The spirituality of the Desert Fathers: modern applications of an Eastern Christian practice
Submitting Institution
Leeds Trinity UniversityUnit of Assessment
Theology and Religious StudiesSummary Impact Type
CulturalResearch Subject Area(s)
Language, Communication and Culture: Cultural Studies, Literary Studies
Philosophy and Religious Studies: Religion and Religious Studies
Summary of the impact
Hunt's research has had significant impact on the personal and
professional development of
practitioners and those interested in spirituality/meditation. She works
with groups of lay Christians
and others who meet to study and practice spirituality in the face of a
predominantly secular world,
where psychology has largely replaced spiritual insights. Hunt has a
strong relationship with
MONOS, a centre for the study of monastic culture and spirituality in
Leicester, where, related to
her research on the desert fathers, she acts as an educational advisor.
Since the majority of
scholars working in this area are male and ordained her status as a lay
woman is distinctive. Whilst
being respectful of the religious tradition she brings an objective and
fresh approach to it.
Underpinning research
Dr Hannah Hunt has been employed by Leeds Trinity University as a Senior
Lecturer (2002 to
date) and as Reader in Eastern Christianity from April 2011 to date. Her
main field of research is
the spirituality of the Early Eastern Christian church and issues of the
interplay of bodily and
spiritual aspects of the human person.
Hunt's research has established a continuum between the practice of
spiritual direction in the
desert fathers, its reinterpretation by the eleventh century abbot Symeon
the New Theologian (as a
paradigm for divine inspiration and mystical indwelling taking precedence
over ordination as the
benchmark of authority in the church) and its controversial manifestation
in the modern Orthodox
church. She started working on this theme for her MA dissertation in 1992
and has returned to it for
conference papers from 2007 onwards, resulting in the publication of `The
Reforming Abbot and
his Tears: Penthos in Late Byzantium' in 2009 and `Uses and Abuses of
Spiritual Authority in the
Church in St Symeon the New Theologian' in 2012, for which she was
especially requested to
research a contentious example of spiritual direction in the monastery of
St Anthony in the Sonoran
Desert of Arizona, where Elder Ephraim was accused (as Symeon the New
Theologian was a
millennium ago) of fostering a cult rather than engaging in genuine
spiritual fatherhood. The issue
also forms a substantial part of the argument contained in her current
monograph under contract
with Brill, An Unholy Trinity: Models of sacred and secular authority
in Eleventh Century Byzantium
(forthcoming 2014).
She is notably one of very few scholars working in this field who is not
an ordained Eastern
Christian cleric and as such brings a level of objectivity to the subject
as being of interest to church
historians as well as members of the parish and monastery. She asserts the
importance of the
Evagrian quality of discernment in determining whether a spiritual
`father' offers genuine spiritual
guidance or an arrogantly assumed psychological hold over a needy
spiritual `child'. Symeon
insists on the presence of spiritual and real tears as a marker of the
spiritual enlightenment
essential in order to offer guidance to a spiritual child. Hunt shows how
this theme dominates the
writings of Symeon which have influenced subsequent spiritual directors
within the Orthodox
church as well as providing the basis for a major upheaval in the
Byzantine church of his day. The
controversial nature of the practice and the insistence on the mystical
insight of the spiritual father
had been explored by scholars writing on the Desert Fathers and also
modern spiritual direction,
notably Deacon John Chryssavgis' Soul Mending: The Art of Spiritual
Direction (Brookline, 2000)
and Hieromont Alexander Golitzin's writings on the subject for St
Vladimir's Theological Quarterly
and from a more secular viewpoint by Olga Louchakova, writing in The
Humanist Psychologist in
2003. Hunt distinguishes between the psychological aspects of penitence
and personal growth and
biblically based experiences of spiritual parenting. She notes that
contemporary forms of media
such as YouTube, local radio and Facebook are used to air the issue as
well as potentially to offer
remote access forms of spiritual direction to modern Christians.
References to the research
Hunt, H. 2009 `The Reforming Abbot and his Tears: Penthos in Late
Byzantium' in Spirituality in
Late Byzantium, ed. E. Russell, (Cambridge Scholars Press,
Cambridge), pp. 13-20
This text was selected from among a number of conference papers offered
at a conference on
Spirituality in Late Byzantium at Royal Holloway College, University of
London in 2007, and
showcases Hunt's contribution to `the discussion of womanhood in
Byzantium'.
