提相一致,等同于“被提”(έκστασις)的神秘体验——一个意指“脱离了自我或位置”的词——西门的修室充满了光,这光“如曾经对保罗那样,在他周围闪烁”,并把他“提起”(即被提),这直接指向《使徒行传》26:13。35此外,西门的神秘体验既是身体移动的标志,也是身体移动的条件,因此他就像保罗一样进入了一个模糊的临界空间(liminal space),这个空间是矛盾的,既是有形的,又是无形的(embodied and disembodied)。36同时神秘地体验有形和无形反映了空间的哲学概念,在这些概念中,身体成了一个空间化的容器,即在这有限的空间中位置性地[容纳]了不可界定[之物](The simultaneous embodiment and disembodiment of mystical experience reflect philosophical conceptions of space in which the body is at once a spatialized receptacle, while the negation of any bounded containment is localized within definable space)。

自我的架构

     在整部《生平》中,圣徒修室的隐修空间是基本结构单位,既是圣人身体的延伸,也是物理世界的缩影。正如身体封闭于修室中,照样,身体本身就是包含灵魂的修室,而灵魂包含着无法包含的神恩(uncontainable divinity)。37修士身体和修室之间的联系并不是什么新鲜事,西门通过多种资料了解到这些联系,包括权威的修道读物,例如约翰•克里马科斯(John Klimakos)的《神圣攀登的天梯》(Ladder of Divine Ascent)。

尽管看起来很奇怪,但修士是致力于将无形自我封闭于身体所居之房间中的人——修士之所居就是环绕着他的身体,而他的心则是知识的居所。38

此外,身体/修室的类比可以拓展到包括修室中的陈设,这些陈设本身就是向外投射的隐修者身体的空间化形式。例如,地板、凳子和垫子的简单组合,使身体进出时的姿势和位置的集合呈现在空间上,并因此稳定可见。这些陈设将身体最常承重的地方呈现出来(objectify);它们呈现出身体重量的轨迹——[因着]身体本身需要不断地移动;它们也呈现出身体需要变得完全忘记其重量,无重量地移动到更大的专注中 (they objectify the body’s continual need to shift within itself the locus of its weight, as well as its need to become wholly forgetful of its weight and to move weightlessly to larger mindfulness. 阿甲按:这里可能是指,后者的呈现体现为修士在被提时身体的状态,而这种状态也在修室的陈设中得以体现出来)。39因此,空间和物理结构被赋予了属灵意义,因为灵魂的结构和空间表现在类似的物理象征(symbols)中。通过这种方式,灵修者的身体以及它的密闭式修室赋予了他内在属灵状态空间化、可视化的表达。当不可见的虚通(empties, 阿甲按:这里并非指佛教之空,而是道之至精微之虚通)进入可见,无形进入有形,《生平》中呈现的空间动态地许可了将灵性事物和成就转化为有形的、有层次的形式。《生平》将西门的身体和他的修室空间如此紧密地联系起来,以至于当迫害西门的人拆除修室时,圣尼基塔指出,“无生命的修室受到了与主人同样的惩罚”。40在圣徒去世了三十年以后,希腊字母中的第五个字母epsilon神秘地出现在圣人修院的一块大理石上,预言了他的遗体在第五诏示(Fifth Indiction)中的变化。41同样,西门修复圣马玛斯(St. Mamas)修道院教堂,被圣尼基塔形容为西门努力革新修士内心生活的外在表现,这是一个被空间化的灵修项目,体现在对倒塌和破旧的修道院结构的物理重建。42

被提与移动

     正如《西门的生平》所描述的那样,神秘体验不是简单地引起身体位置的变化,而是让它实现超越:灵修者被提移动到身体的空间位置之外的区域。在《生平》中,这种超越通常以修室的物理空间的缩减乃至消失来表达。当西门的修室“被来自上方的光淹没”,他的修室的物理空间被溶化(άφανισθέντα)了,而圣徒(像圣保罗那样)“被提到空中”,“完全忘记了他的身体”。后来,按照反向的顺序,圣徒“缩回到自身”(συσταλέντος προς έαυτό),回到自己的身体,回到修室的空间中。43这种描述是圣尼基塔一生都在重复的一个惯用语,所以西门后来在他的修室祈祷时,“光之云”从天而降,落在他的头顶,“房顶被掀掉了”(τής στέγης άρθείσης τοϋ οϊκου)。在另一个经历异象的时刻,圣徒在他的修室内(ένδον)站着祈祷,“似乎在户外”(αίθριος έξω),“这座建筑和其他一切都消失(παρήρχοντο)了,他似乎不再在里面了。”44

