The Jesus Prayer and the Theology of Deification in Fr Pavel Florensky and Fr Sergii Bulgakov

Abstract

Abstract The intrinsic connection between the Jesus Prayer and deification is proclaimed by the Philokalia, both on the title page and in the introduction. For both Florensky and Bulgakov this connection is taken for granted. Their reflection on both is informed by the philosophy of language, as it had developed, especially in Russian circles, in the nineteenth century, which had stressed the intrinsic link between word and the meaning of a word. To pronounce the name of Jesus, the name of God, was to invoke his deifying presence. Both Florensky and Bulgakov supported the imiaslavtsy, for whom ‘the Name of God is God’. Another central notion is the heart (the Jesus Prayer is also called the ‘prayer of the heart’): bringing the intellect into the heart through prayer reconstitutes the human, restoring the divine image within it, and demands ascetic struggle.