class: center, middle, inverse, title-slide # Medieval Psychology ## ⚔<br/>with xaringan ### Goran Kardum ### Department of Psychology ### 2021-12-22 --- ## The lost Millenium: Psychology during the Middle Ages (Henley & Thorne, 2005) The medieval period - arround 1000 years -- - from the classical Greco-Roman age to the Renaissance -- - **has long been neglected in the history of psychology** -- - many history of psychology texts neglect the millenium that exists between Aristotle and Descartes -- - various reasons have been offered for why this period is treated so lightly --- ## Psychology in the Dark Ages almost every history of psychology textbook ignores over the thousand year period from Rome to the Renaissance -- with the general argument being that medieval thinking, centered largely in theology, had put an end to scientific enquiry of all kinds -- little-to-no interest in matters of philosophy beyond questions directly related to spirituality, and regarded the mentally ill as being possessed by the devil or witchcraft. --- ## Philokalia The Philokalia is an anthology of texts which are concerned with finding God within the human soul. -- It is founded upon a philosophical tradition which draws upon Plato, Aristotle and the Stoics, and a Christian tradition which, beginning with the New Testament authors, continued through Clement, Origen and the early patristic authors, and found its first flourishing in the Desert Fathers. -- The Philokalia was compiled as a “guide to the practice of the contemplative life”. -- The Philokalia demonstrates that thoughts are powerful. --- ## Thouthts are powerful They have the capacity to enslave and control, to deceive, to blind, to make sick and to kill. -- But they also have the capacity to set free, to empower, to illuminate, to heal and to bring life. -- Thoughts have the power to deny prayer, and to enable prayer, to obscure God and to reveal God. --- ## Philokalia - history and main figures The hesychastic tradition, from within which the Philokalia emerged, has a long th history. -- From as early as the 4 Century CE, the term “hesychia” was used by Christian monastic writers to refer to a state of inner quietness to be achieved in prayer as preparation for communion with God. -- From the 6 to the 11 Centuries in the Byzantine world, a “hesychast” was simply a monk or ascetic, and hesychasm and referred simply to a broadly contemplative approach to prayer. In the 13 Centuries there was something of a spiritual revival, centred on Mount Athos, in which Gregory of Sinai (1258-1346) and Gregory Palamas (1296-1359) took a leading role. -- This gave birth to a movement now known as the “Hesychast Tradition”, which drew upon traditions of Christian spirituality both from Syria and the Egyptian desert fathers. --- # References --- class: center, middle # Thanks! Slides created via the R package [**xaringan**](https://github.com/yihui/xaringan). The chakra comes from [remark.js](https://remarkjs.com), [**knitr**](https://yihui.org/knitr/), and [R Markdown](https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com).