     西门自己的作品中也叙述了这些经历,这些经历呈现为完全相同的语言和画面。尤其有三段话是文中要点的核心,值得充分引用。在第二十五首赞美诗中,西门描述了一个神秘异象,他说:“我意识不到自己在房间里;我似乎坐在黑暗的户外,甚至完全察觉不到自己的身体。”45在《教理阐述》(Catechetical Discourse)第十六卷中,西门提到了神圣之光:

     它像太阳一样光芒四射,我注意到它里面所包含的一切受造物。它向我展示了它所包含的所有,并要求我注意自己的极限。我被封闭在墙壁之间和屋顶下,但它为我敞开了天堂。我举目凝视着高空的现实,而一切都像最初那样。46

     最后,在《伦理学阐述》(Ethical Discourse)第五卷中,他指出:

     光出现在我面前,我的修室的墙壁立即消失了,世界也消失了。我独自待在独一者面前。我不知道我的身体是否也在;我不知道自己是否在身外。47

     贯穿这三段话的共同主线是西门的精神或意识状态的转变,包括丧失对身体的意识,这与他修室的空间能感知的身体变化(physical transformation)并列。这种经历在教父著作中并非没有先例,但这种经历的高度集中是西门作品所独有的。48

作为圣像和圣像空间的圣徒

     这些关于圣徒站在没有建筑框架的光线下的文学描述,类似于拜占庭圣像的艺术形式和构图特征。在拜占庭的圣像中,神圣的事件通常不会被描绘在封闭的空间中,即使它们在历史上发生于室内。

     例如,《圣母领报》、《最后的晚餐》和《五旬节》都发生于室内,传统上被描绘为发生在户外,它们在户外,通常被设置在简略的建筑群和其他建筑形式之前,或者只是在一片金光中。这些事件历史上发生于室内,通常用覆盖在建筑形式上边缘的红布来表示。此外,西门的异象经历中征服性的光的表现似乎与拜占庭宗教艺术中普遍没有阴影相对应。49通常,身体不会在圣像内留下阴影,因为神圣的人和事件没有外部光源。相反,人们看到的发光的形式和外表是由圣像内的源头照亮的,尤其是圣像的金色表面实际上反射出光线,使圣像成为光源。50

     亨利·马奎尔(Henry Maguire)最近提出,来自自然世界的图像在晚期的古代宗教艺术中很常见,但拜占庭中期的艺术家越来越回避这种图像,他们倾向于将神圣的人物放在建筑背景下,他认为这起到了投射或隐喻被描绘的圣人身体的作用,就像投影(cast shadows)一样。51马奎尔进一步指出,在一些圣像场景中,人物脱离了他们的建筑环境,与物理环境的联系减少,也更少受到物质世界的约束。52他的结论是,在圣像破坏运动之后,建筑形式的第一个作用是通过与它们相关的存在或不存在状态来表明人或场景的灵性状态。第二个作用是完全没有建筑形式,这表明了一种灵性的超越,一个更高的灵性场所,一种神圣荣耀的形象,可以说在其中没有建筑的空间。53当然,在这里,人们会想到叶芝(Yeat)的诗歌画面,“上帝圣火中站立的圣徒们,如墙上金色的镶嵌砖所显示”。54

     通过这种方式,圣人或灵修者成为圣像,是其他人的神圣典范或形象,成为信徒的圣地,是一个可见中介(liminality)的实例——存在于世界内部,但却象征着世界之外的东西。值得注意的是,西门直接参与设计和制作圣像,尤其是他的灵性之父老西门(Symeon the Elder)的圣像。事实证明,这个圣像很受欢迎,当地的宗教领袖请求得到它的副本。它事实上也是有争议的,当对老西门的敬礼受到冲击,导致圣像失窃,圣人被亵渎,圣尼基塔认为这是“新的圣像破坏运动”,它的支持者自然被比作圣像破坏者。55在他生前,人们观察到新神学家西门在修室里悬浮在六英尺高的空中,上升到“与悬挂在天花板附近的大祈祷圣像相同的高度”。西门的身体散发出明亮的光芒,双手高举祈祷,就像圣像中的人物。56西门死后被描绘为圣像,脸上泛着“火红色”。57这些段落表明,《生平》中设想的空间形式,即圣徒身体的场所,是一个完全的圣像空间, 既是一个层次空间(hierotopy),又是一个异质空间(heterotopia),虚拟了圣像内在的临界状态,并试图以文字的形式来呈现圣徒所经历的异象。

结论

     拜占庭的宗教思想对事物的和谐秩序有着深刻的信心,其中包括一种物理空间的观点,这种空间并不脱离灵性体验的形而上的空间。正如我们所看到的,这两个范围共同存在于(不可分割的、抽象的和无形体的)空间和(物质的、局部的和有限定的)地方之间的创造性张力中。在拜占庭修道院特有的空间表现形式中,隔离式围墙是突出的,既标志着修道院修室的狭窄范围,也标志着沙漠的广袤。无论在哪种情况下,这种孤独都不一定会使修士在社会上或在身体上处于孤立状态,尤其是西门居住的修道院,它们位于大城市的中心或附近。