Hunt, H. 2012 `Uses and Abuses of Spiritual Authority in the Church in St
Symeon the New
Theologian' in The Philokalia: Exploring the Classical Text of
Orthodox Spirituality, eds. Brock
Bingamen and B. Nassif, (Oxford University Press, Oxford) ISBN
978-0-10-539026-1.
This major international collaboration provides a handbook to the most
important written source of
spiritual insight used by Orthodox Christians (among others) in the
monastery, parish and at home.
The majority of fellow contributors were Orthodox Christians, many of them
ordained and therefore
male.
Father Liviu Barbu, Priest of the Orthodox Church in Norwich and lecturer
at the Institute for
Orthodox Christian Studies, Cambridge describes Hunt's various papers and
book chapters on
Symeon as: `enlightening and, in all fairness, much better than what was
previously published on
the subject of spiritual fatherhood' (personal email dated 21 September
2012).
Details of the impact
Hunt's research has contributed towards the personal and professional
development of
practitioners and those interested in spirituality/meditation. This has
been achieved through
numerous activities reaching various organisations and communities.
Hunt has developed several partnerships with faith based organisations,
through invitations to
speak at events as well as through her proactive approach and passion for
communicating her
research to learners outside a conventional academic framework. She has
led several workshops
related to her research for local and national groups interested in
spirituality. On 12 March 2011
she conducted a one day workshop `Uses and abuses of spiritual direction:
an orthodox
perspective' for the Harrogate School of Theology, an occasional `school'
of approximately twenty
lay persons who meet locally to study theology. The format was a formal
lecture presentation
followed by a discussion based on texts issued. On 10 March 2012 she led
`Spiritual Direction in
the Eastern Church' — a one day retreat for the World Community for
Christian Meditation (an
organisation which has over 250 groups in the UK), a series of short
lectures with directed study of
and silent meditation about sources from the desert fathers integrated
into the normal mediation
practices of the Benedictine monk John Main. Also related to her research
on the desert fathers,
on 9 March 2013 she led a one day workshop for MONOS (a centre for the
study of monastic
culture and spirituality in Leicester) and was the keynote speaker at
their 7th annual conference
which explored `Christian mysticism and contemplation in new/lay
monasticism' (July 2013). On 16
March 2013 she steered a discussion session on the desert fathers and
attitudes to the body for
the Catholic People's Week conference. Verbal feedback from all of these
groups Hunt has worked
with was immensely positive.
Hunt has a strong involvement with MONOS, an inclusive and
interdenominational Christian
organisation that is primarily focused on fostering a Christian monastic
spirit within the wider
Christian community and society at large. MONOS is developing an
educational wing to its
community base which comprises around six adults and other family members.
She gave the
keynote speech, entitled Spiritual Direction from the Desert to 11th
Century Constantinople: advices
and caveats for the spiritual pilgrim, for the MONOS conference in
July 2011, Douai Abbey,
Reading, which focused on `The Desert Fathers and their significance for
lay monastic living and
the wider Church as a whole'. Her paper formed the basis of a weekend
study-retreat which
included worship and spiritual direction and involved around 25 lay
people. Her ability to explain
academic ideas to non-conventional students within a pastoral setting
engendered not only
learning but spiritual nourishment according to informal feedback from the
session; she was
therefore invited to join the Board of MONOS and asked to address the
annual retreat in 2012, and
to deliver a day's teaching on acedia in the desert and desert attitudes
to the body on 9 March
2013 for the certificate course, for which she acts as informal
educational advisor. She has been in
discussion with MONOS since July 2011 concerning their informal study
programmes, leading
towards the possibility of validation of their courses by Leeds Trinity
University. In January 2013
she was formally co-opted onto the Board of MONOS as an education advisor.
Anthony Grimley,
Director of MONOS, has described Hunt's input as one which has offered
`sound and current
academic reflection couple with practical and spiritual application'.
According to Grimley this has
`complemented the ethos of MONOS but has also enhanced its educational
structure'. MONOS
have particularly appreciated having a female perspective involved in its
educational programme.
Monastic culture is male dominated and consequently female perspectives
have been lacking
since MONOS was established.
Hunt's research has raised her profile nationally to the extent that in
convening (since 2009) the
Eastern Christian Studies Seminar Series at Leeds Trinity University she
is able to attract speakers
of international standard. The ecumenical dialogue and opportunities for
experiencing worship in
Eastern Christian contexts which is associated with these gatherings is
explored more fully in the
Research Environment part of our submission.
Sources to corroborate the impact
Email communication from Anthony Grimley, MONOS (Jan 2013)
MONOS education programme http://www.monos.org.uk/Monos-MonosEducation