The Hidden Man of the Heart
Silouan the Athonite and Sophrony of Essex on the Deep Heart as Battlefield and Burning Bush
The Secret of the Heart: The Beginnings of a Theology of the Deep Heart
According to Saint Sophrony of Essex, the deep heart is our core essence, the spiritual, metaphysical crux through which all that really matters must pass, coming and going, both disclosing and determining our personhood. As such, it is both a place of wounding and conflict and a place of joy and healing—a field of battle and the burning bush, the garden of Eden and the garden of Gethsemane.
The heart of every individual human being is made by God in a specific and unique way. It is unrepeatable; it is the centre of the human hypostasis. Man is majestic when he approaches God with his “deep heart,” for there is the “place of spiritual prayer,” the “battle-ground’” for spiritual struggle. The heart is the place where the infinity of the Lord is revealed, and the prayerful spirit of man is concentrated. Here are encompassed “both the height of the vision and the depth of knowledge.” Authentic vision and knowledge of God are inseparable from sensitivity in the deepest heart. That is why the word of God confirms that “the hidden man of the heart” is “precious in God’s sight.”’1
In his biography of Saint Silouan, Sophrony observes that the Christian life is lived in the depths of the heart and that most of what happens there remains hidden not only from others but from “the owner of the heart” as well:
He who enters these secret recesses finds himself face to face with the mystery of being. Anyone who has ever given himself over with a pure heart to contemplation of his inner self knows how impossible it is to detect the spiritual processes of the heart, because in its profundity the heart touches upon that state of being where there are no processes.2
This interiority has to be discovered, Sophrony says, and it must be—through what we are made to suffer and how we pray:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Speakeasy Theology to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.