     修道院的墙壁也构成了象征性的、具象的空间,进入修道院生活的决定涉及身体上的隔绝,这是修士与世俗隔绝的外在标志,也是将灵魂封闭于上帝之内的表现。58这样的封闭赋予了他们多重的表征:灵魂居住在上帝之中,或上帝在灵魂之中。或者,同样的围墙是可渗透的边界,就好像修室或修道院教堂的墙壁和窗户被理解为多孔皮肤或可渗透的膜:内部微观世界和外部宏观世界之间的临界(threshold)。从这两个角度来看,身体是神秘体验各个空间表征的中心。西门似乎减化身体的作用,即身体的真实临在或至少意识到的临在无法得到保证,或者至少说是模糊不清的。如果灵修者的被提带来了自我的遗忘或丧失,那么身体也必须被忘却。但身体不能被完全忽视:它是上帝的创造,发挥着侍奉上帝的作用。因此,身体表面上的减化或丧失并不会叫人认为应该抛却身体或者抛弃所有物质联系。西门本人是教堂的建设者和修饰者,而修道院(coenobium)中的生活是一种分享的、高度社会化的生活,在这种生活中,人类是完全相互依存的。59

神秘体验的实质和真实性可能一直是对那些没有神秘体验的人的刺激,甚至可能让那些有过神秘体验的人们感到困惑。对于现代读者来说,这位圣徒的描述可能类似于幻视和感知扭曲,这两种形式的精神病主要常见于精神分裂症患者。然而,最常见的精神分裂症幻觉类型是幻听。幻视是第二常见的幻觉,出现于被视为真实的感知在没有任何外部刺激的情况下产生的时刻,比如一个“被从天而降的光线充满”的房间,或者“墙壁和屋顶被掀掉了”的房间。这种幻觉对遭受幻觉的人来说通常是可怕的,而对西门来说,与之相随的是难以言喻的宁静、甜蜜和幸福。这些记述中描述的自我丧失似乎是精神病学家所说的人格解体和现实解体——与自我或身体分离的极端形式相当——然而,这些往往是严重创伤的结果,通常与精神分裂症和精神创伤后遗症等分离性障碍有关。60

圣徒和他的修室之间的关系是另一个令人着迷的现象。一些神经科学研究表明,当一个人与一个物体紧密相连时(比如一个专业音乐家和他的乐器,或者一位赛车手和他的车),大脑的体感区会在物理上扩展,以容纳这个物体,就好像它是一个真正的附属物一样(比如幻肢疼痛的情况)。内部体感可能会存在缺陷,或至少衡量不准确,从而产生对身体的错误感知。例如,饮食失调的人报告说,当他们照镜子时看到超重的人,这表明他们的大脑体感区(无论出于何种原因)变小或收缩了。频谱(spectrum)的另一端是过度扩展的体感图。人们认为,路怒症(road rage)可能归因于一张延伸到车身之外的地图,它覆盖了整辆车,因此对后者的威胁会导致大脑作出反应,就好像身体受到了侵犯。以西门为例,他在修室里多年的热切祈祷和异象经历可能将他的内部地图扩展到了整个修室的空间,因此,对修室的蓄意破坏等同于对圣徒本人的攻击。61

最后,西门的神秘体验就像所有神秘体验一样,难免是难以解释和矛盾的,既是有形的,又是无形的:有形是在于这种体验需要身体作为场所和管道,而无形是在于体验是属灵的,而不是物质的。神秘体验的同时有形和无形指向了一种空间概念,它使身体成为神秘体验的容器和场所,但同时也是开放和能生产(generative)的东西,使自我超越了空间本身的概念。在这一点上,我们可能会看到光的双重性质的类比,光被认为是这些体验的媒介,它既是粒子又是波。

    《新神学家圣西门的生平》是关于拜占庭中期理解和产生神圣空间的丰富而独特的资料。此外,虽然人们从不同角度研究《生平》,但它对空间和神秘体验的结合在很大程度上仍未被探究。在研究《生平》提出的空间动态时,特别是神光的被提异象中对空间概念的摒弃,本文认为,对这种异象经历的描述可能影响或至少激发了拜占庭圣像中对地方和空间概念的描绘。

索引

人名

Alexei Lidov           阿列克谢·利多夫

Aristotle                亚里士多德

Basil of Caesarea    凯撒利亚的巴西尔

Dionysios         丢尼修

Henry Maguire        亨利·马奎尔

John Italos        约翰·伊塔洛斯

John Klimakos        约翰•克里马科斯

John of Damascus   大马士革约翰

Maximos Constas   马克西姆·康斯塔斯

Maximos the Confessor认信者马克西姆

Michael Psellos              迈克尔·普赛洛斯

Niketas Stethatos    圣尼基塔

Origen                     奥利金

Plato                 柏拉图

Prokopios of Gaza  加沙的普罗科匹乌斯

Symen the New Theologian       新神学家西门

Symeon the Elder   老西门

Yeat                  叶芝

地名

Jerusalem                       耶路撒冷

Caesarea                         凯撒利亚

Constantinople                      君士坦丁堡

Damascus                       大马士革

Gaza                               加沙

Monastic church of St. Mamas           圣马玛斯修道院教堂

书名

Ambiguum                            释疑篇

Catechetical Discourse                教理阐述

Catena on the Song of Songs              《雅歌》注疏集萃

commentary on the Song of Songs     《雅歌》注疏

corpus Dionysiacum                    丢尼修著作集

Ethical Discourse                  伦理学阐述

Life of Antony                      安东尼的生平

Life of Symen the New Theologian   新神学家西门的生平

on the Orthodox Faith                  论正教信仰


  1. The Life was published by Irene Hausherr, Ungrand mystique byzantine. Vie de Symeon le Nouveau Theoiogien (949-1022) par Nicetas Stethatos, Orientalia Christiana 12 (Rome: Pontificium Institutum Orientalium Studiorum, 1928); and in an improved edition by Symeon Koutsas, Βίος και πολιτεία του έν σ.γίοις πατρός ήμων Συμεών ό Νέος Θεολόγος (New Smyrna, Athens: Akritas, 1994). A collation of these two editions, together with a facingpage English translation, was published by Richard P.H. Greenfield, The Life of Saint Symeon the New Theologian, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 20 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013). For studies of Symeon’s life and thought, see Hilarion Alfeyev, St. Symeon the New Theologian and Orthodox Tradition (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000): Basil Krivocheine, In the Light of Christ: St Symeon the New Theologian: Life-Spirituality-Doctrine, trans. Anthony P. Gythiel (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1986); and H.J.M. Turner, St. Symeon the New Theologian and Spiritual Fatherhood (Leiden: Brill, 1990). ↩︎

  2. For assessments of Stethatos’s hagiographical work, see Symeon A. Paschalides, “The Hagiography of the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography, ed. Stephanos Efthymiades (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011), vol. 1, 143-171, esp. 149; Martin Hinterberger, “Ein Editor und sein Autor: Niketas Stethatos und Symeon Neos Theologos,” in La face cache de la litterature byzantine. Le texte en taut que message immediat: actes du colloque international, Paris, 5-7 juin, 2008, ed. Paolo Odorico, Dossiers byzantins 11 (Paris: Centre d’etudes byzantines, 2012), 247-264; id., “The Byzantine Hagiographer and His Text,” in The Ashgate Research Companion to Byzantine Hagiography, ed. Stephanos Efthymiades (Farnham: Ashgate, 2014), vol. 2, 211-246, esp. 228-229; and Frederick Lauritzen, “An Ironic Portrait of a Social Monk: Christopher of Mitylene and Niketas Stethatos,” Byzantinoslavica 65 (2007), 201-210. For Stethatos’s works, some of which were included in the Philokalia, see Jean Darrouzes, Nicetas Stethatos, Opuscules et lettres, Sources chretiennes 81 (Paris: Editions du Cerf, 1961). ↩︎

  3. See, for example, Jaroslav Pelikan, The Light of the World: A Basic Image in Early Christian Thought (New York: Harper, 1962); Andrew Louth. “Light, Vision, and Religious Experi­ence in Byzantium,” in The Presence of Light: Divine Radiance and Religious Experience ed. Matthew Kapstein (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2004), 85-104; and id’ “Apophatic and Cataphatic Theology,” in The Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysti­cism, eds. Amy Hollywood and Patricia Z. Beckman (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 137-146. ↩︎

  4. The notion that Niketas was himself the author of the works ascribed to Symeon cannot be seriously maintained. Greenfield, Life of Saint Symeon, ix, is correct when he notes that “Niketas drew on his deep knowledge of the autobiographical accounts embedded in Symeon’s own works,” but not when he suggests that Niketas was virtually the author of Syme- on’s work, due to his allegedly heavy-handed editorial interventions (p. x). In Niketas’s own writings (see above, n. 2), one does not find any sustained interest in the kinds of spatial dynamics characteristic of Symeon’s writings. ↩︎

  5. While both ancients and moderns have considered space to be of fundamental importance to an understanding of the physical universe, the ancient Greek philosophical notion of “space” does not correspond to the modern use of this word. In deference to the well- established academic discourse of “sacred space,” in what follows I will use the term with the qualifications outlined below. ↩︎

  6. Aristotle, Physics 4.5, 212a31-bl; id.. On Generation and Corruption 1.5, 320a21-24; cf. Benjamin Morrison, On Location: Aristotle’s Concept of Place (Oxford: Oxford University Press 2002). ↩︎

  7. These questions are treated extensively by the Neoplatonist philosopher Simplicius, Corollaries on Place and Time, trans. James Opie Urmson (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992). ↩︎

  8. For discussion see Richard Sorabji, Matter, Space, Motion (London: Duckworth, 1988); and Keimple Algra, Concepts of Space in Greek Thought (Leiden: Brill, 1995). ↩︎

  9. For details and earlier bibliography, see Michael Griffin, “Proclus on Place as the Luminous Vehicle of the Soul,” Dionysius 30 (2012), 161-186; Samuel Sambursky, “Place and Space in Later Neoplatonism,” Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 8 (1977), 173— 187, suggests that such views are not unlike Einstein’s theory of relativity and the relation of material mass to energy. See also See Lutz Bergemann, ‘“Fire Walk with Me’: An Attempt at an Interpretation of Theurgy and its Aesthetics,” in Aesthetics and Theurgy in Byzantium, eds. Sergei Mariev and Wiebke-Marie Stock (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2013), 143-197. ↩︎

  10. Proclus, Platonic Theology 2.7.48, eds. Henri Dominique Saffrey and Leendert Gerrit Westerink, Proclus: Theologie platonicienne (Paris: Belles Lettres), vol. 2, 108; cited in Griffin, “Proclus on Place,” 176, n. 44. ↩︎

  11. Cf. On the Celestial Hierarchy 1.2 (121 AB); and On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy 1.1 (372AB); see also William Riordan, Divine Light: The Theology of Denys the Areopagite (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2008), 151-168. ↩︎

  12. Cf. On the Divine Names 2.4 (641B); and On Mystical Theology 1.2; 5 (1000B; 1048B); ↩︎

  13. Cf. Alexander Golitzin, Mystagogy: A Monastic Reading of Dionysius Areopagita (Collegeville: Cistercian Publications, 2013), 164-168 (= “Hierarchy as τάξις”). ↩︎

  14. In the sense of something determined or established by God; cf. Lars Thunberg, Microcosm and Mediator: The Theological Anthropology of Maximus the Confessor (Chicago, IL: Open Court, 1995), 62-63; and Nicholas [Maximos] Constas, Maximos the Confessor: On Difficul¬ties in the Church Fathers, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014), vol. 1, 486, n. 31. See also the Life of Symeon 111: Θεός έχρημάτιζε θέσει, which Greenfield, 259, renders as “He (i.e., Symeon) came to be God by adoption!’ ↩︎

  15. See, for example, the difficulties Dionysios had in explaining the prophet Isaiah’s description of a seraph engaging in activities on a level not properly its own, On the Celestial Hierar¬chy 13.1-4 (300B-308B). These difficulties were the legacy of Proclus; on which, see Radek Chlup, Proclus: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), 21-24. ↩︎

  16. [7615} Maximos uses the words “hierarchy” and “hierarch” in the Prologue and chap. 9 of the Mystagogy (CCSG 69:6, line 55; 38, line 620): the latter is a simple reference to a bishop, and the former occurs when Maximos cites the title of Dionysios’ On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy. ↩︎

  17. On Maximos’s doctrine of the logoi, see Eric Perl, “Methexis: Creation, Incarnation, Deification in Saint Maximus Confessor.” Ph.D. diss., Yale, 1991, 147-149; and Paul Blowers, “The Logology of Maximos the Confessor in his Criticism of Origenism,” in Origeniana Quinta, ed. Robert Daly (Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1992), 570-576. ↩︎

  18. Maximos, Amb. 7.12 (DOML 1:93). ↩︎

  19. Maximos, Amb. 41.2 (DOML 2:103-105). Here Maximos is indebted not to Dionysios but to Gregory of Nyssa, and in a sense is rejecting the hierarchies of Proclus for the immediacy of Plotinus; cf. Chlup, Proclus, 16-29; and Frederic M. Schroeder, Form and Transformation: A Study in the Philosophy of Plotinus (Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1992), 45-56. John Gavin, They Are Like Angels in Heaven: Angelology and Anthropology in the Thought of Maximus the Confessor (Rome: Institutum Patristicum Augustini- anum, 2009), 102-103, states that, for Maximos the “ontological order of creation depends less on a [Dionysian] hierarchical structure, and more upon the ordering of the logoi of divine providence and judgment united in the Logos. The structure of the cosmos emerges from the divine desire to become ‘immanent’ in the Incarnation, eliminating the need for the strict scalar chain of being.” ↩︎

  20. In Amb. 10.58; 10.91 (DOML 1:242; 292); and Questions to Thalassios 55 (CCSG 7:485); 64-65 (CCSG 22:209; ibid., 283 and 285), Maximos describes “place and time” as the “necessary conditions” (των ών ούκ άνευ) of beings, a phrase which is the equivalent of the Latin sine qua non, indicating necessary actions or conditions without which other things cannot exist. Neoplatonic writers used the phrase to denote two or more objects or entities whose existences are mutually and qualitatively conditioned (if not necessarily mutually caused). The notion that “time and place” are fundamental among such conditions is attested in the Anonymous Prolegomena to Platonic Philosophy, ed. Leendert Gerrit Westerink (Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Company, 1963), 16: “Time and place constitute the sine qua non for existence.” The phrase was also used by Philo, On the Decalogue 31.1: “Those who study the doctrines of philosophy say that the categories in nature, as they are called, are ten only, which is, substance, quality, quantity, relation, activity, passivity, state, position, along with the necessary conditions for the possibility of their existence, namely, time and place” (LCL 7:20-21); cf. id.. On Arithmetical Numbers, ed. K. Staehle (Leipzig: Teubner, 1931), 99, lines 4-5. ↩︎

  21. Maximos, Questions to Thalassios 55, scholion 6 (CCSG 7:517). The “where” and the “when” are terms established by Aristotle, who expressed the relational aspect of space not with nouns but with adverbs (i.e., ποΰ, πότε); cf. Categories Ib25-2a4. ↩︎

  22. Maximos, Amb. 20.5 (DOML 1:417); cf. Marius Portaru, “Gradual Participation according to St Maximus the Confessor,” Studia Patristica 68 (2013), 281-293, who argues persuasively for a “transposition of Dionysian participation through hierarchy” into what he calls the “territory of personal experience,” which is essentially a shift away from fixed ontological categories to the role of freedom in the divinization of rational creatures. ↩︎

  23. As noted by Gavin, Angelology, 208-209. ↩︎

  24. Ethical Discourse 1.12 (SC 122:296-302); cf. Vladimir Baranov, “Escaping Plato’s Cave: Some Platonic Metaphors in Symeon the New Theologian,” Scrinium 11 (2015), 181-196, who believes that Symeon had direct knowledge of Platonic texts and traditions. ↩︎

  25. Including Evagrios of Pontus, Gregory the Theologian, and, perhaps, Dionysios the Areopagite; cf. See Pablo Argarate, “Simeon el Nuevo Teologo. Status quaestionis. Fuentes e teologia,” Studia monastica 55 (2013), 269-290; and Istvan Perczel, “Denys l’Areopagite et Symeon le Nouveau Theologien,” in Denys TAreopagite et saposterite en Orient et Occident. Actes du colloque international, Paris, 21-24 septembre 1994, ed. Ysabel de Andia (Paris: Etudes Augustiniennes, 1997), 341-357. ↩︎

  26. Basil’s second doxology, which he defended against criticism, used the locative preposition “in” (έν) to characterize the Holy Spirit as the “locus” of the faithful; see his On the Holy Spirit 25-26 (SC 17bis:456-77); cf. Mary Ann Donovan, “The Spirit, Place of the Sancti¬fied in Basil’s De Spiritu Sanctuf Studia Patristica 17 (1982), 1073-1078. See also John of Damascus, On the Orthodox Faith 13: “The place (τόπος) of God is the place where God’s energy is present; it is that which participates in God’s energy and grace,” in Die Schriften des Johannes von Damaskos, ed. Boniface Kotter (Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1973), vol. 2, 38, lines 12-18. ↩︎

  27. On which, see Raphael Bracke, “Two Fragments of a Greek Manuscript containing a Corpus Maximianum: Mss. Genavensis graecus 360 and Leidensis Scaligeranus 33,” The Patristic and Byzantine Review 4 (1985), 110-114; and Maximos Constas, “St. Maximus the Confessor: The Reception of his Thought in East and West,” in Knowing the Purpose of Creation through the Resurrection, ed. Maxim Vasilievic (Belgrade and Alhambra: Sebas¬tian Press, 2013), 25-53, esp. 36-38. ↩︎

  28. Frederick Lauritzen, “Areopagitica in Stethatos: Chronology of an Interest,” BusamnuucKuu epeveHHUK 97 (2013), 199-215, argues that Niketas played an important role in the revival, largely through his interest in the writings of Dionysios. ↩︎

  29. Alexander Golitzin, St Symeon the New Theologian, On the Mystical Life: The Ethical Discourses, vol. 1: The Church and the Last Things (Crestwood, NY: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995), 117; see also Maximos Constas, “The Reception of Paul and of Pauline Theology in the Byzantine Period,” in The New Testament in Byzantium, eds. Derek Kreuger and Robert S. Nelson (Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, 2016), 147-176. ↩︎

  30. Paula R. Gooder, Only the Third Heaven? 2 Corinthians 12:1-10 and Heavenly Ascent (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2006), helpfully surveys a century of scholarship. Also helpful is James D. Tabor, Things Unutterable: Paul’s Ascent in Greco-Roman, Judaic and Early Christian Context (Lanham: University Press of America, 1986); and Riemer Roukema, “Paul’s Rapture to Paradise in Early Christian Literature,” in The Wisdom of Egypt, eds. Anthony Hilhorst and George H. van Kooten (Leiden: Brill, 2005), 267-283. ↩︎

  31. That Paul experienced (at least) two raptures, one to the third heaven and another to paradise, was a widely held opinion; cf. Photios, Bibliotheca cod. 234 (ed. Rene Henry, Photius, Bibliotheque [Paris: Belles Lettres, 1967], vol. 5, 85); Michael Psellos, On the Words: “I Know a Man in Christ who Fourteen Years Ago” (2 Cor 12:1) (ed. Paul Gautier, Michaelis Pselli Theologica 1 [Leipzig: Teubner, 1989], 111); and Leontios of Constantinople, On Pentecost, who believed that, while in paradise, Paul saw the “good thief” (cf. Lk 23:43) (CCSG 17:401); the same view taken by Zigabenos, Commentary on 2 Corinthians, who adds that Paul also saw there the “souls of the saints at rest” (ed. Nikephoros Kalogeras, Ερμηνεία εις τάς ΙΑ’ Έπιστολας τού Αποστόλου Παύλου κα\ εις τάς Ζ’ Καθολικός [Athens: Τύποις Αδελφών Περρή, 1887], vol. 2, 480). ↩︎

  32. Of course, writers of apocryphal works eagerly provided answers to these questions; cf. Gooder, Third Heaven, 104-127; and J. Edward Wright, The Early History of Heaven (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 148-163. ↩︎

  33. Athanasios, Life of Antony 65.8-9 (SC 400:306); cf. the Saying of Abba Silouanos, who for hours stood in state of ecstasy, his hands stretched out to heaven; when pressed to reveal what he saw, he replied: “I was caught up into heaven and saw the glory of God” (PG 65:408). ↩︎

  34. Origen, Commentary on the Song of Songs 1 (GCS VI11/33:108—109); cf. Prokopios, Catena in Canticum canticorum (PG 17:253; PG 87:1552). See also Gregory of Nyssa, Apologia in Hexaemeron, who also describes Paul’s ascent into the third heaven as an “entrance into the innermost sanctuary of intelligible nature” (PG 44:121 B). ↩︎

  35. Cf. Life of Symeon 5; 9; 19; 68-69; 130; 134 (Greenfield, 13-15; 27; 47; 155-157; 315; 329); cf. ibid., 135 (331). ↩︎

  36. See, for example, Catechetical Discourse 16, which describes another vision of the divine light, which, after it withdrew, prompted Symeon to note that: “I regained possession of myself” or “I regained consciousness” (ένσυναισθήσειέγενόμην) (SC 104:246, line 111). ↩︎

  37. See the response of St Silouan of Athos (d. 1938), when asked why he did not relocate to a cave, in order to avoid the trouble and noise associated with life in a large monastery: “I do live in a cave: my body is the cave of my soul, and my soul is a cave of the Holy Spirit” (cited in the Athonite periodical: Hosios Gregorios 30 [2005], 24). ↩︎

  38. PG 88:1097D: cf. John Wortley, The Anonymous Sayings of the Desert Fathers (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), no. 275, 185: An elder said to some brother: ‘The devil is the enemy and you are the house (ό οϊκος), for the enemy, casting into it all his uncleanness, makes no end of throwing at your house whatever he finds. It is up to you not to be remiss in throwing such things out. If you are remiss, your house will be filled with all uncleanness and you can no longer enter there; cf. ibid., no. 535, 365. ↩︎

  39. These insights are borrowed from Elaine Scarry, The Body in Pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World (Oxford: Oxford University Press,1985), 39. ↩︎

  40. Life of Symeon 98 (Greenfield, 227) ↩︎

  41. Ibid., 129 (313). ↩︎

  42. Ibid., 34-35 (75-79). ↩︎

  43. Ibid., 5(13). ↩︎

  44. Ibid., 69 (157). ↩︎

  45. Hymn 25: οικίας ήμνημόνησα ότι εντός υπάρχω, έν τω δοκεϊν αέρι δέ του σκότους έκαθήμην, πλήν καί τού σώματος αϋτοΰ λήθην έσχον εις άπαν (SC 174:256, lines 16-18). ↩︎

  46. Απαστράπτει ώς ήλιος καί τήν κτίσιν συνεχομένην κατανοώ έν αύτω, τά έν αυτή πάντα δεικνύει μοι καί φυλάσσειν προστάτει μοι τά μέτρα τά ίδια. Συνέχομαι ύπό στέγης καί τοίχων καί τούς ούρανούς διανοίγιε μοι. Τούς οφθαλμούς μου αϊροι αίσθητώς τά έκεΐσε θεάσασθαι καί πάντα βλέπιυ καθώς ύπήρχον τό πρότερον (SC 104:248, lines 131-136). ↩︎

  47. Ethical Discourse 5: ώράθη μοι εκείνο τό φως, ήρθη ό οίκος τής κέλλης εύθύς καί παρήλθεν ό κόσμος, έμεινα δέ μόνος έγώ μόνω συνών τω φωτί, ούκ οΐδα δέ εί ήν καί τό σώμα τούτο τηνικαΰτα έκεΐ, εί γάρ έξω τούτου γέγονα αγνοώ) (SC 129:102, lines 301-306); cf. Ethical Dis¬course 10, where Symeon states that visible objects will be concealed (καλυφθήσεται) at the coming of Christ in glory, “just as the stars are concealed when the sun appears,” which would seem to parallel the disappearing ceiling and walls, which continue to be present but are no longer visible, although the language of “concealment” differs from the verbs translated above as “disappear” (ήρθη) and “vanish” (παρήλθεν), which literally mean to be “taken up” or “lifted away,” and to “pass away” or “to be surpassed” (SC 129:260, lines 19-35); cf. above, n. 18. ↩︎

  48. See, for example, Gregory of Nyssa, Funeral Oration on his brother Basil the Great: “One night, there appeared to Basil an outpouring of light when he was praying, and, by means of divine power, the entire dwelling was illuminated by an immaterial light, having no source in anything material” (PG 46:809C); and Dionysios the Areopagite, Ep. 8: The place where he was seemed to be shaken completely and then split into two halves in the middle from the roof down. A shining flame appeared coming down to him from heaven, for the place now seemed to be in open air (ύπαιθρος ό τόπος). The sky itself seemed to be unfolding and in the vault of heaven Jesus appeared amid an endless throng of angels in human form. (1100AB) With the obvious exception of shaded areas used to model solid forms and figures in order to give them volume. ↩︎

  49. Cf. Rico Franses, “When All that is Gold does not Glitter: On the Strange History of Look¬ing at Byzantine Art,” in Icon and Word: The Power of Images in Byzantium. Studies Pre¬sented to Robin Cormack, eds. Antony Eastmond and Liz James (Farnham: Ashgate, 2003), 13-24. ↩︎

  50. With the obvious exception of shaded areas used to model solid forms and figures in order to give them volume. ↩︎

  51. Henry Maguire (ed.), “Nature and Architecture,” in Nectar and Illusion: Nature in Byzantine Art and Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012), 135-165. ↩︎

  52. Ibid., 144, referencing an image of the Presentation of Christ from the Homilies of Gregory of Nazianzus, Paris gr. 510, fol. 137. He makes a similar point with respect to the twelfth century images of the Annunciation at the Well and the Annunciation at Hagioi Anargyroi at Kastoria, for whereas the former (apocryphal image) contains significant (and detailed) architectural detail, architectural forms are absent in the image of the Annunciation, which is biblical and “spiritually more significant” (p. 144). ↩︎

  53. Ibid., 152. See also the remarks in Slobodan Curcic and Evangelia Hadjitryphonos, eds., Architecture as Icon: Perception and Representation of Architecture in Byzantine Art (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Art Museum, 2010), 3-37; and Clemena Antonova, Space, Time, and Presence in the Icon (Farnham: Ashgate, 2010). ↩︎

  54. William Butler Yeats, “Sailing to Byzantium,” from The Poems of W.B. Yeats: A New Edition, ed. Richard J. Finneran (New York: Scribner, 1996), 193. The poem was written in 1926, and first published in W.B. Yeats, The Tower (London: MacMillan, 1928), 1-3. ↩︎

  55. Life of Symeon 92-93 (Greenfield, 211-215); cf. Charles Barber, “Icon and Portrait in the Trial ofSymeon the New Theologian,” in Icon and Word: The Power of Images in Byzantium. ↩︎

  56. Studies Presented to Robin Cormack, eds. Antony Eastmond and Liz James (Farnham: Ash¬gate, 2003), 25-33. ↩︎

  57. Ibid., 117 (Greenfield, 277); cf. 126 (305). ↩︎

  58. Ibid., 143 (Greenfield, 355). ↩︎

  59. Ibid., 34: He lavishly rebuilt the whole monastery … he paved the floor of the church with marble, he beautified it with votive offerings, and made it resplendent with holy icons of the saints. He also … adorned it with windowpanes made from turned disks of glass and with candelabra that were amazing in their beauty.(Greenfield. 75-77) ↩︎

  60. Information accessed from the website: “Functional and Dissociative Neurological Symptoms: A Patients Guide” (http://www.neurosymptoms.org/). I am thankful to Luke Constas for discussion and assistance with this material. ↩︎

  61. Life of Symeon 98 (Greenfield, 225-227). ↩︎